BOLOGNA 2006!!! Hungarian Showcase

Every year the Bologna Book Fair showcases the illustrators from one country. This year's honoured Hungary – "30 illustrators 30 books" (pictured above). The exhibition explored the work of 30 artists, each of whom exhibited about fifteen illustrations and an ”illustrated book model” made up of some of the selected works. This was a terrific exhibition marred only by an odd presentation design in which some work was reduced and presented on low tables so that you had to get a crick in the neck to get a good look. The work on the tables were in perspex cubes - which made viewing even more awkward. But the inspirational exhibition made one quickly forget the pain in the neck ...

This is by Bekes Rozi -

















These are by Karpati Tibor -















And this is Stark Attila -



Apologies for the quality of the images which were taken by a very low-pixel camera phone!

BOLOGNA 2006!!! Illustrator Kana Yamada

I loved these images posted by Illustrator Kana Yamada with her business cards, somewhere on the lower regions of the Illustrator's message board at the Bologna Book Fair. The little girl wanders around the beach, the woods, the streets with a small white elephant. I'd love to read the story behind the images!







Apologies for the poor quality of the images which are from my rather low pixel mobile phone.

BOLOGNA 2006!!! The Illustrators' Message Board

The 2006 Bologna Book Fair would have been no fun without the illustrators, easy to identify with their unwieldy portfolios and a rather more bohemian approach to fashion than the suits who run the stalls. Indeed, amidst the splendour of the official exhibitions, the anarchic Illustrators' message board – a mass (mess?) of gaudy business cards and home-made enticements for the powers that be in publishing.

Here are some shots of ingenious calling cards on display:






Apologies for the low quality of the images which were from my low-pixel mobile phone.

BOLOGNA 2006!!! Illustrator Jimmy Liao

I've just returned from my first Bologna Children's Book Fair, the biggest children's book fair in the world – and I shall be stealing time from work to post reports on the wonderful SCBWI pre-Bologna Conference I attended.

Meanwhile, i shall be posting illustrations that caught my attention at the fair. Just a warning: there was so much to see and I only had time to visit three warehouses of publishers' stalls, unfortunately having to miss out on the Italian exhibitions so that I wouldn't miss my train to the airport. And I hope the illustrators will forgive the quality of the images - they are after all only mobile phone shots from a very low pixel phone.

These magical illustrations by Jimmy Liao of Taiwan show the world from the point of view of a blind girl. I just couldn't take my eyes off his drawings.