We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sara Maese. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sara below.
Sara, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
It’s something complicated, and I think it depends a lot on the situation and the circumstances of what happened. As a general rule, I believe that time is a great friend and tends to put most things in their place, but it is also true that there are other situations where we need to do our part to overcome whatever has taken place and, if necessary, seek help from a mental health professional.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My name is Sara Maese and I am an illustrator, surface pattern designer and GIF animator from the south of Spain. I’ve been working in the illustration field since 2015. I think my work is vibrant, organic, cheerful and colorful. I love playing with different techniques for the creation of my illustrations that have tons of sassy and cheeky characters.
When I am not working, I like to spend my time with my cats, reading, knitting or playing video games.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
In my personal case, I think the previous knowledge I had in graphic design was very useful because it contributed a lot to having a certain aesthetic taste and also to being more methodical in my work. During my years of studying, our teachers were quite demanding with us, and I believe that part of my way of working comes precisely from that experience, for which I am very grateful.
For those who want to delve into the world of illustration, I think one of the best pieces of advice I could give is to be patient and persistent. I believe this world is a very complicated one to navigate, and as a general rule, opportunities don’t usually come quickly; they require a lot of work and knocking on many doors. That’s why I think it’s important not to give up and to keep working.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
It may seem silly, but I think understanding that social media is not the most relevant part of my work has been fundamental for me. For many years, I was very influenced by the number of followers and likes I had, and I thought it was, in a way, a reflection of my value as an illustrator. When the likes started to decrease and when the followers stopped growing due to changes in the algorithm, it was difficult for me to accept that this was the new situation on Instagram and that the value of my work had little to do with it.
It took me several years and a lot of anxiety, but finally, by the end of 2023 and throughout 2024, I realized that where I really need to focus my efforts is on directly contacting clients and showing them my work, rather than relying on the luck of having some of them follow me on social media.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://saramaese.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/saramaese
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramaese
- Other: All the links: https://saramaese.carrd.co/
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