Yin + Yang with Vivien Chan

For our past two collections, it has been such a pleasure to work with fellow collaborator Vivien Chan, we could not have done without her impeccable design capabilities. She has literally single handedly helped us brand Yin and Yang through her logo work. 

A few excerpts from her personal blog, vivienchanillustration, explores her process in creating these wonderful logos: 

"So the latest adventure has been a project introduced to me through Josh Walker, my good friend from Fashion Scout days. He introduced me to the lovely Jaimie Lake of Velvit, a concept boutique and gallery based in Chicago specializing in the dark arts, whether that be fashion, art or music. I was initially asked to create an image for the back of some article handouts that would be given out at an exhibition called YIN. As well as that, I also asked to design a logo for the exhibition, as I was thinking that it would be a perfect chance to me to try my hand at illustrative typography. I loved using my knowledge of the Chinese definition of Yin, and applying it to an exhibition that I feel  totally reflects me.
Hopefully the Chinese calligraphy enthusiasts out there will understand what I have tried to do... I'm trying my best not to offend anyone! My logo is meant to look as much like a Chinese character as possible, whilst using Chinese character shapes and calligraphy styles. At first, I also wanted to reflect Chinese ink paintings of flora as well, but it ended up being a little too illegible. Phase two (the last three designs) were my top three from the selection that I sent to Jaimie, and the chosen logo can now be seen on Velvit!"

We love seeing our artists' artist process. A portion of Vivien's process while creating our YANG logo. 

and... "After having such a great time working on Yin, Jaimie Lake from Velvit Vault invited me to contribute to her next, twin exhibition Yang. I designed the logo for this exhibition too, as well as creating some ink paintings to be sold in the Velvit online shop. Although I'm not sure if they're going to sell particularly well, I've really enjoyed making the work and its work that I've been meaning to get out of my system for a while. I'll always love life drawing, and I think that is the main part of illustration that I want to keep; reportage and life drawing for me is just the most satisfying. It doesn't have to look exactly right, but I think in the end it just has to convey a feeling".

We have loved working with Vivien and hope to continue our relationship with her for many more curations to come!  You can view her mini-exhibit "Off Guard" in the gallery and purchase prints here.