A Koinobori is a Japanese wind-streamer that resembles a Carp, which is a very prized animal in Japanese culture because they symbolize courage and strength.

These illustrations come in a variety of vibrant colors that represent the family structure they are placed in above a home when reflecting a household. Black and red for are usually for the parents, and vibrant colors for the kids.

Like most of my art, this series spawns from a doodle I had done of a Koinobori. I had visited a Japanese trinket store in my home of San Jose, CA and had saw a few different color schemes of these streamers that really captured my attention. As I was admiring them, I started to re-imagine how they would look in a more graphic form. Many ideas came to mind, but I knew that I would have fun regardless of what I came up with.

As I mentioned before, this series started off from a drawing I did in my sketchbook. Once I got it to a good enough place, I threw it into Adobe Illustrator to polish it. Illustrator gave me the ability to be a little more precise and play around with the placement of the secondary elements like the clouds and scales of the Carp.

I totally did not expect the responses I have gotten with this series to be totally honest. This was just a random project that I did for fun, but got a lot of love for it. I'm really thankful for all of the kind words and support people have put towards this series.

The one major thing I've learned from this project is to continue to trust my instincts and do what I'm feeling. I tend to second-guess my decisions sometimes, but for the last year I've been trusting my artistic instincts with design.

De Sergio Villalona

My name is De Sergio Villalona, I was born in San Jose, CA and now live in San Francisco, CA. My favorite focuses are Graphic Design, Illustration and Photography. As a Graphic Designer and Artist I thrive on having the ability to apply originality and creativity to problem solving. I truly enjoy challenging myself in order to perfect my craft

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