Ten by Fotolia - Season 2 - Marumiyan - Japan - Lifestyle

Hello, my name is Marumiyan. I live in Fukuoka, Japan, and I've been working under this name since 2007. Marumiyan is like a pen name and I chose it because I like how it sounds. I work on various media projects, such as magazines, CD jackets, posters, packages, apparel and the web. I also have direct clients, and take part in exhibitions overseas. Recently, I also started teaching at local universities and giving some seminars. Drawing and painting are my father’s hobby, and I've always loved to draw, ever since I was a boy. I always loved to read picture books and I still have a lot of them at my parents’ house. My parents often took me to museums. I liked works of Joan Miró at that time, and I think my current creation shows some of my childhood influences. When I was thinking about going to college, I wanted to study design seriously so I chose a college that had a design department and learned the basic design programs, Illustrator and Photoshop. I also learned from books and since then I have been developing my range of expression by trying many other techniques. I started working as a freelancer right after my college graduation. I have never been employed by a company, because I thought it was better to be a freelancer. That way I could use my time freely, and showcase my originality more easily, since the steps to getting a job are showing my creation first, and then letting the clients decide. When I was in college, I bought Mac, Illustrator and Photoshop, then I started learning digital illustration. My creations were analog then, so I had never thought about working digitally like I am doing now. I am inspired and influenced by daily life, especially music. I can create in the most inspired way when I connect with the music. I listen to various kinds of songs, old and new, from different genres. To describe myself, I'd say I am a person who bored easily. I even lose interest in my work before it is completed. But because of how I am, I start thinking about new creations quickly, so I accept this as a very important step in order to go to the next phase, and take this “boredom” as a positive thing. I enjoy the creative process more than the actual finished product. I love the excitement of the production process and I create art in order to feel this. I don’t usually think about the final image when I start a new creation. If I do so with details, I don’t think I can create something better than what I had previously imagined. I start drawing objects and placing photos using the collage technique, to keep the balance. Color is fixed at the start. While placing the objects, I choose the colors spontaneously. Then, finally, I work on the entire creation and finish it after adjusting colors. I enjoy working on assignments for accessory products such as bags, shoes, wallets. I love the excitement I feel when I see the completed work. Since I love music, I like to work on visuals such as CD jackets, records, music event posters, to bring an image to the sound. It’s important to keep on working on personal projects, because I can create anything freely and it’s a good opportunity for me to do more creative work. Also, I can relax and work on my creations just for the fun of it. and ideas that come from creating for fun, are very important to me The Japanese idea of "spaciousness is beauty” or how to take/use “space”, has an impact on my work I think. My best work is when I successfully take advantage of “space”. I always pay attention to “space” when I work on my creations. I decided to join the TEN Project, simply because I thought it was interesting. Since I love to create photomontages, I thought I might be able to create more interesting work if I used images from Fotolia. I also teach design in schools and in books, so I thought it would be nice if this TEN Project was useful to somebody. In my opinion, great artists and graphic designers are the ones who are never satisfied with the present conditions, and are always looking for new challenges, and are aggresive and keep raising the bar when they are creating art. I always keep this in my mind. Thank you for letting me participate in this amazing project. Thank you Fotolia, and all those who helped me along the way.