Italian-born, New-York-based Olimpia Zagnoli doesn’t shy away from making a statement. Known for her graphic illustrations, that are vibrant and clear cut, her Instagram page has amassed more than 127k followers. And rightfully so.
With features in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Apartamento Magazine, and collaborations with giants like Fendi and the Guggenheim Museum – the sky is truly the limit for Zagnoli.
But talking about her artistic background, she’s relatively modest. “My path is probably very similar to that of many illustrators,” she told Freelance Wisdom.“You love to draw, you graduate from some sort of art school, you’re out and terrified, you’re desperate to find your own language, you sorta find it, you begin to work, your first works are terrible, you get better, you work more, one day you’re like ‘this is not too bad’ and you feel kind of happy for what you’ve done, then you’re lost again, two days later you’re happy again, you struggle to get paid, you finally get paid and you buy a nice pair of shoes.”
“One of the hardest parts was looking for a visual language,” she added. “I wasn’t looking for anything COOL back then but I was looking for something ‘me.’ A set of subjects, shapes, and colors that reflected who I was on the inside and made me feel comfortable. It wasn’t automatic but as soon as that started to take shape, more clients started to connect with my world and understand it.”
Follow her Instagram page for more pizzaz.
