One day Panfilia Iannarone decided to contact Viber's Art Director Zoe to pitch her idea about a project. Panfilia was surprised about Viber's interest and their help formulating her idea. She was able to propose new stickers series absolutely in Italian spirit, colorful, cheerful with Italian localization in Italian language. BELLA! The meaning of “Bella!” in the Italian slang is something very similar to a greeting. All the character designs are funny caricatures of food, monuments, idioms and gesture absolutely in Italian style.

Obviously the first approach is transfer the idea into a sketch so I can see if it works. But, first and foremost, I needed to research about colors, shapes, objects that I'll use. I mean which chara works better? Which gesture is understandable better than other etc.. The most important info are the dimensions - often to make a design in big format is better. You can design all the details you want, but a small format? Yep, now we have a problem Houston.
-Panfilia Iannarone

A small format in particular a mobile phone, needs to be tested: so few details and more simplicity. These are my rules: search on the web, pinterest, galleries, focus on the style, save in a folder the best choice this can help me remember which way is better to design for the composition for the color palette.. Then I make a sketch, lot of sketches. Then the best one will be sent to the client.
-Panfilia Iannarone

Inspiration.. Well, from a lot of stuff: cartoons, web, books.. All the good things. I draw so much that most of the time, inspiration comes naturally.. My style is simple, colorful and ever evolving like a garden. I follow TADO I love this brilliant duo so much, also another similar super couple designers who I follow are LouLou & Tummie.. Anyway I have a long list about this topic.
-Panfilia Iannarone

I do not feel like an artist but a kind of "maker", as my quote in my website : "I help my clients to realize their visions" so I can advise 3 things. First one: you can do this job if you have good skills; Second one: this is a hard job you need a lot of patience and a positive attitude, often you will find a closed-door and hard situations. Don't be afraid. If you are a good designer you can get through it. Third one: do not undersell your works. I see a lot of services on web that offer too lower earnings in exchange for visibility. That is wrong! Don't do it. Never!
-Panfilia Iannarone

The Bella! stickers are available on the Viber marketplace.

About Panfilia Iannarone

Panfilia Iannarone is an Italian Graphic Designer Illustrator based in Rome, Italy. She was born in the 1980 (ohYeah!) and since 2008 is an independent freelancer. Panfilia is a lover of Sci-fi, vinyl toys, prints, stickers and has a dog named Godzilla (aka Zilla) :) See more of her works on Behance or his website.