Stefano Marra works as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. Based in the south of Italy, his illustrations are bold and graphic, relying on vibrant color pallets and the use of contrast.
Like most creatives, Marra was drawn to visual art from a very young age. “I’ve always enjoyed drawing,” he shared with Illustrators’ Lounge. “When I was a kid I used to copy the illustrations of Popeye and Donald Duck that I had on the VHS. My parents stimulated my passion for drawings. I wanted to be an animator, I always wanted to tell a story,” he admits.
Growing up, he was driven by his creative passion and decided to study in the artistic high school of Eboli. “At the end of the high school I decided to study at the School of Design in Vietri sul Mare, a beautiful place near Salerno,” he relayed. “There I continued to study graphic design and illustration. After school I met Ilaria Grimaldi, an illustrator (who became my friend) and taught me a lot of things of the illustration world and suggested I stick with it, even if my education was more focused on graphic design.”
Descriving his creative process as simple, he relies on a lot of sketches before finalizing his work. “I think that the idea is the center of my work,” he says. “If the original idea is good, if it can transmit something, then you can work on it in many ways. Never be trivial, try to find your own way to communicate something.”
Prepare to be creatively inspired!
