Yestem Project

Magda Regula is a Polish creative based in the UK, she is also the founder of Yestem Project. Magda is autistic and has aphantasia, which means she cannot form mental images. Because of this creating art can be difficult but she found a way aroun that.

She creates pattern-based, hypnotic visuals and publishes them on YouTube. She also has a blog Autistic and me but since opening YouTube channel not much is happening there. She is also the founder of Yestem Project.

Was there a moment when your art felt like it really wasn’t working?

Yes, there were two moments like that.
The first one was right at the beginning. I wanted to paint still life in acrylics, so I watched a few YouTube videos and learned that you’re supposed to block in shapes first and only add details later. But I just couldn’t do it. Not technically — it looked simple enough — but the idea didn’t click for me. I felt like I should go straight into the details.

The second moment came when I bought an iPad and tried to draw patterns. I really couldn’t do it — the only thing I could manage was polka dots. That’s when I realised I have aphantasia. Not long after that, I tried Affinity Photo and learned how to build patterns from shapes — and that finally started to work for me.

Did anything in your early art hint at the direction your work would later take?
Yes, I remember when I was five and had just started school. The teacher asked us to draw an autumn scene. I started, but quickly decided it was boring and wanted to do something different: I drew a large ellipse, divided it into squares, and began filling each one with a different colour. It felt really satisfying.
But when the other children saw it, they started laughing, and the teacher didn’t even say anything. That made me feel like everyone else was allowed to express themselves creatively — except me.

When did you start feeling that your work has its own direction or voice?

For me, looking at patterns is a form of stimming — a self-stimulatory behaviour that everyone does to some extent, but neurodivergent people do much more often. So when I first started my YouTube channel, I was already happy with my visuals, even if they were a bit simple.

After a few months, though, I discovered that you can arrange elements so that part of the pattern is hidden, making it unclear whether the pattern or the shape is on top. That little trick makes everything look much more sophisticated. That’s when I really felt: this is it.

Did your current style happen intentionally or by accident?

At first, I was mostly just exploring ways to use my patterns. Because of how I create them — by processing shapes rather than drawing directly — they aren’t really suited for product design. I wouldn’t be able to make changes if a client requested them.

Part of me would love to see my patterns on products but at the same time I have ethical concerns. Before I realized that looking at patterns is a form of stimming for me, I would sometimes buy products I didn’t need, simply because I liked the pattern. I’m sure there are others like me who get a little confused about what they actually need and I don’t want to contribute to that.

In our culture, patterns are almost always tied to decorating products. I wanted to create something that would let people enjoy patterns purely by looking at them — without having to buy anything.