French illustrator Laëtitia Devernay takes prestigious V&A prize

That awkward moment when you wake up and your enchanted baton has turned a grove of trees into a flock of birds. Ok, no us neither, but if your having trouble picturing what that might look like then let Laëtitia Devernay sort you out. Her illustrations for The Conductor last night took the top prize at the V&A illustration awards with the judges parsing her “utterly engaging” and “meticulously-executed” drawings.

Laëtitia’s entry beat off more than 1,000 others to take the prestigious award whose past winners have included Ralph Steadman and Quentin Blake. Elsewhere Matthew Richardson’s brilliant jacket for The Outsider won best book cover, Nick Lowndes’ smart and communicative piece on small businesses for The Financial Times was named best editorial illustration and in the student category Holly Mills’ Hothouse pipped Daniel Clarke’s Heygate Memories to the prize.

A showcase of the shortlisted artists (full list here) is now open at the muse and runs until December 31.