Welcome to the WIA2021 showcase!
Explore the WIA2021 Shortlisted Projects through our curated displays and galleries of work in context, sketches, flipthroughs and much more.
Curated by the AOI Awards team, with guest features, find out how everything from personal stories to global events inform and inspire illustrators to create great illustration.
“The World Illustration Awards offer a brilliant platform to discover exciting new illustrators. The shortlist brings diverse talent from across the world together in one place. Illustrators at every career stage, from emerging to established are represented. The shortlist is a fantastic place to find global talent and in the face of recent challenges, now more than ever, it’s so important for the industry to connect illustrators with new clients and commissions.”
Ren Renwick, CEO, The AOI
Explore the WIA2021 showcase:
Illustrating COVID-19
The event that defined 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic, is perhaps unsurprisingly, a defining theme of this year’s shortlist. From scientific illustrations explaining the nature of the virus, to work exploring the social and economic impact of this global challenge, illustrators responded with speed and creativity to visually document and explain unfolding events.
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Bold Graphics
‘Deceptively Simple’ might be an alternative title for this curated selection! Using shape, line and colour, these illustrators use unashamedly bold, powerful, punchy visuals to draw us in and reward closer inspection with clever details and complexity.
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AOI Members Cross Category Award shortlist
See the 10 projects by current AOI Members in the running for this cross category award
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SAA Agents Award for New Talent shortlist
For a third year, the Society of Artists Agents are awarding a currently unrepresented New Talent illustrator an incredible six-month trial representation and mentoring.
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Innovation Award shortlist, selected by Workbook
Meet the four illustrators shortlisted for the WIA2021 Innovation Cross Category Award, selected by Heidi Goverman, Senior VP, Development and Client Relations, Workbook LLC
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DI Award shortlist, selected by Directory of Illustration
This shortlist for the DI Award was selected by: Bryan Allen, Sara Jaqua and Kolea Kent from Directory of Illustration.
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Interior Worlds
Evocative and subjective, illustration is a wonderful way to show our interior, emotional worlds.
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Life In Lockdown
As COVID-19 spread across the world in 2020, countries across every continent went into lockdowns. The need to stay at home became a unifying experience, and one that inspired many illustrators on our shortlist to create visual responses to the impacts of the pandemic.
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Meet the Shortlist!
Read brand new Q&As with shortlisted illustrators to find out more about the artists behind the projects!
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Judges’ Highlights
The World Illustration Awards judges carefully consider all the projects submitted for the competition, and collaboratively decide on their winners.
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We asked them to tell us their personal favourites! Read on to find out what they loved on this year’s shortlist
Black and White
Nothing beats the simplicity of black and white for conveying a clear message. Here, form, line and tone take centre stage to create powerful, evocative images.
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Idea to Product Gallery
A look at the journey of illustration from imagination to a physical product.
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Sketch Gallery
Discover how sketching is an important part of any visual artist’s practice.
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Flipthrough Gallery
Take a tour through some of the books on this year’s shortlist.
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Sustainable Futures
While COVID has dominated the headlines, perhaps a far greater challenge is that of climate change, and how we can create a sustainable future for everyone.
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Illuminating Complex Ideas
Our partners at the Directory of Illustration have a specialist industry insight into scientific illustration through their Medical Illustration and Animation program. This selection is curated by Marika Carradine, who offers a view from the USA on a range of illustrations themed around Science and Technology from across the categories.
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Identity and Diversity
Illustration can be used really effectively to raise awareness of issues such as racism, disability and feminism. Illustration is a flexible medium that allows for nuance and sensitivity, as well as subjectivity and personal stories.
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Exploring Cultural Heritage
The World Illustration Awards bring together illustrators from across the globe. This curated selection showcases work that explores cultural heritage from a range of perspectives.
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Work in Context Gallery
See how illustration lives in the real world.
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Feelgood Illustration
Uplifting, fun and joyful illustration to inspire you!
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Timelapse Gallery
See how work builds up from line drawing to a completed image.
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Self Promotion and Portfolio Work
An important part of any illustrator’s practice is developing work to showcase their style and ideas. These can be presented to potential clients as a calling card, and shared on social media and other networks to increase reach and visibility.
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Innovative Techniques
From burnt toast, to lit paper sculptures, to prints on glass, to plasticine models, there is incredible scope for innovation by using unusual materials and exciting, boundary pushing techniques.
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Creative Processes Gallery
See the creative process behind some of the projects on this year’s shortlist.
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Printed, Painted, Drawn, Tactile
Both analogue and digital media can offer an almost limitless range of tactile marks for the illustrator to draw upon to add interest, depth and texture to their work.
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Storyboard Gallery
See how illustrators plan out the narratives of their projects through the use of storyboarding.
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Narrative Formats
Increasingly popular, the comic book or graphic novel format and aesthetic is having a renaissance.
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Telling Tales
Explore some of the illustration on this year’s shortlist produced specifically for children and young people in this curated list.
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Hyperreal and Figurative
This curated selection of illustrations showcases virtuosic technique that helps to create extraordinary figurative images – some could almost pass for a photograph.
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Food and Drink
The adage goes that we ‘eat with our eyes first’. The global market for food and drink products is vast, and illustration plays an important part in the industry to create enticing and appetising products. Illustration here includes food and drink packaging, as well as work created for hospitality venues.
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Inside the Sketchbook Gallery
Take a look inside the sketchbooks of some of the illustrators on this year’s shortlist for a wonderful insight into their thought process and creative imagination.
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Flora and Fauna
The natural world is a bountiful source of inspiration for the illustrator; pattern and colour proliferate. Read on to uncover the diversity of animals, insects and plants used in a wide range of illustration projects.
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Visual Metaphor, Surreal Imagery
One of the joys of illustration is seeing how artists use their boundless imagination to create dreamy images that reference the surreal and strange. These works leverage visual metaphor to create arresting images that linger in the memory.
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Work in Progress Gallery
See the build up of illustration through a look at work in progress.
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