World Illustration Awards: Interview with Paperface, SAA Award Winner 2019 – 6 Years On
Abi Langridge, aka PAPERFACE won the first ever SAA Agents Award for New Talent in 2019. She was mentored by an SAA member agent for six months, and she has since signed with her agent Illustration X.
The Society of Artists Agents (SAA) have sponsored the WIA Cross Category SAA Award for New Talent for the last 6 years. It gives new and emerging illustrators the opportunity to be mentored by an illustration agent.
Established in 1992, The Society of Artists Agents (SAA) is a group of like-minded Agents representing World Class Illustrators. With a vast amount of industry expertise, the winner will be given the tools to flourish in the illustration industry.
We got in touch with Abi to find out more about her illustration career and the impact of winning the SAA award 6 years ago.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your practice as an illustrator?
Sure! I was a graphic designer for around 10 years before making the flip to illustration. I’d gone freelance for a few years in order to balance work better and build up some kind of illustration portfolio but winning the SAA Award in 2019 marked of the start of my illustration career really – I got my first proper illustration job a few months later. Since joining Illustration X, I’ve worked on editorial projects, packaging jobs, advertising campaigns, animated characters, illustrations for start-up brands, card games… I love the variety.
2019 Project ‘Painted Dogs’ by Paperface – Winner of the SAA Award 2019
Tell us more about your Winning project from 2019, and also the project you had Shortlisted in WIA2023. Why did you choose to enter them?
My entry from 2019 was an illustration of a pack of African Painted Dogs inspired by David Attenborough’s ‘Dynasties’ series. There’s one shot in the episode where they’re lining themselves up for a hunt and I loved it – a quiet, visually stunning moment.
The entry for 2023 was for the work I did on the new packaging for Crown Paint where they were looking to overhaul the range and take a very bold illustration-led approach. It was incredibly exciting to be part of such a big job from start to finish and I still dash into a store when I can to skip down the aisle of rainbow paint cans!
WIA2023 Shortlisted Project ‘Crown Paint’ by Paperface
How has winning the SAA Award and also being Shortlisted developed your practice/career?
Quite simply, winning the award changed my life. It came at a crucial point where I’d spent years building up a body of work – pretty much all non-paid, personal projects – and I really wanted and needed to focus on illustration full-time and start working on real jobs. And getting paid for it! The SAA Award gave me mentorship and a pathway to representation which in turn, allowed me to access real jobs, real briefs and start turning the practice into a reality.
What has been the impact for you to be mentored and then represented by Illustration X as your agent?
Huge impact. I chose Illustration X because I’d met Alice, one of their agents, at the awards that year and had a great chat with her about the agency and the kind of projects I wanted to work on. I really didn’t really know what kind of illustration I wanted to do at that stage and Illustration X has such reach and breadth meaning there was the opportunity to experience loads of different projects across different sectors, from different countries. I still massively enjoy not knowing what I’m going to be working on next.
Can you tell us about any forthcoming projects or your future plans?
I spent a couple of months straight last year illustrating chickens of all shapes and sizes for a card game called ‘Who Flew the Coop’ – kind of a mystery ‘guess who’ game. With chickens. I got my copy through the post the other day and it has to be up there as one of my favourite jobs. So excited for it to come out next month!
Image from ‘Who Flew The Coop’ card game
What would your advice be for illustrators who might be thinking about entering this year’s Awards?
Don’t talk yourself out of entering something just because the work isn’t for a big client – just put up something that you’re really proud of.
Find out more about the World Illustration Awards.
Back to News Page