All of You Every Single One, a literary novel set in the bohemian enclave of early 20th century Vienna, follows a group of queer-identifying characters before and during World War II. The process behind the cover took a few starkly different courses before settling on an approach that focused specifically on artists of the Vienna Secession movement. The original idea from the Art Director, Deb Wood, was to focus on sense of place and/or a single object that could represent the story. One of the key characters in the story is a tailor and so I felt that the thread/needle/mannequin represented a key element of the story. I wanted to include some of the striking typography that is relevant to the period.

In my early twenties, I lived in Morocco for some time. One night, I got robbed in the Marrakech express. Everybody was asleep except me, and when the train stopped in Meknes, a guy jumped into the compartment and tore my bag away from me. There was nothing of great value in it – except my sketchbook.

Followers is about the deep, profound relationships shared among women. The novel is set in New York City. Its backdrop is a futuristic, modern world, rich with complicated and dark twists. We are introduced to Orla and Floss who are ambitious, young, and ruthless. They will stop at nothing to achieve their goals of megastardom. Their journey parallels the future of media consumption and the obsession with celebrity. In the end, it’s ultimately an optimistic story about love, friendship, and ambition. 

The invitation to illustrate the cover of Followers was somewhat unconventional. I was brought on to the project at the request of the author, Megan Angelo. Megan had found my work through my agency representation, Lindgren & Smith. Megan was attracted to my portfolio of work as it is primarily women-focused and depicted “femaleness” as bold, bright, and modern.

Last year, graphic novel sales drastically outpaced the growth rate of other print publishing. More and more readers are drawn to the marriage of art and storytelling that goes into books like Sea Sirens, a new middle-grade novel about a Vietnamese-American surfer and her water-loving cat. Spine sat down with Eisner Award-winning illustrator Janet K. Lee as well as writer and co-founder of Alpha Girl Comics Amy Chu to talk about bringing their graphic novel to life.

Samantha Hahn is a Brooklyn-based illustrator and creative director with an astounding body of work. She has hand-lettered magazine covers for Vogue and Marie Claire, done illustrative reportage for the likes of Marc Jacobs and Jonathan Simkhai, and produced beautiful book covers for Penguin Random House and St Martins Press. They are just a few of her illustrious clients. Others include New York Magazine, Tiffany's, Conde Nast and Saatchi & Saatchi.

When artist and illustrator Amber Vittoria confronted portrayals of women in the art she saw in museums, she was discouraged. Frustrated. Disenfranchised. Vittoria simply did not see herself in the frame, so she decided to create images of women that speak to who she is and what inspires her. To few’s surprise, Vittoria’s authenticity, in conjunction with her talent and skill, paid off. Vittoria’s playful, colorful, jubilant designs have been picked up by brands like NBC, Gucci, New York Times, and Instagram, just to name a few. As a freelance artist and New York Resident, Vittoria spends her days investing in her own creative practice and bringing whatever inspires her to her client work.

Back in 2014, writer Mira Jacob's six-year-old son Z became obsessed with Michael Jackson. He wanted to dance like Michael, he wanted to look like Michael, and what began as Z's questions about his pop-star obsession spread into deeper questions about skin and color and race and family. Jacob is East Indian and her husband is Jewish, and Z wanted to understand who he was.

When Z learned about the killing of Michael Brown, a black man shot to death by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, the questions grew more complex, and carried fear.

An illustrator’s workspace is both modern and anachronistic: it welcomes the design world’s most innovative trends, all the while honoring the human hand and the old-fashioned, often messy tools at its disposal. Such is the studio of Toronto-based illustrator Lynn Scurfield, whose life-affirming creations make use of both Macintosh and gouache, Adobe and acrylic. In a quiet corner of a quiet suburb, Scurfield illustrates for clients like Macmillan, The New York Times,  and The Atlantic, just to name a few. Scurfield calls her workspace a “nice corner of shared living space where outside the window a squirrel comes by to visit often.”

M.S. Corley designs, illustrates, and dabbles in all stories dark. Along with his friends Nashotobi and Alejandro Mirabal, Corley recently founded Hollow Owl, a small press comic book company with a penchant for the creepy. We recently squared up with Corley to learn more about his life as an illustrator, graphic designer, comic book purveyor, and patron of pancake art.

For the past 7 years I’ve been working out of the Pencil Factory in Greenpoint Brooklyn. It’s been such an inspiring space to work out of. Having a crew of creative and talented friends up and down the halls has helped shape how I work over the years. Before I moved in here I wasn’t quite as confident in my illustration chops, but when you’re surrounded by some of the best in the biz, you get to have fresh eyes and opinions on projects.

I was born in 1988 in a town called Kramfors in the northern parts of Sweden. It's a very small town so I spent a lot of my time drawing from a young age and I think growing up in a town like that has been important for my process. After college I moved to Stockholm to keep studying art and started with two preparing art schools followed by three years at Konstfack University of Art, Crafts & Design where I did a BA in Graphic Design & Illustration and graduated in 2013. Thereafter I had a year where I did a lot of music which I also love, went broke and started working in a store I hated so I kept building up my portfolio and webpage and some time after launching my page and posting stuff on Behance things started to move. Since then I've been working full-time illustrating.

For this episode we talk to illustrator Sara Mulvanny. She shares with us how she got into illustration, what her process looks like, and If she finds working on book covers different to other illustration work.

David Foldvari has been working as an illustrator since the late 90's. His client list includes Nike, Penguin, The New York Times, Random House, The Museum of London, The Guardian, Newsweek, Le Monde, Historic Royal Palaces and countless others. His work has been exhibited globally, and it appears in print weekly in The Observer, where he illustrates columns by David Mitchell, Stewart Lee, and Charlie Brooker amongst others. David currently lives and works in London, and is represented by the Big Active agency. Here he talks us through his process.

Successful college students master the art of the juggle: multiple classrooms in multiple buildings, multiple courses with multiple projects, plus roommates and classmates and jobs and on the best days, eating and sleeping. After finishing her second year in the film and animation program at Rochester Institute of Technology, where she's focusing on 3D animation, student Alyssa Minko decided to take it up a notch: She agreed to illustrate a children's book.

Sara Mulvanny is a freelance illustrator based in North Hampshire, England. Her illustrations and hand-drawn typographic elements are reminiscent of the beautiful Art Deco style. Mulvanny has worked with Random House, Harper Collins and Sinsbury’s Magazine since 2010. We caught up with her to find out how she came into the industry, her typical creative process, and her creative contributions for Summer at Hope Meadows and Chasing the Dram: Finding the Spirit of Whisky.

In the US and the UK, Christmas might be the strongest holiday brand of all. Illustrating a Christmas book, an artist faces two questions: How to visually interpret the author's story, and how to riff on a brand that's been in play since the Victorians elevated the holiday to its current carnival status. Artist Chris Mould took on these challenges when illustrating Matt Haig's "A Boy Called Christmas."