Meet D’ana, Founder and Creative Director of COVL (Collections + Volumes). Ms. D’ana founded COVL in 2012 with a need to curate a space that would reflect her unique storytelling, personal style, graphic illustrations and more. Analog at birth, digital by design – I mean, only a content creator as talented as this Femme could get away with this Twitter bio.
Having worked with brands such as: Agenda Show, Seagrams Gin, Google x Nexus, New Amsterdam Vodka, The New York Times, Qupid Shoes and more recently Corona and Champs Sports. D’ana provides fresh, innovative and forward thinking content that propels brands to the next level while remaining true to her own brand.
We had the pleasure of interviewing this rad lady, who is truly taking the design industry by storm. Her illustrations are unique, creating a recognized brand in the populated world of digital art. But it’s her story and work ethic that stand as nothing short of inspirational. Get to know D’ana and her work below. Support this bad babe!
What originally made you want to become a digital artist?
I’ve always been drawn to the concept of story-telling. From content creators to BTS production, so being a late bloomer I took me a while to understand that I wanted to be a story teller and then I stumbled across different digital artist and immediately felt that’s where I needed to be.
How would you describe your approach to design?
Unconventional. I’ve said this many times but love saying it every time, my process starts with color first and the rest is to follow.
Congrats on your recent #LimeDrop campaign with Corona! Would you mind sharing your creative process behind this project?
Thank you! It’s was such a fun campaign, it involved more creativity then it did influence which is a rarity. Anyways, every time a client ask me to do a stop motion piece, I mentally prepare myself. Because first, I have to story board and really capture every single moment in a series of frames. Then I shoot it, sometimes more than twice and then I move onto editing it. It’s a very tedious process but the outcome is worth it every single time.
How do you think social media has influenced the graphic design being produced today? Being that social media constantly spews out trends, for a digital artist it can be daunting. Well, at least for me. Because I don’t get hung up on illustrating celebrities or trending topics, I’ve always illustrated whatever the hell I wanted but that can sometimes be a great or bad. Social media is like a wild game of, “Keeping up with the Joneses’” and quite frankly I suck at that game because I’m too busy worrying about my own craft.
What are you currently fascinated by and how is it feeding into your work?
I recently stumbled upon Felipe Pantone. Holy Cats! That man is remarkable, I can’t even find the right words to verbalize his ability to marry a medium the way he does. I’ve never met an artist that really challenges my mind the way his work does and I’m still trying to figure it out where and how I can improve on my own work.
You have an impressive knack for optimizing multiple mediums into your work. My personal favorites are your mixed media illustrations. Did your signature brand develop organically?
My brand development took a lot of stepping back, asking opinions of those I confide in and taking in what is it that moves me as a woman and artist. I’ve always been told that I need to pick one thing that I’m good at and stick to it but that way of living never resonated well with me. If I wanted to be a digital artist today but start woodworking tomorrow, then I’ll do it. Because my love for creating always goes unmatched when it comes to being normal. So tapping into different mediums is just a way of me challenging what I do and do not know. And A lot of my work goes back to the childhood I never had, so all of that ties back into my brand but to answer your answer, yes it did hehe..
Your line of work is non-stop and you are one busy lady! How do you find time to balance work and personal time?
I simply give myself the time and space to find balance, it’s never perfect but it works for me. I hate saying “sorry I’ve been crazy busy..” it sounds like an excuse more than it does the truth. And I’m a firm believer that we make time for what we want and by doing that, it keeps me going and I’ll never burn out the way I use to.
What advice can you offer aspiring female designers and entrepreneurs?
I’ll have to quote my one of my favorite quotes: “You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there’s still going to be somebody who hates peaches.” Meaning, whatever you set yourself out to do, do it because it’s for you and not for anyone else. People are fickle but what people can’t deny is authenticity and a product that never fails.
What is your interpretation of a Raw Femme?
Being unapologetic in all your endeavors.