kHyal™ is the Chief Imaginator at MegaGlam, an innovative future-focused creative studio producing public and private art and performance, illustration, surface, pattern and fashion design — and, hot bed of new character design and related product and event design.

kHyal is the creator of The Weather sKwirl and BlipWorld. She is the President and Creative Director of fiZz Agency and Free Range Copy — and, co-founder of PUSH workshops, PUSH Design Camp, DesignerGrill and Thrilling Projects.

kHyal’s Pink Yeti characters were featured in Pictoplasma’s Post Digital Monsters show at La Gaîté Lyrique in Paris, and the Pictoplasma Character Walk exhibition at Pavillon der Volksbühne in Berlin in 2011. She designed a Grand Prize Award for Project Upcycle 2011, a corporate initiative for toy giant Hasbro — and, was commissioned to design a special edition T-shirt for the 5th anniversary of the internationally acclaimed conference, A Better World by Design. One of her limited edition character dresses was acquired by Solange Guez Contemporary Art–Buenes Aires at Aqua12 during Art Basel Miami Beach 2012. In early 2013, kHyal’s work was featured in the Photographers + Illustrators Showcase presented by the AIGA CT + American Society of Media Photographers — and, in the Affordable Art Fair, New York.

kHyal’s illustration clients include: Mondo 2000 magazine, The Net magazine, ART/LIFE Limited Editions, New Media Showcase, Real Art Ways, PAPER magazine and Lexion–Australia. She contributed to the books Mondo 2000: A User’s Guide to the New Edge by Rudy Rucker, R.U. Sirius and Queen Mu; Mutant Monkees Meet the Masters of the Multi Media Manipulation Machine by Davy Jones and Unstuck: 52 Ways to Get (and Keep) Your Creativity Flowing at Home, at Work & in Your Studio by Noah Scalin.

For the long story, you can read her business bio here. For a glimpse of her life as a fine artist, visit kHyal.net.

For information on commissioned work and licensing — give a shout.

View recent MegaGlam projects here.

ARTIST BIO
kHyal’s multi-disciplinary art and design have been exhibited in the American Visionary Art Museum, Pictoplasma–Berlin, New Britain Museum of American Art, la Gaîté Lyrique–Paris, Outsider Art Fair–New York, Housatonic Art Museum, City Museum–WashingtonDC, Intuit–Chicago, Cooper Union, and select galleries in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London and the South of France. Her work has been published in Raw Vision, Rhizome, Mondo 2000, and Artforum.

kHyal is most known for her self-portrait photography and assemblage, multi-media installations, character design and fashion-based work. She was also an early adopter of technology and is part of the Women’s Internet History Project. Mostly self-taught, her work has traversed both ends of the spectrum from folk/outsider to low-and-highbrow tech. She has a keen interest in street fashion, street art, installation and modular art as a way to interact with the motion of life. And, in using recycled, upcycled, recyclable and unexpected materials in unexpected ways.

kHyal was commissioned to create her first series of public art projects in Los Angeles in 1985, featuring original character design. Her work was chosen for “CODE”—an international juried exhibition of top artists working in digital media—at Ricco/Maresca Gallery, New York in 1995; sponsored by Microsoft, Apple, Softimage and Silicon Graphics.

kHyal majored in Mass Communications at Emerson College in addition to studies at The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Art Institute of Boston; Boston Film and Video Foundation; Loyola Law School and Kodak’s Center for Creative Imaging. She completed the Sustainable Design Entrepreneur program at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in 2011.

kHyal was born as “Kyle Ann Braun,” in 1981 she changed her name to “Khyal Braun,” and later legally to “kHyal” only. She sometimes uses the pseudonym “kHyal Kouture,” mostly because platforms like Facebook and others demand that “last name” fields are filled in. kHyal began the process of trademarking her name in the 90s and also uses the pseudonym “kHyal™.” She worked commercially under the business name “kHyal Inc.” far ahead of the curve on the current trend of personal branding. She is currently using the name “MegaGlam” as an umbrella identity for all of her creative work.

Download a PDF of kHyal’s artist bio + info here.