From our Members: Recent Projects
From murals to self initiated book covers, fashion illustration, live drawing, reportage and much more
Here at the AOI we advise and support our members daily on anything relating to the business of illustration. We also proudly feature them on our social channels, Homepage and Folios.
Constantly amazed by their talent and creativity, we bring you a showcase compiling a selection of striking projects created by our members in recent months.
Maga Illustration, Funky Vibes Mural
Based in Spain, illustrator and muralist Maga recently created a big mural for the SOM MULTIESPAI shopping centre in Nou Barris, Barcelona, curated by Kronos Festival. Located in an area called “Selfie Plaza”, the objective was to create an interesting space for visitors to take photos.
Thematically, the clients wanted a mural inspired by Hip Hop and graffiti, and that would include different things about the shopping centre like rap battles, its cinema, pet shop, sports and clothes. Having seen a previous mural of Maga about 50 years of Hip Hop, they knew her style would be right for the challenge.
When I had to start with the idea, I was clear that I wanted to play with the stairs and the walls to make a unified project. There are different points of view in this mural, so everything had to be connected. Finally I decided to focus the theme and colours to make it more funky and happy, so it is a very vibrant mural that catches your eye and has good vibrations.
Maga
I made different characters to represent a bit of the essence of Hip Hop, and showcase diversity (…). At the top of the stairs there is a graffiti writer painting SOM BARRI (which means in Catalan: we are the neighbourhood). At the bottom of the mural are two breakdancers moving to the rhythm of a rapper. All the characters’ clothes are inspired by images of people involved in Hip-Hop culture in the 70s, 80s and 90s. And this is the result!
Find out more about the project and explore Maga’s full illustration portfolio.
Inko Pinko (Kevin Ward), Techgnosis
Inspired by our 5th season of Inside Illustration, and utilising the briefs available, Kevin Ward has been experimenting to brach his portfolio further into book covers.
Using Techgnosis by Erik Davis as a starting point, his visual project takes a broad view of our relationship with communication technologies (very relevant to our age of AI weirdness, even though the book was published in the late 90s!).
It’s been so useful trying to think like a designer. I have much to research and practice… especially with lettering and type!
Inko Pinko
See more Book Cover projects by Kevin in his illustration portfolio.
Valya Papadopoulou, FIDA Four Cities Project
VaIya Papadopoulou (one of our AOI mentees this year) has been delving deeper into the world of Fashion Illustration, joining FIDA and taking part in their live briefs.
Taking on the challenge to illustrate from the SS25 September Fashion shows, her striking Illustration depicting the Tom Ford campaign was ultimately selected to be featured as part of FIDA’s 4 Cities project promotion, which you can read more about here.
If that wasn’t exciting enough, Valya’s FIDA image has now been long listed in the 10th annual FIDA awards.
Huge congratulations to Valya, we can’t wait to see what she does next! Explore more of her projects and full illustration portfolio.
And if you’re itching to explore Fashion Illustration yourself, we are running our own life briefs as part of our newest Fashion Season of Inside Illustration. Explore them all and take part.
Ekaterina Ermolina recently held a solo exhibition at the restaurant Le Picotin in Geneva – the result of a personal project comprising of sketches made over a period of 3 months at the restaurant, documenting the daily work of the kitchen and service team, as well as client comments.
The Geneva-based restaurant Le Picotin offers weekly dishes called “assiettes Cocagne”, created with vegetables from the weekly Cocagne baskets (a membership system where one receives vegetables from local producers weekly). Preparing these dishes is a challenge, as the content of the basket is known at the last moment and includes only local and seasonal products, limiting the variety of ingredients.
Ekaterina Ermolina
This creative process arising from constraints is what interested me in the first place and I started observing everyday life at the Picotin, following the journey of the vegetables from the basket to fork. How does the kitchen team work with limitations? What other actors and mechanisms are involved in the process? How do customers react to these vegetarian creations?
The pieces selected for the exhibition are part of a larger project that will take the form of a limited edition book, to be created by Ekaterina in the coming months.
Follow Ekaterina for more updates and see more of her illustration portfolio.
Ben O’Brien, Tim Peaks
Ben O’Brien was also part of an exciting reportage project recently at the Lake District in the UK. Invited by his long-term collaborator Tim Burgess (The Charlatans, Twitter Listening Parties), Ben joined the team at his own stage ‘Tim Peaks Diner’ at Kendal Calling Festival.
His goal was to visually document the weekend and create a collection of colour illustrations used across festival social media, in marketing for the 2025 festival and for a Colouring Book which is currently in development for next summer..
My prime task of the weekend was to draw EVERYTHING. From dawn til’ dusk I was around Tim Peaks with my sketchbook in hand and a pocketful of pencils; drawing the performers and their crews, crowds and queues, equipment, instruments, cups and saucers, margheritas, americanos, banjos*, beats, bass and brews.
Ben O’Brien
*Actually, I don’t think there were any banjos.
The above is really one one of many fantastic illustration!
See them all and read more about the project in Ben’s portfolio.
Dave Bain, Axel Scheffler Mural
Painted last month to inspire creativity and reading, illustrator Dave Bain’s new gable-end mural facing Ashley Street Park (in Bristol) shows three children drawing their favourite characters from well-loved picture books, designed ‘to connect with and inspire the children who make use of the playground opposite.’
My sincere thanks to a hero of mine, the illustrator Axel Scheffler, for allowing his characters to be copied in this mural, taken from the Julia Donaldson stories. And, thanks also to Macmillan for signing this off.
Dave Bain
It’s already been such a joy hearing the squeals of delight as children point out Zog, the Stick Man and, of course, the mouse from The Gruffalo.
The mural was painted with the assistance of local muralists Ali Riley, Kirsty Carrington, Sonja Burnie and Tanith Gould.
See many more of Dave’s murals and illustrations in his portfolio.
Dave also coordinates our AOI meet ups and hosts Inside Illustration‘s Creative Practice Courses. For Season 4, he wrote an invaluable ‘How-To’ guide on site-specific illustration. Read it fully here.
Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram and check out our Folios to see more works from our members!
Featured members:
Maga Illustration, website, instagram
Inko Pinko, website, instagram
Valya Papadopoulou, website, instagram
Ekaterina Ermolina, website, instagram
Ben O’Brien, website, instagram
Dave Bain, website, instagram
Back to News Page