How This Project Came to Life

This project started with a kind message from Pepin van Roojen, creative director at Pepin Press, a publishing house based in Amsterdam. He discovered my work on Shutterstock and reached out with a thoughtful request: to create a series of seamless patterns celebrating human diversity — in a quiet, elegant, and natural way.

Pepin expressed a clear vision: he was not looking for bold slogans or symbols, but rather for gentle illustrations showing people of different cultural backgrounds and love preferences in everyday, peaceful, and loving situations. His goal was to broaden their collection of paper goods (such as gift wrap and writing paper) with inclusive themes — without being too literal or "in your face."

He mentioned that what drew his attention was one of my black-and-white illustrations, and that he appreciated the softness and expressiveness of my style. From the very beginning, I was encouraged to stay true to my own artistic approach — which made the creative process both inspiring and rewarding.

The result was a series of hand-drawn seamless patterns, full of human warmth, closeness, and joyful coexistence. Some versions were colorful, others remained monochrome — giving the client options for different products and finishes. The illustrations have since been used in one of Pepin Press’s published collections.

From Portfolio to Project

Visual References

Illustrations from my portfolio that the client found on one of the stock platforms and chose as references for the upcoming project.

Final Illustrations

These are the final illustrations created based on the client’s chosen references and our discussions throughout the project.

Final design in production – so satisfying to see the result!