My Happiest Project: Olimpia Zagnoli

Throughout October, we’re looking at the subject of happiness, and asking creatives to tell us about the projects they’ve most enjoyed working on. Here, illustrator Olimpia Zagnoli remembers the joy she found in creating a vibrant poster inspired by New York City

Olimpia Zagnoli’s penchant for colour has won the hearts of fashion, publishing and even the spaghetti market. Her work is characterised by block shapes rendered in highly saturated palettes, earning her clients in Apple, Prada and Uniqlo. While her illustrations evoke feelings of joy and life in others, the project that made her the happiest came back in 2014.

Zagnoli had been contacted by MTA Arts and Design, an initiative based in New York that celebrates art around the subway – similar to TfL’s Art on the Underground – which asked her to create a poster that would be displayed around subway stations for a year.