Canadian born @madeyoulookkk is an artist who creates surrealist pieces which seem to really fit the idea of the modern times. With visual ideas from all kinds of places she brings a new twist and creates incredibly fluid pieces which impossibly fit together.
So we're here today with @madeyoulookkkk. An artist. But I'm sure she could introduce herself better than I could.
Hello everyone, I'm a content designer. Founder of @madeyoulookkkk. I actually went public with it about 10 days ago so it's pretty new
How did it come about?
So I actually went back to school. Photoshop, Indesign and I literally got obsessed with Photoshop. I had a school project where we had to take two ideas and put them together so they worked. Two visuals that you wouldn't commonly see in everyday life. For example a bananna peel mixed with half of the moon. And it was just two visuals putting a twist on them. I just started of with friends and family maybe like 10 people following me for the last three years and then I started seeing inspiration and stuff from Instagram. Like oh my gosh there's people who are making similar content to me, same style that have all of these followers. I should see where this could take me.
That's cool. Really cool. When I first saw your Instagram, it just really stood out. These are the kind of things you could picture as an album cover, for music or even like promotional content for pages. That's how I saw it. Obviously you talk about seeing inspiration from school, what was it that you do.
So I studied advertising and graphic design. It was a two year programme and I live in Toronto so it was just a local school. And actually before that I did my undergrad in film. So a very creative background. I'm currently working in marketing for a real estate company.
So the real question is. Do you get to photoshop like this for real estate. Like cakes on buildings, stuff like that?
No haha I would love to have the creative freedom but it's brand guidelines, got to stick to it. There's actually a graphic designer there. I support her but more so social media.
Obviously you come from a very creative path. Has it always been like that. Was art always something you did.
I would say yes. I live in great Southern. We had this project and my teacher ended up laminating this project and keeping it for years to come. As an example to show for that specific project. To show her class 'this is the best example of what I want'. My sister was telling me 'by the time I got to this grade, this teacher she was showcasing your work'. Yeah and I won the art award. So yes but I guess I just didn't stumble on my passion. I always felt that photoshop. Because I'm obsessed with it, I love designing. Brochures and weddings but I'm so drawn to the photoshop content.
It's so weird. What Photoshop is, it's actually such a weird concept when you think about it. Maybe even 10 years ago something like that never existed.
Well I had a photography class in high school and we tapped into photoshop. It did nothing for me. It wasn't until the last three years where I reassessed the program. And it was amazing. Once you can see what you can do. It was funny because when I first started I though that each tool had it's own very specific use. Like you couldn't use this for that and I didn't realise there was so many ways you could use it. I was doing the long way. Sometime when I look at people's work on Instagram I like to think 'ooh how would I have created that' to get my mind going, how would I have done that. Because you see what people have done and some of these pieces look like they take an hour or two. But some of them literally take 10 minutes; they're just so cool and it works so well.
I know Surrealism is always something that has been around. For a long time, but recently it's become a thing where it's come back 360. It's getting wilder and wilder.
I think it's because we're exposed to Instagram. And we're exposed to platforms where we can actually see people's work. I wonder if we only now see it because its so in our face. Because of social media. I feel like it never dies. Just artists using photoshop didn't have a place to put it in this way. I don't know how old photoshop is
I was thinking stone age. They definitely would have figured it out in a couple thousand years. It's quite interesting now though because of the rise of social media it seems everyone can be a photographer. Everything's so accessible. It's the internet. For example, I wouldn't even be able to talk with you maybe a couple hundred years ago. Maybe even 30, 40 years ago. It's interesting to see how it's developed over time and how now it changes the art scene as well.
Yeah definitely. In general, I know a lot of people think there's so many cons for social media. But I like to see it for good as long as you're not using it to bully people, I think its such an awesome tool. Like for people who are trying to make a business. To get discovered or whatever it's just so much easier.
I know we're going a little off topic but I did read this interesting article which said that although social media's like a connection point it still creates a separateness if that makes sense. I can't remember it was some wild number
It does for sure because instead of face to face interactions you're behind the screen or whatever. But in case of like this we wouldn't be able to. Like you're in London, I'm in Toronto. We wouldn't be able to do this. So certain circumstances it definitely works to our advantage.
It's definitely allowed you to explore so much more isn't it. It brings in so many ideas as well. You can take inspiration just generally from things you might see 'oh imagine that on something else' it would be something that clicks. Where's your inspiration from.
So every project in school we were assigned I would go straight to Pinterest. So I first started making cool Photoshop boards. But after that, you know how Instagram explore page works. Once you start typing it, your explore page starts filling up with that. Like similar content. So now I'll just use that. I'll go to accounts like @magic.spleen
You know what, I think they featured you and I saw your page.
I think it's so cool that there's different art styles like art manager. That take submissions because they have a following. What I think is cool when they're trying to build a following is tapping into accounts which are already have that following.
Like A.Site haha
Haha yeah and you just work from there. They have a following of people that like art so you know that interest's there. Like people buying followers which are not even guaranteed to like your content. I was seeing that and I was like oh yeah that's so true. Approach as many in the art and the collaging. I find the ones they like, hashtags they're using and the trends that they're doing and I try and follow that.
I think that's really nice. It's good advice as well to take. Finding these kind of accounts. How has that journey been for you finding that tribe of people that resonate with your work.
I think it's a really cool feeling when you get comments like 'this is amazing keep it up'. For random people to say that about your work. Even to have people message you like 'check out my page' makes you feel like you're somebody when you're not.
Yeah definitely, it's that joy of sharing your work with people. That mutual understanding that this is work that we like.