Inkee Wang’s illustrations zing with bold colour and personality

We first featured the aptly named illustrator Inkee Wang’s work two years ago back in 2017. Fizzing with colour and personality, the Royal College of Art graduate has gone from strength to strength in just a short couple of years, wrapping up commissions from the likes of the V&A, Bloomberg Business Week, Ikea and The New York Times, who all came knocking at her door for a piece of Inkee-art action.

“Two years ago, when my comic Goodbye was featured on It’s Nice That it made me more confident in my current style,” says Inkee. Continuing to deliver quirky pop sensations to her viewers through a flat, architectural rendering, Inkee has tackled many a topic through editorial illustration. From depicting how to monitor the elderly at home, to picturing the future of vehicles in psychedelic space, Inkee’s delightful digitalisations can just as happily sit in the context of an art gallery as they can on a computer screen accompanying an article.

It was Bloomberg Businessweek who first offered Inkee her first editorial commission. Collaborating a number of times with the publication since then, she notes its famous ability to “give an illustrator a lot of freedom” that has allowed her practice to consistently grow. Opening up the floodgates of commissions since then, Inkee’s attentions have predominantly focussed on her commercial work ever since. She even worked with Corona, illustrating a mermaid and a diver which would later be printed on a blanket, “which is cute!”

With a unique ability to attach copious amounts of narrative to editorial illustrations, Inkee transforms some seemingly boring subjects into jam packed compositions full of character. She hasn’t forgotten her love for comics however and last year managed to produce a 22 page Special K published by a particular favourite publisher of independent comics, kuš. “The story is about a superhero in a shooting game,” she says of the publication. “I’m still not a fully matured comic book author at the moment though, but this experience has given me a new understanding of the rhythm and the arrangement of narrative.”

Hoping to further develop these storytelling skills with more comics in the future while working on her current series titled Girls with Guns (which pretty much explores what it says on the tin,) Inkee will also be attending Shanghai’s art festival Picnic next month. So on the off chance you’re in Shanghai this October, and if you’re a particular fan of Inkee’s, don’t miss out!