Hannah Robinson takes inspiration from 1950s poster design and her dad’s toilet humour

Moments of humour are nestled in every corner of Hannah Robinson’s endearing work: a wine-stained white shirt, a passionate smooch at a party, a dog sat at the dinner table like a human, and a book worm quite literally demolishing a book. Hannah traces her perfect handling of visual wit back to her childhood growing up in London’s Golders Green, being exposed to Wallace and Gromit, the work of director Mel Brooks, the illustrator Jean-Jacques Sempé, and a healthy dose of her dad’s toilet humour. Her character impressions and attention to charming quirks of personality, she puts down to a 1965 recording of You Don’t Have to be Jewish, a collection of skits revolving around Jewish satire.

In practice, Hannah uses a combination of pencil, Indian ink and digital underlays of colour. This flat, colour block approach is inspired by 1950s poster design, including the work of Olle Eksell. Over the years, Hannah’s style has lent itself to two niches in particular: independent foodie spots; and editorial, where her work has regularly been featured in The Guardian, The New Yorker, The Washington Post and more. While Hannah’s work does have an essence of traditional editorial illustration, she gives her own personal twist and modern edge, like her drawing of a club bathroom, where make-up is applied and friends are made, all under a warm pinky glow.

Hannah currently has an exhibition, Steve Illustrated, at Hello & Farewell Studio in Finsbury Park running until 6 May.