Laura Watson – Designer

I'm a children's book illustrator and I love creating fun, fresh whimsical worlds, and spunky and relatable characters to live in them. After studying fine art at York University and illustration at Sheridan College, I began freelancing for educational publishers like Scholastic, Pearson and Quarto, for popular kids' magazines like Humpty Dumpty, Chirp, Girls' World and Highlights, and over the past few years was happy to create trade titles for Chronicle Books, Capstone, Orca Books and Kids Can Press.

In addition, I've been honoured to be chosen to work with a few brand new authors on book projects that had been close to their hearts for many years, and to help them bring life and colour to the characters they had imagined. In some cases these have been treasured stories the authors had told their children over the years. I've always been excited and humbled by having the chance to give visual life to a long held imaginary spark, and truly love the experience of working with an author to create a book from scratch. From the first conversation determining the author's vision and hopes for the book, through initial concept sketches, and on to final full-colour art and the completed project, I work hard to make the process fun and easy for the author, while keeping the project on time and on track.