Londoner Stuart Holmes is now based in Australia’s creative enclave of Melbourne. Trained as a graphic designer, he felt that illustration allowed him much more freedom, and he developed a flat vector style that has remained popular for well over a decade.

Stuart is addicted to vinyl and wherever he goes seeks out a record crate to dig through. He’s also a huge fan of Southampton FC, and led the team out as a mascot back when he was seven years old.

Duncan Beedie’s cartoony style comes from his background in animation. Based in Bristol, aside from drawing copious quirky images, he collects clockwork robots, can identify pretty much any military aircraft and has a dog called Ivor who you might spot here and there in his work.

Lee Hodges comes from deepest, darkest Kernowfornia – also known as Cornwall. The sea and coastline have always been a part of his life, and today he lives on the foothills of Dartmoor, in Devon. In addition to his vibrant, mixed media illustration work, Lee is a DJ and runs club arts nights in the Southwest of England. He loves to explore and experiment with a range of creative media, but drawing was his first love and that’s what drives him as an illustrator.

Crush is a truly integrated design agency providing creative solutions across all print, digital and moving media. We believe in a collaborative creative process and intelligent idea generation. We’re passionate about our work and famed for producing standout creative for clients all over the world. We don’t just want to simply make stuff look good, we want to make smart ideas look great.

Ben grew up in a small town in Yorkshire and though he now resides in Birmingham he still holds dear those formative years and his northern roots. Those that know Ben will no doubt tell you he can be a bit of a curmudgeon but that deep down there is a happy soul trying to get out and those that know his work will no doubt see the battle between happy and sad in the characters he draws and the situations they find themselves in. Ben's work is often very simple but always displays a strong emphasis on colour and a carefully considered composition. He takes much of his inspiration from the books he collects about illustrators and designers from the mid 20th century and those of new artists’ that give a nod to past styles and trends. He also fills his working days with music so as to let it seep into his soul and be transformed into something that can be seen.

Illustrator Daniel Sulzberg is based in Santa Barbara, California, and his work is infused with the easy-going creativity that his home state is famous for. It’s colourful and fun, welcoming and sometimes a little bit zany. Maybe that’s why the characters he draws so effortlessly seem to jump to life in his illustrations.

Growing up in a town called Danville, he was always Dan from Danville. After initially trying to emulate his older brother, who was a fine artist, Dan later discovered cartoons, comics and Nintendo games. Soon, he had invented Danvillage, a place for all his whimsical characters to inhabit. It’s become the moniker he works under as an illustrator.

Dan’s favourite artists include Dali, Murakami and Miyazaki, while Prince and Reggae music keep him juiced up on tunes. He also has a huge collection of 80s vinyl from his days as a DJ.

Born in Madrid and currently based in London, Edu Fuentes has been working as a freelance illustrator since 2003, combining a wide range of commercial projects with personal work and exhibitions.

With a combination of bold colours and geometry, his artwork orbits between the symbolic and the mechanical, playing with depth of field and multilayered objects. He is inspired by science, cinema and pop culture, and makes a sisyphean attempt to learn Japanese every once in a while.

His work has been featured in the books Understanding Illustration, Ghosts of Gone Birds and Three By Three Illustration Directory.

Previous clients include: Wired UK, Mayor of London, BMW, Zurich, More Than, Monocle, Times Higher Education, GT Nexus, Kaplan, WPP, Financial Management, Bulletin, STEP Journal, FM World, WeAreBold, Oxford University Press.

BloodBros. is the studio of New Zealand-born illustrator and graphic artist Emile Holmewood, who currently lives in Tokyo.

Originally a graphic designer, he was once told by a studio creative director to remember he is a "graphic designer who illustrates, and not the other way around", Emile has since worked tirelessly to prove otherwise, bringing his artistic flair to everything he does.

Nevertheless, Emile’s unique style is underpinned by graphic design principles, and contradiction is central to his work: he constructs his illustrations in cold-hearted vectors, then warms them up with playful colours, a heavy dose of humour and sometimes; animation.

Emile's inspiration comes from a vast array of eclectic sources including LEGO, life in Japan, fish, baroque paintings, bubblegum and The Simpsons – to name but a few.

Some previous clients include:

The Sunday Times, Bank of America, Apple, IBM, The Verge, 99 percent invisible (podcast), La Quinta Hotels, IEEE, Radio New Zealand, Seamless, Exxon Mobil, Toshiba, Marketing Week and Bank West

Awards

2015 Best Awards Finalist 2013 Best Awards Silver, Bronze, Finalist, Finalist 2012 Best Awards Finalist 2011 Graphis Platinum 2009 Best Awards Finalist 2008 Best Awards Silver

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.

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.

Bob Venables is the go-to illustrator for any project that requires illustrations executed in a classic style. Matisse, Hogarth, Wyeth, Rackham, Lowbrow… whatever look you’re after, Bob will deliver. He’s a pastiche illustrator par excellence.

Bob has worked on many high profile advertising campaigns, including the Profit Hunter ads for Artemis, which have run for over a decade. His versatility, eye for detail, and ability to evoke the past while conveying contemporary themes to contemporary audiences are what keep clients coming back again and again. Originally from Birmingham, Bob worked in London and established himself on the advertising scene before moving to the Isle of Wight, where life is a little more relaxed. He studied Graphic Design at Central Saint Martins gaining a BA, and did archaeological illustration for a year before becoming a freelancer.

APPROACH
Bob works in a whole range of media, depending on what’s required by the commission. On the traditional side he uses oil, acrylic, alkyd, watercolor, and pen and ink, but he’s also happy working digitally on his Wacom Cintiq.

STYLES
Primarily a pastiche illustrator, Bob is adept at recreating just about any look – from 1930s propaganda-style posters to old maps, and from neoclassical still lifes to jolly 19th century book illustrations.

CLIENT LIST
Bob works for a range of top-flight clients including Guinness, British Airways, Artemis Asset Management, the BBC, Adidas, Sony, Heinz, Tesco, Waitrose, John Smiths, FIFA, VW, BMW and the Folio Society.

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.