The 20 illustrators inspiring us the most in 2025

These talented visual storytellers are capturing imaginations worldwide with their distinctive styles and creative innovation across every medium.

It’s a tough time to be an illustrator right now. The twin threats of generative AI and an ongoing financial squeeze make earning a living a real challenge. The consensus from industry leaders is that to survive as a freelancer, illustrators need to double down on what makes them unique and carve out a distinctive style to set them apart.

That’s easy to say, difficult to do, of course. However, it can be helpful to draw inspiration from others who have succeeded in this quest. And here are 20 individuals who fit that brief nicely.

To compile this list, we consulted our community. In our recent Creative Boom survey, we gathered votes from hundreds of illustrators, art directors and industry insiders to spotlight the artists making waves in this challenging climate.

As a result, this article features a global network of illustrators whose work doesn’t just look beautiful; it says something, too. From Paris to La Paz, London to São Paulo, these artists are using their platforms to tackle social issues, celebrate cultural diversity and remind us of the irreplaceable magic of human hands at work.

1. Jean Jullien

French graphic designer and illustrator currently lives and works in Paris. His instantly recognisable signature style and observational take on modern life have made him one of the most sought-after artists in the world.

He has worked with hundreds of clients, including The New York Times, RCA Records, and Geographic, and has published numerous books with publishers such as teNeues, Walker Books, Comme des Géants, and Hato Press. In 2022, he published a monograph with Phaidon.

He’s currently creating work for major international projects, including an enormous sculpture covered in mythological aquatic doodles for the EXPO 2025 in Osaka. His ability to blend humour with serious commentary has made him a favourite among both commercial clients and gallery audiences worldwide.

2. Christoph Niemann

Christoph Niemann is an illustrator, graphic designer, and children’s book author who has been writing and illustrating The New York Times blog Abstract City since July 2008 (renamed Abstract Sunday in 2011). His work has appeared on the covers of The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, and The New York Times Magazine and has won awards from AIGA, the Art Directors Club, and American Illustration.

Christoph’s approach to illustration combines conceptual thinking with playful execution, making complex ideas accessible through clever visual metaphors. Known for his Sunday Sketches, a weekly series of humorous drawings, he’s mastered the art of creating work that resonates with both critics and mass audiences. To learn more, listen to our interview with him on The Creative Boom Podcast.

3. Lauren Hom

Lauren Hom is a designer and lettering artist with a knack for marketing who loves helping creatives and brands get more eyes on their work. A self-proclaimed “artist with a business brain”, she picked up hand lettering as a hobby while studying advertising at the School of Visual Arts. She’s from California but is currently based in Detroit.

Known for her bright colour palettes, playful letterforms, and quirky copywriting, Lauren has created work for clients such as Vans, Google, and Adobe. Her approach to lettering combines commercial appeal with artistic integrity, making her work instantly recognisable across various platforms. To learn more, read our exclusive interview with Lauren.

4. Jada Bruney

Jada Bruney is an illustrator, art director, and designer based in London whose work explores themes of identity, culture, and collaboration. Her practice spans editorial illustration and animation, with a particular focus on projects that celebrate diversity and cultural heritage.

When she was still a student in 2020, we featured here in our hotlist of emerging illustrators. She has become a sought-after creative partner for brands including Nike, Cadbury, Tate, Primark, and Penguin Random House. Jada’s work often features bold, expressive characters and vibrant colour palettes that reflect her interest in exploring contemporary black British identity.

5. Hugo L Cuellar

Hugo L Cuellar is an illustrator and animator known for his rich character design and distinctive approach to game art. Originally from Bolivia, he relocated to Scotland, where he graduated from the Edinburgh College of Art in 2004. He then moved to London, where he currently lives and works.

Hugo’s character designs display a sophisticated understanding of narrative and personality, bringing fictional worlds to life through carefully crafted visual storytelling. His animation work shows particular strength in creating characters that feel both fantastical and emotionally resonant.

6. Jarom Vogel

Jarom Vogel is a prominent illustrator, designer, and digital artist who hails from Utah, USA. He is known for his distinctive style, often described as having “cut-out” qualities with strong shapes, vibrant colours, and textures, which he often creates digitally using Procreate on his iPad.

Currently living in the Portland area, Jarom’s approach to illustration emphasises storytelling through character design, creating figures that feel alive and emotionally engaging. As a Procreate educator, his teaching approach reflects the same playful energy that characterises his illustration work.

7. Ana Matsusaki

Ana Matsusaki is a Brazilian illustrator and author who creates poetic visuals through digital collage techniques. Her work in children’s books and editorial illustration demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of how to combine traditional storytelling with contemporary visual techniques.

Her digital collage work is known for its dreamlike, atmospheric illustrations that feel both contemporary and timeless. More broadly, her approach to children’s book illustration brings a uniquely Brazilian perspective to international publishing.

8. Maïté Franchi

Maïté Franchi is an illustrator based in Lyon, France, who specialises in dynamic editorial, packaging, and travel illustration for clients including Adobe, Coca-Cola, Sony, Dior, and Guerlain. Her work is characterised by bold use of colour and pattern, creating illustrations that feel both sophisticated and energetic. Represented by Folio Art, Maïté is known for crafting work that feels both specific to a place and universally appealing —a neat trick to pull off.

9. Jocie Juritz

Jocie (pronounced “joss-ee”) Juritz is a London-based illustrator and animator known for creating lively, humourous, narrative imagery for editorial and animation projects. She also enjoys teaching and mentoring. Her work is highly accessible and engaging, making complex topics approachable through visual storytelling. Her ability to find the human element in any story has made her work particularly valuable for editorial clients.

10. Nubia Navarro

Nubia Navarro is a Venezuelan lettering and illustration artist currently living in Colombia, whose culturally rich work blends traditional and contemporary styles. Her approach to lettering demonstrates a deep understanding of how typography can carry cultural meaning and emotional weight.

Nubia’s work often explores themes of identity and heritage, using visual elements that celebrate Venezuelan and Latin American culture. Her lettering style combines classical influences with contemporary design sensibilities, creating work that feels both rooted in tradition and thoroughly modern.

11. Monica Rickert-Bolter

Monica Rickert-Bolter is an Afro-Indigenous illustrator whose work spotlights underrepresented narratives in arts, culture, and education. Based in Chicago, her approach to illustration demonstrates a commitment to using visual storytelling as a tool for social justice and cultural preservation.

Her work often explores themes of Indigenous identity and heritage, creating illustrations that challenge stereotypes and celebrate the complexity of contemporary Indigenous experience. She is co-founder of the Centre for Native Futures, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to supporting Native artists.

12. Maria Expósito

Maria Expósito is a Spanish illustrator whose work spans fashion, lifestyle and editorial illustration. Her approach to visual storytelling demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of how to create illustrations that feel both contemporary and timeless.

Notable illustration projects to date include the AIN 2025 catalogue cover, the UPN campaign in Navarra, and works for Mutua Navarra, Revista Nuestro Tiempo, Intermón Oxfam, and UNICEF. She’s also completed mural projects in locations such as Nájera and Calahorra.

13. Brian Mackin

Brian Mackin is an editorial illustrator based in Brooklyn, New York whose work demonstrates a strong cultural resonance in visual storytelling. His approach to illustration combines hand lettering with contemporary social commentary. For the last fifteen years, he’s also been partner and creative director at FAREWELL, a creative agency he runs with Kevin Devine. Clients include Converse, Harry’s NYC, and Teva.

14. Beth Walrond

Beth Walrond is a UK-born, Berlin-based illustrator who focuses on editorial, health, and cultural topics, bringing a signature warmth to her visual approach. Describing her work as “textural, playful, wobbly, offbeat and fun”, she likes to combine hand-drawing and mark-making with digital colours and print-making techniques.

She has worked on projects for a wide range of contexts, from packaging to editorial to large-scale murals. Her first book, A Taste of the World, which she wrote and illustrated, is published by Little Gestalten and available in English, German, Korean and Chinese. To learn more, read our interview with Beth.

15. Sophie Garwell

Sophie Garwell is a London-based illustrator who is preoccupied with the spaces around us and how we interact with them. Her work responds to both inner and outer landscapes, investigating external surroundings and how they can serve as an anchor in defining our place in the world while also acting as a conduit for internal flux.

Working often from visual memory to capture the lingering memory of a flash of colour, a scattering of light or an internal response to her surroundings, her work demonstrates a keen understanding of how illustration can be used to explore and challenge different perspectives on the world.

16. Vincent Bell-Robertson

Vincent Bell-Robertson is a Scottish illustrator and comic artist known for his distinctive webcomics, which often feature a “Looney Tunes” aesthetic combined with humorous, cartoonish violence. His work includes “The Man the Earth Spat Back,” a webcomic created for V&A Dundee, and prints available through Flamingosaurus Rex.

Actively involved in the indie comics scene, Bell-Robertson also serves as editor of ‘The Gullet Magazine’. He primarily writes and draws his own material, showcasing a unique and often darkly humorous style that sets him apart from illustrators focused on vibrant portraits or tech/editorial work.

17. Lisk Feng

Lisk Feng is an award-winning Chinese illustrator, now based in New York, who’s known for dreamy, imaginative editorial and book illustrations. Her work demonstrates exceptional skill in creating atmospheric imagery that feels both fantastical and emotionally resonant, appealing to both children and adults. She also published children’s books with Phaeton, Flying Eye Books, Abrams, and Kids Can Press.

Lisk’s ability to create work that transcends cultural boundaries has made her a major voice in international illustration. She was the Society of Illustrators 2023’s vice president and became chair in 2024.

18. Amber Vittoria

Amber Vittoria is an abstract artist and illustrator based in Los Angeles whose use of abstracted form, ribbons of colour, and joyous words evokes the nuances of emotion, beauty, and nostalgia.

Taking advantage of the fluidity of her ink, colour pencil and acrylic paints, Amber creates aqueous rainbow gradients that dominate her compositions. Punctuated by simple graphite line drawings and impactful words, her work explores her relationship to beauty, emotion, and societal expectations. To learn more, read our interview with Amber.

19. Ping Zhu

Ping Zhu is a Chinese-American editorial illustrator whose work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and beyond. Originally from Los Angeles, she’s now based in based in Brooklyn, New York. Her children’s book debut, The Strange Birds of Flannery O’Connor, A Life, was selected by the New York Times as a Best Children’s Book of 2020.

Zhu is recognised for her expressive and gestural painting style, which often involves layering bright swathes of colours in bold brushstrokes. Her work is primarily created using gouache on paper, giving it a tactile and spontaneous quality. She is influenced by mid-century American design, particularly that of Charley Harper and Scandinavian design.

20. Decur (Guillermo Decurgez)

Born in Rosario, Argentina, in 1981, Decur (also known as Guillermo Decurgez) is a self-taught cartoonist and illustrator. His style is often described as quiet, whimsical, and evoking a timeless, childlike wonder.

Decur’s work frequently features intricate details, often in miniature scale, and a sense of narrative. He works with acrylics, sometimes dedicating up to 20 hours to a single piece. He draws inspiration from a wide range of sources, including antique furniture, animals, and plants.

He has illustrated numerous children’s books as well as a board game, and his artwork has been exhibited in various countries, including France, Spain, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, and Argentina.