Sasha Heath from hellotomato visits Lump

Every week on the Lump blog I tend to focus on Lump and our Lump work a lot. But this week Bee suggested we take a look at another young local artist who recently completed a project with us. Her name is Sasha Heath; founder of hellotomato and Bee has compiled a few questions to help us get to know her a little better.

Tell us a little bit about yourself and the path that led you to a career in illustration, what encouraged you to create hellotomato? 

Hi… I’m Sasha and I have loved drawing ever since I was 5 years old. At school my best friend was amazing at art. SO amazing that I was very jealous. I decided that I wanted to be just as good so I practiced everyday. And I am still practicing!! I came to Melbourne in 2010 and met my partner Chris, he encouraged me to start my own studio and we came up with the name by taking letters from both of our last names and hellotomato was born!

Walk us through the project you’re currently working on and how you came to the final design?

The Aviary Hotel in Abbotsford commissioned me to design a map showing the bars location with a few major landmarks scattered about that people could identify with. They also wanted to portray an aged feel to compliment the history of the building. I added the skipping girl, the MCG, a dinosaur on top of the Melbourne Museum and I also included a lion holding a shield from Melbourne’s coat of arms. The final design took only two changes with the help of photographs taken of the area.

How did you find Lump and what made you decide to work with us?

My clients wanted the map to look like a sepia photograph, so I suggested having the illustration laser etched into ply as I felt this would give an aged and smokey look to the design. I started researching local businesses that I thought would be able to do this for me at a large scale. I had heard of Lump through a friend who had a garden screen made for her home. So I had a look at the web site at Lump’s previous projects and thought that you would be perfect for the job!

What is your proudest achievement so far?

As an artist I find that I am constantly learning and developing so every project that I complete is a proud achievement for me. I love working on large-scale artworks, as I get to work on site; giving me an insight into the company that I’m working for. I have met many great people through this process and it has given me the opportunity to show off my work and have fun!

What would be your dream project?

I feel very much at home when I’m working on a large mural. These days I seem to always be up high on a ladder somewhere, doing what I love most (even though I’m still not too confident about heights!)

At Lump we are always thrilled to work with other artists and designers. As much as we love making our own Lump work, giving back to the greater creative community and helping another artist or designer realsie their vision is something we have always found rewarding. Thanks to Bee for compiling the questions and info for the post and thanks to Sasha from hellotomato, we love your work and we thoroughly enjoyed working with you.