Practicing Through Daily Life, Building a Visual Universe of One’s Own
IlloBoom! 2025 Illustration Summit – Best of the Best Winner Interview
Ya Li Chen｜Taiwan
For Chen Yali, illustration is not a sudden burst of inspiration, but a process built through time—one that requires accumulation, experimentation, and continuous practice. In 2025, she received the Grand Prize at the IlloBoom! Illustration Summit Challenge. For her, this recognition was not only an important milestone in her career, but also a gentle yet powerful affirmation—encouraging the quiet dedication she had invested over many years.
From Audience to Participant: Seeing the Possibilities of Illustration in Taiwan
Chen first noticed IlloBoom! through a simple act of support. During the first edition of the competition, a creator he knew was shortlisted, which led him to attend the award ceremony in person.
“Seeing Taiwan host an international illustration competition, with a formal award night, was genuinely exciting.”
That experience stayed with him. When submissions opened for the second edition, she decided to submit his own work.
At the time, she did not expect to receive recognition from the judges. What truly made her happy was the opportunity for her work to be seen by professionals from the international creative community.
“Especially since one of the judges was Lisk Feng, a creator I admire very much. That meant a lot to me.”
She also observed that compared to many competitions that impose age limits or place illustration within broader art categories, IlloBoom! stands out as an international competition dedicated specifically to illustration. For her, this clearly reflects how the profession in Taiwan is gradually maturing, with more illustrators gaining visibility and support.
Winning the Grand Prize for the First Time: Encouragement and a Reminder
Receiving the Grand Prize marked a first in Chen Yali’s life.
“Whether in life or in illustration as a profession, I’m still adjusting to this.”
On the night he received the news, she was genuinely overjoyed. Yet as time passed, her mindset gradually returned to the rhythm of daily life. The honor did not make her pause—instead, it reminded her to keep moving forward.
“It’s a big encouragement for the version of myself who has quietly been working and practicing all these years.”
After seeing the works of the other Top 50 finalists, she felt the competition was also a gathering of creative energy from many talented artists. It inspired her to continue focusing on what matters most: creating better work.
Creative Process in Commercial Commissions: Travel With Flavor
Hier award-winning series Travel With Flavor was created as a set of illustrations for the cover of Coffee Journal magazine.
In this project, Chen focused on building warm line work with a hand-drawn feeling, while responding to the theme and interview focus of each issue.
After receiving a creative brief from a client, he usually begins with ideation, visual research, and compositional exploration—one of the stages he enjoys the most. When presenting concepts, he prepares detailed sketches and color directions, clearly explaining the intention behind each visual design.
“This helps the client understand how I translate their creative request into visuals, and it also makes communication more efficient. Usually we can reach a win-win result.”
While fulfilling the client’s needs, she also naturally integrates his own visual language and preferences into the work, ensuring that commercial projects still retain his personal character.
A Style Built Through Consistent Creation
Chen Yali’s personal style did not appear overnight.
In July 2021, she started a personal challenge: posting one isometric vector illustration every day on Instagram. The project began with vintage objects and gradually shifted toward food-related scenes, while she also shared parts of his creative process.
This consistent practice brought him a simple sense of joy in creation, which motivated him to take on more complex visual compositions.
By early 2024, she began experimenting with an isometric miniature world featuring hand-drawn lines. While maintaining the isometric perspective, he incorporated extensive hand-drawn line work, flat colors, and textured details.
This approach allowed her to depict food in a more organic way, giving the illustrations a warmer atmosphere. Each piece often takes at least two weeks to complete, but she enjoys the process—especially the act of building small scenes and tiny narratives.
Inspiration from Life — and the Need to Refill It
When discussing the source of creativity, Chen says it mostly comes from moments in daily life and memorable impressions. Recreating these memories through illustration becomes a meaningful way of preserving them.
However, he also acknowledges that inspiration does not always appear on demand. When he feels exhausted or less motivated to create, reading becomes particularly helpful. Besides picture books and artist monographs, he also enjoys collecting hardcover coffee table books covering photography, interior design, and cookbooks.
“The book design, the layout, and the abundance of images often spark visual ideas at unexpected moments.”
These moments of reading and observation gradually become the nourishment that sustains his creative practice.
When Facing a Creative Block: Start Moving the Hand First
When she encounters creative blocks, Chen often finds they are related to excessive workload or an imbalance in life. To avoid burnout, she tries to optimize her workflow and manage time more carefully.
But when she truly gets stuck, she allows herself to start with the simplest—even the “worst”—idea. The goal is not perfection, but simply to get his hands moving.
“Once the hand starts moving, the brain slowly powers on.”
Taking walks is another method she enjoys—something many creators also find helpful.
The Next Step: Expanding the Boundaries of Her World
Looking ahead, Chen has recently been fascinated by surrealistic expression. She cites René Magritte and Guy Billout as influences, admiring their humor, satire, and courage in expressing ideas.
This year, she hopes to maintain her established style while exploring imagery that carries stronger tension and unexpected twists.
At the same time, she plans to expand the themes of her work beyond food-related scenes—gradually building a visual universe of her own, one that can continuously expand.
Perhaps it could be a world of daily life in outer space.
Or perhaps simply a flower beneath a tree.
“Through consistent creation, I’ve discovered a very simple joy in making images. That joy gives me the motivation to keep challenging myself with more ambitious visuals.”
— Chen Yali 陳亞立
