Santtu Mustonen is a Finnish illustrator currently based in New York. He creates sophisticated and colorful works using three-dimensional techniques. The results are quite stunning and captivating, as you can see from these illustrations created for Flow Festival last year. The marbled patterns in these works are vibrant and lovely, as are the rest of the pieces in his portfolio.
Parko Polo is the alter ego of Edinburgh based illustrator Edward McGowan. As Parko Polo, Edward pairs bright cheerful colors with bold geometric lines to create images of wonder and exploration. This illustration, titled “Age of Adventure,” depicts just that with a dapper gent in a top hat soaring over craggly mountain tops in his fancy hot air balloon.
I love the work coming from Rifle Paper Co., the small studio of husband & wife team, Anna & Nathan Bond. Sweet and charming, they make work that speaks well to the sentimentality of their illustration style, and embodies the idea of nuanced design.
Mitch Blunt is a UK based illustrator with an interesting straightforward style that pairs vibrant colors with flat textured shapes. His work is thoughtful in its execution and composition with compelling and often playful concepts. This image, titled “The Science of Love” created for Benhealth Magazine, cleverly shows an intricate (and quite possibly explosive) formula for love.
Illustration superstar, Damien Correll, has been building up quite a portfolio of work in the past few years. Between his solo career as a freelance illustrator and designer, and his joint design-firm venture with Garrett Morin, Part & Parcel, Damien has taken the editorial and advertising world by storm. His most recent project is an art show at Raised By Wolves in Greenpoint, NY, where he features his newest hand-printed works.
Ted Parker is an international man of mystery, whose work exhibits extreme joy in the most strange and comical of situations. This illustration, titled Jungle Coffee, was created to promote The Village Coffee and Music in Utrecht, Netherlands. Regardless of the subject matter, whether it be dogs smoking, lions dancing, or people and animals engaging in pure rowdiness together, one thing is for sure – Ted’s work is sure to put a big smile on your face.
Jing Wei is a Brooklyn based illustrator with a simple and playful aesthetic that I can’t get enough of. She creates her illustrations through woodblock printing and has a meticulous hand and eye for details. This illustration, created for Lucky Peach Magazine, displays the many varieties of miso and their characteristics such as “miso pale” and “miso funky.” The concept for this piece is well thought out and nicely executed, as is the rest of Jing’s portfolio.
The portfolio of Jen Mussari is an refreshing mix of quirky handrawn lettering and illustration. What I really enjoy about her style is that it seems very personal and focuses on art-making rather than the production of a commercial product. Jen, with some of her friends, recently launched a really cool project, S Magazine, featuring a lovely cover illustration. (more…)
Raymond Lemstra is a Dutch illustrator based in Amsterdam with a unique and playful aesthetic that thematically explores primitivism through character design and masks. He takes great care in every illustration he creates, which is evident in the assiduous details of his line work and compositions. Raymond plays with soft colors, geometric figures, and crosshatching techniques to create strikingly peculiar images that I can’t get enough of.
Though I’ve been a fan of Jesse Lefkowitz for some time now by sheer chance of spotting his editorial illustrations in publications like Money, Village Voice and Fortune, I’ve only recently discovered his portfolio. His full body of work has a seriously cohesive style that embraces both digital and traditional illustration, but has such a unique updated twist that allows it to fit beautifully as conceptual editorial work. For more of Jesse’s work visit his site & check out his shop to get a few pieces for your own!
