Creative Café #22 ★

so it's been a while since we had a Creative Café post but i can promise you this, today's is a real cracker of a feature! well, i think so anyway...

you know the drill and if you don't it's quite simple, stop reading this and go and get a nice cup of tea/coffee/cocoa/juice, go grab some biscuits/sweets/ice cream, get comfy and get ready to enjoy the post!

today it's all about the candy coloured kawaii world of Joanna Zhou and her fabulous design label Maqaroon

Joanna is a fabulous manga, anime and kawaii artist originally from China (she grew up in Vienna and studied at University in London) her work seamlessly fuses hand-drawn manga styles with cute and colourful kawaii characters and details, resulting in a totally gorgeous style that makes her designs just pop off the page/screen

"Just like Harajuku Girls mixing fashion styles, Joanna Zhou combines several drawing techniques to create a new twist on manga art."

i've followed her work for a while via her blog and DA account, i always find her work so refreshing and inspirational! her style is divine, the way she draws is amazing, love LOVE it all!

"Joanna Zhou is an award-winning manga artist and graphic designer. A graduate of Central St Martins and Chelsea College of Art & Design, she specialises in on-trend character design, packaging, web design, Japanese street fashion and manga illustration."

she's definitely an artist after my own heart since she hand draws everything before scanning it in for digital colouring/editing via Photoshop and Illustrator (i do exactly the same thing...) 

she recently launched her own design label/brand selling adorable prints, postcards and stickers featuring her little designs (+ lots more stuff coming soon)

Maqaroon is chock full of gorgeously colourful little treats, i already want pretty much EVERYTHING on the site (since it's all so lovely!) 

have a look at some of the cuteness available from the shop!

the site also features her current 'Maqaroon' based project, creating little avatar like characters based on some of the worlds best and bubbliest alternative fashion bloggers

as if that weren't enough, Joanna is an extremely accomplished manga artist and designer, her work is utterly sublime!

as well as designing for brands like Eyeko, Topshop and Kidrobot, she also designed dolls and characters for Momiji 

regular readers might remember that i won a cute Momiji bundle a while ago (see this post - Magical Momiji) well it turns out that Joanna is the artist that designed everything in that bundle! 

what are the odds eh! 

and how ruddy fabulous is all her stuff! so, sooo super duper!!! what a supremely talented artist...

ok, it's links time now!

to see more of Joanna's incredible work, head over to her official website here - chocolatepixels

+ to treat yourself (or someone else!) to something deliciously cute from her new label, visit - Maqaroon Shop

you can also 'Like' the brand via Facebook - Maqaroon

and keep up to date with all things maqaroon via Twitter - @maqaroon

there's also a Tumblr blog - Maqaroon

you can also vote for your favourite Maqaroon character here - Lookbook

now all that's left for me to do is say a massive THANK YOU to the very lovely Joanna for saying yes about the feature! she's such an inspiration to someone like me, i can only hope that one day i might be half as successful as her! so thanks again :) x

All images featured in this post belong to Joanna Zhou © do not claim, use, distribute, reproduce or trace ANY of her work without her express written consent. All Rights Reserved.

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in other news, i'm still stuck at home since the boat was cancelled again today and tonight die to adverse weather conditions! i'm a little bit gutted but it can't be helped so i've been designing rockabilly tattoos all day to keep myself occupied (i'll post some pictures soon...)

fingers crossed that tomorrow i'll be able to make it over to the UK!

so until next time, that's all folks... ◕‿◕ ★ xX