enVISION Feature: Yu Maeda
· Artist Features
Japanese artist Yu Maeda’s inventiveness takes over our second enVISION collection!
Monstercat enVISION
Monstercat enVISION is our latest collaborative venture aimed at empowering creatives beyond the music industry. We’re working with artists and designers around the world to put together exclusive apparel collections that reflect their different takes on the Monstercat brand. By partnering with experts in the field of visual art, we get the unique opportunity to introduce Monstercat fans to the world of visual creativity. We’ll also get to see Monstercat depicted in vastly different styles on exclusive and limited silhouettes!
The spotlight is on Yu Maeda in our second Monstercat enVISION collection!
Originally from Kumamoto, a city on the Japanese island of Kyushu, Yu Maeda grew up in an environment that encouraged fitting in rather than standing out. It wasn’t always easy to express himself creatively, but his fascination with visual art never waned.
“Neither of my parents are artists or musicians,” explains Maeda, who joined our talented Merchandise Manager, Hollie, for an interview following the completion of his enVISION capsule collection. “They aren’t exactly creative people, but they try to support me and they try to understand. I was lucky to have them. Some parents say ‘don’t do that’ and want their kids to be lawyers or doctors or teachers or something with no risk.”
After graduating from Kyoto Seika University, where Maeda pursued his passion for graphic design and art, he found himself working in commercial animation in Tokyo.
“I did animation for 7 or 8 years,” Maeda notes. “I wanted to be an animation filmmaker—but it is very hard! It takes time to animate by myself. At the time, I thought I should do more visuals first because, with animation, everything visual is done by hand or digitally.”
Moving to California at the age of 29, Maeda left Japan in order to give himself every opportunity for growth as an artist. It was at this point that he ended up falling in love with painting!
“I moved to California when I was 29 and I’m 36 now, so I’ve been in LA for six or seven years. I live in Huntington Beach, Orange County, and I just go to LA for the weekends.”
“I was kind of tired of working in Tokyo,” he continues. “I was an animator before I was a painter. Working on commercials and advertising, I was very busy and my schedule was very tight every day. [...] My [mentality] was okay, but I wanted to see different cultures.”
Yu Maeda’s enVISION collection paints Monstercat in an otherworldly way!
Yu Maeda likes to draw inspiration from American pop culture. Immersing himself in punk rock music and cult films, Maeda developed his own art style that would make even his favourite artist proud!
“[My favourite artist] is Keiichi Tanaami. Originally a psychedelic artist in Japan, he is 80 years old now. He has been doing art for a long time and I found him when I was 18 or 19 years old in art school. I really like his style and, when he was young, it was World War II. He was watching the war and he was always painting war stuff, but at the same time, [his style was] very pop and very psychedelic. It’s kind of eclectic and chaotic. It’s very unique!”
We are super excited to finally unveil Yu Maeda’s designs for the enVISION project. The playful motif allows him to showcase a bit of his background in animation, as well as his passion for painting. Each feline figure features a fantastical design and colours that complement each other with consistency!
“I like the name Monstercat because [monsters and cats] are some of my favourite things,” says Maeda. “I was excited to make Monstercat stuff. The line is inspired by supernatural beings doing musical things.”
A big thank you to Yu Maeda for joining us on the journey that is enVISION! We love how each of the ten pieces in this unique and fun collection turned out, and we can’t wait to see which ones strike a chord with you. Make sure to peep the Yu Maeda enVISION line launching July 15th over on the Monstercat shop!