V&A Illustration Awards

First established in 1972, the V&A's competition is defined by a focus on the British illustration industry, celebrating artwork made for the UK market by artists from across the globe as well as artwork made by illustrators living the UK.

The Awards are generously supported by The Linder Foundation and the Moira Gemmill Memorial fund.

Congratulations to all our shortlisted entries. The winners will be announced on 1 July 2026. Click on the links to view additional images and learn more about the brief behind each entry.

Copyright of artists and publishers reserved.

Adult Factual shortlist

Joanna Blémont, From the Wilderness by Yukio Mishima (The New Yorker, October 2024 Issue)

Neil Bousfield, Cicero: Selected Letters & Speeches by Cicero (The Folio Society, 2025)

Neil Bousfield, Craftland by James Fox (The Bodley Head, 2025)

Anna Burel, Conceiving Histories: Trying for Pregnancy, Past and Present by Isabel Davis (The MIT Press, 2025)

Sunnu Rebecca Choi, Are the kids alright? The new debate over therapy by Jean M. Twenge (Deseret Magazine, April 2024 Issue)

Julie Pereira, The International Criminal Court by Julie Pereira, Emmanuelle Michele and Jonathan Walter (AFP, 2024)

Cristóbal Schmal, Life (As We Know It) by Ziggy Hanaor (Cicada Books, 2025)

Antonello Silverini, Why I gave up trying to delete myself from the internet by Avantika Chilkoti (1843 Economist Long Reads, 2024)

Maisy Summer, Far From Home by Professor Hannah Fairbrother, Dr Anne-Marie Burn and Mary Crowder (National Institute for Health and Care Research School for Public Health Research, 2025)

Adult Fiction shortlist

Molly Fuller Abbott, Apocallotment by Molly Fuller Abbott (Molly Fuller Abbott, 2025)

Carol Adlam, The Russian Detective by Carol Adlam (Jonathan Cape, 2024)

James Albon, Love Languages by James Albon (Top Shelf Comics, 2024)

Elly Bazigos, Tiny Girl by Elly Bazigos (Elly Bazigos, 2025)

Diego Becas, 2666 by Roberto Bolano (Vintage Classics, 2024)

PeiHsin Cho, Decaying with the Speed of Spring by PeiHsin Cho and James Perolls (James Perolls, 2025)

Sarah Lippett, Everything Amplified by Sarah Lippett and Ziggy Hanaor (Cicada Books, 2025)

Stephen Smith, Cortázar Classics by Julio Cortázar [Cortázar Classics include titles: The Winners, Final Exam, Hopscotch, Bestiary, 62: A Model Kit, A Manual for Manuel] (Vintage Classics, 2025)

Annabel Wright, Library of Aethers by Alasdair Roberts (Boatwhistle Books, 2024)

Advertising and Commercial shortlist

Jiatong Liu, No Lonely Lunches campaign (Kids Help Phone and Cheestrings, 2024)

Mark Oliver, The FAMily Discovery Centre exhibition visual (First Americans Museum, Oklahoma, 2025)

Irina Selaru, Roughly card game (Laurence King, 2025)

Adam Simpson, The World of Grimm’s Fairytales puzzle (Laurence King Publishing, 2025)

Adam Simpson, The World of Oscar Wilde puzzle (Laurence King Publishing, 2025)

Maisy Summer, INTUIT office installation (INTUIT, 2025)

Annabel Wright, album sleeve for This Is Memorial Device by Stephen Pastel and Gavin Thomson (Domino Recording Co., 2024)

Annabel Wright, Views of Glasgow, A Window into Communities campaign (Hunterian Art Gallery/Glasgow University, 2025)

Emerging Illustrator shortlist

Jennifer Baranowska, Love Story (2025)

Vannysha Chang, Process (2025)

Yassaman Emami, The Daddy Long-Legs and the Fly (2025)

Luis López, Grey Clouds (2025)

Luis López, Little Hunter’s Best Friend (2025)

Chloe French Nelson, Cinema Ghost (2025)

Vivian Su, Reference Answer (2025)

Kaori Tokunaga, Boris and the Stolen Tomatoes (2025)

Illustration for Children shortlist

Aditi Anand, One Diwali Day by Dev Kothari (Walker Books, 2025)

Merve Atılgan, The Forest of Dreams (Big Picture Press/Bonnier Books, 2025)

Grace Easton, The House with the Little Red Door by Grace Easton (Thames and Hudson, 2025)

Sam Kalda, Haunted USA: Spine-Tingling Stories From All 50 States by Heather Alexander (Wide Eyed Editions, 2025)

Baljinder Kaur, The Sleeper Train by Mick Jackson (Walker Books 2025)

Pui Lee, Head to Toe by Pui Lee (Post Wave Publishing, 2025)

Marina Ruiz, In Time by Marina Ruiz (Frances Lincoln, 2024)

Laura K. Sayers, We Sing! by Kristyn Getty (Crossway, 2025)

There are a winner and runner-up in each category. The five category winners each receive £3,500 and five runners-up receive £1000.

An overall winner is named the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year and receives an additional £5,500, with their artwork entering the V&A's collection.

Selected artwork from each of the winners and runners-up will feature in a display held at V&A South Kensington.

Lauren Child is an award-winning artist and writer. She is the creator of many much-loved characters, including Clarice Bean, Charlie and Lola and Ruby Redfort, along with several stand-alone picture books. She was awarded a CBE for Services to Literature in 2020; and was the 10th Waterstones’ Children’s Laureate from 2017 – 2019. 2026 marks the 25 year anniversary since the publication of the first Charlie and Lola picture book, I Will Not Ever Never Eat A Tomato.

Sir Tristram Hunt is Director of the V&A – a family of museums dedicated to the power of creativity. He has championed design education in UK schools, encouraged debate around the history of the museum’s global collections and overseen the transition to a multi-site museum. Formerly MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central, he is the author of several books, including The Radical Potter, a biography of Josiah Wedgwood.

Mick Peter is an artist and lecturer whose playful installations and sculptures draw on illustration, commercial art, and literature to explore shifting meaning. Often resembling enlarged drawings, his work creates absurd, witty worlds that satirise power, authority, and the art world. Recent highlights include solo exhibitions at BALTIC, Gateshead and the Holburne Museum, Bath, and his work is featured in Vitamin D3: Today’s Best in Contemporary Drawing (Phaidon).

Benjamin Phillips is an illustrator, artist and author based in Hastings, UK. His illustrations for the book Alte Zachen won the category of 'Illustration for Children' and the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year at the V&A Illustration Awards 2024. One Day written by Michael Rosen and illustrated by Benjamin is nominated for The Carnegie Medal for Illustration 2026.

The V&A has been running an illustration competition since 1972 when the Francis Williams Awards were presented for the best illustrated books. In 2004 new categories were introduced for Book Cover Design and for Editorial Illustration, covering illustration in newspapers, magazines and comics. The student category was created in 2005, with a runner-up prize introduced in 2009.

For the 2024 Awards a new category Advertising & Commercial was introduced. We also realigned other categories to create Adult Fiction, Adult Non-Fiction and Illustration for Children. The student category was expanded to become Emerging Illustrator.

The V&A Illustration Awards blog brings you the latest updates throughout the year including the shortlist and winner announcements. You can also hear from our previous winners and receive words of advice from former judges.

Contact: villa@vam.ac.uk

The Awards are generously supported by The Linder Foundation and the Moira Gemmill Memorial fund.