Click here to visit Adriana de Barros’ Gallery.

How many years have you been a freelance illustrator?

I ran a copy center with a design section for over 10 years; this is where I started designing and illustrating for my family’s clothing stores as well as for local and international clients. I have had the opportunity to do diverse work for my family’s businesses from clothing and product design to t-shirt and poster illustrations. In more recent years, I’ve explored new directions such as doing editorial art for magazines and book covers. And I’m currently looking for new challenges and work opportunities.

How reliable are you?

I only take on as much as I can handle, so that I can do the work effectively for the client and really focus on doing the best job in present time. I’ve always been in pursuit of quality over quantity, and to keep doing what I do, it is necessary to be reliable to keep working with the same clients and also new ones. A few principles or words I live by: Respect those you work with and for, be direct and communicative from start to finish, explain your ideas, suggestions and solutions to your client so he/she is also on the same page and understanding key elements of the project—and importantly LISTEN to your clients. Discuss ideas and be open and flexible to feedback so that you do in fact understand what is being asked and what the goal of the project is.

In a commercial sense what can your work be applied too?

I’ve been working a lot more in identity design, and it has allowed a combination of techniques such as combining my painting/illustration style to some of the branding designs (E.g. “Almost Dorothy;” http://www.breathewords.com/www/?cat=4). I’ve also been focusing on t-shirt illustrations. And as mentioned in previous answer, over the years I’ve had a good range of challenges from fashion design (opening my own shop in 2003, called “Baby Pins”), illustrating for websites, magazines and books… I’ve done advertising design, web design and development in both CSS and Flash.

Who are your top clients?

The ones that allow me to have some level of creative freedom. Who identify with who I am and what I do, and really push me forward to taking risks, and exploring the skills that I have and also the ones I didn’t know I had. An example is that I’m doing an identity design for a pet shop for a long-term client, and the branding requires cartooning. Creating characters that would maybe fit in Disneyland or some cartoon TV series—they end up as mascots for the company. I haven’t done cartooning since I was a teenager, so I was honest about my inexperience, but the client knowing my past work pushed me forward to doing this, and the result has been surprisingly good for me. I am exploring beyond my comfort zone of skills, and finding out I can handle this task too and enjoying it very much. In both fashion, web design, and editorial art I’ve encountered really opened minded clients who expect the best and give me room to create it!

Apart from illustration what other skills do you have?

Apart from the ones already mentioned, I enjoy photography and painting. I also write regularly for Scene 360 (http://www.Scene360.com), an online film and arts magazine, which has been up for eight years on the web. In addition, I write poetry in both traditional and visual form (latter, using Flash and other more cinematic techniques).

What’s your favourite sandwich filling?

My brother is studying to be a Chef, he makes a killer Club sandwich!

Click here to visit Adriana de Barros’ Gallery.