New collaboration with Rozalina Burkova – championing the little moments

For our latest creative collaboration at Wrap we've worked with illustrator and animator Rozalina Burkova on a collection of 30 greetings cards that showcase her fun and joyful approach to design – and life. Her penchant for unexpected colours, deliberately imperfect proportions and blurred edges make for drawings that are full of life and movement – perfect for celebrating big milestones, little moments and every occasion in-between. From extravagantly layered birthday cakes to a field of tranquil flowers, Rozalina’s card designs are about the small details that make life great.

Even during this difficult past year, Rozalina has been keeping busy creating editorial work for publications including the New York Times, Vault magazine, and The Washington Post, plus animations and music videos. And her dynamic wall murals for restaurants including Talents and Kitchen 59, both in Sofia (Bulgaria), showcase the energy that make her style so special, with scenes of friends sharing food and fun times together.

We chatted to Rozalina about her favourite cards in the collection and how she approached the project, about how her fashion degree helped her think creatively, and about curating her “sentimental box” of treasured mementos.

You’re originally from Bulgaria and now work between Barcelona and Sofia. Have you been spending more time in one place over the past year, due to the pandemic?
I normally bounce between both places and occasionally London, my former home city, but the pandemic got me stuck in Barcelona, where I was either working, sunbathing on the balcony or learning how to make random but fascinating things by watching Youtube videos.

My studio closed down during the pandemic so I'm now working from wherever I can find space – in Barcelona that’s mostly our apartment or the park, and in Bulgaria I have set up a few work spots depending on the level of messiness I need to engage in. For the really messy projects I go to my grandparent’s garden.

What does a typical day look like for you?
I wake up at 9am, I make lots of Earl Grey tea to sustain me through the day and I usually fiddle about for a few hours unless I am on a deadline. I am not very productive before the early afternoon. I tend to need to get every other task out of the way before I can sit down with creative work, but once I do, I often work into the night.

We’re so excited about our collaboration together – it’s been great working with you. What was your approach to creating the collection? Were there particular messages or feelings you wanted your designs to convey?
This partnership has been beautiful. Initially it was very hard to narrow down my ideas for the collection – I believe I sketched out more than 120 ideas and had pages and pages of different words and sayings, since I really wanted to nail down an image and text combination that was both fun and uplifting, but also beautiful and gentle. Then it was just a matter of a long editing process.

We love how vibrant and diverse the collection is, and how your illustrations capture such great energy and joy. Did you enjoy the process of developing the range?
I am very big on giving and sending cards myself and love how intimate a carefully selected handwritten card can be, so I was trying to imagine myself as the giver when designing them. I wanted to cover many different occasions but also have some designs that would work for the times when it isn’t a birthday or a housewarming but you just want to be nice to someone and get them a card. I am not sure if people actually do that but I hope they do – often the cards I get outlive the presents that come with them because I have a “sentimental box” in my home where all handwritten notes and cards go so I did think of my collection for Wrap as making something worthy for people’s sentimental boxes.

Can you tell us about your creative processes for developing your card designs?
Initially I sketched out everything on teeny tiny pieces of paper and laid them in front of me so I could start editing out. Then I digitally sketched the best 50 or so and asked the team at Wrap for some feedback. Eventually we narrowed them down to the current collection and finished all illustrations on an iPad.

You graduated with a BA in Fashion from London’s Central Saint Martins (CSM) art school. How much do you think your background and education in fashion has influenced your artistic style or approach?
CSM played a great part in forming me as a creative. Even though I studied fashion, it involved a lot of drawing, research and general making of things with your hands. It was more of a degree on how to think creatively above anything else which helped me pivot to illustration quite seamlessly.

Finally, with things looking a little more positive for the last half of 2021 (hopefully!) do you have any exciting plans on the horizon, or is there anything you’re especially looking forward to doing?
There are many things I want to make – a collection of huge original drawings, some AR prints and a music video for a favourite band are among the projects closer to my traditional line of work. I am also dipping my toes in some other creative practises that I started during the pandemic – making candle experiments and testing out hemp and lime for making sculptures, so who knows what will emerge. But I am keeping myself entertained.

––––––––––––
rozalinaburkova.com / @rozalinaburkova