Meet Xaviera Altena | Illustrator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Xaviera Altena and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Xaviera, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
There wasn’t an elaborate business plan or concept when I started my business. My business started like many other business: doing what you love. Slowly but surely people were noticing my illustrations, and started to ask me for paid projects. After 1,5 year I decided to quit my regular job and pursue a career in art full time. Until this day, 6 years later, it’s still going strong.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My illustrative work is very colorful and playful. I think this is what makes my work pop and notable in daily life. From newspaper publications to bigger campaigns in the street, people really notice the work. I often hear that when people address my work: they recognized my signature style. Also I’d love to illustrate a diverse range of people, I feel representation is extremely important, and so that comes back in my work as well. Next to commissions, I also make a lot of personal work. In my personal work there is more room for my personal view on the world, and I’d like to make social involved work that triggers people to think about their privilige or how they handle the climate crisis. In most of my work there is a double layer with a message.

Besides all this, it does feel very good and confirming when my work is featured in big campaigns. It makes me feel seen as an illustrator, and to get this kind of recognision is very cool. For example the big campaign I did with Lyft New York in 2020, that was featured all over Time’s Square. If you stand in front of such a big campaign you feel extremely little, but then you realise that all your hard work pays off.

That’s also the lesson I learned along the way: I really started to believe in positieve reaffirmation. If you work hard, and not only hard, but believe very hard that you deserve to have a spot. Then you will radiate that to the world, and get that spot. Let go of all that self-doubt and fear, and decide that you belong. Do aquisition, e-mail art-directors, tell people about what you do with proudness. They will see you, and you will do the work to show what you’re capable of.

For now I have a new goal: I think my work is very adaptable for three dimensional usage/character design, and I want to explore that more. I’ve just made my first statue with Nicola Strada, a very talented artist from Bari, Italy. Now we’re working on the next statue, and it’s very exciting and I can’t wait to share it with the world.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m a big foodie, and all the first things I think about are food related.

When my friends or colleagues would visit Rotterdam I would take them for dinner at Warung Mini and De Kade. Both are iconic Surinamese restaurants that are part of the Rotterdam culture & cuisine. If you haven’t eaten here, you haven’t been to Rotterdam properly.

The dishes we would choose at Warung Mini would be saoto soup, roti and baka bana (a fried banana with sate sauce). At De Kade we would go for all kinds of vegan options like mushroom in black bean sauce with nasi. It’s just the best.

If it’s summer we would take this all on the go and eat it in one of the amazing parks like the Euromast Park or Museum Park. This is where you chill with friends and all these get-togethers can grow into small outdoor parties.

If you’d love to stroll around the city I would recommend to stroll around Middelland, Oude Binnenweg and Hoogstraat. This is where all the diverse shops and cute boutiques are, and where you won’t be bored.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
There are so many people that made me into the illustrator I am today. I would say that it started when I was very young. I grew up in a cultural diverse area of my city with a lot of interesting and eccentric characters around me. I’d always loved (and still love) to watch people and their clothing, behaviour and culture, and to this day it inspires the characters I draw. From a very early age I looked through the comic-books my dad collected, and I wanted to create similar things. The love for comics and people made me into the narrating illustrator I am today. And when I grew older pop-culture also made a heavy impact on me. I grew up in the late 90’s, early 00’s, and I can definitely say that Destiny’s Child, Britney Spears and the Spice Girls influenced my love for 90’s nostalgia. A few year’s ago when Beyonce dropped Lemonde I was also heavily influenced by her. I think pop-culture and the love for it runs through my veins.

Website: www.xavieraaltena.com

Instagram: xavieraaltena

Other: https://www.behance.net/xavieraaltena