Hey Danielle, first of all how are you?
Hey Megs, I’ve been well thanks! Hope you’re good too, excited to be chatting.
Give us five fun facts about yourself!
Ah not sure how fun these are but: 1. Pickles, Sauerkraut, Marmite, Tomato juice – love’em 2. I never used to have a favourite colour but now it’s blue 3. I remember some dreams from when I was as little as 6 years old 4. I’m a newly found The Office fan 5. I used to eat whole chillies without wincing as a party trick (not anymore)
Was an illustration degree something you always wanted to do?
Not exactly! Although I’ve pretty much always been creative in one way or another, illustration as a focus wasn’t something I was familiar with. It wasn’t until doing Art Foundation that I was introduced to the world of illustration and other possibilities beyond fine art. For a long time, I thought I would become a painter or an artists in the more traditional sense but now I’m super happy I’ve gone in a slightly different direction. The world of illustration is vaaast and very fun.
Tell me about the People’s History Museum.
So, the People’s History Museum is based in Manchester and they were my first ever bigger commission! They had an open call for a creative to answer a brief of designing the visual language for a set of exhibitions they had programmed for 2020 under the theme of ‘Migration’. The subject is very close and personal to me and so it was amazing to have been chosen to work with them on that brief. It was also a fun brief to do not long after graduating, having the chance to design a large-scale banner that decorated the outside of the Museum for over a year!
You worked at Hallmark for a while, what was that like?
I did an internship there after they found my work at New Designers right after our degree show all the way back in 2018 now! It was such a fun time. It was probably the first time for me seeing a whole team of illustrators drawing and creating day in and day out in what could be branded as a kind-of-real-job! I was also just left to let my creative juices flow and come up with outcomes for real time briefs that by the end felt very precious. I have since done some freelance work with them too.
You were featured on The Creative Boom Podcast, how was that?
It was so lovely to be talking with Katy. At the time it felt a bit surreal, I was already a big fan of season 1 and it was on my list of things to do in the future, but at that moment I didn’t think I had enough work to be featured in anything tbf! I was only a few months into freelancing and a lot has changed since.
How would you describe your work?
Three words, tactile, naive and sensitive. I’ve had others describe it as simple but full of character and I really like that idea. My focus is often on capturing what I see in the most natural way, trying to really show movement and energy even in the most static compositions.
Tell me about being in the New York Times.
An AD reached out to me to do an illustration for an article titled ‘What to say when people tell you their coronavirus fears’. It felt like the perfect brief as it called for a simple, people-focused illustration and of course it was an amazing opportunity too to work with them so early on.
For those that do not know who is Danielle Rhoda?
I’m an illustrator/animator, originally from Poland and now working between the UK and Barcelona. I like to call myself a ‘maker of things’ as then I feel less limited to produce one type of work, and right now it’s my focus to get more playful with creating.
For my final question, what’s next for Danielle Rhoda?
Recently I’ve been exploring animation more, with the most recent work being shown at festivals like Atlanta Film Festival and I’m currently directing another short piece. But for the rest of the year I want to explore more of my ceramics side of things too and generally make more work that is just fun and explorative really showing the joy of creating.
