The V&A Illustration Awards are well established as one of the UK’s most prestigious illustration competitions. The Awards celebrate excellence from those emerging in the field as well as categories devoted to professional contemporary practice.
This year, Handsome Frank's Paul Blow picked up the award for the Advertising and Commercial category with his brilliant album cover artwork for New Modern Homes by The Chesterfields (Mr Mellow’s Music, 2022).
Paul’s album cover for indie band The Chesterfields is inspired by their lyrics. On the album cover, a 10-foot tall man looks into a Norwegian modernist house in daylight, ‘in the right place’ but ‘at the wrong time’. The inner sleeve shows a woman inside the same house, which now glows orange in the twilight. The V&A Award's judges praised Blow’s ability to convey a story using just two juxtaposing images.
Below you can see a glimpse behind the magic and a look at Paul's drafts which reveal how his process works.
Paul's work, alongside the other winner's will be on display at London's V&A Museum until September 2025. Congratulations to Paul and his fellow winner's who are pictured below at the Award Ceremony.
