By READING ILLUSTRATION IN A FABRIC NOTEBOOK
“I am a real woman because I am very sure of what I want and what I don’t want. I always say what I think, my face always shows what I feel and I’m not afraid to risk being authentic and show the real me.”
Catalina Jaramillo, a young woman who was born with a talent for visual arts, more specifically for illustration, in a family dedicated to fashion. After living several years in the United States, she returned to the country to stay in Medellin, Colombia, where she began her graphic arts career full of expectations at the Higher Education Institution Colegiatura Colombiana and then moved to the Pontificia Bolivariana University, both in Medellin; in those two institutions, she learn the meaning of “we make our own university.”
She began her working career during her sixth semester of professional studies, when she began working for the fashion company Tennis, her first professional encounter with the world of fashion, and also her first opportunity to test her talent in design and visual arts.
During the four years she was in the company, she was part of the product design, interiors, visual merchandising, marketing and advertising departments. After collecting different experiences in all these fields, she had the opportunity of leaving the company and became an entrepreneur of her own graphic brand.
She started empirically, with great admiration for arts illustrators such as Jordi Lavanda, which she loved as a young girl, and for small brands that, by relying on visual arts for their carefully designed graphic arts, found the way to grow in the market. Through word-to-mouth spread, her potential became stronger and gained recognition in the market. “It’s a talent that has to be exploited; I’m dedicated to that,” says Catalina.
Determined to offer a commercial, graphic brand, current and romantic, through the use of pastels colors, and with the slogan “I want people to want to have everything I do.” Afterwards, she traveled to New York where she spent a semester studying “how to live being an illustrator. There, she learned how to manage a brand of her own, which she continues doing.
To keep her clients wanting more by exploring another creative field, she gathered with some friends to “make the brand of their dreams”. Side by side with her friend, they created and currently manages the brand ‘Molly and the Bone’ #BetweenBestFriends, graphic products for dogs and humans; celebrating the relationship they have with their best friends.
How do you define your passion?
“The female human body has always attracted me, items like ink, visual arts, what is fashionable, the magazines and the bloggers, among others; that’s what we sell and enjoy nowadays. Everything I’m doing at the moment is based on the present, on what people are looking for and what they’re talking about ”
What makes you a successful artist?
“It’s not simply doing something for the sake of it: it’s about being very meticulous. I pay very close attention to all the details. Everything I do, I have analyzed from the beginning to the end. You must work for a long period before you expose a product or communicate something to the market.’’
What do you think?