Hello world! Meet Malika Favre, the illustrator.

 Malika Favre is a french artist based in London. Her style is describes as Pop Art meets OPart, effectively utilizing colors, positive and negative space to create minimalist yet vibrant and minimalist.

Her inspiration is derived from the movement in the lines – the simplicity of art and not capturing details. She describes her work as bold, minimalistic, narrative and at times – sexy.

I was very fascinated by her work. Through simple images, bold lines and narrow color palette she speaks of stories in an image. No little  detail goes to waste when it’s done minimally. Unfortunately, there is little online about what are her distinct styles so here are some visual tricks I find fascinating.

Shadows

Favre created a series of posters for the 2015 BAFTAs,
representing nominated films. 

The first little detail I saw (though much more apparent in the pieces above) was her usage of shadows. Her shadows are simple and practical; they tell a story, create depth, or create a sense of space and lighting. She would occasionally choose a darker shade of the color or utilize black as the shadow.

Lines and Patterns

A selection of Favre’s magazine covers. 

Through simple patters as the background, she creates depth and sometimes when the lines or pattern is disrupted, it creates emphasis. For example on the piece on the left, through the use of contrasting colors and patterns, the vertical straight lines are juxtaposed against the circles, horizontal and diagonal lines. If the pattern is complex, it is juxtaposed with simple patterns or just solids.

Contrasting Colors

After researching on color harmony, I realized she effectively strikes a balance in complementary harmony by having a dominant and using contrasting colors to add dynamism to the image. For example the blue is contrasted with bits of red that adds visual interest to the frame, together with the diagonal lines disrupted with a paper creating another diagonal line  and the solid colors of the character in the middle building a point of interest and a focal point.

Overall, I am inspired by Malika Favre for her effective use of minimalist illustrations to create dynamic, visually interesting and simple images that speaks a powerful story.

Okay bye.