‘Unity for me is taking care of each other, trusting each other, melting together as one humanity to combine forces.’ – Hedy Tjin, Cover Artist for the Unity Issue

A huge thank you to Hedy Tjin for being our fifth FRONTIER and the cover artist of our UNITY Issue. As an illustrator, Hedy is known for her vibrant colour palette and iconic murals that can be seen dotted up and down the country. Alongside a fascination for patterns and textile, Hedy’s interest in the different cultures within the Netherlands is a recurring theme throughout her body of work, heavily influenced by her time spent in her father’s homeland Suriname. This caused us to immediately think of her work for our UNITY Issue.

Header image credits: Marc Haers

When given the theme Unity to create this piece, how did you approach it?

To create this piece, I chose to go down a more aesthetic route rather than a political one. Unity for me is taking care of each other, trusting each other, melting together as one humanity to combine forces.

Could you describe how the theme Unity ties in with your work?

In my work I try to create a world where everybody feels represented and welcome. I try to stay positive but sharp. You can find many social aspects in my work. By using a bright colour palette, I hope, among other things, that people who may not be instantly interested in the subject will take a moment to look at it and let it sink in. Through this I try to create a bit of unity for people who see my work.

With regard to the figurative nature as well as extremely colourful and vibrant characteristics of your work – how did this style materialise?

During art school I almost only worked in black and white using outlines predominantly – not often would you see bright colours in my work. After graduating, I went on in that direction but then clients started to ask if it was possible to add some colour so the illustration would pop out of the magazine a bit more, for example. To be honest, I wasn’t super excited about this but I just went for it. I then started to spend my winters in Suriname to work and get inspired there. I didn’t realise my work was slowly moving towards becoming super colourful – I think the heat, nature, and people did that naturally. When I started to work with markers instead of East Indian Ink, there was no black and white left in my work, also the outlines were dismissed. I started to only draw shapes without outlines and use bright colours. In the beginning, these drawings were just a way to relax. When I was in Suriname, it was way more suitable than working with East Indian Ink because I could easily do it literally everywhere – it was almost like meditation. So that’s how the marker-chapter began.

What has been your favourite piece of work to date?

Ooeeh difficult question – it may sound cheesy but I really love almost everything I’ve done over the last few years. However, there are two projects that I still look back on with super happy, warm and proud feelings. The first of which is an oldy – in 2012, I painted a shaved ice car. Shaved ice is super popular in Suriname and, as it happens, my great grandfather actually introduced it in Suriname when he came from Madeira and Trinidad to Suriname. So to honour him, I did this personal project. The owner of the shaved ice car was so happy, the look on his face when he saw the repainted car was priceless. For me, it was also so nice to paint outside for a few days.

The other one I’d like to mention was last year. I’ve now done quite a lot of murals – four of them were for the Canon van Nederland, an institute that highlights the 50 most important history moments of the Netherlands. They asked me to create four murals in different cities across The Netherlands that should connect youth a bit more with Dutch history. I painted Vincent van Gogh in Nijmegen, Aletta Jacobs in Groningen, Anton de Kom in Amsterdam Zuidoost and De Hanze in Deventer. The whole summer I got to spend a few days in different cities and paint outside in nice weather – those were like mini-holidays. Each of the murals had an important message that I also really support myself. After giving these two examples, it looks like I really love to work outdoors for a change of scenery!

Which of these aforementioned murals was the most memorable to create?

Nijmegen was absolutely the coolest to do – this was the first out of the series, so everything was new and exciting. The weather was perfect (actually terribly hot, but we survived), the space, Honigcomplex, was amazing with lovely vibes and people who took care of us by giving us delicious food and drinks. The end result was exactly the bigger version of the small design on paper. Also, this was the first time we had to paint a QR-code by hand. We weren’t sure if it would work, so that remained a surprise until the end. When we tested it with our phones, we were hugely relieved and so happy when we found out that it worked! After this weekend, my mother told me my grandfather worked in the Honigfactory for many years when I was a little kid, that was special to hear afterwards.

What are you creatively inspired by?

Everything around me – family, friends, random colour combinations, outside views, my 90s youth, just small daily random things. I like to keep my subjects close to my personal life. Also everything that has something to do with patterns or textile is inspiring to me.

If you could pick one recent campaign/project that makes you think, ‘I wish I’d done that’, what would it be and why?

The Tony’s Chocolonely commercial that Herc The Agency made last year – my studio friend Brian Elstak was a part of this with his animations, and Idris Elba featured as well. I love Tony’s Chocolonely and their vision and goals, I love Herc and what they create and who they work with, and Brian Elstak and Idris Elba are two of my heroes – so there you have the perfect cocktail. I would be super excited to be part of that group!

Any advice for young budding creatives?

Please focus on yourself and what you like to do, don’t look at Instagram too much. Stay close to yourself, you’re unique anyway. Just go, create! Create daily, create your own small projects. If you believe in it and you keep on doing it, there will be one day when more and more people will also start to believe in you.