The results are in and we now have eleven happy recipients of the V&A Illustration Awards 2024!
A record over 2000 entries were submitted, covering artwork from the period 2022-2023. Our winners this year draw on a wide range of inspiration, spanning genres, eras, and locations across the globe. Discover the winners and runners-up for our five revised categories: Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction, Advertising and Commercial, Illustration for Children and Emerging Illustrator.
The judges for the 2024 Awards were Chris Riddell, James Albon, Maru Aguzzi and Yasmeen Ismail, chaired by V&A Director Tristram Hunt.
Visit the V&A Illustration Awards displays at V&A South Kensington. Original sketches and finished artworks, from album cover designs to animations are on show in Room 102. A popup display of selected winning books can be seen outside the National Art Library, from 18 September 2024 to 21 September 2025.
The Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year & Winner of Illustration for Children
Benjamin Phillips, Alte Zachen / Old Things by Ziggy Hanaor (Cicada Books, 2022)
Alte Zachen follows a boy and his grandmother, Bubbe, on errands around New York as she reminisces about the past. Colour is used to contrast between Bubbe’s vibrant memories and the muted grey of the present day. The judges were unanimous in praising the book’s rich imagery and narrative detail.
@benjamindraws
Winner Adult Fiction
Jorge González, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (The Folio Society, 2023)
Jorge González uses Adobe Photoshop to layer images drawn in pencil and oil pastel to visualise the atmosphere evoked by Zafón’s expressive writing. The Shadow of the Wind follows a boy into adulthood, who has become engrossed by a rare novel. He embarks on a journey of discovery to unravel the mysterious events of the author’s life.
@jorge_ilustra
Winner Adult Non-Fiction
Claire Harrup, Britain’s Landmarks and Legends by Jo Woolf (The National Trust and HarperCollins, 2023)
Claire Harrup’s enchanting artwork brings forth the atmospheric qualities of Britain’s ancient heritage sites, from mystical stone circles to isolated hermits’ caves, recalling the British romantic tradition of landscape art. The judges loved how perfectly the illustrations accompanied the book as a geographical guide to Britain’s deep-rooted folklore.
@claireharrup
Winner Advertising and Commercial
Paul Blow, album cover for New Modern Homes by The Chesterfields (Mr Mellow’s Music, 2022)
Paul Blow’s album cover for indie band The Chesterfields is inspired by their lyrics. On the album cover, a 10-foot tall man looks into a Norwegian modernist house in daylight, ‘in the right place’ but ‘at the wrong time’. The inner sleeve shows a woman inside the same house, which now glows orange in the twilight. Our judges praised Blow’s ability to convey a story using just two juxtaposing images.
@paulyblow
Winner Emerging Illustrator
Aditi Anand, Marigolds, 2023
Inspired by flower markets in her hometown in India, Aditi Anand’s illustrations tell the story of a mother teaching her child to make marigold garlands for sale. The judges admired the use of colour, evoking both the flowers’ alluring beauty and the contrast of flower sellers’ dank working conditions and reality of child labour.
@_anandaditi
Runner-up Illustration for Children
Coralie Bickford-Smith, The Squirrel and the Lost Treasure (Particular Books, 2023)
The judges praised Bickford-Smith’s use of colour, space and typography throughout her illustrations. Inspired by William Morris’s Kelmscott Press, here a playful depiction of nature is created by the artist digitally collaging layers of colour, in contrast to Morris’ 19th-century work using hand-press printing techniques.
@coraliebickfordsmith
Runner-up Adult Fiction
Mu Pan, Monkey by Wu Ch’eng-en (The Folio Society, 2023)
Mu Pan’s intricate ink drawings illustrate an abridged version of the 16th century Chinese novel ‘Journey to the West’, attributed to Wu Ch’eng-en. Pan’s work recalls the vertical framing of scenes found within Chinese scrolls.
@mupan1911
Runners-up Adult Non-Fiction
Maisy Summer, animation, Elsie Plant Hatting Hero (Hatworks Hat Museum, 2023)
By digitally cutting and collaging scanned documents from the museum’s archives, in combination with digital drawing and handcrafted line-work, Summer creates playful textures to engage the audience. The person-focussed history tells the story of Elsie Plant’s work as a women’s welfare campaigner and suffragette.
@andreaserio73
Andrea Serio, The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Vintage Classics, 2023)
The judges were impressed by how Serio successfully used the whole cover, spine included, to form an expansive illustration which wraps around the book. At the same time, each vista can stand independently, revealing the harsh but beautiful snow-filled landscape which serves as a backdrop for the Gulag prisoners.
@andreaserio73
Runner-up Advertising and Commercial
Simon Pemberton, London Philharmonic Orchestra campaign 2022/23 (London Philharmonic Orchestra, 2022)
Inspired by quotations from the composers featured in the season’s campaign A Place to Call Home, Pemberton’s work reflects on music’s ability to transport listeners away from their immediate surroundings.
@pemberton.simon
Runner-up Emerging Illustrator
Shuyan Chen, The Fliers of Gy, 2023
The judges praised the successful use of a turn-of-the-20th century influenced illustrative style. The delicate watercolour captures the conflicting emotions of the winged people from Ursula K. Le Guin’s (1929-2018) short story, whose gift of flight is sometimes a curse that can lead to death.
@kalimeris.indica
