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BLOG EPISODES UNCATERGORIZED

Diving in with Susan Yung

Hello from us at SWIM. It’s been a busy time for us since kicking off Season 2 this year. Lots of communications, outreach, and building up our library of content for your waiting eyes and ears. We have many talented ladies on our list of those we plan to spotlight, #SWIMfan, and have sit down with us for talk time.

With that being said, today launches the first interview-episode of season 2!

And that’s pretty exciting because we chatted it up with Susan Yung! This young talent is a Freelance Designer and Visual Development Artist living in LA. Her resume has a strong foundation that includes Chromosphere, Buck, PSYOP and Elastic and most recently includes Cartoon Network as a background painter on the new show, Mighty Magiswords.

That seems a great fit to me; I mean, one look at her tumbler page tells you that she is adept with light, shadow, and the life that happens in between.

image courtesy http://susanyung.tumblr.com
image courtesy http://susanyung.tumblr.com

In the podcast, she talks about how she found her way into the industry, her journey from Hong Kong to the United States, freelancing versus full-time employment, her favorite projects, and her current work. As an artist, she has quite a range too. As you can tell above, her illustration is wonderful. But she also has animation and 3d chops. Check out Susan’s delightful piece “Runaway” (an all female collaboration):

Also in the show, the conversation delves into what Susan recalls about how many females were surrounding her in school and as she started out professionally. Then a sober discussion about the now infamous piece from the Rick and Morty creators on why women hadn’t worked on their show and how that all too common perception is pervasive throughout the TV, animation, and motion industries.

But go listen for to the interview yourself! I’m not gonna ruin it any more – its a fun an down-to-earth listen.

Of course, visit her website, check out her tumbler, and follow her on Twitter @suzcorriander She’s sure to continue to create wonderful, charming, and amazing work – her career is only at the beginning.

And now go and check us out in all the usual places [Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and subscribe to us on iTunes].

Have a suggestion of a Strong Woman you’d like to see highlighted or interviewed? Let us know with a shout-out using the hashtag SWIMring ( #SWIMring @youareswim ) or email us. Until next time, just keep SWIMming!

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#SWIMfan BLOG

January #SWIMfan2017 Yukai Du

A new year, a new month ­– a new season for the SWIM podcast. That, of course, means a new round of #SWIMfan women to learn about and ogle over their talent.

January’s #SWIMfan2017 ((if you haven’t caught it yet in the twitter feed)) is Yukai Du. She is a tremendous artist, animator, and illustrator hailing from China and currently based in Brighton, UK. Her colorful and distinctly textured style has attracted such clientele as TED-Ed, MIT Technology Review, The Washington Post and The Telegraph. She’s even a featured artist at giphyI think that’s rad.

Yukai Du, image courtesy  www.dandad.org

 

She is young and bold and clearly affected by how technology intermingles with our lives and how we intermingle with each other in this post-interconnected world. Her work plays on these themes almost constantly. Her color palate is selective, ususally 3 or 4 colors to a design, and spread across the canvas in such a way, that unbeknownst to you, you’re actually enjoying seeing a 4-color theorem of a modern map of society and not the boring ones you had to learn in elementary school.

PhoneGap Build Illustration II – Adobe CC courtesy http://www.yukaidu.com

 

Yukai graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014 and has captured many a mind and attention as is evidenced with her list of awards is such a short time.

These are just some of the awards as listed on her website: Selected, Illustrative 2016, Germany, ‘The History of Treadmill’ & ‘The Ethical Dilemma of Self-Driving Cars’, Official Selection (Commissioned Film), Annecy International Film Festival 2016, France, Shortlisted, World Illustration Awards 2016, UK, Winning Collection, International Motion Art Awards 4, Wood Pencil Winner, D&AD New Blood 2015, UK, Emerging & Established Award, Cheltenham Illustration Awards 2015, UK, Winning Collection, Latin American Ilustración 4, USA Official Selection, CutOut Fest International Animation & Digital Art Festival 2015, France, and ‘Way Out,’ Official Selection, Adobe Design Achievement Awards 2014, USA.

I love her work still, but I love it in motion too. Have a look-see for yerself!

 

If you want to see more of her amazing work, visit her website at http://www.yukaidu.com/ and definitely give her a follow on  Twitter @YukaiDu.

And now go and check us out in all the usual places [Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and subscribe to us on iTunes].

 

Have a suggestion of a Strong Woman you’d like to see highlighted or interviewed? Let us know with a shout-out using the hashtag SWIMring ( #SWIMring @youareswim ) or email us. Until next time, just keep SWIMming!

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BLOG

Season 02 Our First Live-Stream – January 14 2017

Oh Wow. Look at how the time has flown!

It would be nice to say that all of us here at SWIM have been sipping Mai Tai’s on a white sandy beach, somewhere warm. But that has not been the case. Because even though you’ve received the equivalent of postcards via twitter to know we are still alive, we haven’t been kicked back on our laurels.

We have been brainstorming, deliberating, discussing, conceiving and slowing implementing all of the ideas we have settled on. And we are so excited for them.

Most recently, our new website quietly rolled out and our second season kicked off with a Twitch live stream of the four of us discussing all that is SWIM on January 14th, 2017. We will be uploading this to our iTunes list if you missed it, available to listen to January 16.

Julia, Anna, Alicia, and myself all sat down for an hour, talked about what SWIM is, how it came to be, why each of us are involved, we answered some questions from the viewing audience, talked software, trends in the motion/animation industries, and some our own personal goals for 2017.

We had a lot of fun and hope that it was enjoyed. Our plan is to host a live stream once a month along with conducting an interview, and our newest feature, Friends of Friends. In the FoF feature, a friend of ours conducts an interview with a friend of theirs in the industry and we feature it! We liked this idea as a way to break possible language barriers and time zone difficulties while opening up the network of women out in the vast ocean of our industry.

So, that is SWIM.

And elsewhere out there, sources like Motionographer and Yes, Equal have been kicking out a lot of diversity awareness!!!
Take a click, have a read:

About the Gender Gap in Motion Graphics from Isabel Urbina Peña of Yes, Equal
SPECTRUM :Tynesha Foreman by Lilian Darmono
SPECTRUM: Yussef Cole also Lilian Darmono
The Diverse panel of Judges for the first annual Motion Awards (including Julia & Alicia)
Art of the Title did a follow up of their 2015 post 10 Women of Title Design with a new 2016 post 10 More Women of Title Design

As always, be sure to follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, and subscribe to us on iTunes or on Soundcloud. And keep your eyes peeled for our first interview of Season 2 with Susan Yung which launches Monday, January 30th!

 

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BLOG EPISODES

Our Hometown Hero, Shadi Petosky!

All the updates we here at SWIM have been working so hard to implement are just about wrapped up. The website, this blog, getting into iTunes…it has been taking some serious time. But I’ll bring everyone up to speed on that next time. Despite our efforts and focus to roll all that out, we’ve also been hard at work reaching out and securing interviews for you to listen to and enjoy!

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#SWIMfan BLOG

July #SWIMfan, Lilit Hayrapetyan

Wow. July. The year is now waning. But the sun is still scorching for most of the day so don’t get down on it. And with that brings our July SWIMfan spotlight!

We have chosen the esteemed Lilit Hayrapetyan.

Lilit Hayrapetyan courtesy http://www.lilithayrapetyan.com
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#SWIMfan BLOG

June #SWIMfan, Erin Sarofsky

Hello Swimmers! Busy times all around. Did you get a chance to listen to our interview with Karin Fong? We think it’s pretty awesome and believe you’ll enjoy it. When you’re done reading this post, head over to our Soundcloud page and give it a listen!

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BLOG EPISODES

Surfs Up with Karin Fong

We’ve all been waiting for the next podcast to air. You the listeners, the readers, and the followers. And us here at SWIM…

But before I tell you about that, I’ll tell you what else we have been up to! Besides general web maintenance, the kick-off of our #SWIMfan campaign earlier this month, conducting interviews, sound editing, and other work we have outside this endeavor, we have finally gotten our Facebook page launched!

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#SWIMfan BLOG

#SWIMfan drops- starting with Lauren Indovina

Ah, May is here. All the showers from April have brought pretty blooming flowers all around. But it has also brought us our first ever #SWIMfan! >>> if you missed what that’s all about, shame on you, but go read about it quick  so you know what’s afloat!

And this lady whom were here at SWIM all admire is (drum-roll……..) Lauren Indovina.

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#SWIMfan BLOG

Hashtag SWIMfan

We have been busy bees here at SWIM (wait…do bees swim?).

We’ve been making connections, coordinating schedules, nailing down the interview times that work for all involved, recording, tweeting out messages of interest and insight, and preparing to kick-off a new idea in the SWIM surf.

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BLOG

Sara Bennett, Oscar Win

Is all the ballyhoo over Ex Machina’s 2016 Oscar upset-win for best VFX really all it’s cracked up to be? The short answer is yes. And for more than because it beat out Star Wars. Much ballyhoo is being made over the first female VFX Supervisor to nab an Oscar in this category.