Ilyanna Kerr is a designer, illustrator and educator based in London. She works across visual communication, interaction and social innovation design with a focus on expanding and challenging disciplinary boundaries to make space for new forms of design practice. She sees design, not as a prescriptive discipline, but as a discipline of communication, vision and speculation — positioning design as an agent of change that can both intervene in and articulate a world increasingly characterised by a displacement between the real and the virtual.
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Photo by Katerina
Her practice is concerned with the interrelationship between visual communication, language, cognition, perception and experience with a focus on drawing as a conceptual and critical tool. Ilyanna received a Design Innovation Award from the Royal College of Art and was runner up in the CORE77 Social Impact Design Awards for her project and social enterprise See What I Mean - A tool to support people living with dementia that fused visualisation and language to unlock new forms of communication and methods of care.
She has previously worked as a designer at Pentagram under Harry Pearce and has since worked independently for clients including The Health Foundation and Natalia Vodianova (Elbi). Her expansive practice feeds into how she approaches her commercial work, striving for outcomes that communicate with emotion and clarity while purposefully connecting to broader themes.
Ilyanna is currently an associate lecturer on the Design BA at Goldsmiths University of London, art director at Goldsmiths Design Agency as well as a visiting lecturer on the Fashion Accessory and Textile Futures BA at Ravensbourne College. She is a member of the Association of Illustrators and takes on a variety of commissions, from editorial to experimental and has previously illustrated a children’s picture book published by HarperCollins. She often works with tech start-ups to develop creative direction and brand identities — all apps she has worked with have gone on to be featured on app stores globally.
For commissions, projects or collaborations please email hello@ilyannakerr.com
Instagram
Services
Illustration
Editorial illustration, illustration for advertising, sketches, visualisations, illustrative mapping, animation, story boarding, childrens’ book illustration, handwritten typography, murals
Design
Visual identity design/branding, creative direction, app design, web design, UX design, exhibition design, book design, art direction
Teaching
Tutorials, crits, portfolio reviews, workshops and talks/lectures
Photo by Katerina
Her practice is concerned with the interrelationship between visual communication, language, cognition, perception and experience with a focus on drawing as a conceptual and critical tool. Ilyanna received a Design Innovation Award from the Royal College of Art and was runner up in the CORE77 Social Impact Design Awards for her project and social enterprise See What I Mean - A tool to support people living with dementia that fused visualisation and language to unlock new forms of communication and methods of care.
She has previously worked as a designer at Pentagram under Harry Pearce and has since worked independently for clients including The Health Foundation and Natalia Vodianova (Elbi). Her expansive practice feeds into how she approaches her commercial work, striving for outcomes that communicate with emotion and clarity while purposefully connecting to broader themes.
Ilyanna is currently an associate lecturer on the Design BA at Goldsmiths University of London, art director at Goldsmiths Design Agency as well as a visiting lecturer on the Fashion Accessory and Textile Futures BA at Ravensbourne College. She is a member of the Association of Illustrators and takes on a variety of commissions, from editorial to experimental and has previously illustrated a children’s picture book published by HarperCollins. She often works with tech start-ups to develop creative direction and brand identities — all apps she has worked with have gone on to be featured on app stores globally.
For commissions, projects or collaborations please email hello@ilyannakerr.com
Services
Illustration
Editorial illustration, illustration for advertising, sketches, visualisations, illustrative mapping, animation, story boarding, childrens’ book illustration, handwritten typography, murals
Design
Visual identity design/branding, creative direction, app design, web design, UX design, exhibition design, book design, art direction
Teaching
Tutorials, crits, portfolio reviews, workshops and talks/lectures
Clients
Studios/Agencies
Landor
Droga5
Pentagram
Buero Bauer
Studio Antonia Huber
Studio Teacake
CompaniesSaks Fifth Avenue
Natalia Vodianova (Elbi Digital)
Berry Bros & Rudd.
Kopparberg
HarperCollins
SEAT
The Health Foundation
Goldsmiths University of London
Goldsmiths Press
Pangaea Sculptors’ Centre
Witness
COS
Surveyor Thompson
PlanSnap
Factmata
Output Arts
At PentagramJohn Lewis
Argos
The Science Museum (London)
Maggies Cancer Care Centres
Net-A-Porter Group
The Royal Academy of Arts
WF Central
Awards, grants and fellowships
Core 77
Runner up for Social Impact,
Professional Category
2015
Royal College of Art
Design Innovation Award
2014
Unltd ‘Do it’ Award
2014 (grant)
Unltd ‘Care’ Award
2014 (grant)
Impact Hub, Fellowship for Longer Lives Fellowship and Grant
2014
Teaching
Associate Lecturer
Goldsmiths University
BA Design
London, UK
2013 — current
Visiting Lecturer
Ravensbourne College
BA Fashion Accessory and Textile Futures
London, UK
2017 — current
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Speaking
Visiting lecture, Architecture Department, Brighton University
Brighton, UK — May 2016
Talk, Professional Practice, Design Department, Goldsmiths University,
London, UK — January 2016
Talk, Ageing Well Festival,
Torbay, UK —October 2015
Talk, Cavendish Global Health Impact Forum, Oxford University,
Oxford, UK — November 2014
Talk, Health 2.0, Nesta,
London, UK — November 2014
Talk, Global Impact Forum,
Zurich, Switzerland — October 2014
Talk, Welcome Series, Design Department, Goldsmiths University,
London, UK —September 2014
Talk, Ageing 2.0 Global Innovation Summit,
San Fransisco, USA — May 2014
Talk, Impact Hub,
London, UK — April 2014
Talk, Welcome Series, Design Department, Goldsmiths University,
London, UK — September 2013
Talk, Tech for Good, Shoreditch Village Hall,
London, UK —October 2013
