For commissions, projects or collaborations please email hello@ilyannakerr.com
Ilyanna Kerr is an illustrator based whose work spans visual communication, interaction, and socially engaged design. Her practice centres on illustration as a conceptual, critical, and embodied tool—one that can navigate complexity and propose alternative ways of seeing and relating to the world.
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Over the past five years, Ilyanna has been weaving together illustration and ecological practice through her work as a farmer at Pluk! , a community-supported agriculture initiative in amsterdam. This long-term, hands-on engagement with land and food systems has deepened her interest in drawing as a method of observation, care, and storytelling within more-than-human contexts.
Ilyanna began her career as a designer at Pentagram under Harry Pearce, before gradually transitioning to a dedicated illustration practice. She received a Design Innovation Award from the Royal College of Art and was runner-up in the Core77 Social Impact Design Awards for See What I Mean—a communication tool supporting people living with dementia that fused visualisation and language to unlock new forms of communication and methods of care.
Her work has been commissioned by clients including Waitrose, Resident Advisor, and The Health Foundation, and most recently exhibited at Tate Britain as part of The Rossettis exhibition.
She was previously an associate lecturer in Design at Goldsmiths, University of London, and served as art director at Goldsmiths Press (2017–2022). A member of the Association of Illustrators, she works across editorial, publishing, and experimental illustration, including a children’s picture book published by HarperCollins.
For commissions, projects or collaborations please email hello@ilyannakerr.com
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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, web design, exhibition design, book design
Teaching
Tutorials, crits, portfolio reviews, workshops and talks/lectures
Ilyanna Kerr is an illustrator based whose work spans visual communication, interaction, and socially engaged design. Her practice centres on illustration as a conceptual, critical, and embodied tool—one that can navigate complexity and propose alternative ways of seeing and relating to the world.
Over the past five years, Ilyanna has been weaving together illustration and ecological practice through her work as a farmer at Pluk! , a community-supported agriculture initiative in amsterdam. This long-term, hands-on engagement with land and food systems has deepened her interest in drawing as a method of observation, care, and storytelling within more-than-human contexts.
Ilyanna began her career as a designer at Pentagram under Harry Pearce, before gradually transitioning to a dedicated illustration practice. She received a Design Innovation Award from the Royal College of Art and was runner-up in the Core77 Social Impact Design Awards for See What I Mean—a communication tool supporting people living with dementia that fused visualisation and language to unlock new forms of communication and methods of care.
Her work has been commissioned by clients including Waitrose, Resident Advisor, and The Health Foundation, and most recently exhibited at Tate Britain as part of The Rossettis exhibition.
She was previously an associate lecturer in Design at Goldsmiths, University of London, and served as art director at Goldsmiths Press (2017–2022). A member of the Association of Illustrators, she works across editorial, publishing, and experimental illustration, including a children’s picture book published by HarperCollins.
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, web design, exhibition design, book design
Teaching
Tutorials, crits, portfolio reviews, workshops and talks/lectures
Clients
Studios/Agencies
Pentagram
Buero Bauer
Studio Antonia Huber
Studio Teacake
Landor
Droga5
Companies
Tate Britain
Waitrose
Resident Advisor
Saks Fifth Avenue
London College of Fashion
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 — 2020
Visiting Lecturer
Ravensbourne College
BA Fashion Accessory and Textile Futures
London, UK
2017 — 2020
SpeakingVisiting 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
Exhibitions
“The Rossettis”
Wallpaper illustration in collaboration with Dante Gabriel Rossetti (b.1828)
Tate Britain,
06.04–24.09.23
London, UK 2023
“Sketches”
Solo exhibition
Cal Smith Gallery,
PV 29.03.23
30.03–01.05.23
London, UK 2023
“Kuda Chitsike” Illustration, group mural, “Wall of Stories - WITNESS Bene t Gala” (curated by Pentagram), Shoreditch Art Wall, London, UK 2014
“See What I Mean”, exhibited at “Design Diversity”, Museum Postparkasse,
Vienna, Austria 2014
“See What I Mean”, group show, “This is War”, (Design degree show)
The Truman Brewery, London, UK 2013
“Wheel of Fortune” illustration exhibited in “The Rock & Roll Public Library”, Chelsea Space, London, UK 2009
“Listen with your Vision”A solo show of Illustrations, album art work and paintings,The Good Ship,
London, UK 2008
Live illustrations created and exhibited as part of a series of three live performances by
Mick Jones of “The Clash”, Inn on the Green,
London, UK 2007
© Ilyanna Kerr