![Portrait of Catalina Vásquez](/media/responsive/59663cfdb36ebc0f-960.webp)

# Catalina Vásquez

Art director, senior brand designer and visual artist.

[View CV](https://kathiuska.com/cv/)

Based in Colombia, I move between screens, printed editions, clothing and physical spaces.

I develop visual concepts and take them through illustration, animation and production with design, marketing and audiovisual teams. My work includes brand characters, financial product launches, illustrated books and installations for clients and teams including Reserve, UGLYCASH, Snapchat, Canva and Confusion Capital. My approach to brand design and art direction draws on 10+ years in illustration, animation and documentary film.

As Kathiuska, I make films, comics, illustrations and objects. I’m interested in human emotions, personal and collective memory, and the natural world, especially plants and the expressive possibilities of colour.

Pencil Ilustradores has represented me since 2020. With friends from university I co-founded DODO Animación, the studio that produced Cárcel, and I produced Niebla.

Research is part of this practice. My master’s thesis in Latin American Cultural Studies at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Learning to Serve, examines domestic labour through five generations of my maternal family. Awarded an honourable mention, it explores how the disposition to serve is taught and inherited, using family memory to investigate a history that was never written down.

## Experience

1.  ### Reserve
    
    Senior Brand Designer
    
    Sept 2025–Oct 2026
    
2.  ### Confusion Capital
    
    Creative Consultant
    
    Feb–Aug 2025
    
3.  ### UGLYCASH
    
    Brand Illustrator & Animator
    
    Mar 2023–Mar 2025
    
4.  ### Reserve
    
    Illustrator & Instagram Lead, Latin America
    
    Mar 2021–Mar 2023
    
5.  ### Snap Inc.
    
    Freelance Animator and Illustrator
    
    2018–2020
    

## Recognition

-   [2022_ADC Silver Cube, The One Club_Upwork Wake+Make campaign](https://www.oneclub.org/awards/adcawards/-award/42854/wakemake/)
-   2022_Poulain de Bronze, Fantasia International Film Festival_Niebla, as producer
-   [2021_Best of Behance_Reserve homepage illustrations](https://www.behance.net/gallery/128667533/Reserve-Website-Illustrations)
-   [2020_Best of Behance_A estória do sol e do rinoceronte](https://www.behance.net/gallery/101770343/A-Estoria-do-Sol-e-do-Rinoceronte)
-   [2019_Latin American Ilustración 8, American Illustration–American Photography_Las aventuras de Ulises](https://kathiuska.com/work/ulises/)
-   [2018_World premiere, international competition, DOK Leipzig_Cárcel](https://kathiuska.com/kathiuska/carcel/)
-   [2011_India Catalina Award, Best Documentary Video, New Creators, FICCI_Reciclando recuerdos](https://kathiuska.com/kathiuska/reciclando-recuerdos/)

## Teaching

[![Frame from Catalina’s frame-by-frame animation course on Domestika](/media/responsive/9d43ed20118a5444-960.webp)](https://kathiuska.com/courses/animated-frame-by-frame-illustrations/)

### Animated Frame-by-Frame Illustrations

I teach frame-by-frame animation on Domestika, in a best-selling course with more than 11,000 students.

[Open the course](https://kathiuska.com/courses/animated-frame-by-frame-illustrations/)

## In the press

-   [2024_What Cartoonists Saw in Isolation_The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/what-cartoonists-saw-in-isolation-a-portrait-of-the-pandemic)
-   [2023_Kathiuska: un estallido de color_Bacánika](https://bacanika.com/articulo/catalina-vasquez-kathiuska)
-   [2022_Geraldine, indígena trans_Hacemos Memoria](https://hacemosmemoria.org/2022/06/23/geraldine/)
-   [2021_Nuevo Formato se toma Medellín_Adobe Latin America](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7gHleSG9OA)
-   [2021_What’s in a Cup of Coffee?_Upwork](https://www.upwork.com/blog/whats-in-cup-coffee-wake-make-artists)
-   [2019_Domestika Talks_Domestika](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAxXjF4Y0Ew)
-   [2018_Cárcel, más que un corto animado_Radiónica](https://www.radionica.rocks/cultura/cine-series/carcel-mas-que-un-corto-animado-una-metafora-de-la-sociedad)

All press12 more +Close −

-   [2025_En el estudio con Kathiuska_Comfama](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luVHjCE7SkM)
-   [2025_Life & Lessons_Bold Journey](https://boldjourney.com/catalina-vasquez-salazar-of-medellin-colombia-on-life-lessons-legacy-highlight/)
-   [2024_Catalina Vasquez, Colombia_Nativas](https://nativas.world/features/catalinavasquez)
-   [2022_Catalina Vásquez_Asian Art Association](https://www.aaaarts.com/en/master/catalinavasquez/)
-   [2022_Meet Catalina Vásquez_Voyage Savannah](https://voyagesavannah.com/interview/meet-catalina-vasquez-of-santa-elena-colombia/)
-   [2021_Interstices_IN-FLUX](https://vimeo.com/ondemand/influxsaison1)
-   2021_A Story of Freedom_Goethe-Institut
-   [2021_Kathiuska & La Plaga_Adobe Blog](https://blog.adobe.com/es/publish/2021/10/19/artistas-latinoamericanos-unidos-para-probar-nuevos-formatos-con-nft)
-   [2020_Entrevista dibujada_Casatinta](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOXySDPsD2E)
-   [2019_Filmmaker and Illustrator_Baron Mag](https://baronmag.ca/2019/05/catalina-vasquez-filmmaker-and-illustrator/)
-   [2019_Las ilustraciones de Catalina Vásquez_Lado B](https://www.ladobe.com.mx/2019/01/las-ilustraciones-de-catalina-vasquez/)
-   [2018_Bogoshorts Sessions_Bogoshorts TV](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XmPCFdU9Cg)

## Also on

Source: https://kathiuska.com/about/