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An intersection of art, culture, and creativity transcending geographical boundaries, highlighting the richness that comes from multicultural influences and experiences.
13 Episodes
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🎨 From Ballet Shoes to Picture Books: The Creative Journey of Momoko Abe | Creatives Across Borders 🌍 In this inspiring episode of Creatives Across Borders, I sit down with the incredibly talented Momoko Abe—Japanese-born author, illustrator, and creative powerhouse behind the hit picture book Avocado Asks. We explore Momoko’s unique path from aspiring ballerina in Tokyo to filmmaker in London, and ultimately, to becoming a rising star in the UK children's book scene. She opens up about: ...
Chitra Soundar is a celebrated children's book author with over 50 published books. Chitra's journey from a computer scientist in India to a full-time storyteller is filled with cultural richness and deep creative insight. She discusses her path from early scribbles to professional writing, her creative strategies, and offers valuable advice for aspiring writers. Chitra elaborates on her multifaceted career, including writing picture books, educational stories, and TV scripts, particularly hi...
Marissa Valdez is a talented Hispanic-American illustrator and #1 New York Times bestselling artist, about her incredible journey into the world of children's books. Starting with a degree in animation, Marissa’s path was far from straightforward. From working as a graphic designer to a preschool teacher, a life-changing podcast finally inspired her to pursue children’s book illustration. Today, she creates magical stories from her home in Birmingham, UK, where she lives with her husband. Dur...
In this episode of Creatives Across Borders, we sit down with Jasmine Richards, an accomplished author and founder of Storymix, to explore the fascinating world of book packaging. With nearly 20 years of experience in children's publishing, Jasmine takes us through her journey of building Storymix from the ground up, co-authoring the hit Aziza’s Secret Fairy Door series with Tola Okogwu, and navigating the challenges and triumphs of the industry. Jasmine sheds light on the concept of book pac...
Dapo Adeola is a renowned children's book illustrator, author and storyteller. Join us as Dapo shares his journey, current and future projects, and invaluable advice for aspiring creatives. Discover the inspiration behind his acclaimed works, such as "Look Up" - winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize - and "Hey You," and learn about his innovative approaches to storytelling and business. 📌 Topics Covered: • The essence of agent representation and approaches to landing the ri...
Steven Bryant is a multi-talented creative professional with a background in graphic design, illustration, and photography. His passion lies in creating illustrated children's books, having self-published six since he began his series in 2017. Growing up, Steven was always engaged in drawing, writing, and reading, with a childhood dream of working in animation, inspired by Disney cartoons. Though life's twists led him to graphic design, his love for writing and illustrating remained str...
Flavia Drago is a New York Times bestselling author and illustrator from Mexico. She is best known for her signature use of horror characters for captivating children's picture books which include, Gustavo the shy ghost, Leila the perfect witch and Vlad the fabulous vampire . Her fascination and works also form the context of her current PhD at Anglia Ruskin University where she's researching horror as a genre in children's picturebooks. In this interview, we talk through her journey from the...
Ori (short for Orianna) Bellardi is a Venezuelan toy maker, 3d maker and painter. She has worked with award winning artists such as Dapo Adeola and Chris Chatterton bringing their characters alive in colourful mind-blowing 3d printed and painted toys. Interestingly, Ori's journey started from the kitchen having practiced and worked as a chef for 15+ years across Venezuela, India, Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands. Today, through persistence, perseverance and quest for excellence, Ori has f...
Selom Sunu is a British-Ghanaian character designer and illustrator whose works include the Google Doodle of Andrew Watson, CBeebies JoJo and Gran Gran show, and Children's books by publishers like Penguin and Harper Collins. What you may not know is his business and marketing background, the late start to his illustration and animation career, the story behind his mentorship with an experienced Disney character designer, positioning using LinkedIn, influences, workshops, passion for adult ed...
Lola Usupova is a children's book writer and illustrator. A suitcase, dreams and lots of courage is one way to sum up Lola's beginnings. From have native sunny Uzbekistan first to Russia, then Poland, Sweden and now the UK, Lola's artistic journey is still unravelling. Yet, her story as a promising children's book writer and illustrator is captivating. Her journey has involved learning different spoken languages on the way but one that remains consistent is her passionate artistic language, d...
Eva Wong Nava is a British-Chinese Children’s book writer, coach, and sensitivity reader. Born in Singapore before emigrating to the UK in the 1990s, Eva is a polyglot who speaks English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Italian proficiently. She is a Feature Editor for Representation for Words & Pictures, the SCBWI British Isles’ online magazine where she researches and writes articles on the topic of representation, inclusion, and diversity. In this interview, Eva talks about her journey as a w...
Segun Samson is a Nigerian artist with multiple roles across the global animation industry. He has played key roles in different Netflix and Disney+ featured series including The Dragon Prince, Kiya and the Kimoja heroes, Jungle beat (the movie) and Kizazi Moto. Samson dissects his journey from humble beginnings to his place as a well sought after artist working with animation studios across the world. Samson is also an educator with a 3D design course on Domestika that currently ...
Brazilian picture book writer and illustrator Tita Berredo shares her inspirational journey from a marketer in her native Rio, Brazil, to occupying exciting positions in the UK children's books industry. From her courageous approach to landing an agent, practical steps of how she fully integrated into the massive UK children's books industry attracting opportunities, awards and features, to useful tips that other creatives can follow, Tita shares it all and more. Tune in to learn about ...
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