The best entries in the World Illustration Awards

Nvard Yerkanyan – Soviet Modernist Architecture in Armenia; Research category

Nvard’s minimal style and contrasting, block colour aesthetic works very effectively in this piece that, according to the artist, depicts a viewing platform in Sevan. The main aim of the work is to highlight the ‘beauty of Soviet modernist architecture’, which Nvard believes is unfairly lost or undervalued.

His portfolio contains plenty of angular, spacious pieces that emphasise the jagged walls and windows of modern architecture. His personal website provides plenty more examples of his illustration – any of which could also be entered into this competition with ease.

Sonja Stangl – RAU. Winner of professional advertising category

This one may look like an emotive, deeply personal piece, but Sonja actually created RAU. for an Austrian restaurant. The illustration immediately conjures up images of Little Red Riding Hood, as the trees tower above and surround the two figures.

The restaurant itself is situated on the edge of a natural reserve, and is hidden in a remote part of Austria. Stangl explained that she deliberately ‘combined wild inky strokes with fine, little characters’ to explicitly juxtapose the overwhelming might of the natural world compared to the delicate, relatively small size of living creatures.

You can view more of Sonja’s work here, which includes animated illustration as well as fine drawing and editorial works.

Max Loeffler – The Selected Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes; professional research category

While most of the work on show for this year’s competition is solely original, Max’s is unique in that it’s based on a well-established story. This piece was commissioned as a Sherlock Holmes book cover, and Max was eager to convey the ‘search for an impossible solution’ that he feels is the essence of the character.

The magnifying glass is the central aspect of the work, with the scrambled bars on the lower half representing ‘[individual] cases [and] the search for a needle in a haystack’. You can view more of Max’s work here, some of which is more absurdist and bizarre. This was commissioned for GQ for an article on mental health, and features teacups with eyes.

Lin Chen – ADD in Women; winner new talent editorial category

Designed for a piece on attention deficit disorder in women, Lin wanted to convey that it can feel as if you’re ‘alienated, lonely and not understood’. She also went on to say that women ‘look to each other as powerful sources of inspiration, guidance, support, and encouragement’.

Check out more of Lin’s work here. This first piece is part of a series, and her work uses a mix of carefully selected negative space, with bleeding colours loose around outlined objects. They’re very effective and particularly sleek.

Those are our top picks for this year’s entries, but you can view them all on the official website for the competition here. Which one is your favourite? Let us know in the comments below.