Illustrators in Residence
Each year at Hay Festival, an Illustrator in Residence shares Festival highlights through their own creative lens. In 2023 Beth Suzanna used her playful and bold style to bring the programme cover to life. In 2022 Tom Etherington brought his striking graphic approach to illustrating the Festival. Hay Festival 2021 saw artist Tom Bradshaw's intricate caricature-style drawings, and Hay Festival Winter Weekend 2021 inspired the colourful work of Beth Blandford.
Beth Suzanna
Based in Bristol, Beth’s work seeks to capture the vibrancy of the everyday through a playful combination of bold paper cut shapes and expressive pastel line work. She collaborated with hip hop star, actor and writer Jordan Stephens on the children’s book The Missing Piece, released last year.
Tom Etherington
Tom is a graphic designer based in London, specialising in design for print. Former designer at Penguin Press, where he designed book covers and illustrated books, he also art directed the biannual magazine The Happy Reader.
Tom Bradshaw
Tom is an illustrator from Huddersfield, who captures conversations through illustration and sketchnotes.
Beth Blandford
Beth is a Welsh illustrator from Cardiff whose work centres around concepts of space: our physical and mental space, the space we steal, the space we inherit, and the spaces we choose to inhabit. She is heavily influenced by feminism and the conversations around it.