Imogen Oh

Imogen Oh’s work often features botanical and organic imagery, with inspiration drawn from nature, mythology, and curiosities. After studying graphic design at the National College of Art & Design in Dublin, Ireland, her early career included designing and hand-painting signage for Diageo and their events for Guinness and The Open Gate Brewery. She now focuses on illustration; both in personal work and illustrating for clients like Penguin Random House.

Hi Imogen! Tell us about yourself - how did you get to where you are today and when did you first become interested in art and design?

My mum studied art for most of my childhood, so I often accompanied her while she worked on her masters, occupying myself with wandering around the studios and exhibitions. These were prestigious colleges, St Martins and The Royal College of Art in London, so you might think I’d revel among all the fine art and design I was very privileged to grow up around, but to be honest, my heart lay with history and museums. I was obsessed with curio; bones, anatomy, taxidermy, mummies, entomology. We would visit the National History Museum every week, and my obliging parents would sit and draw as I ran around to stare at objects I’d gazed at countless times before. I was never much for drawing in museums, the stirring of people and sounds is overwhelming and it would mean less time to look at all the things.

How would you describe your aesthetic and how has your design style changed over time?

I adore old art and grotesques, filigree, the swirls and knot work of ancestors, darkness & age.

Prior to the art I do now, I didn’t know who I was. I just made the art that people asked for, in many different styles. I was miserable and the passion died, so I gave up. I got a job in a library, but I still drew in my spare time. It was only then - when I was drawing things I liked, for myself - that I began to bloom.

One of my favorite pieces I created during this time is called “Bloom”, which is an illustration of my right hand blooming flowers.

What are your favorite subjects or themes to explore, and why?

I say I’m an illustrator of mythos and curio. I enjoy interpreting folktales, or finding mythos in flora and fauna. It was around the time I began to find my voice as an artist that I discovered the beauty of myth and folklore. I love books, as I mentioned I worked in libraries and I own a large collection of non-fiction, mainly consisting of medical history and esoterica. Fiction had always been challenging, I preferred to be fascinated by reality. Mythology is the beautiful in-between.

I feel like I finally “found” mythology through etymology (word origins) as it is so deeply woven into modern language, my curiosity would spiral on and on until I was just delving into pure mythos. This love also led to admiring fictional writing and tv/cinema inspired by myth, like the ingrained Greek mythos of Battlestar Galactica or the interwoven European folktales in Andrzej Sapkowski’s works, and I love exploring these subjects in my art too.

How did you discover Noun Project and what led you to start designing icons?

I found Noun Project over a decade ago while studying design. At first I made very basic sets. Now, I use my collections as a learning process; I make collections that I want to draw, in my style, hand-drawn to lend an illustrative aesthetic. The process begins with: “I’d like to learn the skull shapes of animals”, I then study images of animal skulls, create a list, and illustrate the collection. Even if my icons aren’t very typical for iconography, I think that’s precisely why they are often successful.

Icons from the Imogen’s Animal Skulls collection

What’s your creative process like and how do you approach creative collaboration?

I’ll admit freely, I love to work alone!! My favorite art to do is personal work that I either sell as prints or license out. When I collaborate, I take jobs I know I’ll enjoy, with clients I feel SUPER comfortable with. That is a privilege many can’t afford but monetizing your passion can be destructive, as I experienced early on. I’d prefer to have a career in something else if creating art makes me unhappy.

What’s been one of your favorite projects to work on so far and why?

To pick a collection I’ve made on Noun Project, I enjoyed creating my collection of Stained Glass. Looking through the old eras of stained glass and sketching from them, every bit of that adds to my knowledge and style, and I was really happy with how the set came out!

Icons from Imogen’s Stained Glass collection

Another favorite big project in the last year was creating the artwork for the book Bittersweet in the Hollow. I worked under direction of the incredible Jessica Jenkins for Penguin Random House. Creating art for such an wonderful piece of work by author Kate Pearsall, exploring Appalachian flora and fauna to reflect the haunting atmosphere of the story, getting to reference my own haunty dainty witch hand for this book that is going to be on shelves all over the world (I love hands; weird special interest – I collect art and sculptures of hands!). I loved every second of it.

Where do you find creative inspiration?

Going out to the countryside in Ireland is really inspiring, given the nature and air here it’s easy to understand why we were druids and tree worshippers. But my ideas mainly come from reading, I have a dark attic I like to crawl away to for reading, projects and chilling out. Also, continuously rerunning Buffy or Bones in the background.

What advice would you give to artists and designers just starting out or looking to strengthen their practice?

Enjoy the things you love, and pull them into your art.

What would be a dream project for you?

I would love to create a tarot deck at some stage, it is a massive undertaking that would take a lot of prep and direction. A friend of mine has bountiful academic knowledge of witch history and tarot, and also Irish/Celtic mythology, which is a concept we’re considering exploring for a deck. Watch this (really long) space.

Thank you for sharing with us Imogen! To view more of Imogen’s work, visit her Instagram or Noun Project profile.

Imogen was nominated by Noun Project. All art courtesy of Imogen Oh.