Haein Kim gives us the low-down on her hilarious and witty character design

Kicking off our third online Nicer Tuesdays event was Australian illustrator and animator Haein Kim. A creative who’s continued to keep us laughing over the past few years with her punchy and animated shorts and hilarious illustrations, she took to the Zoom-stage in Sydney for an early presentation of her work. Three in the morning, to be precise.

Four coffees in and she attentively took us through her wonderful process and witty character design, starting off with a colour-filled slide splashed with the weird and wonderful creatures that she creates. The main focus of her talk, however, was a short film that she’d created in 2017, titled Peepin’, made in collaboration with her creative partner Paul Rhodes. “It’s about three primary school girls who discover something naughty at the back building,” she began to explain, pointing towards how they wanted to show what it was like to grow up Asian in suburban Australia. “With this film we just wanted it to resonate with the Asian Australian community,” she continues, moving on to explain how she developed her brilliant and relatable characters, which usually take various iterations and real-life stories to complete.

Haein’s talk was jammed full of colour and personal anecdotes, as well as an intricate journey through the details behind her fantastic process. There are so many incredible stories here and we advise that you check them out for yourself!