SLEEVE
CULTURE
Album cover
illustrator
special
Find the right independent UK-based illustrator for your creative project.
A curated selection of artists and designers available to commission for album or book covers - or any other visual undertaking.
THE ILLUSTRATORS
Julian House
London graphic designer, musician and co-founder of Ghost Box Records. He is one of the most influential British designers working at the intersection of music, publishing and experimental graphic design.
Style: Meticulously constructed collage drawing on 1960s/70s British graphic culture, pulp paperbacks, library music, educational graphics, found photography and deliberately archaic printing aesthetics.
Prominent Work: Stereolab, Broadcast, Primal Scream, Oasis, The Prodigy, Doves, Ghost Box, Berberian Sound Studio and numerous Ghost Box releases.
Rob Flowers
Illustrator, character designer, author and animation director based in the UK, with a practice built around characters, toys, folklore and visual oddities.
Style: Intensely colourful, psychedelic and deliberately eccentric. Think vintage toys, medieval imagery, children's illustration, monsters, circus ephemera and 1960s/70s psychedelia pushed into wonderfully strange combinations.
Prominent Work: British Museum, V&A, Nike, Google, Kraft, ASOS, MTV, BBC Radio 1, House of Holland, Anorak and Northdown Brewery; creator of the BBC3 animated comedy Thames View.
Phigment
Alias of James RJ Harris, independent London illustrator, graphic designer and art director since 2004. His work spans illustration, album cover artwork, music posters and graphic design. Importantly, his site explicitly states "NO A.I. EVER" for commissions.
Style: Colourful, surreal and psychedelic, combining hand-drawn illustration, collage, vintage comics, 1960s/70s pop culture and bold graphic elements. The work has a distinctive retro feel while remaining playful and contemporary.
Prominent Work: Album and single artwork for Jacoby, The Sonic Jewels, Darling BOY and The Electric Stars; collaborations with Merc Clothing and Soho Scarves; March of the Mods and Gadzooks comic; band merchandise for Henry's Funeral Shoe
Jack Teagle
South-West England-based freelance illustrator and artist who divides his time between painting, comics, zines and commercial illustration. He works from a converted studio in Cornwall and has a strong independent-comics sensibility.
Style: Flat, graphic and slightly wonky cartooning, combining British comics, pulp sci-fi, horror, wrestling, monsters and retro pop culture.
Prominent Work: Adobe, Netflix, Apple, Mojang, Front Magazine and the Eden Project; also numerous self-published books, paintings and zines.
Luke Insect
London/Brighton-based graphic designer and illustrator who came to prominence through the cult design collective Insect before establishing his own studio. His career has been heavily intertwined with music and independent record culture.
Style: Maximalist psychedelic pop art combining collage, photomontage, vintage print references, surrealism and a darker, often Victorian/gothic sensibility.
Prominent Work: The Prodigy, Chicken Lips, The Time & Space Machine, Reverend & The Makers, Infadels, Young Knives, The Human League, Wall of Sound, Cooking Vinyl, Sony, Nike, Adidas, MTV and Levi's.
Hattie Stewart
London-based British artist and illustrator whose career grew from her "doodle-bombing" project, in which she reworked existing magazine covers with exuberant hand-drawn imagery.
Style: Loud, playful, colourful and cartoon-based, mixing cute/kitsch imagery with irreverent humour, doodling and collage.
Prominent Work: Adidas Originals, Apple Music, Gucci, GQ, Interview, Nike, MTV, Playboy, Sanrio, W Magazine Korea, Mac DeMarco, Kylie Minogue and Roc Nation.
Drew Millward
Yorkshire-based illustrator and printmaker who began making gig posters in Leeds and developed a substantial international music-art career from that DIY background.
Style: Extremely detailed, hand-drawn, darkly humorous and slightly gothic; skulls, animals, plants, strange characters and intricate ornamental structures are recurring motifs.
Prominent Work: Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Nine Inch Nails, Arctic Monkeys, Bon Iver, Dinosaur Jr, Bundobust and Leeds International Beer Festival.
Tom Abbiss Smith
Norwich-based contemporary illustrator/designer represented by Grand Matter, working across illustration, packaging, fashion, editorial and surface design.
Style: Abstract, colourful and organic, combining digital collage with drawing and painting. Shapes tend to interlock into playful, rhythmic compositions inspired by nature and music.
Prominent Work: Bandcamp, Ripcurl, Gorman, Made.com, Modus Magazine, Chobani, Lululemon, Pinterest, Häagen-Dazs, Tesco, Bettys, DK Books, Voxi and Royal Botanical Gardens Canada.
Supermundane — Rob Lowe
London-based artist, illustrator and writer Rob Lowe, working as Supermundane. He has more than 25 years' experience in graphic design and illustration.
Style: Geometric, abstract and typographic — interlocking lines, shapes, optical effects and intensely considered colour, usually with a playful philosophical quality.
Prominent Work: Penguin, V&A, Liberty, Great Ormond Street Hospital, Art Fund, UEFA, Made.com, Apple and the British Red Cross. He also created the book Lost Ordinary Magic.
Chrissie Abbott
London-based designer, illustrator and art director working across collage, animation, branding, music and image-making.
Style: Off-kilter collage, drawing and print with 1960s psychedelic references, new-age kitsch, vivid colour clashes and deliberately imperfect handmade textures.
Prominent Work: Adidas, Apple, Vans, Dazed, Puma, Nike, The Atlantic, MIT, Hunter, Universal Music, Selfridges, Sony BMG and Levi's. She has also worked directly on album covers and music videos.
Miles Donovan
London-based illustrator, art director and founding member of Peepshow Collective. He has worked extensively across editorial illustration, animation, design and installation.
Style: Collage-led, graphic and slightly surreal, often combining found imagery, photography, typography and bold colour.
Prominent Work: Defected Records, Faber & Faber, The Guardian, The New York Times, GQ, Dazed & Confused, Billboard, TIME, Wired, Puma, Asics and Warner Bros. His Secret 7" cover for T. Rex is especially relevant to your project.
Pete Fowler
Welsh artist, illustrator, painter, printmaker and "monster maker", perhaps best known for his long-running visual relationship with Super Furry Animals.
Style: Psychedelic cartooning populated by recurring monsters and characters, with strong influences from folklore, Japanese imagery, punk, psychedelia and children's illustration.
Prominent Work: Super Furry Animals' Radiator and associated singles, Monsterism toys, The Horrors, Kia, O2, Disney, Levi's, Paul Smith, Sony, MTV, Rough Trade, Aardman, Greenpeace and Warp Films.
James Jarvis
London-based artist and illustrator whose work emerged from the British independent illustration/skateboarding/comics scene. He has developed a substantial personal publishing and fine-art practice alongside commercial work.
Style: Minimal line drawing, strange cartoon characters, deadpan humour and surreal narratives. His apparently simple figures often carry quite philosophical or existential ideas.
Prominent Work: An Endless Journey, Blondey, The Wrong Wrogns, Noddy work and his many self-published books, prints and character projects; commercial clients have included Nike and Supreme.
Jim Stoten
Hastings-based illustrator, artist and musician whose practice spans drawing, collage, animation, books, music and commercial illustration.
Style: Hyper-detailed, whimsical and psychedelic, with extraordinary hand-drawn worlds packed with characters, patterns and visual jokes.
Prominent Work: MTV, Moog, Levi's, Urban Outfitters, The Guardian, Eurostar and Habitat; books include Mr Tweed's Busy Day.
Rosie Brooks
London-based illustrator specialising in traditional pen-and-ink and watercolour. With a background in music and children's book illustration, she works across publishing, music, editorial and cultural projects.
Style: Delicate, detailed and expressive, combining fine pen work with loose watercolour and gentle humour. Her illustrations have a distinctly handmade, narrative quality, often capturing people, musicians and live performances.
Prominent Work: Oxford University Press, Classic FM, Royal Opera House, English National Opera, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Naxos UK, Royal Ballet, Hachette and John Lewis. Notable projects include the Piano Time series, God Save the King: An Illustrated Guide to the National Anthem and illustrated work for Classic FM.
Jasper Goodall
Birmingham-born artist/photographer now based in Sussex. Although originally known as an illustrator, Goodall has evolved into a photographic and fine-art practice.
Style: Atmospheric, nocturnal and mysterious, constructing surreal landscapes through physical intervention, artificial light, long exposures and carefully assembled compositions.
Prominent Work: Into the Wild Night, Nocturna, Dark Flora, Verdant and Lemma and Glume. He has also produced record-sleeve/poster imagery and became known earlier in his career for work for The Face and Muse.
Ben Newman
Hastings-based illustrator and author with more than 15 years' experience. He combines commercial illustration with painting, exhibitions and three-dimensional work.
Style: Bold geometric shapes, vivid colour and playful characters — a contemporary mixture of Bauhaus, children's illustration and graphic design.
Prominent Work: Tate Modern, Apple, Google, New York Times, New Yorker, BBC Radio 4, Penguin, Wired and Flying Eye Books. He is particularly known for co-creating the Professor Astro Cat books.
Anthony Burrill
Lancashire-born graphic artist and printmaker now based in Rye, East Sussex. He has worked independently since completing his MA at the Royal College of Art.
Style: Extremely economical typographic compositions using words, letterforms, humour and bold graphic structures. His analogue/letterpress approach gives the work a particularly tactile quality.
Prominent Work: Work Hard and Be Nice to People, You & Me, Hope, YES!NO!YES!NO!, British Library, Economist, London Underground, Wallpaper*, Design Museum and V&A. His work is held in the permanent collections of the V&A and Design Museum.
Luke Heath
Sussex-based artist/illustrator known for his Garbage Pail Kids-influenced sketchcard work. His work draws heavily on 80s nostalgia with a surreal edge.
Style: Specialising in character-based art in a hand-drawn/painted style, in both analogue and digital media.
Prominent Work: Mad Scientist 40k trading cards, Spoof Troop, Vita Absurdum, Lunch Box Leftovers.
Pete McKee
Sheffield painter, cartoonist and commercial artist whose work draws heavily on everyday northern British life and popular culture.
Style: Bright, flat and characterful cartooning, mixing humour, nostalgia and observational storytelling. His imagery has a strong sense of place and working-class British culture.
Prominent Work: 10 Now and Then series, The Snog, Sea Breeze, Oasis at Heaton Park, This Is England, Sheffield-related work and extensive screen-print editions.
Sam Chivers
Eastbourne-based UK illustrator with a long commercial career spanning editorial, publishing, advertising and science illustration.
Style: Warm, sophisticated compositions combining hand-drawn elements with 3D/digital construction, often featuring surreal landscapes, geometric structures and strong colour.
Prominent Work: New Scientist, Penguin Random House, Bloomsbury, Macmillan, Wizards of the Coast, Adobe, Playstation, GQ, Wired, Economist, Guardian, Washington Post and Ardbeg. Book-cover work includes American Oasis, Everything I Promised You and Escape Velocity.