Johanna Basford OBE (born 1983) is a Scottish illustrator. Her illustrations are hand-drawn, predominantly in black and white, with pencils and pens.[1][2] Basford's works can be found in products such as colouring books, wallpaper, beer labels and even tattoos.[3] She is known to be a pioneer of the adult colouring book trend.[4]
|
Johanna Basford
| |
|---|---|
| Born | 1983 (age 40–41) |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Alma mater | Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design |
| Website | johannabasford |
Johanna Basford was born in 1983[5] in Scotland and grew up on her parents' fish farm[6]inAuchnagattinAberdeenshire.[7] She graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design (DJCAD) in Dundee in 2005 with a degree in textile Design and a specialization in screen printing.[1] Basford lives and works in Aberdeenshire, Scotland[3] where she owns a small studio in a converted farmhouse with large windows that overlook the surrounding fields.[1] She believes computer generated graphics can feel "cold and soulless", which is why she uses traditional media.[8] Since publishing her first adult colouring book Secret Garden in 2013, she has sold more than 21 million[9] books worldwide, making her a leader of the adult colouring book boom.[10][11][12] She was previously married to James Watt, the co-founder of Brewdog, the 'punk' craft beer company and together they had 2 daughters.[13][9] In February 2021, she announced on social media that she had separated from her husband the previous year.[14]
She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to art and entrepreneurship.[15]
In 2019 she broke the Guinness World Record for the Largest Drawing by an Individual, creating a huge floral drawing over 501 sq m (5,395 sq ft) in 12 hours at her former school, Ellon Academy in Aberdeenshire.[16]
In February 2021 it was announced that she would be hosting the University of Dundee's Annual Public Lecture in Entrepreneurship and that she had been awarded the university's Entrepreneurial Recognition Award.[17]
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.[18] Basford was commissioned by Edinburgh Festival Fringe to illustrate the cover of their 2010 program.[19] 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.[18]
In addition to her illustrations, Basford has designed glowing wallpapers, printed using special ultraviolet-sensitive inks.[19]
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.[20]
In November 2017, she created a Scottish themed Google Doodle for the search engine's homepage on St Andrew's Day.[21]
She is currently represented by literary agent Cathryn Summerhayes at Curtis Brown.[22]
A lot of my work is nature inspired and takes cues from the flora and fauna I grew up with in rural Scotland.