Kathy Kim is a graphic designer from New York and a fan of illustration. She has worked with well-known newspapers, brands and advertising agencies including Conde Nast Traveler, the communications agency DDB Worldwide, The Oprah Magazine and many others.
Through her illustrations she portrays the contemporary world using a traditional style. The illustrations – in addition to being realized following defined and harmonic color palettes – by stylistic choice represent shapes drawn in an imprecise and basically roundish way. Moreover, the facial features of each subject are never included, at least if they are not extremely necessary, such as the eyes, mouth and nose. This is also true in general for all the details that are not drawn accurately at least that are not fundamental to give meaning to the whole composition.
Kathy has created a series of illustrations that collect and summarize in a very suggestive way some of the rituals of beauty used by women around the world – especially in Asia – concerning the uses of the past, the present and giving an open look towards the future.

Sunamushi Onse

In this illustration, a grey tone is used in the background to highlight the lying figure of a woman performing a procedure called Suna-Mushi, which has a positive effect on dehydration.

Huǒ Liáo

Here the focus of the treatment Huǒ Liáo, a Chinese remedy against dull skin and cellulite, is highlighted thanks to the use of essentially neutral colors.

Ohaguro

Through shapes that seem to be hand-drawn, the illustrator represents Ohaguro, a technique of blackening teeth considered as a sign of beauty in Japan.

Seawood Spas

In the design, the eye immediately falls on those forms of different shades of green that represent the Seawood Spas, a treatment for skin purification.

Cryotherapy Facials

Here, thanks to the use of colors that follow a blue/blue room, the figure of a male body is represented while he is doing the Cryotherapy Facials, a recent technique that brings benefits to the skin through icy air and very cold temperatures.

Text by Anna Cardaci