World Illustration Awards Category Winners announced

We are delighted to announce the World Illustration Awards 2018 category winners.

Selected from over 3,300 entries, the shortlist and category winners represent the very best of illustration today.  Overall winners will be announced at the World Illustration Award evening on 7 June 2018.

The winners can be seen alongside the full shortlist in a colourful, thought provoking and  inspiring exhibition at Somerset House from 7 – 20 June. The shortlist has been selected by the jury from a record 3,300 entries from 75 countries. The exhibition is punctuated by insights from judges and industry leaders such as Quentin Blake and Sir John Hegarty. ‘Illustration sets the imagination free’  Sir John Hegarty (AOI Patron). “Illustration aims to illuminate. It brings to light the words of writers and clarifying ideas to the world.” Jasper Wong, WIA judge.

The exhibition, held in Somerset House’s Embankment Galleries, is the largest World Illustration Awards show to date, showcasing the full shortlist of 200 works. It explores what illustration means today, how it shapes our world and charts how the art form itself is changing. At once global and personal, visitors can expect to be inspired by this diverse, engaging exhibition. This annual survey of the best illustration globally will explore where illustration is now, where it is heading in the future. As WIA judge Rob Alderson of WeTransfer says “in a visual culture dominated by photography, illustration provides a deliciously different way to see the world.”

Category Winners

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Advertising (Professional)

Stevie Gee with Nicos Livesey
Here To Create – Adidas
Commissioned by Lou Howlett at Iris London for Adidas

The dream team, Stevie and Nicos were asked by Iris London to make an out of this world animation for Adidas’ latest campaign, Here to Create, Combining Stevie’s psychedelic illustrations with Nicos’ offbeat animation style, this meeting of minds shows the legendary Messi, Pogba, Firmino and Suárez as you’ve never seen them before!!

With his distinctive psychedelic slacker goofball style, Stevie has created award-winning design and illustration work for the music, fashion and art world for the past 15 years. He also works as a director on music, skate and commercial video projects, specialising in animation.

Stevie has exhibited his artwork worldwide including New York, Sydney, Berlin, Paris, London, Bali, Milan and Tokyo.

Advertising (New Talent)

Andreea Dobrin Dinu
Art Safari 2017
Commissioned by Ioana Ciocan at Art Safari

This series of illustrations were commissioned For Art Safari 2017, the largest art fair in Romania, to promote the month long 4th edition that took place in Bucharest and brought more than 7000 m2 of art ranging from contemporary to Romanian classics. The only requirement was to have a strong visual impact and to really convey the art fair’s tagline: Art Conquers Bucharest.

After studying Business Management Andreea became a self-taught graphic designer, and then a Fine Arts Graduate. Finally she gathered up the courage in the summer of 2016 to start her own one-woman illustration graphic studio, called SUMMERKID, to refocus her professional practice and officially become… an illustrator. She works with various magazines, publishing houses, events and products.

Books (Professional)
Jim Butler
Blackrock Sequence

The brief was to design illustrate print and bind a limited edition artist’s book in collaboration with a poet. The 11 poems are a sequence which explores the cultural  historic and ecological richness of a stretch of suburban Dublin coastline. Each poem responds to a specific location. One of the themes which runs through the poems is the idea of the city as a palimpsest.

Jim Butler was born in Dublin, and lives in Cambridge where he leads the M.A. in Illustration & Book Arts at Cambridge School of Art, Anglia Ruskin University. His practice is centred around drawing, collage and printmaking. His work has been exhibited widely in the UK, Ireland, France, Holland, Portugal, Mexico and the USA and is held in numerous public collections including the Tate and British Library.

Books (New Talent)

Shih-Hsien Hsu
Nordic Happiness
During the Christmas holiday in 2017, I travelled to Sweden, Finland and Denmark. Before the trip one thing I could imagine in my mind was the freezing cold winter days. However, what awaited me there were beautiful encounters with people, life and landscape. I called them Nordic Happiness.

Shih-Hsien, a Taiwanese illustrator based in London, is currently a visual communication MA student at the Royal College of Art. His work portrays narratives that communicate his sincere thoughts and emotions, using the universal language of illustration. After he graduates this summer, Shih-Hsien plans to develop a professional illustration career whilst staying true to his original ideas.

Children’s Books (Professional)

Soo Kyung Cho
Me And Me
Commissioned by Hansol Soobook and D&P Co.Ltd

This book consists of two parallel stories of a child and an adult. The first one is about a boy who, exhausted by study, finds a hope by meeting himself in the future.

Soo Kyung Cho is a picture book author and illustrator currently based in Seoul. She graduated from Hongik University and later received an MA in Communication Design: illustration from Kingston University in 2015. She likes to make stories from her childhood memories.

Children’s Books (New Talent)

Monika Vaicenaviciene
What Is A River?
College:  Konstfack University of Arts  Crafts and Design
Commissioned by Opal

In today’s world it is important to talk about the relationship of people and nature. Hence a book that would tell about many beautiful and harmful relations we have with our environment. Rivers are the subject because of many interesting geographical, cultural and mythological associations. The story balances both factually accurate and poetic storytelling.

Monika Vaicenaviciene is an illustrator and author originally from Vilnius, Lithuania, and currently based in Uppsala, Sweden. Monika completed her undergraduate studies at Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2014 and obtained an MFA in Visual Communication from Stockholm Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design in 2017.

Design (Professional)

Stevie Gee
Stella McCartney Kids Packaging
Commissioned by Connor Cronin at Stella McCartney

Stella McCartney’s team asked Stevie Gee to re-design the Stella Kids packaging range. They wanted a fun and interactive approach to the boxes where each side had either a different body part or face so that when stacked, they would create a multitude of brilliantly bizarre characters. There are three sets of boxes for boys, girls and babies. The team gave Stevie free-reign to create a mix of monsters, animals and different body parts in his signature style.

Design (New Talent)

Katja Grosskinsky
Magister Ludi
College:  Academy Minerva,
Groningen, Netherlands

Magister Ludi is an interactive fashion collection. Its repositioning the meaning of clothes by adding an extra purpose to its usual ones like providing protection, safety and warmth. It resembles an experiment of reusing clothes in a way that differs from their traditional manner. Clothes taken out of their common context to see what else they can be – a means of interaction. Clothing as a toy.

Katja Grosskinsky is a German Illustrator and Designer. Born and raised in Berlin, she currently lives in the Netherlands. She has a Degree in Design (Lette-Verein, Berlin, Germany) and finished her Bachelor of Arts in 2017 (Academy Minerva, Groningen, Netherlands). Katja loves being outside, observing animals and people, practising Yoga, taking pictures, swimming in the sea and cooking. She enjoys merging different materials and design disciplines.

Editorial (Professional)

Esther Goh
Emojiworld
Commissioned by EEYEYAH! magazine

This project was a collaboration with EYEYAH! magazine on the theme of “Internet” for their first issue.
EYEYAH! an is an ongoing platform that aims to inspire creativity and improve observational and thinking skills in kids. The idea for this illustration is a theme park that contains as many Emojis as possible. An animated version was created and showcased as a VR installation at MeshMinds 1.0: ArtxTechforGood at ArtScience Museum Singapore.

Esther Goh is a Singapore-based illustrator and art director whose work has been recognised and published internationally. Since beginning her career in illustration, she has collaborated with renowned brands such as Adobe, Volkswagen and Chanel.

Editorial (New Talent)

Chen Wu
Eggs
College: National Taiwan Normal University

Created as a food magazine inside page illustration.
Symbolizing the infinite possibilities  of eggs with their closed arc of rounded whiteness, which always carries the imagination before its incubation and contains the imagination of the future unknown. Expect to see the infinite possibilities of eggs in everyday details with the spectacle of spectators.
This work is devoted to enhancing children’s curiosity and imagination about food and developing a series of illustrations based on the common eggs in daily life.

Chen Wu is currently a graphic designer working in Taipei, Taiwan, having received a bachelor degree in Visual Design from Taiwan Normal University in 2016.  During the university he was exposed to many fields related to design and art, including visual design, illustration, photography and animation. These creative methods gave Chen the nutrients and made her work more colourful.

Experimental (Professional)

Book of Lai
360 Tiny Living Space
Commissioned by Invictus Media SDN BHD for Studio Behind Ninety Sdn Bhd

This project was a challenge by the client to create an interactive illustration by integrating the latest trends. The goal is to increase user engagement time on a single digital post. We were requested to expand the universe of our “Tiny Living Space” series allowing it to come to life and for users to explore the virtual space with fun!

Book of Lai is a Malaysian Illustrator whose work portrays series of small-scale spaces and transient lifestyles. Born and raised in Penang, his work is often influenced by domestic or small public spaces, be it a cafe or an art gallery, or simply just a house. His art reflects his desire to be free from society’s expectation and exist self-sustainably and completely off the grid. Since 2016, He has worked with various companies including Cadbury, ANZ Bank and Yerra Water.

Experimental New Talent

Jip van den Toorn
Inappropriate Grandma
College: Hogeschool voor de
Kunsten Utrecht, Netherlands

I created these cushions because I wanted to tell a story through illustration without using paper. By playing with the expectations of embroidery these cushions force the viewer to create their own story around them. Who made them? And why where they made?
These cushions are embroidered entirely by hand. They each took around 100 hours to make and they are 40 cm x 40 cm. The embroidery is made of wool and the back is brown velour.

Jip van den Toorn is an illustrator based in Amsterdam. Although creating a lot of editorial illustrations, she doesn’t stick to pen and paper. Exploring the boundaries of illustration, she moves from animating GIFs to inappropriately embroidered articles to making a crochet project where you might think: “Who on earth would ever put so much effort in making stuff so strange?”. Well, Jip van den Toorn does.

Research (Professional)

Carol Adlam
Thinking Room
Commissioned by Dr Clare Pickersgill at Museum of Archaeology Nottingham Lakeside Arts
The brief was to execute work on any aspect of the museum. I researched the museum’s deep and rich connections with the region and the university as well as the history of specific artefacts. The outcome was an exhibition of 10 large paintings in graphic novel format and 30 reference paintings which were also made into a book.

Carol Adlam is an author-illustrator specializing in book illustration and has published five graphic novel projects. Research and knowledge communication are central to her practice. She has held residencies at a number of museums and galleries, and clients include the National Army Museum and the United Nations. She is Senior Lecturer in Illustration at Nottingham Trent University, and teaches at the House of Illustration.

Research (New Talent)

Ella Nitters Medical Art
Microsurgery Of A Rat
College: Master Scientific Illustration, Maastricht, the Netherlands

Create an illustration of a simulated surgical intervention on a rat using the availabe information (model of a rat, hand studies/photos, veterinary anatomy books and instruments). The challenge was to produce a good illustration with help of all available facts examples and reference material which are not always ideal. Because of this working method no animals were harmed in this process.

Ella Nitters originally studied Industrial Design Engineering and Illustration. She worked as a set designer and creative illustrator for several years before she decided to combine her interest in anatomy and medical science with her love for realistic and fine detailed drawing. She received her Masters degree in Scientific Illustration in 2017 in Maastricht and is now working as a medical illustrator in Rotterdam, the Netherlands.

Site Specific Professional

Paul Thurlby
National Treasures
Commissioned by Peter Cross at John Lewis

Create six window designs and interior decoration that capture
Britain’s ‘National Treasures’. From ice creams by the seaside to afternoon tea. John Lewis wanted to put me at the centre of the project which was very refreshing. I later discovered that I was the first illustrator to design their window displays.

I was given 3 weeks to complete this brief. It was an intense period working 7 days a week 8am until 11pm each day. Especially challenging because the brief was not complete when I started the work. So I was receiving information and changes constantly throughout. I had never worked on window designs before  so I had to think how the layers would work and allow for moving parts.

Originally from Nottingham, having lived for 9 years in London, Paul now enjoys distracting sea views from his Brighton flat. He was fortunate enough to have had his personal project, Alphabet, published as a children’s book by Templar in 2011.

Site Specific (New Talent)

Ana Jaks
House Of Us
College: Bath Spa University
Commissioned by Livity (a UKCharity) and Facebook as part of their anti-bullying movement

For Facebook’s House of Us event,  I was briefed to create the visual language that would run throughout. It was to appeal toward 13-19 year old teenagers with a skew towards 16-17 year olds so couldn’t feel too young. The artwork had to act as the wrapping for the event  bringing to life its themes through playful illustrations that were inclusive and fun.

The artwork had to include people interacting with one another a sort of congregation of diverse groups of people  as the event was all about encouraging positive social interaction. I wanted to make sure that this illustration felt “cool” and wasn’t condescending or too childlike but something everyone could relate to no matter what sex age or race.

Ana Jaks is an illustrator from the Isle of Man who now lives and works in Bristol. Her love for shape, colour, pattern and people is often reflected throughout her work.

 

 


30th May 2018
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