The top ten rising stars of illustration

The top ten rising stars of illustration were revealed in London overnight evening by Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne, at an exhibition of their work.

The ten illustrators were crowned the Booktrust Best New Illustrators 2011, only the second time the award has been bestowed since its inception in 2008.

The winning illustrators will receive their Awards from Charlie and Lola author/illustrator Lauren Child, who along with Anthony was one of the judges on the 2011 Award. The exhibition will launch at the Illustration Cupboard gallery in London, where the Awards event was held.


The Booktrust Best New Illustrators 2011 are:

Joe Berger
Claudia Boldt
Katie Cleminson
Chris Haughton
Alice Melvin
Sara Ogilvie
Levi Pinfold
Salvatore Rubbino
Viviane Schwarz
Kevin Waldron

The final ten represent the best rising talent in the field of illustration today, who demonstrate remarkable creative flair, artistic skill and boundless imagination in their work. One further illustrator – Susan Steggall – was highly commended by the judges.

The judging panel for this year’s Award comprised:

Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne; Director of Literature Strategy at Arts Council England, Antonia Byatt; author/illustrator Lauren Child; founder of the Illustration Cupboard John Huddy and author/illustrator Ken Wilson-Max.

Anthony Browne, Children’s Laureate comments:

‘Sitting on the judging panel for the 2011 Booktrust Best New Illustrators Award has been enormously exciting. In the judging meeting colour popped out at us, detail begged to be pored over, wonderful characters bounded through the pages and words and pictures left enough imagination-fuelling gaps in meaning to make us want to instantly revisit them! As a panel we were awed by the sheer range of styles and were thrilled to see how both classic and modern approaches are being successfully harnessed to bring children and adults alike some of the most innovative, fresh and skilled illustration being published today. When we had finally reached our decision we were left with a palpable sense that these 10 are the illustration stars of the future.’