News on the authors books:
Becoming A Successful Illustrator
Derek Brazell & Jo Davies Published by Fairchild Books/Bloomsbury 28 June 2013 UK, 1 July USA
An essential guide for new illustrators and graduates covering areas to work in; the professional world of the illustrator; self promotion; getting your work seen; finance and running a business and more. With newly commissioned artworks and insightful comments from international illustrators accompanied by examples of their work supporting the text.
‘A great class reference for students entering their junior and senior years.’ Alaiyo Bradshaw, Parsons The New School for Design, USA
‘…highly useful and relevant to both national and international audiences.’ Chris Draper, Cambridge School of Art, UK
Cover artwork by Steve Simpson
Making Great Illustration
The Making Great Illustration exhibition travelled to Nanjing University of Arts , Exhibition Hall of Fine Arts Faculty in China between 5th -8th December 2012, as part of the NAU 100 Anniversary celebration.
Making Great Illustration exhibition
Monday 10 September – Saturday 20 October
The Peninsula Arts Gallery
Plymouth University
Roland Levinsky Building
Drake Circus Plymouth Devon PL4 8AA
Launch night - Laura Carlin works in foreground
Olivier Kugler artwork being selected for the show
March 2012
‘Making Great Illustration is an ambitious bid to give more substance to the literature, and it presents a convincing list, almost a canon, of 30 illustrators from several generations.’
Great review published in Eye No82 (the international review of graphic design), featuring Ronald Searle and Matthew Cook sections.
February 2012
Thrilled to receive a beautful Valentine’s card from Marian Bantjes! She collected old cards and over printed them with a vector design and the words “From me wherever I am / To you wherever you are.”
Special stuff!
January 2012
Ronald Searle 1920 – 2011
Derek and Jo were saddened to hear of the death of unique illustrator, Ronald Searle, at the age of 91. Ronald was a truely amazing artist, and we were honoured that he took part in our book. He had seen a great deal and lived through many changes, and this gave him a unique way of visually interpreting our world. Superlative drawing coupled with strong ideas and powerful and often humourous assessments of the human character.
A family statement said: “Ronald William Fordham Searle, born 3 March 1920, passed away peacefully in his sleep with his children, Kate and John, and his grandson, Daniel, beside him on 30 December 2011 in Draguignan, France, after a short illness. He requested a private cremation with no fuss and no flowers.”
Amongst a huge body of work, Ronald drew critical political work for Le Monde newspaper, as well as the notorious St Trininan’s characters, and he generously created this original artwork for the Pro-Action campaign which fights for visual artists’ rights. See his page
About the book, Ronald said “It is beautifully done and quite fascinating to go through… Bravo!”
Photographs by Andrea Liggins
December 2011
Amelia’s Magazine has reviewed MGI here
www.ameliasmagazine.com
‘Making Great Illustration is a must buy book for anyone who wants to learn more about illustration, created with great attention to detail by insiders who are immersed in this wonderful world.’
November 2011
Quentin Blake wins Prince Philip Designers Prize 2011
Quentin, featured in our Children’s Book section, was awarded the prize on 29 November. He commented ‘Illustration wants to belong in the design world. I hope this award may be a stimulus to young illustrators and a stimulus to my friends and colleagues who are working to set up the House of Illustration.
The prize recognises an outstanding contribution to UK business and society through design,
The shortlist included Ideo chief executive Tim Brown, exhibition designer Dinah Casson and Onedotzero co-founder Shane Walter engineer Cecil Balmond, medical prosthetics designer Saeed Zahedi, fashion designer Sir Paul Smith, milliner Stephen Jones and architects Sir David Chipperfield, Chris Wilkinson and Jim Eyre.
USA publication
Making Great Illustration is published in USA on November 8th by Bloomsbury Academic
October 2011
MGI Launch Night
Making Great Illustration was launched on 18 October in central London at the Cartoon Museum. It was a very successful evening with members of the press, academics from the illustration world and artists from the book all sipping on top French wine.
Editor, Alison Hawkes introduced Jo and Derek who discussed the book, speaking briefly on how it was put together and their goals for the book. Sales of the book were brisk, and the authors were pleased to be asked to do a lot of signing. The launch evening was generously supported by Plymouth University.
Derek Bainton of Swansea Metropolitan University and John O’Reilly, Varoom editor, and John Walters, editor of Eye, the international review of graphic design, talking to Jo Davies.
Photographs by Amy Feldman and Derek
MGI has been featured in the Design Week and Dexigner’s blogs, Grafik magazine’s app and Artists and Illustrators magazine.
ArtBookReview.net 29/9/11
Henry Malt
This exquisitely produced survey of contemporary work and workers in the field of illustration provides a cornucopia of images showing what’s going on in the world at the moment. With over 250 illustrations, there really is something for everyone.
The book is organised by types of work, so that you get chapters on Design and Advertising, Editorial and Political, and Fashion as well as the more technical areas of Typography and Graphic Literature. Each chapter is introduced by agents and clients within the relevant field, thus providing a buyer’s perspective from organisations such as The Conran Shop and the New York Times. In an avowedly commercial field, such a view is invaluable and adds much to the book’s appeal.
Within the chapters, the authors showcase the work of a huge variety of practitioners including Quentin Blake, Oliver Jeffers and Ronald Searle.
This is a heavyweight and authoritative volume that says pretty much all there is to be said on its subject and it’s worth noting that the standard of production even extends to the way it lays open in your hands, allowing the whole of a double-page spread to be seen without the need to force the spine. Close it up, put in on the shelf and it’ll look as good as new
September 2011
Now published! Available online and from good bookshops. Perfect Christmas present for those interested in illustration and design, or just in how amazing commercial artwork is put together.
August 2011
Alex Trochut has recently published an impressive monograph of his work, More Is More – a reference to the complexity of some of his images
The book has an amazing glow in the dark cover, which I didn’t spot until it made me jump one evening when the sun had gone down and I’d just turned a light out!
The process behind his remarkable artwork is revealed over many projects, and it’s well worth a look
July 2011
David Downton invited to be Claridges’s first Fashion artist in residence
David, who is featured in our Fashion section, is to be the renowned hotel’s premier artist in residence. David is sworn to secrecy as to who he may be sketching, but Claridges has been a regular destination for the glamourous ones.
Linda Evangelista, Hotel George V, Paris
Matthew Richardson wins competition
The House of Illustration and The Folio Society announced Matthew Richardson (in our Publishing section) as the winner of their inaugural Book Illustration Competition, ‘Getting inside The Outsider’ on 3 July at an awards ceremony in London’s Cork Street.
The competition asked entrants to produce a series of illustrations for The Folio Society’s new edition of the The Outsider by Albert Camus, featuring Meursault, an archetypal existentialist anti-hero.
The judging panel, which included renowned illustrator, AOI Patron and House of Illustration trustee Quentin Blake, writer and actor Simon Callow, and award winning illustrator Laura Carlin, chose a shortlist from the 650 competition entrants. They selected Matthew’s evocative images as the final winner.
Matthew is currently working on a year-long project to provide promotional imagery for the V&A using items from their vast collection.
The Outsider cover by Matthew Richardson
The Proofs
After a lot of back and forth with our editor, Alison Stace at A&C Black, our proofs are re-read for what feels like the millionth time, and we hope we’ve caught all the typos in the manuscript.
Phew! Now it’s off to China for printing, and then the slow boat back to the UK and USA.
Victoria & Albert Museum Illustration Awards 2011
Olivier Kugler was deservedly announced as the overall winner of the 2011 V&A Museum Illustration Awards for his illustration in French quarterly reportage magazine XXI of a truck driver’s journey across Iran.
Oliver, who is in the Topographical section of our book, and a documentary illustrator, was chosen from a shortlist of 14 candidates for the best book and editorial illustration published in the UK over the last year. His 30-page illustrated journal for XXI was inspired by travelling in Iran with Massih, a truck driver he met in Tehran. Olivier accompanied him for a four-day journey carrying bottled water down to a small island in the Persian Gulf.
The panel of judges included contemporary artist Rob Ryan (also in the book) who described the winning illustration as: “a stunning work, hard to fault – this is where drawing can top photography and copy.”
The category of Best Illustrated Book was won by Laura Carlin, also in our Topographical section, for her illustration for The Iron Man (faber and faber / Walker Books). The panel praised her sophisticated approach to colour and scale and described it a stunning example of book illustration and production.
The book is organised by types of work, so that you get chapters on Design and Advertising, Editorial and Political, and Fashion as well as the more technical areas of Typography and Graphic Literature. Each chapter is introduced by agents and clients within the relevant field, thus providing a buyer’s perspective from organisations such as The Conran Shop and the New York Times. In an avowedly commercial field, such a view is invaluable and adds much to the book’s appeal.
Within the chapters, the authors showcase the work of a huge variety of practitioners including Quentin Blake, Oliver Jeffers and Ronald Searle.
This is a heavyweight and authoritative volume that says pretty much all there is to be said on its subject and it’s worth noting that the standard of production even extends to the way it lays open in your hands, allowing the whole of a double-page spread to be seen without the need to force the spine. Close it up, put in on the shelf and it’ll look as good as new.