When she’s not in her East London studio, you can find Jenni Desmond cooking, cycling, and swapping city life for long hikes down by the sea shore or up in the hills and the mountains. Having graduated with a master’s degree in children’s book illustration from the Cambridge School of Art (UK), her debut picture book Red Cat Blue Cat won the Cambridgeshire Read it Again! Award in 2012. Her books have been translated into over twenty languages since, and in 2015 Jenni was named Best Emerging Talent (Illustrator) at the Junior Design Awards (UK). In 2016, she was made a Maurice Sendak Fellow and her book The Polar Bear became a New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book of the year.
Authors and illustrators
James Jones
James Jones is an award-winning art director, designer and illustrator who freelances for publishers all over the world. He has illustrated ‘The Perfect Fit’, which was longlisted for the Klaus Flugge Prize, ‘One More Try’, ‘The Odd Fish’ and ‘Small Steps, Big Change’. James loves to surf and practice kung fu. He lives in Cornwall with his family.
Hanako Clulow
Hanako Clulow is a freelance illustrator whose artwork draws upon a wide range of interests such as nature, animals, psychology and her native Japanese culture.
Hazel Quintanilla
Hazel Quintanilla has been drawing since she was a little girl, when she used to carry a pencil and a small notebook around in a cute furry bear face bag bought for her by her mum. She also carried cheese strings in it! She really loves dogs and illustrating with bold colours and cute shapes.
Hilli Kushnir
Hilli Kushnir is a designer and illustrator with over fifteen years of experience, creating children’s books, greeting cards, games and more. Hilli’s illustrations are cute and childlike with an emphasis on characters. Away from the computer, she loves pets, plants with strong survival skills and trying to control her hair.
Helen Poole
Helen Poole wanted to be a children’s book illustrator from as early as she can remember. Since graduating with a BA Hons in Illustration she has worked both as a designer and illustrator. Her favourite aspect of illustration is character development and she loves creating fun, whimsical worlds with bright, vibrant colours. She keeps her sketchbook with her at all times because inspiration often strikes in the unlikeliest of places!
Isabel Muñoz
Isabel studied Fine Arts at the University Complutense of Madrid, Spain. Painting for a living was her dream, and now she’s proud to be the illustrator of several children books. She works from a tiny and colourful studio in northern Spain.
Hoang Giang
Giang has been working as a children’s book illustrator for more than 10 years. She works in a studio with her partner and three cats. She also loves comics and graphic novels, and dreams of one day finding the time to make her own comic book.
Irene Montano
Grace Habib
Grace Habib started out at a greeting card company as a kids card designer. Soon after, she found her passion as a children’s illustrator. In her free time she enjoys nature parks, visiting local bakeries, and coffee shops. Her favorite baked good is a chocolate croissant.
