Jimin Kim, Jungho Lee and more announced as winners of 40th annual World Illustration Awards

The Association of Illustrators has this morning announced the winners of its 40th annual international showcase, the World Illustration Awards. The winners will be exhibited at Somerset House’s Embankment East Galleries throughout August, before going on tour.

Two winners have been awarded in each of the categories — advertising, books, children’s books, design, editorial, public realm, research and knowledge communication and self initiated — providing a showcase for both tried and tested professionals, and emerging new talent.

Two overall winners were announced as Jimin Kim (new talent) and Jungho Lee (professional talent), who both picked up respective awards in the book illustration category.

The professional class winner, Jungho Lee, who also hails from South Korean was commissioned by Sang Publishing to produce a series of book illustrations for Promenade, making use of graphite and charcoal overlaid with textured papers scanned and composited to create beautifully muted, minimal landscapes.

“Jungho Lee’s picture book is distinguished not just because of his outstanding technique, but great imagination. I think this is why the jury chose his book as the overall winner,” says Daehyun Kim, Book category judge.

South Korean-born illustrator Jimin Kim is a recent graduate of the Masters in Communication Design course at Kingston University in London, and picked up the awards for her work Hyde & Seek which explores the notion of alter egos through delicate and contrastive etchings arranged in concertina to allow a multitude of compositions and juxtapositions.

Books category judge, Daehyun Kim, says: “I really enjoyed Jimin Kim’s little book. I wanted to peek through the little holes to discover fractions of personality. The title, the story, and the cut-out technique are just in perfect harmony.”

Among the category winners was New York-based illustrator Thoka Maer, featured back in April, who walked off with the new talent award in Design. Alongside, other emerging talent including Julinu (advertising), Gigi Rose Gray (self initiated), Nancy Liang (editorial), Ami Shin (children’s books), Diego Becas Villegas (public realm) and Eun Jung Banhg (research and knowledge communication).

The free World Illustration Awards exhibition runs until 29 August at Somerset House, featuring over 50 words across the disciplines.