As Durand worked at developing her own style, illustration became an outlet for what she missed, but also for creating a world that she didn’t see. “When I was in art school, I decided to go to Denmark on an exchange, and ended up staying there for seven years. It’s pretty tough being in a country you don’t know — you have to adapt,” she recalls. “The winters were also tough because there’s not very much light there. I needed to have colors because I felt depressed. I needed something that made me feel alive.” Within Danish society, Durand explains, you often don't see many people of color, and she also felt that representation was lacking online within creative communities. “Even when I was looking on the internet, I thought, where are the artists making art for people of color? Where is the fun?”

Durand’s drawings began to fill this gap, and after a mere month of posting her illustrations on her Instagram account, her social media following skyrocketed. The swift ascent was soon mirrored by a growth in clientele, and eventually, landed her a contract for one of her most well-known projects, producing illustrations for Tiffany Jewell’s This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How to Wake Up, Take Action, and Do The Work — an Oprah favorite and New York Times bestseller. 

“I want to deliver a message, but it needs to be with joy, colors, and positivity,” she attests. “To me, you can’t talk about something terrible and just point your finger and say, ‘You’re not doing the right thing.’ It needs to make people feel captivated so they want to know more. The colors are so vibrant they say, ‘You cannot not see me.’ It’s a joyful protest.”

Today, Durand’s penchant for depicting people of African heritage has become synonymous with her distinctive visual style and bold experimentations with pattern and vibrant colors. And her work continues to attract commissions, with clients including Apple, The New Yorker, and Vice, among many others. 

From murals to printed matter and augmented reality, Durand’s sumptuous visuals manifest in a range of mediums, and this can-do attitude translates to her flexible approach to tools. “I start to draw first using pencils and a sketchbook, though I don’t really share these online,” she says, of her everyday process. “Then, I start to draw on screen with Adobe Illustrator, in a more graphic way.” 

Adobe programs have played a huge role in the development of Durand’s practice, and working with Adobe Illustrator on the iPad allows her to sketch out ideas on the go; she’ll then combine these concepts with features from other programs, sometimes using Adobe After Effects to animate her characters, or Adobe Aero to bring life-like dimension through augmented reality. “I use Illustrator on the iPad to sketch ideas. You can create contrast, you can play with colors, and more importantly, you can create cool stuff quickly,” says Durand, noting the way the app allows her to experiment with different effects in a more intuitive, flexible way.

This is how she crafts the style that she is now celebrated and known for — dynamic, vivacious figures claiming space within their frames, delineated with dazzling colors and an array of energetic patterns. 

“I want to deliver a message, but it needs to be with joy, colors, and positivity… It needs to make people feel captivated so they want to know more. The colors are so vibrant they say, ‘You cannot not see me.’ It’s a joyful protest.”

Dance and music from Durand’s culture and upbringing play a large inspiration in her work. “When I grew up, my parents loved to dance and hear African music,” she says. “When I was younger, I used to hate it, but now that I’ve grown up I understand what it means. I try to have that present in my work, because it’s part of the joy.” 

Listening to music is universal, Durand says, and much of her creative process involves translating what she hears and feels into visuals. She recently created a Spotify playlist, titled “Play the Colors,” to showcase the diverse range of her music tastes, and how they, in turn, influence her artworks. “I could listen to Radiohead, or Afrobeats. It’s part of how I grew up, listening to music from different places, and it’s part of my inspiration,” she says. “I’m so inspired by music videos.” From the pop-driven imagery of Katy Perry to Destiny’s Child to Spice Girls, Durand recalls watching MTV all day as a kid, which subconsciously fed into her melting pot of inspirations.

To young creatives who want to express their identities within their artwork, Durand offers this pointed bit of advice: “Make art for yourself first. Don’t make art because it’s trendy. Be patient, because we’re in a field where things aren’t coming right away. It takes time to create something unique that stands out.” 

This ethos, paired with a strong message, has been instrumental to Durand’s own success. “It’s pretty clear that big companies want to show more diversity now,” she says. “I never saw that before. I didn’t know that I could work for big [brands] and bring a message along. I’m not changing my art, because I’m still myself.” She goes on to explain that often, people presume that working with big companies means you have to give something up. But by being commissioned precisely because of her personal outlook and message, Durand has shown by example, and empowered others in the process, to rethink that dated mentality — “because I’m walking in and delivering a message, and people are buying more books,” she says. “It’s a positive thing.”