Siena Quides

Siena Quides is a Manila-based illustrator, visual effects artist, and motion designer. Specializing in bringing imagination to life through digital art and illustrations, she enjoys infusing her work with pops of color and playing with light and shadows to create depth. With a keen eye for visual storytelling, over the course of her career Siena has collaborated with a variety of clients to create compelling visual experiences.

Hi Siena! 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 am a Manila based editor, motion designer, and illustrator mostly working for production houses and advertising agencies in the Philippines. I have been working with ads since 2016. Most of the time I do editing but I also do storyboarding for TV and digital advertisements while I do illustration and motion design in Canva.

Like some of the designers and artists I know, mine pretty much started as a kid drawing and doodling at the back of my workbook at school. Anime is kind of a big deal during grade school and it became one of my biggest inspirations in starting to draw. I can pretty much remember that the first portrait I did was Akira Toriyama’s Son Goku. At 4th grade I started joining editorial cartooning and poster making competitions in and out of campus, while animation is something I started learning and enjoying in college until I decided this is the path that I want to take even after graduation.

Designer and Illustrator Siena Quides

“While I am a believer of just keep creating, it’s also great to appreciate the power of rest.

Don’t feel guilty if you’re not able to create something in a day or two because the biggest creative blocks happen when you’re burned out. Make time to take it easy.”

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

I really like working on random everyday things like a random portrait, an outfit or just a shoe. I sometimes do anime and streetwear mash ups. I just want to keep my work close to my interests because that’s how I really get to enjoy it, especially my personal work. My style really evolved a lot these past years, but I think it has an established aesthetic now, which is a pop of colors – mainly magenta, blue, and orange, depending on the purpose of what I am creating. I’m a fan of orange and pink sunrises and sunsets so that probably translated a lot into my works. Another thing I enjoy doing with my style is playing with lights and shadows. Lights are pretty strong with my illustrations and that’s something I really enjoy adding to my works because of the depth it adds to the creation.

Are there particular themes you like to explore through your work?

I always wanted to explore environment illustrations. It is super fun to do but also takes a lot of time. That’s what I wanted to explore since that’s something I usually do when storyboarding for a project. But, overall, I just want to keep doing what I am doing at the moment. If I have time I also want to explore animating most of my illustrations. I always get curious about what they’d look like moving.

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

Environment and ambience is really important in my creative process. There are days that I want complete silence, there are days that music or videos help get me rolling with my creative juice. Honestly, I have a very messy creative process. It really depends on what I am working on. I work in differently paced industries; advertising is the fast-paced one so, it’s really important that I am always ready creatively and mentally. I try to really get inspiration everywhere whenever I have free time, so I always have a backup. When things get super hard and I’m having a creative block, I take long walks. I highly recommend it because it helps me a lot.

Approaching creative collaboration for me is accepting and being open to others’ perspectives as well. It is also important to see your work the way others see it. That’s how you improve also as an artist. While I want to keep my work as mine and not lose its identity, it’s important to also see it in a different perspective and see that it can still be better.

What has been one of the most challenging projects you’ve worked on and what did you learn from it?

I think the most challenging projects I’ve worked on kind of started when the rise of social media formats, especially the vertical ones started. I’m not sure if a lot of people have talked about this. It’s because once this era started you had to think of design that not only works in one aspect ratio but also in multiple aspect ratios and formats. It wasn’t too easy when you have to lay out and design horizontally, but also had to make it work in a vertical format. It’s a fun brain exercise though when you think about it.

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

I get it from other creators’ works, also via Behance, Instagram, or Tiktok. Sometimes I get inspiration from reading manga. I think the best way to get inspired is to also get a chance to see and appreciate others' work as well. It’s easy to get inspired when you see the excitement of also being able to create something as beautiful as these other creators make.

Do you have any favorite design resources?

After Effects is my go-to visual effects and animation tool. AEscripts has a lot of very helpful plug-ins when creating using AE. For illustration, I always go with Procreate and Adobe Illustrator. I started exploring with Procreate Dreams lately as well.

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

While I am a believer of just keep creating, it’s also great to appreciate the power of rest. Don’t feel guilty if you’re not able to create something in a day or two because the biggest creative blocks happen when you’re burned out. Make time to take it easy.

Thank you for sharing with us Siena! To view more of Siena’s work, visit her Website or follow her on Instagram.

Siena was nominated by Canva. All images courtesy of Siena Quides.