Ray Dak Lam's work looks incredibly precise at first glance, all structured geometry and carefully curated color palettes arranged in the perfect composition with intention and conviction. Look a little deeper, and you'll find work that is less rigid and much more organic. The Edmonton-based illustrator built his practice around a process that leaves room for the unexpected, leaning into lessons learned from calligraphy, cooking, and working with his local community.

In this conversation, Ray talks us through where structure ends and improvisation takes over, the personal project that unlocked his commercial career, and how being from a city not known as a design hub can be a blessing and a curse.

You spent time in advertising agencies before going full time freelance. What did that stint teach you that art school didn't, and what did you have to unlearn once you were on your own?

I've worked at a couple of advertising agencies and learning how to interact and work directly with creative directors and art directors is something that was super valuable to experience before going into full time freelance. As a freelancer, I'm often commissioned by creative directors and art directors, so knowing how to interpret feedback, offer my own creative solutions, and explain my ideas on real projects with real clients and deadlines was invaluable. Other habits such as time tracking everything I work on also stuck with me.

Learning how to make my own decisions to determine the direction of my freelance career was one of the biggest hurdles for me personally.

The biggest thing I had to unlearn was relying on someone else to delegate tasks for me. The freedom I felt once I started freelancing was both liberating and paralyzing because I wasn't sure what what to focus my efforts on. There were so many tasks swirling around that demanded my attention, such as invoicing, bookkeeping, emails, deadlines, marketing, social media... the list goes on. Learning how to make my own decisions to determine the direction of my freelance career was one of the biggest hurdles for me personally.

Getting laid off at the start of the pandemic pushed you into freelancing. Was there a specific moment where it stopped feeling like a crisis and started feeling like an opportunity?

After getting laid off, I desperately tried to land another full-time job, but had no luck doing so. I only got offers for short term contract work and that was when I realized I could potentially make things work financially going full-time freelance. I already had ongoing freelance clients I'd built up on the side during my years working full-time. It was definitely scary making that decision because I was so used to getting a steady paycheque, but getting laid off twice from my advertising agency jobs shattered my belief that full-time employment offered any real stability, so that was another push for me to try freelancing full-time.

Your client list is global, but you're rooted in Edmonton. Does being outside a traditional design hub feel like a constraint, an advantage, or both?

Hmm, that's a great question and it's something that I wonder about all the time. I've been in Edmonton all my life, so I haven't experienced first-hand the advantages of being located in a traditional design hub. Edmonton's a bit geographically remote, being the northernmost large city in North America, so we get really long winters and it's easy to feel isolated. But what I love about that aspect is that it gives me quietness and boredom, allowing my mind to wander, filling in the spaces with creative ideas. I feel like it's an environment that suits my personal creative process and I would be too distracted in a large, bustling city. Edmonton's lower cost of living also allows me more flexibility to take on lower budget projects that might be more fun and creative, as well as allowing more breathing room for personal projects.

However, I do get envious when I see my peers moving to the big cities and all the cool stuff they're doing. So, long story short on whether it's a constraint or an advantage... maybe it's a bit of both?

Freelancing can feel a bit lonely, so I think it's important to feel part of a community and be involved in something bigger than yourself.

Your process goes: sketchbook, then vector, then Photoshop for texture. Where does texture enter emotionally? Is it planned, or does it show up to solve a problem the vector work created?

Texture is the most fun part for me, since it's not really planned and I just try to go with my gut and do what feels right visually.

Your Shape Studies project started during the pandemic as a personal exploration of shape, line, and colour. How has that project changed your commercial work?

The Shape Studies personal project is probably the most transformative thing I've done for my commercial work! It's led to such a wide variety of client work, like editorial, branding, websites, packaging, products, etc., which was so surprising to me. I would've never been able to predicted it when I started the Shape Studies project, and I didn't have any big ambitions with it. After getting laid off and being burnt out, it just felt so satisfying to play with different forms and shapes and rediscover the joy in creating stuff again.

You practice Chinese calligraphy and cook Vietnamese food. Both are disciplines of gesture and restraint. Has either one crept into how you approach a composition?

I think both have taught me to improvise and respond to the moment. When my mom and my mother-in-law taught me their recipes, they didn't measure anything and went by taste, aroma, and visual cues. A splash of fish sauce here and a pinch of lemongrass there. With Chinese calligraphy, my teacher always pushed me to make adjustments along the way if I make any mistakes. There's no command+z if a character accidentally comes out too small, or if a stroke comes out too heavy. I have to compromise and improvise the next strokes or characters to balance it out. When I'm illustrating, sometimes I'll take that same mindset and see where the accidents take me.

Your work strips subjects down to their essential geometric forms. Where is the line between simplification and losing what makes a subject interesting? How do you know when to stop?

It's a constant push and pull for me, simplifying and abstracting as much as I can, and then adding in more details to inject some playfulness. It feels right to me is when the piece has some personality to it and removing any other elements or simplifying further would make it feel generic or unrecognizable. I'm not great at rendering realistically, so part of it is leaning into my shortcomings as a stylistic choice haha.

An agent can't keep pitching an illustrator with old work and consistently needs new, fresh work.

Do you remember your first True Grit encounter? How did you find our tools?

My first introduction to True Grit was when I was hired by a local agency to create an illustration for the Edmonton International Film Fest, along with a few other illustrators. We were all asked to use the Stipple Studio brushes for texturing work to achieve a consistent and cohesive look across the illustrations.

What made True Grit stick when so many brush packs end up… quietly ignored in a folder somewhere

The Stipple Studio brushes had a real analog feel to them that I absolutely loved. I used to apply texturing to my work in Photoshop with the gradient brush set on a dissolve blend layer to get a grainy spray effect, but it always felt overly digital to me and was never truly happy with it.

Which True Grit tools are basically on speed dial for you? Any ride or die brushes you reach for without thinking?

The “Pin Liner 0.1 Spray - Regular” from the Stipple Studio pack is the only brush I use for basically all of my illustration texturing work. If clients require the illustrations to be in vector format, I use the Stipple Buddy brushes for Adobe Illustrator.

Our Stipple Studio brushes in action. Demo artwork by Jake Foreman.

You're represented internationally by Closer and Closer. What do you know now about working with an agent that you wish someone had told you earlier?

I naively thought that I wouldn't have to worry about marketing and promoting myself anymore after getting signed, and that the agent would handle all of that stuff. I was totally wrong! If anything, I was pushed by Closer&Closer to promote myself even more consistently and keep sharing new work as much as possible. An agent can't keep pitching an illustrator with old work and consistently needs new, fresh work.

sketching out any lingering ideas in my head. When I let an idea hang out in my head too long, it blocks new ideas from coming through

You've been involved in projects connected to Edmonton's Chinatown. How does bringing your visual voice to a community rooted project feel different from working with a corporate client?

Freelancing can feel a bit lonely, so I think it's important to feel part of a community and be involved in something bigger than yourself. Seeing so many people come together for a singular cause, to help revitalize Chinatown, and getting to play a small role in that is so inspiring, fulfilling, and healing all at the same time. Corporate projects can be exciting creatively and all, but community work in Chinatown intersects with my personal upbringing in a special way. It resonates with me sentimentally when I see my parents interact with my work in Chinatown, a place where I've spent so much time with them growing up. My uncle owned a dim sum restaurant right in Chinatown, so countless weekends and Chinese New Year gatherings were spent there.

When inspiration runs low, what usually helps you reset or reconnect with your practice?

Flipping through design and art books, or going hunting for new ones. If I try to look for inspiration online or on social media, I usually just end up doomscrolling, so I try to be mindful of that. I love reading monographs of other artists and learning about their approach and creative practice. The other thing that helps is sketching out any lingering ideas in my head. When I let an idea hang out in my head too long, it blocks new ideas from coming through. Once I get it out onto paper, I feel that it allows room for new ideas and inspiration to emerge.

What are you excited to explore next in your work?

I've always been interested in exploring my personal heritage through art as a form of self-discovery. Being of mixed Chinese, Vietnamese, and Cambodian heritage, I've explored the first two more, but I haven't really touched my Cambodian side yet.

Tough love: what’s the best bit of advice your younger self wouldn’t have wanted to hear?

When I was younger, I felt terribly guilty for giving up on my dream of being an artist. But it all worked out eventually—I rediscovered my love for creativity in its absence. So I would tell my younger self, “Just live your life and the path will show itself.”

What do you listen to when working?

I find music with decipherable lyrics distracting, so anything with no lyrics or where I can't make out the words is perfect for working: death and black metal, screamo, electronic, ambient. I love atmospheric soundscapes that I can get lost in.

FAST FIVE

Layers: named and ordered, or creative chaos?

Named and ordered, with a touch of chaos to spice things up.

What's the first thing you ever got paid to draw?

In junior high, I drew a Toyota Supra for some lunch money.

Sketch on paper or straight to digital?

Always on paper first!

Most underrated skill required as an artist?

Financial literacy.

What's your creative superpower?

Being a bit delusional 😇

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Ray Dak Lam is an illustrator and designer from Edmonton, AB

Website  | Instagram

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