Who is Alexus Parker? The creative director making illustration fun again
Brooklyn based artist Alexus Parker infuses her work with originality, humor and overall personality.
After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology with a B.A. in Illustration her artworks appeared in “The Get Out,” a tabletop book. Also, she has assumed the role of art director for the covers of several EPs and albums.
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Additionally, she created the lyric video for Cole King’s “Get It for Two.” Still, Parker currently specializes in digital portraits, layout design, and watercolor illustrations and her favorite medium, ink.
What stands out about Parker’s illustrations however is how engaging they are. I had a chance to talk to Parker about her work and how she started as an artist and graphic designer.
The Origin Story
Parker started making art at a very young age. At around four-years-old, she started copying her favorite cartoon characters, specifically Scooby-Doo. Her goal was to draw him to perfection without having to look at any references, and eventually, she did.
Beyond skill, and interest her drive to complete artistic goals and challenges are what got her where she is today. Parker said,
“I was always interested in art, it was a way to express myself, and also it’s therapeutic for me. However, it wasn’t until my last three months of high school where I actually considered I can do it as a career.”
She continued to reflect
“That’s when my true drive started.”
“Yatta Kid Art” is the title of her website and brand name. The origin of her site’s name comes from her obsession with Hiro Nakamura of Heroes. There was an episode where he teleported to NYC and said “Yatta.”
“When I was younger, I was obsessed with Heroes, and one of the main characters, Hiro Nakamura, said “Yatta” when he successfully teleported to NYC. Yatta, which is a phonetic English spelling of the Japanese word, “Hooray!” I loved that character, and being such a positive person in general, I thought it fit.”
The website features insanely multi-faceted and talented works of art and design with different moods, uses, and styles. Trying to pinpoint her style under any given art genre is a bit difficult.
Parker responded with uncertainty when I asked her what style she would describe her artwork. This is understandable considering she has sought to perfect so many styles.
“I tried the Kaws style, the doodle art style, realistic portrait styles. Everything. At this point, I just wanted to pop off on Insta. Then I decided I didn’t want to do that because eventually, it would become very unfulfilling, trying to be someone else.”
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The Yellow Post
Being authentic is important to Alexus Parker and this shines through her art. Many of her projects showcase humor. One of these projects is The Yellow Post. This series of humorous cartoons brings forth a different side of Parker.
Her humorous thoughts run rampant and free in this series.
“The Yellow Post is a project I started because I wanted to push myself to be creative. I also have a lot of crude humor, and at the time I didn’t want to post that on my personal account where my other art was because it wasn’t similar.”
At times, The Yellow Post can be highly political, at others purely self-reflective but always original and inspired.
“I created it so I wouldn’t limit myself, and I would say it also acts like a visual journal. In my mind, I’m just posting my thoughts that maybe others can relate to.”
Mock Up Gems
Some of the same energy that you find in The Yellow Post shows through Parker’s mockup work. Many of Parker’s IG posts are fake TV ads, billboards, and magazines.
The artwork is both effectively pulling and frustrating because the TV show or magazine doesn’t exist. I asked Parker what inspires her to create mock pieces of art and design for things that don’t exist.
“Sometimes illustration doesn’t affect people emotionally in the same way as, let’s say a movie/tv poster or fake ad would. So, with some of my ideas, I’ll do mockups instead to really drive my point.”
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Her favorite mockup is a TV ad for a fictional sitcom titled “Jess & Lex.” Parker models along with mock co-star and real-life photographer and model Jessica Garcia.
Parker even created MTA AD placement mock-ups.
“I created this with the intention of simply practicing my layout design skills. Everything was created in photoshop, besides the models of course…We were created in the womb.”
Dreams for the Future
When asking if she would ever want an ad like this to be real, Parker laughed and said she wished she could create some of the mockups in real life but it would have to be a large production.
“If I had a chance to be in a TV sitcom, I would be in a sec. However, it would have to be a comedy.”
I asked Parker who also works as the Creative Director at jewelry company Automic Gold, what projects she was working on.
“I’m actually working on doing a fake campaign for one of my mock ads actually. I plan on advertising it on Insta, I’m interested to see the reaction. That’ll probably happen sometime in the Spring.”
Whatever comes next for Parker, it’s sure to bring more original and colorful artwork into the world.