Templar Illustration and Design Award expands for 2020

The Templar Illustration and Design Award is expanding in 2020 to include categories for children’s non-fiction illustration and children’s fiction cover design for the first time, alongside its picture book illustration category. The award will also be open to international submissions.

Confirmed judges for the award already include high-profile illustrators and industry professionals such as Kate Greenaway medalist Grahame Baker-Smith, Chris Wormell, who provided the illustrations for Philip Pullman's Book of Dust series, and IBBY executive Sophie Hallam.

Jane Harris, managing director of Children’s Trade at Bonnier Books UK, said: "Design and illustration in children’s publishing have the power to begin a lifelong love of books. At Bonnier Books UK we share a passion for publishing the most original and visually stunning books with a mind for creating classics for future generations.

"Discovering new talent and inspiring the next generation of creatives is of paramount importance to us, and as such we are delighted to be expanding the award."

Genevieve Webster, art director for Templar and Big Picture Press, said: “We can’t wait to see what unique and diverse emerging talent the 2020 award will attract, and we are incredibly excited at the prospect of the innovative and beautiful future publishing that will come from it.”

The 2020 Templar Illustration Award will open for entries from 2nd March 2020, closing on 29 May 2020. The award is open to unpublished illustrators over the age of 18, with cash prizes awarded for the first, second and third place in each category.

Templar will be asking applicants of the 2020 award to submit book materials on the theme "Future Vision". As part of this, entrants will be asked to submit work that "envisages an imaginative and creative future". Full illustrator and designer briefs for each category will be announced closer to the submission date.

The winner of the 2019 Templar Illustration Award was Paula White for her submission "Bread, Buns and Biscuits". Drawing on her family’s rich maritime history, her illustrations "produced a shared gasp of admiration" from the judges, according to Harris. Emma Chadwick won the inaugural award for her story "Douglas in the Land of Faraway".