When I first started out as a full-time commercial illustrator, I took on a bit of everything: advertising key visuals, festive campaign illustrations, and brand assets. The workload grew so rapidly that I eventually founded Studio Behind 90 just to keep up with the volume of incoming projects. Deep down, my business instincts told me…

Walk into a commercial art studio in the state in 1962, and you wouldn’t find a romantic, solitary painter staring at an easel. You would find an assembly line. During the Golden Age of automotive advertising, agencies operated exactly like a creative factories. Deadlines for massive national catalogs were brutal, and the demand for hyper-realistic…

I often look at old posters, vintage packaging, and mid-century illustrations and wonder: When did we decide that the digital world should look this lifeless? Decades ago, major brands and publishers commissioned legendary artists to craft visuals by hand.They didn’t just want to fill a layout; they wanted to make a cultural statement. They understood…

I’ve been running this studio for a decade now. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from sitting in countless boardrooms, navigating regional campaigns, and managing hundreds of deliverables, it’s this: The “perfect creative brief” is a total myth. Yet, every week, corporate teams hand over these heavily bulleted text documents expecting a miracle. They want…

Every year, when our committee sits down to curate submissions for the Kuala Lumpur Illustration Fair, I am hit by a tidal wave of raw, unfiltered visual stimulates. Hundreds of independent artists from across the region submit work that is impactful, fresh visual and filled with raw personality. It’s a vivid reminder of where the…

In my early years as an artist, I approached my work with a manufacturer’s mindset. I tried to price my projects based on hours, materials, and overhead. But over a decade of running a studio, I’ve learned that the true “business of art” operates on a different logic: value over cost. When a partner trusts…

I’ve been copied by big companies three times now. Most artists, when they see their work stolen, go straight to social media. They scream, they tag the company, and they look for “compassion” from their followers. I understand the anger, but I don’t like to do that. Last August, a big company in the gold…

Two weeks ago, we did something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. we invited the owners of the major illustration fairs from Manila, Singapore, and Thailand to join us in Kuala Lumpur. Usually, we only see each other when we are “running the show.” When we visit their fairs or they visit mine,…