Alice Lee
Art for Adobe Creative Cloud by Alice Lee
Alice Lee is a muralist and painter born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a first generation Chinese-American artist, Alice draws inspiration from her heritage, as well as the unique landscapes in Northern California. Her pieces celebrate the concept of “flow” and seek to spark a sense of wonder, curiosity, and joy in the world. Her surreal, whimsical landscapes are filled with curious animals and feminine strength. Alice is also the host of Doodle Therapy, a drawing show on Adobe Live. Past murals she has created have been exhibited at the Asian Art Museum, the Pow! Wow! Mural Festival, XOXO Festival, as well as at companies around the Bay Area including Slack, Autodesk, and Philz Coffee.
We spoke with Alice to learn more about her professional journey as a designer and artist, where she finds inspiration, and her advice for new designers.
Hi Alice! Tell us about yourself - how did you get to where you are today? When did you first become interested in design?
I describe my career as having taken lateral shifts across different industries to get to where I am today as a muralist and artist. I often break down my winding, nontraditional journey into these phases:
1) Business School → Product Designer. I first became interested in design when I was a senior at the Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania), studying business. I built up my design education and portfolio by participating in hackathons as well as sneaking in design projects into each of my non-design internships in college. I was recruited to join Dropbox as a early member of their product design team in 2013, where I met many amazing friends and mentors.
2) Product Designer → Illustrator. At Dropbox, I met Ryan Putnam, the first illustrator hired at the company. Through nights and weekends, I pitched in and learned how to illustrate in Ryan’s/Dropbox’s style. Six months later, my job title changed to be “product designer and illustrator.” Eventually, I left the company to explore my own artistic voice and journey. Because I had learned on the job, I felt as though Dropbox was my “art school,” and I didn’t want to limit my education in those formative years by learning how to draw primarily in a specific corporate style. Ryan and I both went freelance at around the same time, and with some illustration friends, we started a studio space together in the Mission, SF that is now called Lavender Labs.
3) Illustrator → Artist. While I started out doing tech branding, in recent years I’ve shifted to an artistic practice that spans doing large-scale murals and installations, as well as working in other industries like advertising, publishing, apparel, etc. I think that every step of my career has brought me “closer to the center” of reflecting who I am as a person and my interests in life.
Artist and Muralist Alice Lee
How would you describe your aesthetic and how has your style changed over time?
From an internal perspective, it’s felt like my style has changed dramatically over time, although from an external perspective it probably feels more consistent (the eternal struggle!). First, to draw a box around the word “style,” I define it as the visual cues, techniques, and language that comprise an artist’s voice — the tools in one’s toolbox and how one wields them.
At the beginning of my career, I don’t think I had a very clear or interesting style because my voice was more obscured. I was more of a “designing illustrator” in corporate tech product setting. While I look back on those years and my collaborators really fondly, there is a limit to the amount of personal artistry that you can explore and inject into those contexts because if you’re creating illustration branding systems for a client, you’re creating the voice for a corporate client. While they’re hiring you for your unique perspective, problem solving, and skills, it’s ultimately not about you as an individual and your personal motivations. So during those earlier years, while my portfolio wasn’t as cohesive, that work taught me how to draw very quickly, often under tight constraints and deadlines, and in a wide range of styles and approaches, like a chameleon.
Now, I call myself an artist and muralist, because my work is much more personal. When I work with companies, they’re hiring me for my voice, specifically. I draw upon inspiration from my heritage as a first-generation Chinese-American, as well as from the unique nature and landscapes from the Bay Area, where I was born and raised.
One way I describe this journey is — all of us technically have six packs, it’s muscle that’s just hidden under fat tissue. Similarly, everyone has a distinct inner voice, but it’s not always immediately clear — we have to do the work to uncover it. My style journey has been about uncovering that inner voice, which had previously been hidden under layers of corporate branding
Editorial Art for The Washington Post by Alice Lee
As an illustrator and muralist, your work spans creating illustrations and systems for tech companies like Slack, Automattic, and Facebook, as well as creating large-scale bright, beautiful art pieces. What’s your creative process like and how do you typically work through a project?
My creative process is pretty straightforward when I work with clients and collaborators. Regardless if I’m working on a mural where the client wants me to go wild and do my thing, or with a tech company on their branding with many constraints, it starts with sitting down with everyone to gauge the intentions and goals of the project. Even if I am working on a personal piece that will be going into gallery show, I “sit down” with myself to think about this. What do I want to bring into the world? What are some unanswered questions that I should explore?
Specifically, I’ll do quick conceptual pencil sketches before committing to a direction to take to color final. Sometimes if I’m feeling stuck, I’ll change locations and go to a cafe or nearby park to work. Throw on some great music and get into the flow. Try not to overthink it, be really present with whatever’s flowing and the pencil — knowing that we can always edit back later.
Lately as I’ve been doing more installation work, I will also coordinate the logistics in tandem with the development of the art (eg. installation details, insurance, renting equipment, hiring assistants, etc).
When working on projects with multiple stakeholders, what's your approach to creative collaboration?
I am upfront with my collaborators about my process, including specifying what type of feedback is helpful at each stage. For example, if we’re at the initial sketch phase and I’ve sent over simple b/w pencil sketches, the best type of feedback to discuss is about concept and overall direction. If we’ve picked a conceptual direction(s) to go in and are at the color final phase, then the type of feedback that’s best to discuss there is about details, rendering, color, etc.
This is something I’ve learned through many years of trial and error. When I make clear the expectations, involvement, and timing from the get-go it enables projects to blossom and not get stuck in a spiral of inefficient thrash.
Chipotle Aluminaries by Alice Lee
What’s been one of your favorite projects to work on and why? What would be your dream project?
My favorite projects have been my murals for the Asian Art Museum (2019) and Autodesk (2021), because both of those called upon my cultural heritage and challenged me to dig deeper personally. I’ve also loved my project with Adobe, a biweekly drawing show called Doodle Therapy, where I get to bring on guests to draw with and interview.
The common thread between all these projects is that my collaborators really encouraged me to explore and do what I wanted to. I ended up growing a lot as a person and making big strides artistically. I believe that level of freedom, trust, and support is simply necessary for any kind of creatively ambitious or expansive work.
Mural for Autodesk by Alice Lee
Where do you find creative inspiration?
I’m really inspired by life itself. Usually if my artwork is feeling stale it’s because I myself am listless. I really love having a full life of adventures, enriching relationships, etc.
Lately I’ve used my artwork as a way to explore about my culture and heritage. Growing up, I always felt “in-between”; never fully Chinese or American. I would shy away from embracing my Chinese side out of fear of being “othered” here in the US, as well as an imposter of not being “Chinese enough.” Over the last several years, I’ve come to embrace this hyphenate state of being, and I now often research myths, characters, flowers, animals, etc. from the culture to meaningfully incorporate into my artwork.
I’m also really inspired by childhood experiences. For example, one could look at my work and reasonably deduce, “hm, this girl definitely watched a lot of Sailor Moon and Pokemon as a child.”
Do you have any favorite design resources?
For design, Adobe Live is a great resource (and I’m not just saying that because I’ve worked with their team over the last several years!). They feature free streams with illustrators, designers, videographers, etc. where the guests and hosts dive deep into various creative topics. There’s also a live chat component and a proactive moderation team such that viewers can ask questions in real time.
I’m really influenced by the music I listen to. I’ve been absolutely loving my friend Robin’s May playlist to work to.
What advice would you give to designers who are just starting out?
It’s hard to give general advice without knowing people’s individual situations. But broadly speaking, I always wish I could bottle up that feeling of excited energy when I’m on the precipice of something new. It comes up at the beginning of new projects or whenever I’m about to explore a new creative hobby, and I felt it all the time when I was starting out. It feels like you’re a pioneer with a vast landscape of mountains in front of you, staring out with fresh beginner’s eyes and excitement. Bottle up that feeling. Savor it. And good luck!
Thank you for sharing with us Alice! To view more of Alice’s work, visit her website, follow her on Instagram, check out her show Doodle Therapy on Adobe Live, and her shop for prints and other goodies.
All images courtesy of Alice Lee.