Masterclass Panel - how illustrators can build a successful career in publishing

Join us for a masterclass panel event that looks at how illustrators can build a successful career in publishing. The discussion will focus on children’s books and will look at how iconic book covers are created and designed, how picture books move from artwork roughs to a beautiful finished storybook, and how publishers work collaboratively with creative talent.

Marking 40 years of the prestigious Macmillan Prize for Illustration, Art Directors Chris Inns and Rachel Vale offer their wealth of publishing experience, and insights into their design processes and work, and are joined by picture book creator Diane Ewen, who will bring her illustrator perspective to the panel. Diane has previously been a ‘Mac Prize’ judge and her picture books include, Coming to England, written by Baroness Floella Benjamin, and her latest book, which she both wrote and illustrated, The Great Unicorn Rescue, has just been published by Macmillan Children’s Books. The closing date for the Macmillan prize of Illustration 2025 is on 25th April, and you can find more information at www.panmacmillan.com/mac-prize-entry-page

Chaired by  Professor Paul Fieldsend-Danks, Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive of Arts University Plymouth, and Director of UKADIA.

This event is exclusively for students from GuildHE member institutions. 

About the speakers:

Diane Ewen was born in Walsall, in the West Midlands. She has always loved art, and graduated from the University of Wolverhampton with a B.A. Honours Degree in Illustration. Diane likes to create illustrations that are hand-drawn in pencil, which she paints in watercolour and acrylics before embellishing them using Photoshop, but she also enjoys working directly on the computer screen to create her characters and designs. Diane loves the fact that the artwork is often the first thing that draws children into a book, and is inspired by the use of vibrant colour.

Chris began his publishing design career in 1984 at Gower Medical Publishing, designing fully illustrated medical books. He moved to designing children’s books in the late 1980s to follow his love of children’s book illustration, wanting to work on a greater variety of projects and directly with authors and illustrators. After spells at Octopus Children’s Books and at Puffin Books, where he became Art Director, Chris went freelance and worked for a range of clients from the big publishing houses. In 2006 he joined Macmillan Children’s Books, drawn by the longstanding and award-winning Macmillan Picture Book list and today is Art and Design Director, Macmillan Children’s Books & Two Hoots. His remit encompasses a huge variety of genres, from books for babies to high end-gift books for a global audience. He has worked on books with many top illustrators including Quentin Blake, Raymond Briggs, Axel Scheffler, Lydia Monks, Emily Gravett, Catherine Rayner, Sara Ogilvie, and Rob Biddulph.

Rachel has over 20 years of experience in book design. She joined Macmillan Children's Books in 2005 and became Art Director in 2010, having previously worked at Pearson and in the TV industry.  Rachel was awarded a D&AD award for Book Design in 2015 and was a D&AD Book Design Jury Member in 2017. She has been shortlisted for 7 Academy of British Cover Design awards (winning the Young Adult category in 2015), 6 British Book Design and Production Awards (receiving a Children's Trade, Highly Commended in 2015) and Designer of the Year at The British Book Awards in 2023. She has worked on books for well-known names, including Marcus Rashford, Lenny Henry, Allie Esiri and Leah Williamson. Closely collaborating creatively with illustrators to provide visual identities for the Greenwild series, the Time Keys series, Chris Riddell’s and Children’s Laureate, Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s publishing.