Wild Photo Mashups, With Paul Fuentes
Weekly Inspiration: Spring
Spring has finally sprung and Michelle couldn’t be happier about it! Everything about spring is inspiring (minus the allergy-inducing pollen). Birds chirping, sunshine, and blooming flowers are reminders to draw inspiration from change, and to look at the world with optimism and enthusiasm. And speaking of flowers, spring also brings to mind the bright and colorful designs made by the guest on this episode, Paul Fuentes.
Creating surreal pop-art photo mashups with Paul Fuentes
Michelle’s Cultured guest this week is a design wiz with a flair for the bizarre. Mexico City-based Paul Fuentes takes graphic design in a unique direction with his pastel-drenched photo mashups.
Paul’s delightfully surreal pop art creations, which usually focus on food, animals, and everyday objects, will make you do a double take. His designs are optical illusions that seamlessly blend otherwise unrelated subjects into one perfectly absurd image. A balloon cactus and pencil point ice cream cone are just a couple examples of Paul’s quirky creations.
Paul began building his Photoshop skills as a magazine photo editor. Then, a trip to Europe exposed him to a culture inundated with a love of art, ultimately inspiring him to quit his editorial gig to pursue his passion for design full time. In his conversation with Michelle, Paul maps out his journey from being a design hobbyist to becoming an Instagram influencer to growing a booming business built on licensing and selling his work.
Paul is an artist whose inspiration is fueled by joy, and he cultivates both by moving through the world with open eyes and an open heart.
