Marina Esmeraldo on the joy of personal projects

Speaking at Digital Design Days in Milan, illustrator Marina Esmeraldo discussed the importance of stepping away from the computer and finding time to work on personal projects

Marina Esmeraldo creates vibrant portraits and illustrations. Her work is filled with bold colours and graphic patterns – an aesthetic inspired by growing up in a “sunny coastal city” in Northeast Brazil. She has created illustrations for Refinery29, Time Out and Cosmopolitan as well as Smirnoff and Google.

Esmeraldo also experiments with a range of different mediums through personal projects. She founded illustrated short fiction magazine In Shades with her husband James (a writer and copywriter) and recently set herself a 100-day challenge to create a new artwork each day – a project that led to an exhibition in New York and a clothing range.