Our guest this week on The Creative Boom Podcast is the illustrator Adriana Bellet – otherwise known as Jeez Vanilla.
Based in Stockholm, Sweden, but originally from Spain, Adriana graduated from University of the Arts London in 2010 with a postgrad in Surface Design and has been freelancing ever since.
Specialising in editorial and publishing, Adriana definitely loves to create characters and tell stories – all within hugely colourful spaces. Colour is, in fact, an important feature of her work. She works from her home studio for clients such as NBC News, The Guardian and Random House, and in the last two years, has been represented by the illustration agency, Marlena. Having an agent is something she says was a difficult shift, only because it was hard to let go of some control, after a decade of working for herself.
In recent years, Adriana has become a mother. With two children and a husband – it has certainly changed how she views work and in this episode we talk about that balance, why work isn’t everything and how we all have to make choices on what we do and don’t take on. We chat about the pandemic, naturally, and the events of last summer – of Black Lives Matter – and why that was perhaps a confusing time for her.
