Artist in LA LA Land Print & Web Design

illustration & design for print & web

by Melissa Kojima Artist in LA LA Land www.artisinlalaland.com

hello I’m Melissa Kojima, an illustrator and designer. I call my business, Artist in LA LA Land because I live, work and dream in Los Angeles. I specialize in clever and playful design for print and web usage. I have worked for the Los Angeles Times Newspaper, the Santa Monica Museum of Art and Loyola Marymount University to name a few of my clients. You can contact me to request my resume or to hire me for design & illustration jobs.

Melissa Kojima Artist in LA LA Land 310-418-0049 309 Calle Miramar, Apt. C Redondo Beach, CA 90277 artistinlalaland@gmail.com www.artistinlalaland.com www.etsy.com/shop/artistinlalaland

table of contents Posters

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Instructions

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Advertising

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Magazines

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Covers

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posters

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I love vintage poster design especially circus posters. They inspire a lot of my design sensibility and my illustrations too. There is something so fun about the crazy antics, daredevils and pretty ladies. Do I want to join the circus? No, but in these posters, it can almost feel like I am a part of all the fun!

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Making posters about love make it seem triumphant, and epic. And shouldn’t it be? Using soft, warm colors and vintage touches to the designs makes love seem timeless and classic.

I think it should be, don’t you?

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Puns make us laugh, so using them in posters about love makes it easier to express our love, and we can let go of the fear of rejection.

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I made these posters to make you laugh, but to also inspire you to open up to your creative possibilities.

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Try, experiment, explore, discover!

Yes, to be creative takes courage to open up to making mistakes and to see this process as fun!

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For me, the holidays are about spreading joy, giving more than you get and spending happy, warm moments with friends and family, so I created some posters to share these sentiments.

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Of course, a Christmas tree is so bright and fun! It connects us to each other and to the love that stays with us all year round!

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instructions

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Creating DIY paper puppets, I had to find a way to make clean, clear instructions. Simple, good design is the best way to communicate this.

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I like to share my paper play ideas, so I created a lot of instructions for them. I posted them on my blog for anyone to create their own version of them.

advertising

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I created these paper play ads and displayed them on blogs where I thought I’d find a paper play audience. I’ve blown them up quite large here, but they were very small in the side bar of the blogs.

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How do you excite your audience to join in a giveaway? Well, you create a beautiful and pleasing advertisement with all the information they need to participate in it.

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Showing all the possible prizes from a giveaway is a good way to get more participants.

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magazines

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I illustrated a story about a plumbing problem in a humorous and whimsical way. Seeing the humor in an otherwise frustrating incicent made it easier to deal with.

It also gained more sympathy from the readers of the story.

They could laugh at the surprise of the sudden leakage and understand how it could be shocking and irritating. Everyone has gone through some kind of home repair that was horrendous, but afterwards made a great story to tell.

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This story was never published in the children’s magazine it was created for. But I had a fun time coming up with the illustration for it. A little girl kept believing she could fly if she just kept tyring. Her experiments and unrelenting effort was inspring for the parents, but the downstairs neighbors kept hearing all the crashes, jumping and falls. The parents hoped the neighbors would understand.

covers

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Jotters, notepads and mini sketchbooks are one of the things that paper lovers still carry around in our digital world. The covers of these little books make all the difference.

They express who the paper lovers are. So as a fellow paper lover, I created a series of jotter covers inspired by vintage posters, photos and nature. There is a space for the jotter’s owner to write his or her own title for their little books like, MY DREAMS, MY

SUMMER HOLIDAY, or PRETTY THINGS I’VE FOUND.

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The point of having a mini notepad or sketchbook is to be able to tuck it in a pocket or carry it in a purse. It’s with you at all times, so you’ll have a place to capture inspiration whenever it hits. It’s also a place for you to play when you’re waiting in line or listening to a lecture that’s making you fall asleep. Doodling, playing tic-tac-toe or writing a poem in it about your boredome are ways that your jotter becomes your playmate and bestfriend.

So these jotter covers have a lot of personality and are lots of fun.

thank you!

Melissa Kojima Artist in LA LA Land 310-418-0049 309 Calle Miramar, Apt. C Redondo Beach, CA 90277 artistinlalaland@gmail.com www.artistinlalaland.com www.etsy.com/shop/artistinlalaland