Pandarosa is one of Melbourne’s more experimental design studios. The group specializes in creating cultural graphics for a diverse range of artistic & music industry clients.

Sophie Barton interviews Pandarosa for Amateur Illustrator.

Ok, so tell me a little about how you started Pandarosa?
There are two main pandas & a few part timers scattered around here & there. We collaborate with lots of other creative minds in exhibition & personal projects. Not sure about the name, its kinda something we made upon the spot. In translation it means PINK PANDA or PANDA ROSE (spanish) Someone even interpreted the name as BEAR FLOWER!!!

Did you ever work freelance before starting the company?
No. We started as a studio shortly after graduating from University in 2001

What are the benefits working as a collaboration?
The outcomes never stay the same, there’s always conflict, which is great for creativity & U can share the workload / responsibility/ stresses of running your own business

How do you divide the work?
When someone’s creative juices are running low the next person gets on & continues where the other one left off.

Has your style changed much since you started? who inspired you and helped you find your style?
Our style has definitely evolved over the years, so I’m not sure if we have one style as such. Maybe its ’styles’ as in plural. I guess it evolves / changes as we travel around, watch NATURE, see people taking chances & get influenced by various visual / non-visual outcomes around us.

What was your first commission? and how did they find out about you?
Our first commission was to design a stage for a local (Melbourne) theatre company for a play about Synesthesia. We contact them directly when we first started the studio.

How much did you charge for your first sold piece of work?
Can’t remember, I’m sure it wasn’t much

How do you go about promoting yourself? What have you found to be the most effective methods of self promotion?
By constantly trying to get our work ‘out there’ & stay true to what we do. Word of mouth

Do you have a number of different styles that you call upon for different jobs or do you stick to one trademark look? As art directors change their tastes over time how do you manage staying in demand? Does your style evolve to stay up to date?
Our style is probably best described as always EVOLVING. We try to Stimulate the imagination not describe as such. I think we manage to stay ‘in demand’ by constantly changing & not getting pigeon holed. We don’t try to change our style to suit the market place its more a personal change I guess, either that or the fact that we get sick of our work very quickly.

Finally, whats the most unusual commission you’ve completed?
We’ve been asked to designs a few tattoos in our times but they never seem to go through??
Otherwise we’ve done illustrative work for a Taxidermy jeweler & a sex toy designer.

Where should our readers go to see more of the Pandas?
At the moment we are working on a book project titled ‘ALTERARE’ based on the seasons Spring & Autumn.
We also have scheduled a solo exhibition in March 08 in Hamburg & are having a group show in Berlin in late November 07.
www.pandarosa.net

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 4th, 2007 at 2:48 pm and is filed under Interviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.