Crisp, clever loveliness from Tomi Um

Last week a woman called Jaci Kessler emailed in showing us some of the art direction she’s done for Bloomberg Businessweek’s ETC section. As well as working directly with some of my absolute favourite illustrators such as Jan Buchczik, Golden Cosmos and Dan Stafford to make the spectacular, rule-breaking editorial features they are famed for, Jaci also introduced me to a whole host of other artists who totally blew me away. In particular New York illustrator Tomi Um, whose work is crisp, cute and funny and illustrates the chaos and cheerful aspects of modern life. Honing in predominantly on crowd scenes, Tomi is at her best when illustrating bustling ski slopes, busy shops or dramatic events like horse racing. Her piece for Popular Mechanics is neat as a pin, as well as representing the article she’s illustrating perfectly. No wonder she’s in such high demand at the moment. Well done Tomi, and thank you Jaci for the heads up!