Rui Pu builds his illustrations from the strange corners of the internet. The illustrator and graphic designer based in China saves odd images and videos, and gathers inspiration from travel, wandering unfamiliar places and noticing odd signs, flyers, graffiti and everyday details. An ordinary photo, he says, can become something completely different with a caption or a change of context, and his portfolio turns it into energetic collages of warm gradients and texture: a two-headed horse-human, a man bursting from a Taco Bell with greasy snacks flying. Rui studied digital media, a course he was not very interested in, then worked as a designer at ByteDance, where his illustration projects took off. He later took an MA in Illustration at London's Camberwell College of Arts; his clients now include Apple, Spotify, Nike, Columbia University, The New York Times and Bloomberg Businessweek. Commissions follow a disciplined method. He dives into the brief, works out how to make the idea clear and fun, and develops directions with the art director before building the artwork in Procreate and Photoshop, replacing parts of the drawing with photographic collage. Political and economic topics take longest to grasp, and finding the right photograph can take ages: a small change in expression or gesture shifts the whole vibe. For Bloomberg Businessweek's Extra Salt column, which uses food to explore politics and business, he made deliberately silly images: boxers fighting with hamburgers for gloves, a US map made of sauce bottles, a huge egg filling the frame. Personal projects are looser. He sometimes just puts a few saved or photographed images together to see what happens, enjoying not knowing how it will turn out. 100 Horses, a personal book made this year for the Year of the Horse, collects 100 weird horse images from the internet and everyday life and gives them his signature spin: horses stretched, elongated, warped into dinosaurs and strawberries and dropped into odd scenarios. He let go of his usual concerns about grids, typography and colour and just had fun, hoping the weird horses bring a little energy and make his friends smile.