Page 19 - The Digital Cloth Issue 6

I always had a special fascination
for paper as a material, but I

studied Graphic Design and
Illustration (I was advised that it
is a good reliable option to make
a living in the creative industries);
I never thought that paper art will
become my true passion.

About 10 years ago, I was mainly
interested in creating hand-drawn
illustrations, especially letterforms,
and after working at them for a

year or so I had put together a
number of typographic designs
good enough, in my opinion, to
get me editorial commissions from
magazines and newspapers.
My idea was to make a little
self-promotional booklet featuring
some of these designs and send it
out to potential clients. The

crucial thing that was missing was
an eye-catching cover image that
would make certain my booklet
would be noticed. I decided that it
had to be my name illustrated and
featured on the cover. I
created several hand-drawn
versions of my name—Yulia— but
none of them seemed to be good
enough, so I discarded them.

At some point, somehow, the idea
to cut a sheet of card into strips
came to my mind, and I began
gluing these strips edges down,
repeating the letter outlines. As
soon as the ‘Yulia’ paper design
Yulia something very exciting, I
was ready, I realized that I’m onto

immediately dropped the
The Art of Paper Brodskaya illustrative booklet idea and

instead immersed myself into this
new world of paper. Super-Fast
Forward: I was lucky to
collaborate with international
brands and companies, and work