Sabrina Smelko is a freelance illustrator and designer, an editor for Design*Sponge and a multi-disciplinary jack of all trades. When I caught up with her for this interview she had just finished a semester teaching illustration at Sheridan College and a full kitchen renovation which she documented through blogs and video journals. A friend shared her work with me on Twitter, and I immediately admired not only her ability to manage so many roles and projects at once, but the way that she has been able to make her career work congruous with her lifestyle.
Tell me a bit more about your various roles and what you’re working on now?
I am such a serial dabbler, but I would say the two main things that are always ongoing are my illustration/design work and my role as an Editor at Design*Sponge.
SabrinaSmelko.com has changed over the years and what I offer has gone from just pure illustration to more varied work including design, Art Direction and writing. I’ve hit a point where I can feel valid and comfortable calling myself all of those things. This year I did everything from working on book covers to designing x-rated apps, to creating over 1,000 Emojis for Firefox OS, and creating images and graphics for social media. Whereas before, even a year or two ago, it was mostly editorial and the traditional illustration stuff. That's where my work is heading in terms of being creative just trying to take advantage of the fact that people are now becoming more open to using illustration and images for content and other things that they wouldn't have considered using before.