It's hard to believe that it's been over a year and a half since we first featured the work of Jaco Haasbroek. The designer and illustrator from Cape Town, South Africa popped up on our radar once again by Threadless who just made him their newest MADE artist.

MADE is a monthly showcase of some of Threadless' favorite artists' work. The list includes My Modern Met favorites like Aaron Jay (aka randyotter3000), Lora Zombie and Glenn Jones.

Make sure to watch this inspiring video about Jaco and how he works. In it, he talks about a personal project where he puts up a piece of art in a secret location, takes a picture of it (and the surrounding area) and, then, whoever finds it first gets to keep it.

As he tells us, “Most of the objects are placed in or around Cape Town. I started it a while ago with the hope of making a piece each month, but my freelance jobs tend to take up most of my time. I like the idea of placing an artwork, along with it's gallery-like title card, in a public space. It's been fun seeing the response online, which has been mostly positive. I think it's like a treasure hunt. I hope that the challenge and adventure of finding it adds to the way people view it.”

Below are some of our favorite pieces from his Food, Object or Animal series. Created with acrylic and ink, the clever illustrations are guaranteed to make you smile.

















When asked what advice he'd give to aspiring illustrators, Jaco simply stated, “Be true to yourself. Keep going.”

Jaco Haasbroek website