Fatinha Ramos crowned ‘professional’ winner at this year’s World Illustration Awards

Every year the Association of Illustrators partners with the Illustration Directory to host the World Illustration Awards, bringing us the inspiring work of some of the best artists and illustrators in the industry today. And this year is no exception. Despite a pandemic, the line of established and emerging shortlisted creatives once again showed immense talent.

Fatinha Ramos won the Overall Award in the Professional Category for Editorial Illustration for Scientific American and the Professional Category Winner in Professional Children’s Publishing and Editorial. She is one of those to be announced this evening by the Area of ​​interestincluding 20 category winners, covering everything from advertising and book covers to children’s publishing and product packaging, 20 highly recommended projects, four cross-category winners and two overall winners – all selected from a shortlist of 200 projects, drawn from more than five thousand entries from 82 countries around the world.

Speaking of her winning entry, Fatinha says, “This image focuses more on the emotional part of suicide and can be interpreted in two ways: from the point of view of the person who stays, and from the point of view of the person who leaves. .. I want to strike an emotional chord with people with this image.”

Alongside the Portuguese illustrator is Dani Choi, who was crowned big winner in the New Talents category. The Brooklyn-based artist, represented by Dutch Uncle, graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York and counts Apple and Bloomberg among her many clients. His winning piece, Cabinet of Curiosities, was for Atomix, a Korean fine-dining restaurant located in Manhattan, and consists of twelve illustrations for menu cards to be served with a ten-course menu item. “The menu cards are given to customers as a kind of souvenir, so I decided to create representative images of Korean culture to make the cultural experience at the restaurant more memorable,” says Dani. “The images were inspired by Sip-Jang-Saeng, ten or more traditional Korean symbols of longevity and prosperity of living in harmony with nature. I designed the menu cards in such a way that each card could be only one image, and when all twelve images are put together at the end of the whole course, they create a new image, a cupboard filled with the twelve symbols.”

Other new talent winners include Marie Doerfler for advertising and its illustration for Bernhard Müller GmbH. He was asked to create a series of illustrations of people and animals related to furniture design in a “playful and imaginative” way. While Sojung Kim McCarthy was the professional winner in the same category for a range of picture postcards to help promote the new film, Minari. “It’s the story of a Korean-American family trying to build a new life,” she explains. “The brief was to bring together the nostalgic vibe of Americana and the experiences of Asian immigrants. Iconic American paintings by Andrew Wyett and Norman Rockwell as well as the heroic image of James Dean were used as references.”

Under Alternative Publishing, London-based illustrator and On Design podcast host Justyna Green has also been recognized for her project, Living with Endometriosis for WeTransfer’s WePresent platform. “The comic presented an engaging new way to open up a discussion about chronic illnesses and mental health issues,” she says. The piece was well received, with women reaching out to Justyna to express how much the work resonated with them. In the same category, Amy Moss won the professional award for her zine From London Heading South.

In the Editorial category, Jialei Sun found success as a New Talent winner for her personal illustrations she made during the pandemic: “By spending almost an entire year at home, I found that I was spending a lot less time shopping “The feeling of not adding new things to my life made me want to do artwork to satisfy my shopping desire. So I combined the things I want to buy and put them in my illustrations,” she explains.

Another creation to explore the impact of lockdowns was Jason Chuan, an illustrator and storyteller based in Taiwan and the UK. He created a beautiful series called Days Spent in Isolation. His work helped him win the People’s Choice category, officially named the winner of the AOI Membership Award. “Under the impact of Covid-19, I spent an unusually extensive time indoors, which I used to reflect on myself and explore ways to convey my experiences through various visual metaphors. ideas and directing my emotions out of my body is both meditative and healing condolence for me during this strange time,” he says.

While Maryam Khaleghiyazdi was named the professional winner in the Exploration category for her work Morphing Shadow, Dominique Bodden was named New Talent winner in the same field. His Portraits of Westlake impressed judges for a series of illustrations that explore “the impact of gentrification on the neighborhood of Westlake, Los Angeles, and how local families and businesses are adapting to the many changes in the community,” as Dominic explains. “The focus is on the ways in which tradition and innovation intersect when people try to survive.”

In addition, the innovation prize and the science and technology professional prize were awarded to Xavier Segers for his typographic bacteria – quite a timely project considering the past two years. “When the first lockdown hit, all my independent projects dried up for two months,” he says. “It gave me time to experiment. This series was one of those experiments inspired by the constant reporting on Covid-19. Politicians, scientists and the media had so much to say about the virus that I thought to myself, why not give the pandemic its own voice by injecting it into typographic bacteria and listening to what it has to say?”

Argentinian illustrator Iris de Luz, meanwhile, won the DI award and was crowned pro in the Exploration category for her own personal exploration project. She used photos of different parts of flower petals, seaweed, and other natural textures – gems, fruits, candies, and 3D vector shapes to create a series of artworks that later became prints.

The winners were announced in an online ceremony by the AOI this evening. You can find out more at theaoi.com or follow the rewards on instagram.