A friend turned me onto London based illustrator Sophie Alda’s work, and I immediately fell in love. The content of her work is so strange and exciting, especially when she juxtaposes architectural buildings with unusual figures. Her use of muted tints and shades of color are a nice touch, as well as the various abstract forms she creates. Definitely be on the lookout for this gal!
Talented designer and illustrator Elena Giavaldi really knows how to make judging a book by its cover easy. As a book cover designer, she creates very cool, contemporary compositions for some of the best publishing houses in the business. She also manages to put very personal touches on each project, and add a bit of extra interest with unique type choices and very modern, experimental lettering. Other than her expansive covers archive, her portfolio runs the gamut of graphic design, making her an incredibly versatile designer. To keep up with Elena, look for her work in a bookstore near you!
Joohee Yoon is an talented print maker with a fun colorful aesthetic. I was first introduced to her work a while ago through a friend that happened to have an amazing promo she created. Since then, I’ve been following her work closely and am always impressed by her meticulous eye for details. The textures she creates through layering are beautiful, as are the various patterns in her work. This illustration for NPR’s 2013 calendar captures everything I love about her work.
While most Grain Edit readers know Lotta Nieminen for her extraordinary illustration styles, but she also has an incredibly rich and beautiful design portfolio. Her keen eye for typography and layout design is relatively unmatched, and each project somehow manages to out-do the last. Together, her two portfolios create an exciting mix of work & almost a perfect dichotomy of truly minimal vs. extremely detailed.
I’ve been following the work of Glasgow based illustrator and animator Lesley Barnes for quite sometime now. Her illustrations continue to surprise and delight me in their bright colors, geometric shapes, and often magical and mythical subject matter. Her use of patterns and repetition is extraordinary, and is a true visual treat.
I love the portfolio of Tomi Um. Her work is clever and thoughtful—just so perfectly editorial—and yet retains such an artful feeling, that she takes the idea of conceptual/op-ed illustration to a different level. I’m consistently impressed at her ability to bring a vibrant visual life to news articles, and makes me hope that I can bring the same sort of excitement to my own work. Tomi has rightly won several awards and accolades over the past few years (such as ADC Young Guns & Print Magazine’s NVA), and here’s to many more for this great young illustrator.
The sweet and quirky work of Mary Kate McDevitt never fails to delight. Her personality shows through in every brush stroke and chalk mark, and really accentuates her obviously love for her craft. With a quickly growing client list of industry big-timers like Chronicle Books, Lehigh University, Better Homes & Gardens and Rachael Ray Magazine, Mary Kate seems to be on a path to lettering success.
Julianna Brion is a Baltimore, MD based illustrator with a wonderful eye for details and beauty. She creates memorable images, such as this book cover illustration for Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach. I love the way she uses pencil in all of her work, which has a nice textural quality that I can’t get enough of.
Photo: Nobrow Press
Ping Zhu is an illustrator from Los Angeles, now calling London her happy abode. Most recently, she released a beautiful Swan Lake concertina published by Nobrow Press, which features images of the performance and all the happenings behind the scenes as well.
The concertina is just one of the many wonderful projects Ping has worked on. Some of her other clients include the New York Times, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, The New Yorker, and Jamie Magazine. Her playful and colorful style shines through in everything she creates, especially in her defined dry brushstrokes and mark making. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next!
The portfolio of Oscar Bolton Green is sort of a wonderland of strange and dreamy imagery. I love the simple forms that he works with, but how he manages to create complex scenes and stories out of beautiful bright shapes. He also experiments with lettering, that fits his style of illustration perfectly—slightly amorphous and experimental. If you find yourself loving Oscar’s work as much as I do, he has a book that has just come out, Bird Beak Book, as well as a shop so that you can buy some of his lovely goods.
