Gallery
3 Photos

WAOKU STUDIOS

Last summer, Diamond Bar High School junior Aaron Ung started a virtual design and art studio, incorporating his designs into videos, photography and illustration.

While creating Waoku Studios, Ung met junior David Lanre-Orepo, who was also interested in art, and Ung asked him to work with him on the studio.

Ung decided on the studio’s name by searching for meaningful words in different languages. He liked the word jungle and found out that Waoku meant jungle in Maori, the language spoken by the indigenous people of New Zealand.

“I thought of jungle, which is pretty varied and there is diversity,” Ung said.

Lanre-Orepo and Ung both post at different intervals mainly on their Facebook page, while also sharing their pieces on their Instagram account @waoku.studios.

Although they both took an interest in art from a young age, Ung and Lanre-Orepo said that they have not taken any professional classes and they chose to pursue art out of self motivation.

While Ung focuses more on photography, editing and vector illustrations, Lanre-Orepo specializes in digital, traditional and animation art.

“I was just looking at cartoons and was like ‘I can make something like this’ and I just started learning. It got hard to a certain point, but I kept going. I loved it,” Lanre-Orepo said.

Ung said that although they mainly post art for fun, Waoku Studios also utilizes their designs for organizations. Ung has designed a shirt and logo for Ayala Red Cross, a YouTube banner art for La Verne Youth Ensemble and digital posters for students at DBHS.

Although Ung and Lanre-Orepo have yet to create a collaboration piece due to technical complications, Lanre-Orepo said that they are planning to start one soon.

“We want to plan to do something together, maybe a video, maybe a full fledged artwork together with all our ideas,” Lanre-Orepo said.

As an art and design studio, they are looking for new artists to join their team. Although Ung and Lanre-Orepo primarily post and share their art on social media, Ung states that marketing their designs is part of the plan in the future.

Ung also said that he plans to pursue design in college and hopes to get into USC. Although Lanre-Orepo is undecided in his future, he also hopes to continue creating art.

“We’re just trying to get more people to just share their voices in art. We’re just trying to see people share their voice, share their artwork and get known because it’s hard to get your stuff out there,” Lanre-Orepo said.