In this series, we ask Imagination talent all about the experiences that have made them who they are. This month we spoke to Diandra Elmira, 2D Experiential Designer at Imagination London.

A bit about me…

I’m interested in too many things and could never keep track of my hobbies. I’m a big fan of chairs. I journal my life through Spotify playlists, going to concerts and cycling in the sun keeps me happy, and I always have an iced coffee in hand, even in 5-degree weather (staying true to my Indonesian roots!).

The creative experience that’s influenced me the most…

As of lately, The Avalanches’ “We Will Always Love You” Album. Such a multifaceted and beautiful album, you always hear something new when you re-listen to it. One of the songs opens with a spoken-word snippet from NASA’s Golden Record, and within the album, the image of Ann (designer of the Golden Record) whose love story inspired the album, was run through a spectrograph, turned into sound, and back again. “The image remains hidden, deep within in the grooves of the music, for you to discover”.

My industry hero is…

Casey Reas & Ben Fry the creators of the open-source programming language Processing, which later was developed to p5.js - making it simpler for designers and creatives to code.

The piece of work I’m most proud of…

For a uni project, I designed and coded a talking plant that reacts whenever people do the classic weather small talk with climate change facts related to what they said. Tackling more serious topics in an interactive and fun way is my favourite kind of work!

The piece of work that makes me cringe…

Anything too “corporate” that I did during uni. I was fixated on everything having to be super minimalist, polished, and Behance.net ready that at the end, it lacks authenticity and character. More talking plants!

The experience I wish I had created…

Any of Google Creative Lab’s pose estimation projects, particularly Body Movement Language, where they collaborated with choreographer Bill T. Jones. I also can’t stop thinking about Four Tet x Squidsoup’s show at Allypally (and no, it’s not another Yayoi Kusama-esque mirror room).

Advice to my 18-year-old self…

Always always challenge your ideas and get in the habit of talking to other people about it. Stop thinking and just make stuff!

What’s next?

Excited to continue to discover cool projects, experiment and collaborate more! Currently working on a project that blends movement, music, and art which I’m suuuper looking forward to.