Like all kids, David found he loved to draw at a young age. He stuck with it through his whole life and has developed a frank, accurate approach to portraying the emotions of the subject. His influences have long included many classical artists of the 19th century and Golden Age illustrators. David studied Illustration at Brigham Young University and worked for over a decade as a Disney artist while refining his illustrative style. He can handle a range from light and stylized to realistic and accurate and has worked with clients from editorial, publishing, advertising, video game design, even coin design for the U.S. Mint. David lives with his artistic wife and four muse children in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Christine Battuz was born in France and currently residing in Bromont, Quebec, Canada. She started drawing at 3 when she was able to hold a pen. Growing up, Christine was inspired by her mother’s collection of painting all over her house. She studied in Italy and received her Masters of Fine Arts at the Academy of Fine Arts of Perugia. After graduating, she was uncertain as to what to do with her diploma. A good friend who is a designer predicted and convinced her that she was an illustrator. Interestingly enough, this wonderful friend later turned out to become her husband. She has illustrated over sixty children books, published in North America, Korea and Europe. Her work appears in educational books, magazines, toys and toys packaging. She teaches art to adults and children of all ages. When not illustrating, she loves trail running and skiing with her husband and son.

Hector was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina where he currently resides with his wife Silvana and daughter, Micaela. He had initially studied to become a lawyer but found his true passion was illustration. He began his career as a graphic designer and then eventually developed into an illustrator. Hector published his first illustration in Argentina at age 19. His work has appeared in advertising campaigns, magazines, newspapers and textbooks in several countries including Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Mexico. In 2002, Hector decided to pursue the American market and during his first visit to NY, he landed a series of books for Scholastic. While not illustrating, Hector enjoys playing soccer and perfecting his tango.

André Ceolin is a self-taught illustrator from Brazil He started his first attempt at sketching around the age of four when his father brought home some reams of paper from work. It was in that moment that he fell in love with painting and drawing. André initially got a degree in pharmacy at UNIMEP. Though he worked in this field for several years, his artistic passion was too strong to ignore. As a young father, he was surrounded by beautiful children’s books and was always drawn to the spontaneity of the imagery. He then decided to switch gears and studied at School of Visual Arts in NYC, Melies, and Escola Panamericana de Artes to develop a signature look and learned new illustration techniques. He illustrated his first book “Um Dia na Vida de Micaela” de Cauê by Steinberg Milano, published by Editora Roda & Cia in 2009. Ever since, he has illustrated over 20 books by great publishers in Brazil such as Roda & Cia, Saber e Ler, SM, Moderna, FTD, Editora do Brasil, Editora Abril. He loves working with books targeting juvenile readers from the very young age to middle-grade and young adult. When not illustrating, he creates toys and small sculptures for his son. He also enjoys bicycling, playing his guitar, and, singing.

Born in La Plata, Argentina, Maine Diaz, grew up drawing and painting. She was often seen drawing with her pencils or crayons in deep concentration. Cartoons captured her imagination early on and realized immediately that she wants to be an animator when she grows up. Her mother, a biochemist and grandfather were truly flabbergasted upon hearing her declaration. At the age of 16 she took a workshop and start animating, working in films like Patoruzito, El Arca (Patagonik, Argentina), Gizaku and Nocturna (Filmax, Spain). Simultaneously, she enrolled in Audiovisual Communication at Universidad DeLa Plata (UNLP). Soon after, she also started illustrating for children’s story books and educational books. In 2002 with Crimsomnia Studio, she was a finalist at Ford’s “Saldras mas” publicity contest, with “Habitos noctunos” short. In 2005 she won first prize for the character design category of Bizpills (Hi Impatc Learning Experiences), España.

Currently, Maine lives in a tiny green house where she spends time with her two cats, Chula and Lola. She loves tending her garden while Chula eats all the plants and Lola jumps and climbs the trees. Maine prefers to be barefoot while painting and singing in her studio. She is a pretty good cook and sweated several years near the oven and many pans. When not illustrating, she also enjoys swimming, writing, taking photos.

Jose Emroca Flores grew up in a humble family of four from Northern Nevada where he spent much of his youth actively outdoors skateboarding, playing baseball, and snowboarding. He has always been creative and imaginative on paper and outdoors. Building makeshift skate ramps from scrapwood was the norm in his childhood. He’d round up the kids from the cul-de-sac and they’d skate late into the evenings. He moved to California after high school to play baseball and pursue his art. Emroca later attended the Academy of Art in San Francisco where he learned to develop the ability to materialize his imagination while advancing his technique as a visual artist. On his downtime from school, he’d still skateboard and snowboard and started to surf in the sharky cold San Francisco waters. It was then when he stumbled upon his forever two loves of his life: his new found passion for the ocean and his beautiful wife. When he graduated from the Academy of Art, he immediately went to work as a visual development artist in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. In the course of his work on films, games, animation, books, and advertising, his original oil paintings were shown in galleries across the U.S.

Margeaux Lucas was born on Halloween, so she loves spooky things like black cats, full moons, and very starry nights. She began drawing constantly from age four, amazing her friends with pictures of people and animals, especially horses, which were her favorite. Her love of picture books came from the many hours she spent before bedtime reading from the collection at her grandmother's house. As a teenager she loved fashion, but found that she was better at drawing than sewing. She studied Graphic Design in school, but is largely self-taught as an illustrator. Margeaux loves to travel, and three of her favorite cities are Paris, London and New York, her current home. Margeaux's work reflects her love of fashion, nature, and the many shapes, sizes and colors that people come in, plus the constant exuberance of children.

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.

The award-winning cartoonist and illustrator Henry Smith is based in Salt Lake City, Utah. He’s an artist who was captivated by cartoons at an early age and never grew out of them. Now, they’re his career and he’s made a name for himself designing unique characters that are full of humour.

“A great character can be designed if you pay attention to the silhouette. Is it something we've seen before? I like to use geometric shapes in fun ways to see if I can get more interesting characters, and making my characters as weird as possible, while still being cute and approachable,” he says.

There’s certainly a 90s vibe in his inspiration cabinet – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Powerpuff Girls and SpongeBob SquarePants are to be found there, along with classic video games like Pokemon Blue and Super Smash Bros. With a graphic design background, he’s also influenced by mid-century modernism. Henry is a keen volleyball player, listens to Country, Rock and Rap, and enjoys the company of his wife and their two sassy dogs.

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.

Nadia Taylor is a designer and printmaker based in London. Her colourful prints are filled with bold shapes and striking pattern. She loves screen-printing and the whole process informs her work – from the use of a limited colour palette to the incorporation of textures and dark outlines. Her work projects range from large-scale hand-painted murals, packaing, book covers, greeting cards, gift wrap, menus and farm signs with a list of clients including Ikea, Target, Mr Kipling, and Zizzi Restaurants.

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.

Juan was originally from Buenos Aires. As a young boy, he was always drawn to creating images. His first “job” was to color his newborn brother’s head in bright felt pens. He spent most of his childhood years living in the countryside and cultivating his passion for painting. After studying graphic design, he lectured at the university and worked as an in-house illustrator for different studios with clients ranging from Warner, Disney, Conspiracy and Scholastic. In 2003, Juan and his wife, Patricia decided to travel the Americas and ended up living in different countries. In 2006, they finally crossed the pond and decided to stay in Barcelona, where he started a career as a freelance illustrator.

Below are some of his most recent projects, Halloween display for Hershey’s, The Boy Who Cried Wolf by Nancy Loewen (Picture Window Books), Aprende el abecedario con adivinanza by Ramón Besora Oliva & Olga Xirinacs (Beascoa), An Interesting Pea Story by Evgenia Kolida (Modern Times), Cuentos Japoneses by Anna Gasol & Teresa Blanch Gasol (Edebe).

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.

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.