7 Illustrators You Should Follow for Inspiration in 2020
Illustrators have been present in our daily lives as far as our memory serves, but who are the great illustrators of today?
A wise person once said that one illustration can tell more than a thousand words. That’s because illustration is a powerful communication tool and has been used as means of expressing oneself since the dawn of time. With such a long history, it’s no mystery that illustrators have been present in our daily lives as far as our memory serves, but very few have left their long-lasting mark in history and cracked deep into your consciousness.
It’s not easy to find art you might like among the vast pool of illustrators out there. That’s why we have decided to tackle this challenge head-to-head and introduce you to some hip illustrators in hopes that you can find some illustration inspiration.
The illustrators we're featuring in this article have created free customizable illustration systems! Let's take a look at these illustrators' inspiring work!
1. Bonnie Kate Wolf
📍 San Francisco, California | Illustrator specialized in iconography
Who’s Bonnie Kate and Why You Should Follow Her — Bonnie Kate is an illustrator who works in brand and product design, her passion is telling impactful stories through beautiful design and dynamite systems.
Bonnie Kate has worked as a freelancer for Airbnb, Square, Lyft, LUSH, Figma, and so on, and has also written pieces about design culture and illustration systems. Bonnie’s work as a writer has inspired thousands of people who are still starting up in the design world thanks to her insight and knowledge on building brands and illustration sets from scratch.
On Blush, you can find some of her best work with Open Figures, a collection of free customizable illustrations that celebrate life through a colorful, Miami-styled set of characters who are ready to mingle in some fun situations!
👀 Discover Open Figures by Bonnie Kate on Blush
2. Vijay Verma
📍 India | Designer, maker, and dreamer
Who’s Vijay and Why You Should Follow Him — Vijay calls himself a “design-chef” who also happens to love sharing the recipes. One day he decided to quit his boring 9-to-5 job to become a full-time freelance designer. During his freelancer time, he worked for companies like Feedly, Eversend, Vanilla.io, and more! Today, Vijar is designing the cool stuff at Zomato and enjoying his life!
Vijay has created thousands upon thousands of free illustrations ever since he began his freelancing career. Likewise, he has written extensively about his life journey and some essays about the current systems he’s been working on at Zomato, turning him into one of the best illustrators out there thanks to his talent and insight on today’s design culture.
Get a taste of the design-chef with a tasteful recipe of customizable illustrations titled Croods, which combines minimalist designs with extremely energetic and vibrant colors. Life is full of spice with them!
👀 Discover Croods by Vijay Verma on Blush
3. Isabela Humprey
📍 Mexico City | Visual designer and illustrator
Who’s Isabela and Why You Should Follow Her — Isabela Humphrey is an illustrator and visual designer with a background in fashion design currently based in Mexico City. Keen on details, Isabela’s work is inspired by the vibrant and colorful culture that surrounds her.
Isabela’s clients include POPSUGAR, We Are Fluide, The Mujerista, Stitch Fix, Fred & Jane, and many others who have used her bold designs in their products for a colorful explosion!
Get Isabela’s fiercest illustration set called Power Moves. You can fully customize them and add some bold colors to your projects!
👀 Discover Power Moves by Isabela Humphrey on Blush
4. Pablo Stanley
📍 Mexico City | Designer, musician, and writer
Who’s Pablo and Why You Should Follow Him — Pablo Stanley is an illustrator, animator, and visual designer from Mexico City and currently based in San Francisco, CA. A jack of all trades, Pablo loves solving design puzzles, making silly illustrations, composing geeky music, creating colorful animated gifs, munching veggie burgers, and writing comics.
Pablo has extensive experience as a designer and has built a fruitful career among some key players in the industry. He was a Lead at InVision, a Staff Designer at Lyft, and co-founder of Carbon Health. Pablo also gives design workshops through Udemy and shares design tutorials on YouTube. He also hosts a design podcast, manages Latinxs Who Design, gives talks around the world, and writes silly comics.
As the founder of Blush, you can expect to find some of Pablo’s best work here on Blush! Some of his most popular works include Open Peeps, Cityscapes, Squiggles, and, of course, Humaaans, which has been featured as one of the best customizable illustrations set in the whole web. And for free!
👀 Discover Open Peeps by Pablo Stanley on Blush
5. Elina Cecilia Giglio
📍 Argentina | Designer and illustrator
Who’s Elina and Why You Should Follow Her — Elina Cecilia Giglio is an Argentinian digital designer, illustrator, and photographer living in between brands and digital products. Elina has a passion for details and illustrating the pretty side of things.
Elina has worked for the South American giant Mercado Libre as a Product Designer. Currently, she’s working as part of Eventbrite’s Brand Studio and as a freelance designer. Her doodly and dynamic style is light, fresh, and inspires nothing but positive feelings on the sight of those who bump into her work.
You can get a glimpse of Elina’s bouncy and happy style through her featured collection on Blush titled Big Shoes, which also provides colorful, customizable illustrations for 404 pages!
👀 Discover Big Shoes by Elina Cecilia Giglio on Blush
6. Susana Ortiz
📍 Mexico | Graphic designer and painter
Who’s Susana and Why You Should Follow Her — Susana Ortiz is a graphic designer and artist from Baja, Mexico. Color is essential to Susana’s portfolio, which can be appreciated in her virtual designs and paintings.
Susana is different from many other designers out there as she also focuses on artistic painting and focuses on a more abstract and floral style. Her work reflects her view beyond the typical shapes and the intrinsic beauty of hidden details.
Get a taste of Susana’s colorful viewpoint through one of the site’s most unique collections: Fancy Plants. As the name implies, it’s a customizable set of some of the loveliest plants you’ll get to ever see on the web!
👀 Discover Fancy Plants by Susana Ortiz on Blush
7. Vero Iezzi
📍 Venezuela | Illustrator
Who’s Vero and Why You Should Follow Her — Vero Iezzi is a Venezuelan graphic designer and illustrator with a versatile style and expertise in traditional and digital media. She loves working with a flat color style and creating cute characters full of personality. Vero’s expertise goes from character design, illustrated book covers, comics, and UI/UX design.
At Blush we feature her collection Family Values, a fan favorite thanks to its adorable cast of characters and how it celebrates diversity and our most memorable family moments.
👀 Discover Family Values by Vero Iezzi on Blush
What do you think of these inspiring artists of the future? You can find their free customizable illustrations collections here, and add an extra layer of personality to each one of your projects! Keep an eye on our website for more upcoming collaborations with new illustrators. Do you want to share an inspiring designer we should feature on Blush? Hit us up on Twitter!
