The Museum of Illustration at the Society of Illustrators is proud to present Illustrators 63, an annual exhibit featuring the most outstanding works of the year by leading contemporary illustrators worldwide. Voted on by a prestigious international jury of renowned illustrators, art directors, and designers, the Annual provides a platform to our global community to express, through illustration, the events and movements of our times.
The significance of the events of this past year, documented through artists’ visual narratives, has become an important archive and reflection of recent history. In a year of numerous challenges, the Society introduced several important initiatives to address the many obstacles and hardships the world, and the illustration community, have been experiencing.
Following health and safety guidelines, much of the Annual moved to a virtual platform. The competition and jurying were completed remotely, enabling the Society to involve many new voices from all over the world including Germany, Nigeria, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Australia, Denmark, France, and Portugal. The Society is also pleased to host this year’s exhibit both on-site as well as online. To view the on-site exhibit, guests must plan ahead and refer to SI’s safety measures as well as purchase tickets online prior to arriving at the Museum. The online gallery allows viewers to access the show from the comfort of their homes, and will grant 24 hour access to view the show upon purchase of the virtual ticket. Entry to both galleries is free for Society of Illustrator Members. Part One of Illustrators 63 went live on January 19th. Part Two will go live on February 18th.
To address the unprecedented economic and social challenges many are facing, and in the interest of making the competition more accessible for artists with limited resources, the Society created a Fund for those who otherwise would not be able to enter. The SI Give Back Fund, created through generous donations from the community, provided free entries for artists in need. In addition, the Fund will also provide access to educational and social/networking opportunities for those artists.
The Society will be hosting a virtual awards ceremony on February 25th. This year’s event is free to view. Details and registration can be found here.
The Annual exhibit is hosted in two parts. Part One features work in the Uncommissioned, Advertising, Institutional and Surface/Product Design categories. Part Two features work in the Book and Editorial categories. Gold and silver medals are awarded by the jury in each category. A full list of medals winners can be found in the following pages of this release.
The Society also honors several members of the community with special lifetime recognition awards.
The Distinguished Educator in the Arts Award recognizes those who have attained the highest standards of academic achievement and have demonstrated interest in and capability of furthering the Society’s educational programs. This year’s recipient is Whitney Sherman. Sherman first began illustrating under her name in 1976, continuing as she worked as a Creative Director for a prominent design firm. In 2008, she founded Pbody Dsign making objects in clay and cloth for the home. These hybrid skills nurtured her nine years as both design and illustration adjunct faculty. They further informed the growth and transformed the undergraduate Illustration department at (MICA), during her ten years as department chair and faculty. It was there that she developed programming guidelines for focused study in book arts and gaming, and where she became co-director of Dolphin Press and Print @ MICA with Gail Deery. In 2010 Whitney founded the MFA in Illustration Practice at MICA, and in 2016, she co-founded the MA in Illustration at MICA to address the need for a program in portfolio and graduate school preparation. Most recently, her long-standing desire to see more writing and research be part of student’s education eventually led to her work with colleagues Susan Doyle and Jaleen Grove coediting and chapter writing for the History of Illustration textbook.
Established in 2005, the Richard Gangel Art Director Award honors art directors currently working in the field who have supported and advanced the art of illustration. This award is named in honor of Richard Gangel (1918–2002), the influential art director at Sports Illustrated from 1960 to 1981, whose collaboration with illustrators during that period was exceptional. This year’s award goes to Joseph Hutchinson, the creative director for Rolling Stone, where he oversees design and visuals for print, digital, and the overall brand portfolio. Hutchinson oversaw the creative direction for several books, including 50 Years of Rolling Stone, which celebrates the magazine’s 50th anniversary, documents its rise to prominence, and showcases era-defining photography; and the newly updated Rolling Stone: The Illustrated Portraits, featuring more than 200 illustrations of iconic subjects from the magazine’s past, updated with present works. Before joining Rolling Stone in 2007, Hutchinson served as creative director and deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times. Prior to the Times, he served as assistant managing editor for design and graphics at The Baltimore Sun. His art direction contributed to 6 Pulitzer Prizes.
The Hamilton King Award, created in 1965 by Mrs. Hamilton King in memory of her husband through a bequest, is presented annually for the best work in the Annual Exhibition executed by a member of the Society. One of the industry’s most prestigious awards, the selection is made by former recipients of this award and may be won only once. This year’s recipient is Bill Mayer. Mayer was born in Birmingham, Alabama, relocating to Tennessee and New York before eventually settling in Decatur, Georgia. He later graduated from Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. Mayer began his career working for several different studios, and eventually went out on his own to start his successful illustration career. Mayer’s artwork has been commissioned by many of the world’s most significant and respected publications, institutions, and Fortune 500 corporations. His creations have appeared in virtually every known media including films, books, magazines, stamps, posters, advertising, packaging, as well as one-person exhibitions. His clients have included the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC; a highly acclaimed series of stamps designed for the United States Post Office, and a series of posters for the Tour de France. Corporations such as DreamWorks Animation, Cartoon Network, Mattel, Hasbro, Delta Airlines, Levi’s, Jose Cuervo, and IBM, along with countless others, have recognized the intrinsic beauty of his artwork. He is a consistent recipient of many of the industry’s highest honors, including over 500 National and International awards, as well as 10 Gold and 2 Silver Medals from the Society of Illustrators.
All lifetime award winners will be honored during the virtual Awards Ceremony on February 25th.
The Society will be hosting additional community events as well as K-12 student educational programming during the duration of the exhibit. Dates and descriptions can be found on the Society’s website.
ILLUSTRATORS 63 GOLD & SILVER MEDAL WINNERS
Uncommissioned Category (includes all self-generated work.)
Gold Medals
Miriam Martincic, Having It All
Nicole Rifkin, Black and White Studies of an Escape
Qianhui Yu, Self Gazing
Silver Medals
Dani Choi, The Garden of Misfits
Sonia Pulido, Friends
Haleigh Mun, The Other Night @SOI.
Advertising Category (includes work created to sell a product, usually commissioned by an ad agency.)
Gold Medals
Melad Jajou, The Lights in the Sky are Stars (Client: Long Winter)
Max Loeffler, Makers of Beauty (Client: Santoni, AD: Maximilian Mauracher)
Armando Veve, Mango Lemonade Fantasy (Client: 360i for Truly Hard Seltzer, AD: Adrienne Darnell)
Silver Medals
Sebastian Curi, Jovia Social Media Package (Client: OTTO, AD: Lindsey Blake)
Aaron Fernandez, Epic Commute (Client: MTA Arts & Design)
Kadir Nelson for BLACKISH TEA (Client: ABC/BLACKISH, AD: Jenny Savitt)
Institutional Category (includes work commissioned by an institution)
Gold Medals
Shira Inbar, Stamp Set “50th Anniversary of the Moon Landing”, San Marino (Client: San Marino Philatelic Numismatic Office, AD: Gianni Sinni)
Kadir Nelson, After the Storm (Client: CBS Sunday Morning/The JKBN Group, LLC)
Leonardo Santamaria, NPR Invisibilia: Two Heartbeats A Minute (Client: NPR, AD: Emily Bogle)
Silver Medals
Marcos Chin, Prep Awareness (Client: APICHA; Asian Pacific Islander Coalition for HIV/AIDS, AD: Phillip Miner)
André da Loba, Lisbon 5L (Client: Lisbon City Hall, AD: Book Tailors)
Greg Kletsel, Stop the Spread – State of New York Covid-19 PSA (Client: The State of New York, AD: Devin Clark / Augenblick Studios).
Surface/ Product Design Category (includes work appearing in three-dimension)
Gold Medals
Marc Burckhardt, Gucci Storefront (Client: Gucci, AD: Alberto Russo)
Miguel Porlan, Banana (Client: Cuero Records)
Yuko Shimizu, Interactive Exhibit: Hanami (Client: Artechouse)
Silver Medals
Mariko Jesse, Hong Kong Willow Pattern Ceramics (Client: Lane Crawford Department Store, HK, AD: Louis Papachristou)
Tran Nguyen, Metamorphosis (Client: Pow! Wow! Worldwide, AD: Jasper Wong)
Nicole Xu, Treetop (Client: Throw & Co, AD: Trevor Basset)
Book Category (includes all single image illustrations originally commissioned for use inside or on the covers of hardbound and paperback books.)
Gold Medals
André Carrilho, The Girl with the Occupied Eyes (Client: Bertrand Editora)
Miguel Pang Ly, Home Sweet Home (Bienvenue Chez Moi) (Client: Lagrume, AD: Guillaume Grifon)
James Ransome, Who Should Own Black Art (Client: Sharp Pencils Press, AD: Malcolm Grant)
Silver Medals
Yuko Shimizu, The Cat Man of Aleppo (Client: Penguin Young Readers, Putnum, AD: Cecilia Yung)
Armando Veve, Feline Philosophy (Client: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, AD: Rodrigo Corral)
Vikki Zhang, Time on Stage (Client: Zhejiang Juvenile And Children’s Publishing House, AD: Yan Zhen, Xiaoping Gong)
Editorial Category (includes work commissioned by newspapers or magazines.)
Gold Medals
André Carrilho, NBA Against Police Violence (Client: Diário de Notícias, AD: Pedro Fernandes)
Kadir Nelson, SAY THEIR NAMES (Client: The New Yorker, AD: Françoise Mouly)
Armando Veve, Tik Tok Spies (Client: The Center for International Governance Innovation, AD: Som Tsoi)
Silver Medals
Yann Kebbi, Nobody Accurately Tracks Health Care Workers Lost to COVID-19. So She Stays Up At Night Cataloging the Dead. (Client: ProPublica, AD: Shoshana Gordon)
Uli Knörzer, The Future of Black Hair According to Jawara Wauchope (Client: Highsnobiety, AD: Senior Visual Editor: Manus Browne, Hairstylist: Jawara Wauchope, Fashion Director Corey T Stokes)
Rebecca Mock, The Printmaker (Client: AirBnB, AD: Mallory Roynon)