Shapes, Lines, and Characters, New York-based Illustrator and Motion Designer Sunny Yazdani

Sunny Yazdani is an illustrator and motion graphic designer who likes to create a bridge between illustration and motion with various styles. She graduated from Savannah College of Art and Design in 2018 with MA degrees in Illustration and Motion Media Design. Sunny specializes in 2D design and motion graphics. Her work revolves around imagination about daily life, colorful, minimal design, and character design. She enjoys creating conceptual and editorial illustrations where contain critical messages and tell the stories in expressive and emotional ways. she believes motion graphics could address a lot of potential for her visual storytelling. Her work has been selected and awarded for Adobe awards, red dot, 3×3, AI award, CQ, and SILA.

Can you tell us a little about yourself?

I’m Sunny Yazdani, I am an illustrator and motion designer based in New York. I was born and bred in Tehran, Iran. I studied BFA Textile and Fashion Design in Iran and I moved to the US to study Masters of Illustration and Motion Media Design. I started my Illustration and Animation careers around my freshman year in Iran I have been working for creative studios, agencies, and animation studios for 10 years. My works are inspired by people, life, and stories. I love to capture feelings and dynamic movements as well as connectivity between cultures and global issues.

What ideas are you exploring in your practice? Is there a theme you are currently addressing?

I have tried so many themes and approaches to find my own voices, but in the end I always gravities toward shapes, clean lines, and playing with characters and their worlds.

Inside Of the Mind Radiant, Sunny Yazdani, 2019

How do you keep a balance between personal projects and projects for work?

It’s actually really hard to manage as I’m usually busy with work projects and have less time now to work on my personal project. Although I would always encourage myself with exciting ideas where I can touch different areas for personal projects and eventually I’d probably use them for my gigs.

You’ve been very active during the past few years. What is the most exciting thing you’ve done in the industry?

I have been super blessed and lucky to have the chance to work with some of the wonderful studios, agencies, and talented people in illustration and Motion Design in the U.S. As for the most exciting thing I did recently was an animation project (The lonely goalkeeper) for Dress Code that I helped with the animation, has been featured on NYT.

What does “community” mean to you? How do you see yourself in a community?

For me “community” means support and common interests between my fellow artists. I always try to follow the motion and illustration communities in order to get inspired by them and also share my work and receive feedback.