WIA2020 Shortlist Highlights: Commercial Publishing

The Commercial Publishing Category celebrates all forms of publishing both fiction and non-fiction for readers of 16 years and older.

This global industry is a major commissioner of illustration, offering a diverse array of styles and imagery to entice the reader. From spot or inside illustrations to whole book design, explore the diversity of the illustration being commissioned by commercial publishers around the world today.

The Commercial Publishing Category was judged by:

View all the projects shortlisted in the Commercial Publishing Category >

Or view our brand new Showcase for more curated content!

Bart D’Angelo: One Hundred Years of Solitude

This work, created in mixed media (mainly printmaking) uses different papers and textures, plus digital techniques. They were made to accompany text in a book, designed to be placed on facing pages.

Bart D’Angelo is an Italian born Illustrator now based in Falmouth, UK, where he is currently studying. He has worked in scenography, printmaking and drawing, and has more recently moved towards illustration.

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Christian ‘woodsy’ Wood: Gardening for the Zombie Apocalypse

Head of Zeus Publishing and Art Director Jessie Price approached Christian to create all the illustrations for this book, including double page spreads, and spot illustrations. A palette of three colours add impact and provide a bold, graphic aesthetic.

Christian is a freelance illustrator and motion designer based in London with five years of industry experience. He holds a BA Honours degree in Illustration from Camberwell College of Arts.

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Francis Vallejo: Anansi Boys

Francis was commissioned by Sheri Gee at Folio Society to create over 30 illustrations for the book Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. The illustrations are in colour, with black and white spots plus headers. The slipcase represents Anansi, with the boys on the book cover being ‘born’ conceptually when the book is removed from its case. The work was created using pastel, acrylic and ink, finished digitally. The book has a luscious quality from the use of embossing, UV coating and foiling.

Francis Vallejo is a Detroit native. He earned his Bachelor’s degree from Ringling College of Art + Design in Sarasota, Florida, and has since created artworks for a host of notable clients including Candlewick Press, The Folio Society, Snapple, VIBE, and Camelbak. He is an Assistant Professor of Illustration at the College for Creative Studies.

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JO JUNGHEE: Island


This illustration was used on the cover of a novel by the German writer Juli Zeh in Korea. The novel is named New Year and is written in the background of Lanzarote. It captures the vividness and vibrance of nature through a distinctive colour palette and coarse texture. The pieces were made by sketching from observation in Lanzarote, and then compiled into a single image.

Jo Junghee is a travel writer and UX designer. Jo studied at Ewha Womens’ University, Seoul, Korea.

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Joe McLaren: The Hornblower Set 2: Captain Hornblower

This project was also commissioned bySheri Gee at Folio for a collection of Forester’s Hornblower novels. Joe created the internal illustrations, using his signature scraperboard technique, giving a dynamic and dramatic quality to the work.

Joe McLaren was born in 1981 and studied Illustration at the University of Brighton, graduating in 2003. He specialises in book illustration, using scraperboard. Clients have included Folio, Penguin, HarperCollins, Faber, OUP and many others. He also regularly supplies illustrations for newspapers and magazines including the Times, the Evening Standard and WIRED. Joe lives and works in works in Worcestershire, near where he grew up.

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Juan Esteban Rodríguez: True Grit

Raquel Leis Allion at The Folio Society commissioned Juan to illustrate Charles Portis’ True Grit, which follows 14-year-old Mattie Ross. Hell-bent on avenging her murdered father and unable to pull in the fugitive killer on her own, she asks around town for the meanest gun for hire. Juan created these illustrations using digital techniques that echo traditional ink and washes. The final product is clothbound, with a slipcase enhanced with gold metallic ink.

Juan Esteban Rodríguez is a freelance illustrator based in Valencia, Spain. He applies his cinematic style to a variety of projects, from film posters and ad campaigns through to editorials and book covers. Represented by Folio Art since 2017, he combines his full-time illustration profession with occasional teaching lessons at Barreira Arte y Diseño.

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Jungho Lee: Tempus

These illustrations were used as full-page spread images for a 28-page hardcover picture book to illustrate a story devised by Jungho. This project looks at the human experience of time, and the quiet, poetic images were drawn using graphite, charcoal and watercolour on cold-pressed paper, before being layered and coloured digitally.

Jungho Lee studied graphic design at Hongik University in Seoul, and has since worked as a professional illustrator.

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Naomi Ann Clarke: Bristol Short Story Prize

Naomicreated this cover for a brief set by Tangent Publishing in her 3rd year studying Illustration at the University of the West of England. The Illustration is based on a cut through of lives of an apartment building, with different colours representing different rooms.It was created using Photoshop to collage shapes and uses different opacities to add depth. The image is used behind the text, which has been knocked out to reveal the illustration.

Naomi Ann Clarke is an award-winning graphic artist, based in Bristol, UK, working for a number of clients such as Tangent Publishing and The Everyday Magazine.

View the complete project >

View all the projects shortlisted in the Commercial Publishing Category >

Or view our brand new Showcase for more curated content!


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