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Maxine Kryzaniwsky

Maxine Kryzaniwsky

She/Her

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Call her “Max”! Everyone does!

From NCAA recruit to science and biology nerd to cross-continental traveler, Max has taken a winding road to find her home in illustration and is excited to say that it is now her forever home. Nothing excites her more than diving head-first into a rich visual narrative or putting her mind towards a juicy design challenge. Peers and friends would describe her as kind, funny, helpful, and a great collaborator. Outside of her life in the arts you can always find her learning something new or having a laugh with a friend or two.

Give her a buzz! She would love to work with you!

“Every Kid Deserves a Bike”

  This image is from my series “Every Kid Deserves a Bike” which was inspired by a true story covered in a podcast interview by the same title name. This illustration shows the wonderful moment when the kids realize that the fundraised bikes are theirs to take home! A bit of metaphor is used in this image as well with the farther adult figure giving one of the kids a push forward to get started and the final foreground kid is clearly on his way. To quote Katie Blomquist, the founder of the “Going Places Non-Profit” organization, “It’s not just a bike. It’s what the bike represents”.

“Max’s Mini Mixtape”

  This image is from my series “Max’s Mini Mixtape” which is a series of album cover designs that features songs written and performed by strong female artists. Each song, in its own way, celebrates self love, individuality, and just feeling good about yourself. This particular illustration for Lizzo’s hit single “Good As Hell” drew direct inspiration from the lyric “In there, swimwear, going to the pool sh**” as I felt that it summed up the song’s as well as Lizzo’s core message as an artist, perfectly. A bit of metaphor is used as well with the peacock, being a symbol of confidence and beauty. Full series currently on my website.

People in the Neighbourhood

  a mock book cover design for what could be a slice-of-life narrative comedy or dramedy. It features, as the title indicates, character types that everyone can recognize or relate to in their own neighbourhoods. Birds are used as quick allusions to a potential story setting as well as a metaphor for the gossip and chatter that one usually finds in all good and juicy neighbourhood tales.

Harry Potter

  This is a mock book cover design for a potential re-release or re-branding of the famous Harry Potter book series. The idea behind this illustration was to feature one of the main creatures from each of the books, rather than re-feature the main characters again, and to show the creature, in some way, from Harry’s point of view. Hedwig, Harry’s owl in the series, is the creature featured here for the first book and is shown delivering Harry’s letter of invitation to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The cover was also intended to feel like an invitation to the viewer as well and alludes to one of the big scenes at the beginning of the novel.

“Nine Last Days on Planet Earth”

  This is a mock book cover design for Daryl Gregory’s short story, “Nine Last Days on Planet Earth”. The story chronicles the life of the main character, LT, over a series of decades, after a massive meteorite shower event brings new alien plant life to planet Earth. The story is both warm and nostalgic but also maintains a slow, quiet tension throughout it as it remains constantly unclear whether or not these new alien plant species are potentially hostile or symbiotic. The golden ratio was featured as a key symbol in the story and is featured it as the underpinning compositional tool for the cover’s layout. Color was the main device used to allude to the emotional qualities of the story by mixing warm yellows and pinks of a summer sunset with cool deep blues of an evening starlit sky.

Student Planner

  This is a mock cover design for a potential student planner. The cover was inspired by the game “Twister” which drives the playful metaphor used for this illustration. School and college, for the most part, always felt like a game of Twister to me; constantly balancing impossible amounts of work and life simultaneously alongside my peers, who were always in that impossible mess with me too. It is my hope that anyone who views this cover can relate and maybe get a little chuckle and some levity from it when thinking about an otherwise always fast-paced and stressful time in one’s life.