Mykita contacted Illustrator & Animator Rafael Varona via their Corporate Design Manager. They found him work on behance and basically wanted to have one hero illustration, that would be printed and foiled on their shop windows worldwide.

Since they knew that I also love working on loops they asked me to create three different gif animation that would portray their charity projects of 2015 on their donate website. Mykita´s headquarters are based in Berlin, so I could meet up with the team personally which made the whole creation process a lot easier!
-Rafael Varona

They asked me to include animals in the hero illustration. I understood why they would want that - while mykita is an eye wear brand the easiest thing to illustrate would be - of course - glasses and eyes or "vision". Their moods for this project were "magical", "mysterious" and "winter", so a dark-blue Forest with silent snow-like animals would serve the brand and their shops to create a second more natural character to their hand-made luxury eye wear.
-Rafael Varona

Nothing specific, I have been following two artists at that time: Jun Cen and Karolis Strautniekas. I knew once I got the brief I wanted to create some mystical, with lots of different brushes, lots of gradients and textures!
-Rafael Varona

For longer one of my biggest influences is David Hockney and his magical forest landscapes. Also the french artist Blexbolex. I just love illustrations in a wide format with lots of details, animated or just without any motion..
-Rafael Varona

Find your style, don´t be afraid to copy, you will learn from it and develop your own in a heartbeat. Work, work, work and work.
-Rafael Varona

About Rafael Varona

Rafael Varona studied Visual Communications at the University of Arts in Berlin and got his diploma about ornamental labyrinths in 2012 - supervised by the great Henning Wagenbreth and Heinz Emigholz. At the end of 2013 his obsession with any kind of animation started growing and decided to give it a try and work exclusively in that area. He always loved to animate big sceneries with lots of details. Since last year, he is now based and working in Amsterdam as a freelance Illustrator, Animator and Speaker. See more of his works on Behance or his website.