Top Designer Rachelle Baker

Rachelle Baker is a multi-disciplinary artist from Detroit, MI with a background in Relief Printing (Screen printing, Lino/Woodcutting), Illustration, Comic Art, Video Art, and Music. She is inspired by Shoujo manga, anime, and comics bad girls, stoic women dancing in the backgrounds of late 90's/early 2000's R&B videos, and the sound cats make when they're yawning.

Over the course of her career, Rachelle has worked with a variety of clients including The New York Times, Netflix, National Geographic, MTV, IBM, Adidas, and Google. She has also illustrated a number of published books, including: Making Our Way Home: The Great Migration and the Black American Dream by Blair Imani from Ten Speed Press, Shirley Chisholm is a Verb by Veronica Chambers from Dial Books/Penguin Random House, Motherlode: 100+ Women Who Made Hip-Hop by Clover Hope from Abrams Books, and Stamped (for Kids): Racism, Antiracism, and You by Ibram X Kendi and Jason Reynolds Little, Brown Young Readers.

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

I’ve been interested in illustration since I could remember. I used to make fan comics for books and shows when I was in elementary school. In high school, I focused on art, and went to college for Illustration and Printmaking (almost minored in Art History). I started doing projects for other people in 2013 and finally started working as a freelance illustrator full time in 2018.

Artist Rachelle Baker

“Make things that are fun FOR YOU.

Sometimes, you can feel under pressure to make things for others, but it’s so obvious when you’re making something that excites and engages YOU - and that is truly what will excite and engage others every time.”

What is your creative process like?

Honestly, very messy. I currently work on an iPad Pro, so not physically messy, but I went to school for printmaking so it’s hard to get processes out of your mind. I probably use too many layers and I love having a million textures. I start with a super loose sketch, and usually try to get line work as tight as possible, but have lately been moving towards letting color and shading do more of the heaving lifting. I never do color studies for my personal work because I love letting the colors go where they feel like going (if that makes sense).

What has been one of your favorite projects to work on recently and why?

I really loved working on the upcoming book Show Up & Vote by Ani DiFranco. It’s a children’s book, so I got to have fun with colors, draw very cool and cute characters, and used my 7 year old niece as a model for my main character (which I love doing).

In addition to your client work, you also spend time on personal projects - why is it important to make time for personal work? Do you have any tips on finding balance in this area?

It’s important to take a break from WORK work because that’s when you get to experiment, take risks, and have fun. I’ve found that a lot of my work that clients/collaborators reference when hiring me tends to be personal projects and little weird experiments that I’ve done just for me.

I use my personal projects as explorations, and make work that I hope I’ll be some day be hired to do. When it comes to finding balance, that’s always hard, but I try to give myself one day to just play around and draw something not related to work. It gives me a chance to do something low-committal and loose so that I don’t get stuck in a work rut midweek. Sometimes, it helps me figure something out that’s been stumping me, and I can apply it to my other projects.

What’s been one of the biggest career lessons you've learned so far?

Making sure to remember my limits. There’s always an urge to work as much or as hard as possible, but when you don’t take the time to recharge, your work suffers in very obvious way. It makes it harder to have fun with your work because you’re doing too much, so slowing down and knowing limits is sometimes easier said than done, but important nonetheless.

Image by Rachelle Baker

Where do you find creative inspiration? Do you have any favorite design resources?

I use Pinterest a lot for color and pose inspo, but I honestly read a lot of comics/graphic novels/webcomics/manga etc. and that inspires a lot of my work. I was really obsessed with shoujo manga as a teenager and find myself revisiting the series every now and then. The style is so cool and I really love the way manga artists draw fashion!

What advice would you give to artists and designers just starting out?

It feels really corny to say, but make things that are fun FOR YOU. Sometimes, you can feel under pressure to make things for others, but it’s so obvious when you’re making something that excites and engages YOU - and that is truly what will excite and engage others every time.

When you look to the future, what are you excited about?

I’m excited about having time to work on more self-indulgent projects for myself in the near future, and working on more comics/narrative work.

Thank you for sharing with us Rachelle! To view more of Rachelle’s work, visit her website and follow her on Instagram.

Rachelle was nominated by Noun Project. All art courtesy of Rachelle Baker.

Rachelle Baker