Heads up with pride, Aleksei has entered the “Art of Nurture” competition – an annual award organised by Lloyds TSB and faced with fierce opposition got through to the finals.

Over 500 entries were whittled down to 18 finalists after six regional heats were held at prominent art galleries across England and Scotland during March and April.

Once again we are proud to announce that a work by our head of Art and Illustration Aleksei will be featured in the 2010 edition of the ‘Images’ book, titled: “Images 34 – Best of British Contemporary Illustration”. Click on the thumbnail to read the rest of the post and view the “Amazing Tree” illustration.

Images is the showcase for the best of contemporary British illustration. Now in its 34th year, Images is the only independent, jury-selected illustration annual and touring exhibition in the UK.

The jury consisted of nine eminent industry figures including Penny Garrett – Art Director at The Economist, Angus Hyland Partner at Pentagram and Ben Norland – Executive Art Director Walker Books. The categories include: Advertising, Books, Children’s Books, Design, Editorial, New Media, Self-Promotion and New Talent.

The Macmillan Prize has become an extremely well recognised and significant award for artists interested in working for picture books. It is one of the least visible but most important of the awards for work in children’s books industry.

This year the standard of entries was very high and and we are proud to announce that illustrations submitted by our head illustrator Aleksei were chosen as Highly Commended alongside work from 15 other illustrators…

“With literally thousands of entrants wondering if they were “the one”, the UK winner of the ER-6n design competition was recently presented with his uniquely painted prize. Fresh from French custom painters, OCD, the blue and white machine exceeded even winner Alyx Bitskoff’s expectations.”

We are very proud of Alexander and hope that we keep getting recognition for the work we do…