Illustrator in Residence 2025

Each year at Hay Festival, an illustrator shares highlights through their own creative lens. We’re delighted that this year Lizzie Lomax is our Illustrator in Residence 2025. Creator of this programme’s cover, she’ll join us in May to produce Festival-inspired illustrations and lead hands-on workshops.

Based in Brighton, where she works from her shared studio at the Phoenix Art Space, Lizzie draws inspiration from the natural world, the environment and communities. Her work is made up of textures and shapes with many mediums (collage, ink, painting, drawing) which are curated digitally to make bright playful illustrations and dynamic design.

Explore more of her work on her website.

What first inspired your love of illustration?

I’ve always loved drawing, and for a long time I didn’t realise that it was something you could do for a living! Doing a foundation course at my local college opened up a whole new world of design and illustration, and I applied to the Illustration Animation course at Kingston University. I learnt so much there – it really allowed me to explore the art form and made me realise how important it is. Illustration is a great device to convey narrative, ideas, thoughts and feelings in an accessible way – this can all be seen through its many different applications in editorial, publishing, design and advertising. If you look carefully, you’ll see illustration is everywhere!

Which artists and illustrators do you look up to?

I always find this question tough, as the list is so long! I’ve always loved Laura Carlin’s work – both her picture books and ceramics – as well as John Broadley, Stephen Smith, Atelier Bingo and Nicholas Stevenson. I also get lots of inspiration from visiting exhibitions and museums. Things I’ve seen in the last year that I particularly enjoyed were ‘Picasso: Printmaker’ at the British Museum, ‘Women in Revolt’ at Tate Britain, Philip Guston at Tate Modern and the Enzo Mari exhibition at the Design Museum.

What made you want to apply to be Hay Festival Illustrator in Residence?

Having visited Hay-on-Wye several times, as well as being a big book lover, this felt like the perfect opportunity to really delve into the festival as well as tie my love of reading together with my illustration practice.

Tell us about your programme cover design…

I always knew I wanted to incorporate the atmosphere of the festival with the beautiful surroundings of Hay-on-Wye. Using mixed media and collage, I wanted the method to reflect this. Creating small vignettes and scenes, which then build to make a broad picture, highlighting small moments people can experience during their time visiting. Colour in particular is a big part of my process when image making, and I particularly loved using the brand colour palette for this image too!