João Oliveira for Tiger Beer

Joo Oliveira has become the latest creative to contribute to Tiger Translate, Tiger Beer’s global initiative to foster dialogue between East and West by bringing artists together to collaborate across music, art, design, fashion, photography and more.

Selecting some of the best emerging creatives from 12 countries to participate in a themed exhibition, Tiger Translate invited Oliveira to represent Portugal this year. The brief? To create a piece ‘inspired by neon’ and set in a modern Asian context.

“One of the characteristics I love the most about Asian cities is how the modern is blended with the traditional,” explains Oliveira. “That mixture of neon lights and traditional elements was my main source of inspiration for this piece.”

The most challenging aspect, as always for Oliveira’s 3D projects, was the lighting: “I always have a solid mental image of how the final image will be, so I end up investing most of my time working on the perfect light setup that will translate the idea of my head,” he says.

Head over to Onrepeat Studio to see more of Oliveira's inspiring design and illustration work.