The Vectornator office mural: an interview with Mega

An interview with Mega

Our Berlin office just got a new upgrade: A beautiful wall mural from Megawati Triadiani. Watch the time-lapse of the painting going up here:

Here's what the talented Berlin illustrator had to say about working with Vectornator.

Hi Mega! Can you tell our followers a bit about yourself?

Hey Vectornators! I’m Megawati Triadiani, or Mega for short, also known as @wanitapagihari, and I’m an illustrator based in Berlin, Germany.

Even though I’ve been drawing since I was a kid, I honestly never dreamt about becoming an illustrator. In fact, I became an interior designer instead, which was also a big dream of mine.

In my career as an illustrator, I have mostly done commissions for friends and acquaintances; making illustrations like album cover designs, wedding invitations, character designs, and more.

How did you start working with us?

During my occupation as an interior designer, I turned my passion into a profession. I combined both illustration and interior design through interior sketching, interior perspective collages, and customized wallpapers.

After several years of doing this, I realized that drawing makes me happy, and for this reason I decided to dedicate my full time to my passion.

One day, a friend shared a Tweet with me. It was by Sam Eckert from Linearity, and he was looking for a Berlin-based artist to design their new office’s walls.

I was really excited to know who he worked for! So I wrote to him and sent a link to my website. He must have liked it, because the rest is history!

What was the coolest part of the painting to work on?

I loved the-painting-on-the-wall part, of course! My favorite part was watching the colors slowly fill in and shape the wall surface.

I did several steps on this work. First, I did free-sketch on my iPad. For me, the ideas can come more quickly and easily when they’re flowing through my hand, rather than directly drawing in a vector design program with a mouse.

When I felt happy with the design, I traced it into vector art in black-and-white to find the color rhythm. After that, I looked for some cool color palettes, which was the longest part of the process, other than the actual painting of the mural itself.

Once I had decided on a color palette, it was time to scale out the drawing. I used a projector to sketch out the drawing on the wall with a pencil. During this phase, I also made some improvements and adjustments to the drawing based on the site situation; especially the part that went onto the ceiling.

It was a huge challenge to draw something above me, standing on a ladder!

After going through this long process and finally getting all of the details sketched onto the wall, I started the actual painting job. I mixed the paint colors by myself to match the color palette as closely as possible.

Which part took you the most time?

The parts that were the most time-consuming were all the detailed parts, like the plants and the wave-lines.

Every detailed part had to be painted with fine brushes to achieve the same effect as the painting. Vectors have super clean lines, so the painting needed to look like that too.

Last but not least, the part on the ceiling took forever, mostly because it’s hard to stand with your hands above your head for more than a few minutes at a time!

Which part of the painting do you like the most?

Everything haha! It’s really hard to pick just one part; the painting has a story, so each part of it is connected to the rest.

But if I have to choose, I think my favorite part is the typography section.

I love the color palette and the meaning behind the words.

The very bright orange color on the dark blue colors around it created a kind of 3D-effect on the wall, making it look like the words were floating on the wall. I love it!

“Live Out Your Imagination” for me means embracing ourselves fully to reveal our dreams without being afraid and limiting ourselves.

Have you tried Vectornator yet and if so, how do you like it?

I have, a little bit! On my first impression I found Vectornator to be very handy and mobile. The interface is also super easy to understand.

I need more practice to go deeper into it, but I really want to, because I believe Vectornator can help me a lot with my upcoming projects. My favorite part is that it can be operated on both my iPad and my laptop, so I can work on my projects wherever I am.

Are you open for work?

Yes! I am currently open for work! I’m offering my multidisciplinary skills as interior designer and illustrator. I can do more murals and customized wallpaper like this for offices, restaurants, or private houses. I can also provide illustrations for private and commercial purposes in a variety of sizes.

And if you have a project that doesn’t exactly line up with those, reach out to me anyway! There’s always a chance we can work something out together. I love colors and details, so if your project involves those, I’ll be excited about it!

I would also be very happy to do collaborations with other artists! 😊

You can check out my other works on my website www.wanitapagihari.com or on my Instagram, @wanitapagihari!

Thanks Mega! It was great working with you, and we appreciate you taking the time to chat with us!