Kyle Platts illustrates the five top tips he’s picked up in 2017

“Let’s face it, 2017 has been a sustained bad news day for the world, so I’ll just say for me personally this year has been about maturing and appreciating what I’ve got,” says illustrator Kyle Platts. “I turned 30 this year and I feel really good about the fact that I was an illustrator throughout my 20s and spent the whole time doing whatever the fuck I wanted and having a sick time. This achievement has given me more confidence in my work and my decision making in my life. I’m optimistic that I can take my work to a new level in this next decade and with the skills I’ve acquired and the new skills I’m currently ascertaining.”

With Kyle’s new wisdom blossoming, we thought it was the perfect opportunity to commission the illustrator to visualise some of the advice, top tips and life lessons he’s picked up during this year. The illustrator’s advice ranges from the sensible – ‘Join a bookclub’ – to the more surreal – ‘Eat an orange in the shower’ – and the way these chunks of wisdom came to Kyle throughout the year varies.

“For Halloween I dressed as garlic bread because it’s my favourite snack. For my costume I bought loads of garlic from a farmers market because it looked cool. I had tons of garlic left after halloween so I decided to put it in almost all of my meals, and I found that it basically makes everything way more delicious,” explains Kyle. “The eat an orange in the shower thing was inspired by my friend Adam who recommended it to me after he saw a Reddit article on the subject. The idea is that you get to eat an orange but without all the sticky mess that comes with your regular orange eating experience.”

The illustrator has visualised his five top tips in his typical vibrant and humorous style, and simplicity was a key element for Kyle for this project. “Each bit of advice is lighthearted and isn’t going to change anyone’s life, but they are little nuggets of fun that I’ve discovered makes everyday life more enjoyable, so the compositions and the colour pallet aim to reflect this,” says Kyle. “I tried to achieve a coherence throughout the project by having all the characters and their environments adhere to the same laws of a two-dimensional world.”

Kyle’s favourite is ‘Don’t over water your plants’: “I’m happy with the idea of the little plant man holding up an umbrella. Also I like the outfit the guy is wearing, I’d really like this outfit in real life.”

Next year, Kyle sees himself developing the animation skills he’s picked up in 2017, releasing some personal projects, completing several books and also taking a holiday at some point.

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