Mimi Chiu

Hi hi, I’m Mimi (they/them)! I’m a lesbian, Taiwanese-American animator and designer based in Brooklyn, NY with my wonderful wife and two cats. Outside of work, they love to play TTRPGS and video games, dance, cook, and memorize AKC-recognized dog breeds. Let’s be friends!

In a sentence, how would you describe your work?

My work is colorful, playful, and filled to the brim with cute animals! And of course, animated (both literally and descriptively.)

Do you have any favorite themes you enjoy working with?
I enjoy themes of feminine softness and tenderness, as well as sapphic friendships and romance. I would love to work more with stories within this theme and dive deeper into even the devastating parts of being emotionally open and romantic with one another.

What mediums do you like to work in?
I work 99.9% digitally! Photoshop, Animate, ToonBoom, Clip Studio Paint, Procreate, you name it. But the 0.1% I reserve for craft nights with friends, where I sometimes play with Poscas, watercolors, and paper crafts.

If you were an environmental storytelling skeleton, how do you think you'd be found?
If I were an environmental-storytelling skeleton, I would be found collapsed in a dog shelter and covered in fruit gummies, my Nintendo Switch, and about 50,102 stickers.

Do you have a dream project you'd like to work on someday?
A dream project for me one day would be to work on visual novels with my friends! We’ve made one for a game jam previously, and I not only cherish the memories during production, but also yearn to make more!

What is the strangest/goofiest (PG) fact about yourself that you're comfortable sharing?
A goofy fact about me is that I have won two limbo competitions before! I probably can’t compete anymore though, my back is not what it used to be… :(

What drew you to the imagery of the cherubs?  
The imagery of cherubs originally came from my idea of “puppy love,” I wanted to draw two dogs who were unabashedly in love with each other! The theme of heaven came naturally after that, since I wanted them to be floating in bliss, and it just made sense to add more cherubs to the design afterwards.

Can you talk a little about your design process? Where do you draw your inspiration from, and how do you work shop your design from draft to final? 
For this design, I drew my inspiration from South Korean illustrations of small, cute animals and mixed it with good ol’ anime. My process is first just brainstorming design ideas and layouts on my iPad, which allows me for freer and loser iterations. I then draw a rough color draft on my computer in Photoshop with multiple color palette options. Once that is finalized, I then vectorize the design in Adobe Animate to ensure clean printing!

Do you have a favorite feature of the sock design?  
My favorite feature of the sock design is actually the color palette! I like to mix and match colors until something feels both cohesive and poppy. I’m really happy with how the colors feel together.

Ankle or crew socks for preference?  
Love a crew sock! More of the design shows, and it always makes me feel sporty and fashionable when I wear them.

For more of Mimi's art, visit their portfolio or Instagram!