I adore the delicate line work and pastel colours of Marguerite Sauvage’s illustrations. Based in Paris and professionally illustrating since 2001, Sauvage has worked with a host of big brands including Elle Magazine, Mattel, PlayStation 3, Apple Computers, MTV, just to name a few. Her work, at times, can be overtly sexual and the juxtaposition of Sauvage’s ethereal style for such graphic images make it some of her most engaging illustrations. She of coarse has plentiful amount of G-Rated illustrations over on her website, which you should definitely visit. I will finish on one of Marguerite Sauvage quotes, regarding what inspires her, which I agree with completely:

“Happiness and anti-stress: I just want to make things prettier.”

London-based fashion illustrator, Bobby Hillson has had an interestingly vast career. She started her illustration career working for publications such as Vogue and The Sunday Times, and designers like Coco Chanel. In 1969 she founded her own children’s wear, which subsequently earned her nomination for The Times newspaper’s designer of the year.

After years in the fashion industry Hillson turned her hand to teaching. She returned to Central Saint Martin’s and set up the MA Fashion Course. In her time there she has taught many prominent British fashion designers, such as Alexander McQueen, Stephen Jones and Rifat Ozbek.

Ben Steers is based in Bristol, south-west England. In his portfolio, you’ll find an impressive array of works including character design, t-shirts, Mac skins, jigsaw puzzles, editorial illustration and much more. Ben seems to have a great sense of design which comes through in a lot of his work. The various 2D and 3D canvasses he applied his illustrations to are a testament to the adaptability and versatility of both him and his illustration style.

His clients include Channel 4, The Sunday Times, The Carbon Trust, NHS AND Spunky clothing label.

Neil Duerden creates super-punchy advertising illustrations and designs for clients such as Nike, Virgin, Sony Ericsson, Costa Coffee and loads of other big brands. He combines photography and vector graphics with digital effects to create collages that jump out at you. It’s all about grabbing your attention and keeping it for long enough so that you register the product. This style is absolutely brash, but with reason; I’m sure it is very effective advertising.

Born in Japan, Hiroshi Tanabe headed to Italy to study at the Accademia Di Brella in Milan. Originally focused of fine art his work started to take more of an illustrative route. He started creating work with vivid colour, more graphic shapes and lines, reminiscent of tradition Japanese woodcuts. He got his first illustration job designing t-shirts for a Milan night club, flash forward a few years, in 1994 he won the honoured Vogue/Sotheby’s Beaton Award for fashion illustration. To see more of Tanabe’s work and to find out more go to his website.

An ex-student of my old stomping grounds, Middlesex University, Richard Gray’s talent was spotted by none other than Anna Piaggi. In 1988 Piaggi asked Grey to collaborate with her for her famous Doppie Pagine (double-page Spread) in Vogue Italia. Since then Grey has gone on to work with big fashion brands such as Agent Provocateur, Givenchy and Alexander McQueen. He has illustrated for celebrities, major fashion shows, and had his work in the windows of Milan’s Via Della Spiga. His career came full circle in 2006 when he was asked to design an installation for Anna Piaggi’s exhibition Fashion-ology. You can find more of Grey’s illustrations here.

A young Richard Haines ventured to New York City with hopes in making it big in the illustration world, instead found himself smack bang in the middle of a successful career of a fashion designer. Some years later after working with brands like Calvin Klein, Perry Ellis, and Bill Blass, he turned his hand back to illustration. With a keen understanding of fabric, the fall and shape of garments, Haise records the people of New York and their style off-the-cuff, posting them on his blog “What I Saw Today”. He has also established himself as a pretty sought after illustrator to boot!