Artist collective Ovcharka Industries creates vibrant and humorous graphics and animations that blend modern techniques with a visual style that’s heavily inspired by the animation of the 1930s. You’ve probably come across some of their art while scrolling through Instagram. Described by one of their clients as “dystopian bubblegum,” they say what sets their work apart is keeping a sense of humor to the art.
Cassie and Darlene are full-time artists who have crafted a life traveling together while working on jobs for brands such as Apple, Liquid Death, Adobe and Wiz Khalifa. Both illustrators and designers, Darlene also handles art direction while Cassie does incredible animations for their work. Since around 2020, the pair has worked freelance after leaving their full-time jobs and devoted themselves to their own merch as well as working with clients.
One of the easiest ways to sum up their work is Betty Boop on acid, and indeed there is a focus on cartoonish hedonism in their colorful illustrations. Many of their pieces feature smiling bongs, dancing nugs, or flowers and clouds sharing cartoonishly large joints, but despite having a running theme of consumption in their work, they told us that they don’t consider themselves big stoners. “We actually don’t smoke that much,” Darlene said in our interview. “We collaborate with brands in the Cannabis space mainly because our style fits so well with that culture: bold characters, humor and a bit of chaos.”
Darlene followed up with a point that really sums up a big part of why I started this column. “Rather than Cannabis shaping our art, it’s more than our art that naturally resonates with that audience,” she said. Proving that it’s not the amount you smoke or how much top-shelf you have that dictates how connected you feel to the plant, or how connected the community feels to your artistic style.
Their workspace is a collection of large screens and inspirational totems, where they say you can hear “mostly phonk and techno” coming out of the speakers. Alongside that, Darlene told us there are usually horror movies playing in the background. “One of the last ones that shocked us was ‘Together’ from 2025,” she said. Although they break up the continual feed with global news, as it “keeps things interesting,” Darlene noted.
Most recently, they released a buildable poster with Layer By Layer Prints in the U.K., which lets you place the pieces down until you’ve created a piece of 3D art for your home — a must-have gift for the holiday season.
