Hands Down

Olivier Kugler, Illustrator

I first saw Olivier’s work (@olivier_kugler_illustration ) in The Guardian circa 2007, where his reportage illustrations regularly blew my mind and I’d have to tear them out of the newspaper for safekeeping. The series on his travels from the Shetlands to Cuba is particularly memorable and pushed the boundaries for me on what illustration can be. His combination of linework, colour and lettering work perfectly together, and there’s something magical about the way certain items in his illustrations cross over to areas where perhaps they shouldn’t be, but this technique makes everything look better.

I met up with him in 2018 where we’d agreed to do a book swap: my book ‘chromorama’ for his ‘Escaping Wars and Waves’. I highly recommend buying a copy.