In conversation with Benjamin Phillips – winner of the 2024 V&A Illustration for Children Award and the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year

Benjamin Phillips is this year’s winner of the V&A Illustration for Children Award and the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year for his illustrations in the graphic novel Alte Zachen written by Ziggy Hanaor and published by Cicada Books. Alte Zachen follows a boy and his grandmother, Bubbe, on errands around New York as she reminisces about the past. The judges were unanimous in praising the book’s rich imagery and narrative detail. Ziggy and Benjamin are currently working on their second graphic novel, Shushu, to be published in 2025 by Cicada Books.

Meanwhile, One Day, a book written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Benjamin is due out this month, published by Walker Books. The story draws on the real-life account of Eugène Handschuh who escaped with his father from a convoy headed from Nazi-occupied Paris to Auschwitz.

How did you get into illustration?

It took me a while to come around to the idea of becoming an illustrator. As a child I had always wanted to be an artist or be someone who drew or designed things. Though I didn’t know any adults who had creative jobs in art and design so when I imagined these careers I had no idea what they would actually be like. It was only when I did my foundation art year that the penny dropped that I could go into illustration. I went on to study Illustration at Brighton University and I graduated in 2009 with a first class honours. Since then I’ve done a wide variety of projects taking any commissions that came my way from books to maps, public murals and record designs to name a few. 

How do you approach the research for your illustration projects?

Research methods and intensity vary greatly from project to project. If I’m creating self-initiated work such as paintings or ceramics I may use reference from my archive: saved web-files and photos that I’ve taken, anything the I’ve found visually or emotionally stimulating. Other times I may just work from my own memory or imagination. I take a much more calculated approach when I’m working on a book, particularly if the outcome needs to be historically/geographically accurate. When illustrating Alte Zachen it was integral that the images of the city really felt like New York. I spent a lot of time gathering reference and remotely wandering the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan via google maps. Michael Rosen’s new book One Day is a story set in Paris, 1942 then under Nazi occupation. It’s a true story from the time of The Holocaust. As a storyteller you have a responsibility to communicate truthfully so I was obviously very conscious that the streets, architecture, clothing, uniforms, hairstyles, vehicles even down to what kind of barbed wire they would have used then was correct. I spent a lot of time gathering images through Yad Vashem’s Holocaust photographic archive and I visited The Wiener Holocaust Library in Russell Square to further inform the work. 

Tell us more about your process and the tools/techniques that you use?

When creating a book, the publisher will send me the final draft of the author’s text. I’ll then sketch out every illustration and create a PDF of all the rough spreads in the book. Once they’ve been given the final go ahead, I print out the first rough spread and I use this as my guide for making the final illustration. Using a lightbox with my sketch illuminated, I start working in either in ink and brush or charcoal. This is typically the linear monochrome elements of the final design, then using this new piece I will then lightbox a second sheet of paper with the colour elements of the illustration, I do this with coloured inks and brush. These separate sheets are scanned and I then combine them in Photoshop, overlaying the layers so that it creates one seamless image. 

Where do you look for inspiration?

I’m always open to inspiration, I keep a couple sketchbooks on the go and am forever making notes on my phone when something amuses me or strikes me as poignant. Maybe something is purely engaging on an aesthetic level, the way furniture is placed in an interior or how someone is dressed, their face. Or I might overhear a conversation or see how people are acting when they don’t realise they are being observed. It’s pretty basic, people and places. These sometimes evoke personal memories which I often turn into new work. 

I find a lot of enjoyment through playing with materials, anything immediate that makes a pleasing mark on a surface. I sit down to make work without having a plan and eventually something happens.

What would be your dream project/collaboration? 

I have the aspiration to write and illustrate my own graphic novel. It may take the form of a series of short stories compiled in one publication. I have a lot of ideas that will only become resolved by making the work and I have to make the time to see this to fruition. Children’s books have never felt like the only direction for my work as I have always gravitated towards themes of a more adult nature. I’d love to work with a publisher like Jonathan Cape or Fantagraphics on a project like this.

Pen to Screen: Digital Illustration Now – In conversation with Benjamin Phillips and Maisy Summer

Find out more about the V&A Illustration Awards