Wyclef Jean Hires Illustrator for His Next Album

Here at Fiverr, we love a good success story, and this one is next-level good! First, let's flashback to August 2018. As part of our Music Month collaboration with the legendary Wyclef Jean, we asked five illustrators to redesign Wyclef's iconic album covers. The results were out-of-this-world, but one design, in particular, caught the artist's eye: Luna Monogatari's reimagined Carnival III. In fact, he was so impressed - he came back for more!

Wyclef returned to Fiverr, asking the Rising Talent to design the cover art for his upcoming album, Wyclef Goes Back to School. Needless to say, her (and our) excitement was through the roof. Read on to learn more about her incredible experience and check out the final creation!

Hey Luna! First, tell us a bit about yourself and your creative aesthetic!

Hi! I am a Portuguese visual artist/illustrator/designer/whatever you want to call it based in London :) (Labels are quite limiting are they not?). When I'm my studio, I try not to limit myself and experiment with a lot of different projects. I work with apparel, streetwear, accessories, merchandise, ceramics, paintings, animation, illustrations… My work is mostly spotted by my use of colors and characters/elements that help me create this world that I have inside my head.

Who or what are you most inspired by?

I always knew that I wanted to create my own unique universe so any artist/creator that can do that inspires me. But my main sources of inspiration are Japanese animation studio, Studio Ghibli, and artists like James Jean, Yoshitomo Nara, Kaws, and Steve Harrington. I'm also inspired by and love to work with a lot of colors.

I use them to bring harmony and create complex scenarios full of different elements.

Talk to us about your Wyclef project! Were you ecstatic?!

I LOVED working with Wyclef and his team again! It almost felt like I got the chance to I to give continuity to the last album cover I designed for him, and in a way, build a narrative through the two album covers. My vision was a mix between maintaining a connection with the last album cover and introducing the new concept of “Wyclef going back to school”, which explains the school bus and students in both concepts.

I wanted the album covers to explore the concept of connection; a connection between generations, elements, time and space and have this storyline that explains that we are always learning from each other.

Could you walk us through your work process?

I knew Wyclef’s music (I mean, who doesn’t? He's huge!), but I did pay more attention to his lyrics and melodies while working on this project. I really wanted my artwork to represent what Wyclef tries to tell through his music, and since he talks so much about community and this sense of connection between people, I felt like I needed to introduce that in the covers as well. I started by sketching a very simple idea thinking that as long as the idea has a sense of connection in it, it would work.

All the elements and details were born from there! Color also plays a very important role in the cover, as it is the main link between all three album covers I designed - they all have the same palette.

Did his music influence the elements in your design? Also, do you have a favorite Wyclef song?

Yes, as I explained, his music influenced me a lot and dictated the entire design! Oh, and my favorite Wyclef song is definitely “Thank God for the Culture” :)