Ross Collins

Glaswegian children's illustrator Ross Collins is one of my favourite and I think most referenced designers. Recipient of an abundance of awards including a Macmillan Prize (1994), Scottish Children's Book Award (2011) and an Oppenheim Award (American design awards), Collins is no stranger to success.

One of Collins' charming illustrations.

Having over one hundred illustrated publications to his name, Ross has exhibited his work on a global scale at major cities like New York and London as well as being a regular at international book festivals where he continually showcases, exhibits and sells his work as well as also being a favourite at primary schools where he hosts talks and workshops with eager children (his target audience!)

Having built up an extensive portfolio, there's no wonder that his range of established and renowned clients include Disney and Pixar for whom he does Animation Character Development.

I really like the fact that Collins really concentrates on his target audience and works with them in workshops in order to perhaps get a better understanding of the types of stories that they want to read and develop the characters under their instruction to improve his work in the long run.

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Lauren Child

As the creator, author and illustrator of the children's book series "Charlie & Lola", Lauren Child MBE has been a household name for young children all over the world for well over ten years now.

The first book in the Charlie & Lola series "I Will Never
Not Ever Eat a Tomato" (2000)

The award winning series (which made it into the Top 10 all-time winners of the prestigious Kate Greenaway Medal and the eventually landing third place in a public vote) spawned the start of a successful line of works for Lauren including the brilliant Clarice Bean series, the Ruby Redfort series of books and also most recently a series of books illustrating the adventures of the classic Anne of Green Gables, another highly successful series.

Having young relatives I have come across these books, especially the Charlie & Lola series frequently and have always admired the illustrations inside. I love the use of simple block colours and sparse line which are simple yet effective.

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Shirley Hughes

Shirley Hughes is an award winning English author and Illustrator who over a 50 year career has sold over 11 million copies of her 50 published books whilst using her illustrative talents to design hundred more.

Above: An image from Hughes' award winning book "Dogger" (1977)

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Liverpool-born Hughes has received wide recognition for her work to literacy and for her brilliant children's stories and collections, perhaps most notably of which being her series "Alfie" (which ran from 1981 to 2001). This collection tells stories of the eponymous character as he faces simple adventures in his everyday life (for example making friends, cheering up peers etc). A very innocent and light-hearted series of books which have captured the insterests of young children for over 30 years.

I'm a huge fan of the type of illustrations that Shirley creates, I admire the fact that the drawings are quite rough yet still managing to appear realistic with her use of colour and tone. One thing I discovered that really interested me was the original rough drawings from the Alfie collection (pre-publication):

Original rough drawings of the "Alfie" book collection.