Barbara Bongini was born in Milan. She knew at an early age that she will be an artist. She went to an artistic high school and later enrolled in the Illustration program at the IED (European Institute of Design). After graduation, she pursued a career in children’s publishing, illustrating several series for different age groups for the largest Italian publishing houses. Barbara has considerable experience in the advertising field as well, designing packaging materials, leaflets, brochures, posters, characters and background for cartoon series. Barbara is also an author of several series of moveable children’s game-books and an album on modern art for children. When not illustrating, Barbara loves spending time with her 2 kids, watching cartoons. She also enjoys going to bookstores and building her own library of illustrated books. Her clients include: La Coccinella, Mondadori, Giunti, Raffaello Editrice, Il Capitello, Piccoli, Signorelli, Istituto Geografico De Agostini, Nicola Milano Editore, La Spiga Languages, Edizioni Piemme,EL editrice, Mondadori, Emme edizioni, Einaudi, Usborne, Ladybird, Penguin Group, Scholastic, Story Time magazine, Highlights High Five magazine, Parmalat. Below are some of her recent projects, How to Grow a Monster: Gardening by Kiki Thorpe (Kane Press), The Lost and Found Weekend: Sewing by Kiki Thorpe (Kane Pr), Milano. Il gioco dell'arte by Sabrina Carollo (Mandragora), Beauty and the Very Beastly Beast & Cinderella and her Very Bossy Sisters by Mark Sperring (Scholastic), My U.S.A. Road Trip Personalized Storybook by Jennifer Dewing (I See Me), Il meraviglioso mago da Oz di L. Frank Baum by Silvia Roncaglia (Emme Edizioni), Miti del mistero. Miti greci per i piccoli by Sarah Rossi (Emme Edizioni), Usborne's Magic Painting Book series (Usborne), Fairy Ponies series by Zanna Davidson (Usborne), Al lupo, al lupo! by Stefano Bordiglioni (Emme Edizioni), Classicini series (EL), L'Incredibile Signorina Frisby by Tiziana Merani & I tre porcellini si mettono a dieta by Marica Bersan (Einaudi Ragazzi), Cleopatra, regina del deserto by Sabina Colloredo & Pablo Picasso, artista rivoluzionario by Sarah Rossi (EL).

Experienced and versatile, Mark Oliver has a bold, graphical style that is as impactful as it is engaging. His line work, color and compositional skills are second to none, and his background in advertising means he knows exactly how to meet an art director’s brief with innovative new approaches.

Even when he worked at Alliance International, Mark took the opportunity to illustrate his own ads. With over 20 years under his belt as a freelance illustrator, today he creates imagery for some of the biggest brands and top names in publishing. Now based in Worthing on the South Coast, he’s inspired by Raymond Loewy, Hergé and Eduardo Paolozzi. Mark has a degree in Graphic Design from Middlesex University.

APPROACH
Mark has used a wide range of media during his career, from physical painting and collage through to Illustrator and Photoshop. Most projects these days are tackled digitally, but he loves to draw and paint as well if it suits the commission.

STYLES
Mark works in a variety of styles that he adapts to suit the requirements of a job. His favorite at the moment involves an isometric perspective, geometric shapes and a distressed finish with a retro palette.

CLIENT LIST
Mark’s impressive client list includes Macmillan, Visa, Toyota, Volkswagen, The Times, Punch, Faber & Faber, Penguin Books, Macmillan, Bloomsbury, OUP and British Gas.

Using a dynamic combination of color and the ‘inspired mark’, Katharine Asher’s fluid brushwork and creative flare help secure commissions from clients around the globe, in a wide range of sectors. While she specializes in fashion and beauty, Katherine enjoys tackling a wide variety of briefs, applying her expertise, energy and elegance of line.

As well as her illustration work, Kathy creates conceptual art, exploring process works and installations. Pigment, viscosity and movement are key factors in her art, and occasionally glimmers of her personal work transfer into her illustrations. She has studied graphics, illustration and fine art, and some of her influences include Paul Jenkins, Keith Tyson, Cornelia Parker, Anish Kapoor, René Gruau and Kathe Kollwitz.

APPROACH
Kathy has a spontaneous and playful approach to a brief, choosing the medium that best suits the job in hand. “One of the joys of working in this way is focusing in the moment, using a triptych of experience, knowledge and happenstance,” she says.

STYLE
Kathy’s work is often light and minimal, relying on strong lines, deftly applied and mark-making techniques. She uses watercolor and ink, using color to highlight and accentuate her figurative work rather than to dazzle.

CLIENT LIST
Some of Katharine’s clients include Swarvoski, Bulgari, Louis Vuitton, Harrods, Calvin Klein, GQ, Ministry of Sound, Royal Mail, Marks & Spencer, Max Factor and Cartier.

Loud, lively, frenetic and expressive, Ben Tallon’s artwork captures the many moods of modern life thanks to his instinctive drawing style and ample splashes of ink, brush marks and scribbles. His ability to organize chaotic creativity and turn it into a captivating image is exactly what his clients want.

Growing up in Keighley, West Yorkshire, Ben loved Leeds United, wrestling and video games as a child. They still give him inspiration today, and sometimes feature in his work, alongside pop icons and TV stars. Now located in London, Ben is passionate about creativity and is the author of Champagne and Wax Crayons, as well as the host of the podcast Arrest All Mimics. He has a BTEC in Graphic Design from Keighley College, and a BA in Illustration from the University of Central Lancashire.

APPROACH
Pens, inks, brushes, found materials and textures, acrylics, spray paint, pastels, wax and colored pencils – Ben is very much a mixed media creative. He’ll use worn out old brushes that have a little more depth and character than new ones, and favors the unexpected or happy accident. Photoshop is used to layer everything together and finalize the composition.

STYLE
Ben’s style is loose and organic, full of marks and gaps because he likes to engage viewers by leaving something to the imagination.

AWARDS
2015 – Dot London Small Business Awards – Creative Agency of the Year

CLIENT LIST
Ben has been commissioned by clients including The Guardian, EasyJet, Adidas, World Wrestling Entertainment, Comic Relief, Channel 4, The Wall Street Journal, UNICEF and more.

Jyotirmayee Patra – also known as JP – is India’s leading artist for custom lettering, playfully embellished with beautifully rendered flowers, intriguing animals, graphic shapes and lively textures.

Based in Rourkela, JP’s passion for calligraphy has led to a career in illustrative lettering, using her talent to imbue her clients’ projects with tone and atmosphere. Botanical drawings and organic patterns are two of her main inspirations, alongside the abstract artist Jessi Raulet. She studied at India’s National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, learned professional calligraphy from Harvest Crittenden, and has taught copperplate calligraphy workshops. JP is a hoarder of unique stationery and pens, loves fairy lights and is a yoga practitioner with an interest in cosmic energy, astral projection and conscious manifestation. “Joining IllustrationWeb was one of my manifestation goals not so long ago, so I believe I have decent manifestation skills!” she says.

APPROACH
Everything begins with an inspiring quote, copy relating to the brief, or a central image. After refining her focal point, JP surrounds it with detailed flowers, characters and foliage, playing with the composition until it’s perfectly balanced.

STYLES
JP’s type and illustrations are infused with nature, with bold main forms softened by whimsical detail. While her earlier type-based work is black and white and emphasizes her rendering skills, her latest images pop with color.

AWARDS
Winner – INDIAFRICA: A Shared Future Poster Awards – 2012

CLIENT LIST
JP’s client list includes Snapchat, Makemytrip, DesignUp, Asian Paints, St+Art India, Levi's, Snap-on Incorporated, Design Stack, Bakheda, IxIDEAS Consulting, AGoodFeeling and Hornet Inc.

Decue Wu has clients in editorial, fashion and publishing who all love her illustration work for its bold style, bright colors, optimistic vibe and the intriguing way she combines patterns and textures. She gives every project a classic illustration feel, with the hand of the artist always present.
Based in Boston, Decue is originally from China and works for clients all round the world. Fashion is one of her biggest inspirations and her favorite designers include Yves St Laurent, Helmut Lang, Hussein Chalayan, Alexander McQueen and Rei Kawakubo. “To me, their designs are fine art and bring fashion to a whole new level in the history of art,” she says. She has an MFA in Illustration Practice from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and previously studied Digital Media Art at Zhejiang University in China.

APPROACH
Most of Decue’s work is done using Photoshop and Illustrator, but she also combines hand-made textures, screenprinting and collage work to give her illustrations something extra.

STYLES
Decue’s fashion images often feature long, thin figures in a freehand style and vibrant colors. Her lifestyle illustrations usually have a more restrained palette, geometric shapes and patterns, and interesting brush and paper textures. She also creates graphic art and infographics, going for a cleaner look, using simple vector shapes and geometric forms.

AWARDS
2014 Hiii Illustration Merit 2014 Taipei Art Competition Winner

CLIENT LIST
Some of Decue’s clients include Vogue, Airbnb, Esquire, MIT, Modern Weekly China, Obscura Magazine, The Bump, Draw A Dot and Hopes and Fears.

Lisa Sheehan lives and works as an illustrator in Bedfordshire. During her BA Illustration at Kingston University (many moons ago) she decided she wanted to become a 3D artist/model maker. Back then that meant literally making the model shooting it and all the faff that went with it, which as a young graduate seemed all a bit too much so Lisa fell into the world of graphic design becoming an Art Director for the Financial Times and spent the next 15 years commissioning CGI artists. The drive to create never left and the desire to produce her own work became so strong that she decided to create the illustrations herself. By working night and day, to grasp the technology of the CGI wizardry, her dreams of ‘model making’ were now back on track albeit within the digital world.

Lisa is a 2D/3D ‘image maker’ producing imaginative CGI illustrations that are often typographical with a pop of colour. Lisa loves to create fun pieces with detailed delicate forms as well as mixing 2D and 3D to create illustrations for advertising and editorial work. The idea that you can, with CGI technology, create almost anything your creative mind can conjure up continues to inspire Lisa every day.

Lisa works part time for the Financial Times as an art director and in-house illustrator, she has extensive magazine cover art-direction experience, having art directed several Financial Times magazines. Lisa is also a published Children’s book illustrator/Author, with an MA in Children’s book illustration from Cambridge school of art.

Previous clients include: Business Life Magazine from British Airways, Tesco, Women’s Health UK, Cosmopolitan UK, Fabulous Magazine (The Sun on Sunday), The New Statesman, The Financial Times, FT Weekend, Accounting Monthly Magazine, The Banker Magazine, Investors Chronicle, FDI Magazine, Money Management, Nikkei.

Shortlisted for the AOI World Illustration Awards 2018.

Michael Koelsch is an illustrator, designer and digital artist who acknowledges the beliefs of some of the great illustrators of retro era 50's and 60's - the giants like Coby Whitmore and Austin Briggs, who thought that keeping up with the times and evolving your style is as important as your sense of design and color... along with the fundamentals of drawing and painting.

He has worked with every major publishing house, countless advertising agencies, and a large number of design agencies and magazines. Best known for his retro style and horror film posters, Michael Koelsch continues to evolve and adjust his styles for each client.

Jeffrey Fulvimari began his illustration career in 1993, and soon he was working on prestigious jobs, including commissions for Barney’s New York and regular contributions to Interview magazine. Over the years, he has gone on to work in nearly all aspects of printed media, including advertising, sales promotion and editorial layouts. His illustrations have also been animated and broadcast on Nickelodeon, MTV and VH-1, The Food Network and numerous television commercials in Japan. Jeffrey is most recently known to a wide audience for his collaboration with Madonna, illustrating her wildly successful 13 volume set of children’s books entitled The English Roses.

In 1998 Jeffrey was invited to exhibit his work at the Parco Gallery in Tokyo, which in turn launched his Japanese career. He has published two monographs in Japan: It’s OK and Everything’s Gonna Be Alright (1998) and Jeffrey Fulvimari’s Greatest Hits (2003), an eclectic collection of drawings, photos, songs and poems. He has since exhibited extensively with solo shows of his paintings and drawings throughout Japan and Asia.

Beginning in 1999, Jeffrey has produced a broad range of licensed goods in Japan and has also launched popular product lines in the US, the UK, France, Italy, Mexico and other territories. These products – covering the gamut of apparel, stationery, handbags, leather goods, bath products, household items and footwear – are sold in quality outlets including Barnes and Noble, Kohl’s, Mark’s and Spencer, Top Shop and others.

Doug’s drawings focus on architecture and detail featuring colourful, highly detailed compositions of surreal and fantastical architecture. His architectural drawing has been published and exhibited internationally including at The Royal Academy, The Slade and Roca Gallery’s. His illustration work has been commissioned by publications such as The New York Times, Wired and Empire Magazine. Alongside editorial work Doug has worked for companies such as Netflix on concept design for films, often directly with the film makers themselves, helping bring their architectural visions to life.

Doug completed his bachelor’s and Masters degrees in Architecture at UCL where his project ‘The San Francisco Columbarium’ won him the SOM Fellowship, Bartlett and Donaldson Medals. Doug now teaches part time running architecture and landscape design studios at the Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL.