Julia Yellow

Illustrator
Dyslexia

Julia Yellow is a talented, recognized, and award-winning illustrator in the editorial, advertising, and motion field. To Julia, an illustration is not just an image, but embodies powerful meanings, stories, and messages. Injecting warm, playful, witty qualities to her creations, Julia refers to them as “visual essays”.

Diagnosed with multiple learning challenges, including dyslexia and synesthesia, at age eight, art is Julia’s secret language. Struggling with math, reading, and writing as young she can remember, Julia says, “Vivid colors are always shuttling in my mind, like a language. Colors are my bridge to the outside world, to make sense of everything. Everything has a color to it—words have colors; numbers have colors; names have colors.”

Even today, Julia has difficulties expressing herself. “I can never find the right words. When I read, the words often seem mixed up and meaningless. But I believe because language is so hard for me, I have a stronger skill of using images to deliver messages.”

With this, we and others cannot agree more! Winner of the Greater China Illustration Awards and Addy Awards, plus lauded by magazines such as PRINT, Applied Art, American Illustration, 3×3, and CMYK, Julia has come a long way since the embarrassed little girl who could never count to 100 in kindergarten.

“I believe that having learning challenges are a gift,” Julia shares. She encourages other learning-different artists,

“Keep an open mind and learn as much as you can about who you are—strengths, limits, and how to balance. The more you understand the world you want to create in, the easier it will be for you.”
Julia welcomes you to connect with her at juliayellow.com, on @juliayellowillustration and on @_juliayellow.