It’s been a twisting road so far in terms of Özlem’s career. Although she studied cinema and television at university, she found herself more and more attracted to illustration, and shortly after graduation decided to follow her passion for design as a permanent career. “I’ve been freelancing under the name Souloff for about two years now, with clients mostly in the clothing/fashion and music industries,” she says. Her mainstays are Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash in various combinations, though she has also been experimenting with handwriting and scribbling. She says her main source of inspiration is music. “Ninety-nine per cent of the time, I’m listening to music while I’m working. I’m influenced by anything that has soul. For me, it’s something more than a job. As the lyrics say, ‘It’s a spiritual thing, a body thing, a soul thing.’”