Meet Magda Azab: the Italian illustrator inspired by Malta’s colours & ‘disorderly’ streets

Magda Azab is a freelance illustrator who has made Malta her home. Through geometry, colours, playfulness and visual metaphors, she tells a story or illuminates a concept in a vibrant and feel-good manner.

Hungry for change, at least change that is temporary, Magda moved here from Milan almost three years ago, with her boyfriend and her dog, Zaky, thinking that the three of them were going to embark on a an experience of “living in another country for a few months."

“We came here for a vacation and we fell in love with the island, so instead of a temporary experience it has become our second home,” she admitted. 

Choosing the sea and ‘simpler life’ over the bustling streets of Milan, Magda believes that “the big city life has never belonged to (her).”

“I like a simple and easy lifestyle, where people still have the time to smile and talk to each other and where small shops have not yet been replaced by shopping malls. Furthermore, I like seeing how modernity and traditions can coexist in a unique and strange way here.”

Although Magda’s work does include illustrations specifically of Malta, the bulk of her work is non-related. She is mainly focused on editorial work for magazines and agencies. “But even if I work for brands or on private commissions, I really like it when someone asks me to do an illustration for his beloved,” she adds. Despite not always being about Malta, though, she believes the country’s inspiration has somewhat intertwined itself into her visual language.

“I believe that even when it is not directly represented in my works, Malta, in one way or another, certainly inspires and influences my work,” she said. “In the last three years, I felt the need to change my style a bit, so from something more formal and geometrically perfect I moved into something more imperfect and ‘dirty’.”

“In this process, I see a great reflection of what has changed around me. In Italy I lived in a very neat place, where more or less in every street, each element was in place... every big street was in order, every balcony or door had the same shape and colour which gave you a common feeling of harmony, or at least that's the perception of a person who grew up there.”

Written by

Joanna Demarco