Melbourne based artist, illustrator, author and designer Beci Orpin is known for creating visual cocktails of bright colour, nostalgia, advocacy, play, and hope.

Even her website homepage has been game-ified, rewarding you with a little treat if you can find all 10 virtual pet rocks (which we obviously did).

She, like us, is a sucker for humanity. Advocacy for people and planet are common themes in her work, and despite the nature of these nuanced and deep issues, Beci has a way of communicating them in a hopeful and accessible way.

Which is exactly why we were so excited to approach Beci to design the artwork for the new Earth Tee.

It's important to us to share with you how your clothes were made, and so today, we get the honour of a moment of Beci's time, to share with you a little more on her process of bringing the Earth Tee to life.

Beci in her Melbourne Studio

Can you speak to your process of starting this design, and the key elements you wanted to see in it?

The design is a follow on from some recent work I've been doing based on my sketchbook process - so more about sketches and collecting elements rather than a finished piece of work, although once these elements are put together it reads as a final design. I wanted to reflect Outland's philosophies in the elements, being kind to the earth, but also for it to have a sense of fun and positivity.

Your work at times explores dark or challenging issues and events, such as recently COVID-19 or the 2019/20 bush fires. And yet visually you communicate in a way that is so visually fun and joyful. Why do you think it is important to present challenging issues in almost a child-like lens?

I think a lot of messaging based around issues such as climate change or public health can look intimidating and not very user-friendly. I wanted to shine more of a positive light on these issues, and also make them visually appealing in the hope that those messages are then more readily shared. Like it or not, instagram can be a powerful tool for these things, and if things look good they are more likely to go further. I don't necessarily like this about instagram (and 'surface aesthetic' culture in general today), but I do like the message being spread far and wide. As a child I grew up making my own banners for protests, so I guess this is the grown up version of that!

Is there a particular person or experience in your life that you credit for inspiring your humanitarian nature and empathy for people?

Definitely my mum - Marg D'Arcy. Her career was based in social justice, and she's always been a vocal activist for causes she believes in (she still does!). I grew up going to protests and handing out 'how to vote' cards at polls during elections - this was a big part of our life. I rejected anything political when I was a teen and early 20's, but I guess as I got older and had my own kids, thanks to my mum, I could see how important advocating was.

In our research we see that you gain a lot of inspiration from being outdoors and travelling. How did your seeking of inspiration pivot in COVID times? Has the digital world served or has being at home more offered a different perspective?

Not being able to travel the past few years is such a bummer! But I'm also very good at accepting the situations for what they are, so I got out and explored my neighborhood a lot. I love the concept of urban nature, and any nature discoveries of this were extra exciting during this time (black swans in my local creek, tawny frogmouths outside my window etc!). Also being able to travel domestically is pretty great - Australia is so diverse and full of excellent places, I'd happily just travel locally for a few years to come. I also invested a lot of time into my own garden, which I really loved, and are reaping the rewards this summer! That is an excellent COVID silver lining. I tried to stay off screens - was near impossible though (my weekly screen time reports were shocking!!) .

Have you felt a collective shift of people's priorities through covid and has there been any underlying tones that you feel will inspire your future art and illustrations?

Yes and no. I feel like I was in a very privileged position during lockdowns etc - I didn't lose a lot of work, I have a house with ample space, I have a family who are pretty fun to hang with, we all like each other (most of the time!). There were hard moments, but overall I still felt pretty lucky. Many people were not in that situation at all, and I hate the idea of glorifying the pandemic as 'a new beginning' or brushing it off as 'shift in consciousness'.

I did really like the simplicity it brought to my life, and the closeness of the local community which I have felt, socially and commercially. I like that it heroed front line and health workers, who previously may have gone unrecognised for the vital work they do. All of those things were inspiring to me, and might come through in my artwork somehow!

Your home of Melbourne has had it tough over the past 2 years, so other than coming out of lock down, what makes you hopeful for 2022?

I think the attention the scientific community has been given has been really amazing, and that gives me hope (extra funding for them would be great too!). Also sometimes brilliant things are born out of adversity, and I think there will be great things coming up in the Melbourne creative community. I've seen incredible resilience in my kids, I think that's something which will stay with them forever (as long it's not scarring too!). I'm quite realistic though, I don't think we are quite out of the water yet, and still have a few years of this to go. Explore more of Beci’s work here.

Beci's initial Earth Tee Sketches