Jess Froggatt – Designer

I’m an illustrator & author based in Manchester, UK. I graduated from the University of Leeds after completing a Bachelor of Arts Undergraduate degree in Fashion Design. Since then I have moved more towards digital illustration for children’s books. When I started to paint digitally, it was a complete revelation to me, I love that you can make it super clean, or keep it loose and painterly, get into the tiniest detail to add little easter eggs and change whole sections to make your pages the best they can be without having to completely start again.

I'd say my style is cutesy, bold and painterly with a slightly goofy edge. My all-time favourite illustrator has got to be Jim Filed - the guy's incredible. I also take a lot of inspiration from the french post-impressionists. I wish I could paint landscapes like Emile Bernard!

In my work, I mainly illustrate animal characters. They're fun to draw and I love the idea of getting kids excited about nature - designing characters they love and (hopefully) that make them laugh. Although I draw human characters too. I'm happy to spend days on end designing environments and whole worlds, getting lost in every little detail, nothing is too weird, fantastical or magical.

I'm pretty new to the kid lit industry, but at the moment my focus is picture books and early readers. I'd also be interested in designing a cover for chapter books or middle grade fiction.

If you have any questions or want to chat, I'd love to hear from you and maybe work on your project.