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Quest Terrarium, plant art for your home dĂŠcor. Tim combines everything from moss terrariums to succulents to create playful miniature sculptures. How did you go from what you were doing to designing terrarium? Well, I like to get my hands dirty and get my hands on things rather than sitting in front of the computer all day, so I said good bye to the old graphic designer life. What is your inspirations and ideas for making the designs? Things I have seen before, people I follow on Instagram and pictures of countryside. Sometimes when I look at pictures of nature, I just want to be there, so I try to capture nature in my terrariums. It is difficult to get that in an urban city like Hong Kong. I want to bring the nature indoor and I am sure most people do too so I started making terrariums. I am also really influenced by street art and a lot of my terrariums are influenced by that too. I am planning to collaborate with local street artists such as Mark Goss and Dreams to create a street art series.
What kind of plants and material do you work with most when you are creating your terrariums? Mostly cactus and moss, because these plants can grow by themselves without much maintenances. There are always miniature figures incorporated with the designs, what is the story behind them? The figures are the subject of the whole piece. They tell the story. I would say finding the figures is the most difficult part. I have to really go out and hunt for them. Sometimes, I get a set of five figures in a box and only one of them is useful. What kind of music do you listen to when you are working? I listen to mostly everything, indie, underground hip-hop, even jazz, especially when I am working late at night, I love to put on some jazz.
What is your future plan? I want to bring the miniature figures back on the street art scene. I guess I am tired of just doing stickerbombs. I will put the figures in glass domes and do some street-bombing soon, so look out for them. Any new series coming out for Quest terrariums? The sneakerheads series, breaking bad series, etc.
QUEST TERRARIUM
FA S H I O N
PIXXEL FREAK
A local street brand founded by Eva Leung, a renowned fashion blogger, Billy Lama, a fashion stylist, and Heiz, a violinist. Pixxel Freak focuses on designing creative products that utilise colours, organic shapes and unique materials. Customers can reveal their daily mood while lifting their personality and style through using their products. They are also very fond of art and are supportive towards local artists. They collaborated with a lot of artists from Hong Kong and China and created a series of hand-painted backpacks in the past.
What is your style? EVA: I don’t have a favorite style. It changes from time to time. At this moment, I am into boho-chic influenced by 60s hippie style. Clothing items such as bell-bottomed trousers from the 70s and tribal kuchi chokers are the must have items. BILLY: My favorite style would be Vintage and I would also try on items that might be too bold for other people. I love mixing up vintage styles from different decades. For example, I would pair up a leather jacket induced by the 60s biker trend and a square scarf originated from Keffiyehs. HEIZ: I am like Eva. It depends on what I feel like wearing that day. I like biker jackets and black ankle-length skinny jeans.
How did you start working in the fashion sector? EVA: I started off making clothing items from scratch as a hobby. During that time, I discovered my interest towards fashion. I learnt a lot from looking into fashion magazines and interviews of fashion designers. Then I developed my own styles and started blogging. BILLY: I started working for Midwest, a vintage clothing brand, at eighteen. Throughout that time, I gained knowledge of vintage clothing from the people I worked with. Putting together outfits with vintage components from different decades was part of my duty. Then I began blogging. What is exciting you most about the fashion industry right now? EVA: A lot of brands are bringing back elements from the 70s such as tassels and floral patterns. These are the elements I like to work with at the moment.
ELENA CREMONA Munich, London and Santa Cruz based photographer who is working throughout social documentary projects, environmental portraiture and landscape reportage, as well as abstract. Her work was featured in various art magazines such as Splash and Grab Magazine and Huck magazine. Her artistic process and intensive research allows her to create comprehensive bodies of work that reveal the importance of social, environmental and cultural issues. Her inspiration is drawn from the world around her, absorbing herself into elements of culture and the environment and transmitting these inspirations through her photography. Elena grew up in Munich, a culture she deems to be judgmental upon one's looks and general presentation. Trying to set herself free of this stigma, she turned to the medium of analogue photography, allowing herself to control and manipulate her own settings and outcome, seeking out her own interpretation of beauty. Photography allows her to rebel against the so-called 'perfection' society has forced upon her and recreate a world she deem to be beautiful by all it's mistakes, grains and imperfections.
PHOTOGRAPHY
I I L LU ST R AT I O N
MARIKO JESSE
Born in Japan, grew up in Hong Kong and educated in the United Kingdom. As an illustrator graduated from Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, Mariko was a lecturer there for ten years after her graduation. At the moment, she is residing in San Francisco and occasionally travels between Hong Kong, Tokyo, London and San Francisco. Clients she worked with include Tiffany & co., Harvey Nichols and Lane Crawford.
As an experienced freelance illustrator, what advise would you give a freelance artist who is looking to join the industry? Being a freelance artist is tough; you have to constantly be out there and promote yourself. Go out and meet people. Don’t hesitate to send your cv and portfolio to potential clients or even call up the companies. Working freelance is not the easiest way to make a living, but it is certainly fun and rewarding if this is what you want to do.
The decoration in Pacific Place shopping mall in Hong Kong is amazing. What is the idea and creative progress on the designs? They are illustrations of the twelve Chinese Zodiac signs. I made use of the characteristics of each animal, for example, dragon resembles strength and authority so I placed it at the top of the image. I used red in the illustrations, as it is a lucky and auspicious colour according to the Chinese culture. It also features Chinese New Year element such as peonies, plum blossoms and pine trees.
You travel between Hong Kong and the UK, what is the difference between working in these two countries? Hong Kong is a place where people are willing to try new things. I feel like you need to prove yourself more in the UK and it’s harder to get into the industry. The illustration world in London has already established a style that works for the sector and the companies are less willing to try new things. On the other hand, this industry is still quite fresh in Hong Kong; people are more acceptable to different things. There’s a lot of potential in Hong Kong and I love how optimistic everyone is in the creative industries.
C O V E R S T ORY
L U C A S
P E V E R I L L London based visionary artist.The work presented to you is the result of an ongoing investigation in creating both Dystopian and Utopia scenarios of the past, present and future, themes from science fiction, time travel and visions of the future are prevalent themes in the work that I make.
CHECK OUT MORE OF MY WORK ON: LUCASPEVERILLART@GMAIL.COM LUCASPEVERILL.TUMBLR.COM CARGOCOLLECTIVE.COM/LUCASPEVERIL
I wish to display my thoughts of the future with both a fear and enthusiasm for its technological developments, while simultaneously retaining nostalgia for the past. The work produced in this case will be directly related to popular media and science fiction as depicted in literacy work and film, at time referencing existing
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SPECIAL THANKS / QUEST IG@QUESTTERRARIUM / PIXXEL FREAK IG@PIXXELFREAKWEM / EVA IG@EQUEEN1113 / BILLY IG@LAMABOYB / HEIZ IG@HEIZCHUNG / ELENA CREMONA IG@ELENACREMONA / MARIKO JESSE@WWW.MARIKOJESSE.COM | FOUNDER & ART DIRECTOR / AMYMARIAT | LONDON HEAD OF EDITORIAL / ELIZABETH WILLIS | LONDON HEAD OF ART / ELENA CREMONA | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER @ LINKUPZINE
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