Shirley Hughes

She was born and grew up on the Wirral her father owned the well known apartment store TJ Hughes, she studies at Liverpool art school and in Oxford at the Ruskin School of Art, she then went on to become one of the countries best illustrators. Her first commercial illustrations were for other writers, but she went onto design her own books, her first one was Lucy and Tom's Day in 1960. One of the most loved books and best known of hers is Dogger which in 1977 won the Kate Greenaway award, her second of these was for her own adaptation of Cinderella, it was published as Ella's big chance.
The authenticity and creativeness in this picture book are outstanding to the point where you can see sense the texture of her clothes illustrated in the book all of which were designed by Shirley.

Her book Ella's Big Chance

An exhibition of her work has been held at the Ashmoleun Museum in Oxford and the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool. An autobiography of Shirley was published in 2002 by Bodley Head which gave an insight into the artists lifetime of illustrative work.

She is now 86 years of age and has written and illustrated hundreds of books and still has the creativity and vision which she comes on after more than 40 years of illustrating. My admiration of this great artist is immense. Her ability to turn an illustration into a theoretical allusion is outstanding this ability is epitomized in the beautiful Ella's Chance.

Johnny Hannah

He was born in Scotland in 1962 after leaving school, he gained a place to study illustration at Liverpool Art School since graduating from the Royal College of Art he has worked as an illustrator, his collaboration with Jonathan Hudson culminated in the piece for Channel 4 'The Man With The Beautiful Eyes' a short animation which went onto win a BAFTA in 2000.

Johnny enjoys success also with the his own company cakes and the press, which specializes in screen printing  In 2001 he co published The Captains Alphabet with Peter Sampson. His first book Hot Jazz Special was published by Walker books it is a creation of red hot rhymes and bold poster style art, which in 2005 was shortlisted for the V & A Museum illustration award, taking 2nd place for its beautiful illustrations.

His book Hot Jazz Special

Johnny's advertising and design work have included clients such as Vogue, New York Times and the english national opera. His most recent work is one of his illustrations for his wife's book of Poetry called Collected From The Sea.

His inspiration is drawn from music especially jazz, I admire his work it is stunningly detailed and his illustrations are beautiful.

Neville Brody

Neville Brody is an internationally renowned designer, typographer, art director and consultant, he is also the founder of the highly acclaimed research studios network he is deeply involved in every aspect of their work.
He was born in London and after finishing school he successfully gained a place to study art at Hornsey School of Art and the London College of printing where he now has a place as visiting professor after college he went onto create record covers with Rocking Russian a design agency founded in the punk and new wave era. In 1980 he joined stiff records a label formed at the outset of the punk rock boom. His vision and creativity led to his appointment as an art director at fetish records an independent label where he went onto produce some of his most iconic and removable work.

In 1981 he became the art director of The Face a magazine with whom he stayed for 5 years until 1986 when he joined arena Men's style magazine. In 1988 an exhibition of his work was displayed at the V & A Museum to coincide with The Graphic Language of Neville Brody his first monograph which went on to become the worlds best selling design book.

His Book

His studio was renamed in 1994 to Research Studios at the same time of his release of his second book.
Major clients of his have included Sony PlayStation  BBC and mainstream newspapers The Guardian and The Times, his branding's have included Kenzo perfumes.
He has produced groundbreaking work for fuse by font shop a company which Brody was a partner of. His most recent work include his new book Neville Brody and exhibitions including one at the Rocker gallery in Tokyo.

He has pushed to the limit with his work not only his own visual communication but the worlds, his work as a designer is summed up as being an open minded statement only completed when the person looking at it has reached his or her own conclusion, which is the basis of Art. His work is exceptionally ground breaking which is my attraction to this great designer.

Lauren Child

She was born in November 29, 1965 in Berkshire. She is a writer and illustrator. She has written many books she is well know for her books Charlie and Lola which has also been turned into a television series. And also another of her well know book series is Clarice Bean

In her teens she attended the city and Guilds art school but she left after only a year attending instead of school she chose the working world. What she did was before her career started she became an assistant for artist Damien Hirst and started her own company of making lamp shades. Then she moved onto illustration and she wrote and her own book called Clarice Bean, That’s Me I early 1990 it did take a few years fer her to find a publisher to publish the book though in 1999.

Clarice Bean is about a five year old and she lives in a madcap family. She created the character Clarice when she was on a trip to New York. In each of the books you will find Clarice in a predicament that children can relate too. As the series continued the young Clarice has grown up and the more recent volumes take her from a picture book to a chapter book format. In new ones she tries too solve a mystery at her school the theft of a trophy she was hoping that she would win and also another mystery the disappearance of her best friend. ." A critic for Kirkus Reviews wrote that "Child not only gives Clarice a distinctive preteen voice, but captures the chaos around her with plenty of sketchy, interspersed ink drawings and collages."

Clarice Bean Utterly Me by Lauren Child

After the Clarice series she moved onto Charlie and Lola for the toddler set, Lauren tells interactions between the big brother and her little sister, this has also been made into a television series and the books are all illustrated using the stills from the series.

One of the books called I Am Too Absolutely Small for School addresses Lola's nervousness at heading off to the first day of school. The book describe the brother and sister as Lola is an opinionated and determined attitude and that Charlie has the ability to gently wooing her onto the better path through his child's eye view of the world that have made the "Charlie and Lola" books extremely popular with both parents and children.