Johanna Basford


Johanna Basford is a Scottish illustrator. Her illustrations are hand-drawn, predominantly in black and white, with pencils and pens. Basford's works can be found in products such as colouring books, wallpaper, beer labels, and even tattoos. She is known to be a pioneer of the adult colouring book trend.

Biography

Johanna Basford was born in 1983 in Scotland and grew up on her parent's fish farm in Auchnagatt in Aberdeenshire. She graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee in 2005 with a degree in textile Design and a specialization in screen printing. Basford lives and works in Aberdeenshire, Scotland where she owns a small studio in a converted farmhouse with large windows that overlook the surrounding fields. She believes computer generated graphics can feel "cold and soulless," which is why she uses traditional media. Since publishing her first adult colouring book Secret Garden in 2013, she has sold more that 20 million books worldwide, making her a leader of the adult colouring book boom. She is married to James Watt, the co-founder of Brewdog, the 'punk' craft beer company.
She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to art and entrepreneurship.

Works

Basford's commercial clients include Sony, Nike, Tate Modern and Starbucks. Queensberry-Hunt, a ceramics manufacturer, commissioned her to create hand drawn designs for their tableware collection in 2008. In 2010, she created graphics for the iPhone app The New Goodbye. Basford was commissioned by Edinburgh Festival Fringe to illustrate the cover of their 2010 program. She worked with an Edinburgh-based design agency, Whitespace, to create a series of illustrations for the program and the final artwork for the #FringeCover #Twitterpicture crowdsourced illustration campaign.
In addition to her illustrations, Basford has designed glowing wallpapers, printed using special ultraviolet-sensitive inks.
In May 2013, Basford opened her first solo exhibition at Dundee Contemporary Arts called Wonderlands: it was one of DCA's most successful exhibitions, with a total audience of 8,488.
She is currently represented by literary agent Ed Victor.

Books