V&A Illustration Awards 2019 shortlist announced

From the frantic world of the comic book to sun-soaked pear blossoms of Florida, this year’s shortlist encompasses a broad range of styles and global influences.

The winning published entries will be judged by Olivia Ahmed, Curator at the House of Illustration and Editor of Varoom Magazine, Nicholas Coleridge, Chairman of the V&A Trustees and Chairman of Condé Nast and Jessica Voorsanger, Artist and Academic.

The 2019 Student Illustrator of the Year Award judging panel comprises Suzanne Dean, Creative Director at Vintage, Penguin Random House and Book Cover Winner 2018 and Cat O’Neil, Illustrator and Editorial Winner 2018. Winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the V&A on Thursday 16th May, the evening before the display opens.

The winners of each of the four categories – Best Illustrated Book, Book Cover Design, Illustrated Journalism and Student Illustrator – will each receive £3,000 prize. The overall winner will receive an additional £5,000 and will be honoured with the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year Prize, named in memory of the late Moira Gemmill, the V&A’s former Director of Design.

"The museum aims to encourage and reward the best quality book, journalistic and student illustration in the UK from the previous year," says Julius Bryant, Keeper of Word & Image. "This initiative is core to the ambitions and aspirations of the V&A. As well as offering prize money to winners, we also display their work in the museum offering an important platform to illustrators working today."

Previous winners of the Illustration Awards include Sir Quentin Blake, Ralph Steadman, Posy Simmonds, Sara Fanelli, and Yasmeen Ismail. The competition has been running since 1972.

The 2019 shortlist is as follows:

2019 Student Illustrator of the Year

Harry Woodgate, University of Hertfordshire: Invisible Cities
Junli Song, Anglia Ruskin University: Dance
Sophie Burrows, Anglia Ruskin University: Crushing
Yanyin Xu, UAL Camberwell College of Arts: One By One
Ying Wang, Camberwell College of Arts: Food Journey in London

Book Illustration

Chris Samnee for Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (The Folio Society)
Nora Krug for Heimat (Particular Books)
Matthew Richardson for Speeches of Note (Hutchinson)

Book Cover Design

Bill Bragg for Appointment in Samarra (Vintage Classics)
Yehrin Tong for Their Eyes Were Watching God published (Virago)
Jake Abrams for The Largesse of the Sea Maiden (Jonathan Cape)

Illustrated Journalism

A Richard Allen for Experts (The Sunday Telegraph)
Erin Aniker for Spot Reduction is a Myth (The Washington Post)
Matthew Hancock for Paper Tiger (The Marylebone Journal)

Discover more at www.vam.ac.uk.