Tommy Chandra is an illustrator and designer from Pekanbaru, Indonesia, working in a minimalist, geometric vector style shaped by his training in architecture. He began working professionally as an illustrator after the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake, when a non-governmental organization asked him to lay out a book on earthquake-resistant housing. Since 2009 Chandra has produced illustration and branding work individually and through his studio, Heimlo.
In 2014 he became Indonesia's first artist to design a Google Doodle, work that came through the illustration agency Fabula and brought him further commissions from tech companies. The Covid-19 pandemic drew him toward the NFT scene in 2020, and he began networking with illustrators worldwide through the Clubhouse app. In 2021 he was invited to mint his first work on Foundation, and went on to release Tezos-based pieces shown at Art Moments Jakarta in 2022. Chandra has pushed back against the view in Indonesia that vector illustration ranks below other art forms, arguing that it is a legitimate medium in its own right.
