Making her way from the world of fashion to something that inspired her even more, she created her own path with artistic flair. Coco Apunnguaq Lynge is now an illustrator, freelance character designer and artist. She was born in Greenland and raised in Denmark. She moved away to Denmark where her mother was from when her parents divorced when she was five. Her Inuit heritage is on her father’s side of the family.

When she was little, her mom was creative, sewing and beading but she stopped her art-making activities to provide for her family. Similarly, her dad wanted to draw but didn’t pursue his interest. Lynge has a memory of him drawing a train when she was little which left a strong impression on her. Growing up with parents who enjoyed being creative but who were not artists, she had to find her own way to her career path. As a multidisciplinary artist she has studied multimedia design, fashion design, and has a bachelor's degree in computer graphic arts.

“I always wanted to work within the creative field. I wanted to draw as a kid, and when I grew up, I thought the only job that I could get that would be creative enough would be fashion design,” she explains. Always excelling at sewing and patternmaking and knowing she could draw all day, Lynge thought fashion design would be her career. Later, she studied so she could draw a game’s or book’s characters, clothing, world and props. Lynge had a year left in her fashion design degree when she was accepted into her computer graphic arts degree.

Lynge switched directions because she came to a realization about what she wanted. “It had more to do with me already figuring out I wanted to draw more than what I wanted to sit in front of a sewing machine and do a lot of measurements and stuff. Of course, I always loved designing, but technical stuff, everything is technical, but when it came to fashion design, I found out through my internship that it wasn't really the direction I wanted to go into, mainly because there's definitely vibes and a feeling of belonging when you're in the right place. I just didn't feel it when I was walking into those circles immediately. I still do a lot of sewing, and I design my own clothes and make it for myself. I'll probably do that too in the future more, but I definitely felt at the time that I wanted to walk a different path than the one I had stepped on to,” she explains. She’s found that what she’s learned in both fields influences her work.

Her advice for students leaving their home community to study is based on what she observed with her classmates who moved away to study alongside her, how they seemed to find comfort in their social connections with family and friends. That’s why Lynge suggests calling home and finding new friends.

“It's always difficult in the beginning, but it does get a little bit easier with time,”

she encourages, thinking of how she made lasting friendships in her studies.

When it comes to obstacles she faced, two years after taking her first job after graduation she found she was burning out because she was freelancing and working at the same time. While Lynge loved connecting with colleagues at work and didn’t enjoy the struggle of finding freelance clients, she was having migraines twice a week, back pain and she felt like she wanted to do something other than office work. Her body was telling her something had to change and her husband agreed she should quit and try full-time freelancing. Trusting herself and making it work was her biggest challenge, though the timing was good and her health has since improved.

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If Lynge could give a message to her younger self it would be about accepting that it’s okay to cry, something that she and her sister struggled with growing up. “Life can be hard sometimes, and it's okay to cry. Obviously emotions can be hard sometimes, but it's also your entire being that needs to get those emotions out in in some way,” she says.

To balance her mental health, Lynge takes her dog out regularly to go for walks, taking her mind off work and looking at things instead, sometimes giving her the ideas that she needs to find the solution. Finding work-life balance is hard otherwise, as she’s prone to overwork and perfectionism that are only really halted by her body’s boundaries.

When it comes to inspiration, Lynge is inspired by her heritage and Greenland in her personal projects, integrating Inuit inspiration even into the most seemingly unlikely pieces. In her illustration work, many stories also come from Greenland or are Inuit, though her style is non-traditional, just culturally inspired. Those wanting to check out her work can find her on Instagram at @bycoco.a or on her website at Coco a. Lynge.

As she found her way away from the world of fashion and towards even more creative inspiration, Coco Apunnguaq Lynge crafted her own path with artistic flair. Born of creative parents who didn’t get to be artists, Coco is living her dreams. Integrating her heritage into her creations, she’s now working in ways that honour her body and speak more to her heart after walking away from an office job that brought pain and longing.