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Human-made and quirky, inspired by words, ideas and feelings. This is Tree Abraham's work

Human-made and quirky, inspired by words, ideas and feelings. This is Tree Abraham's work

Posted by Rebeca Romero on 4th Sep 2018

Tree Abraham is a designer/illustrator/maker of things.She currently works full-time as a designer at Bloomsbury Publishing in New York as well as a freelancer on book covers and interiors for publishers in North America and the UK. Conceptually-driven, she  employs a diverse range of analog and digital mediums in her work. Seeking to be an innovative storyteller, eclectically toying with interactivity and handmade elements of print to exalt people from the conventional into unexplored possibilities.

- What inspires you?

I am most inspired by non-visual things, by ideas and words and feelings; experiences that permeate the core of human existence. These reflections excite me in a way that I wish to engage with further and elevate through art to be able to share with others. I adore Brain Pickings for this. I also spend a lot of time combing through quotes on Goodreads and listening to podcasts like On Being and 99% Invisible. I am always referring back to definitions on dictionary.com and skimming the details of odd things on Wikipedia. I keep a commonplace book that organizes all my tangential findings to draw upon later.

- What inspired the protest posters project?

The idea for Pocket Protest Posters came right after the 2017 Women’s March. I participated in the March in New York City and was thrilled with the naive ingenuity, phrasing, and lettering of the thousands of protest posters on display. After that March, there were several other demonstrations that I would run into throughout the city. I thought it would be useful to have a little pack of posters that I could keep with me in the event of a spontaneous protest. I tried to anticipate what issues might come up or what messages were more universal; however since then I could never have imagined all of the causes that have come under threat. I made the mini posters double as postcards since one of the most impactful means of civil engagement is reaching out to elected officials about things that matter to you.

- Have you got a  favourite piece of art?

It would be impossible to pick one piece of art or one artist. But I am captivated by the work of the late Margaret Kilgallen. I am not sure if her installations could even be divided into single pieces, which is very akin to my own style—many things all at once. I am obsessed with her retro colour palette, bold lettering, mixed materiality, and graphic illustrations of women. She was a true craftswoman who embraced the imperfect, drew from folk art, responded to spaces, and exalted the ordinary.

- Is there favourite work of yours, why?

My favourite work has yet to be complete! It undoubtedly lives partly in my head and partly strewn across notes and sketches, desperately awaiting my schedule to free up so it can come to life. One of my proudest projects was a book I made that sought to design a human and tell the story of her journey into selfhood through scraps of ephemera that I crafted to convince the viewer of the existence of this fabricated being. It explored layers psychological and social influences on identity through an experimental form of storytelling. This kind of elaborate project is my favourite kind because it demands a range of design styles, expansive ideas, playful writing, and ambitious production techniques to execute.

- How would you describe your work?

Wordy and nerdy and quirky and humanmade. Something quiet and subdued beneath an explosion of colour and texture. I ask a lot of questions, I delve deep into my curiosities, read a bit of everything, and ruminate on the connections between things. Most of my personal projects manifest as collections of phenomena that I curate into a whole. I love taking concepts and translating them into interactive design solutions that can engage audiences who would have otherwise not been exposed to them. I love exploring honest stories about identity that arouse a universal empathy. I love using art to deepen our awareness of life.

You can see Tree's full protest print collection HERE