15 Illustrators You Should Know

Unquestionably, illustration brightens up our days. A quality drawing can evoke (at times) more than a few... well, you know the cliche.

From character sketches to full blown comics, the work of the illustrators highlighted hear runs a creative gamut. Some make their way adding color and excitment to mainstream magazines. Others share their love of bikes. All, however, have a distinct personal style and unique niche.

Check out 15 Illustrators You Should Know.

Website: Chris Piascik

A freelance designer and illustrator from Connecticut, Chris caught our attention with his 28-page zine, All My Bikes, celebrating every bike he ever owned. He's worked with Nike, Gnarls Barkley, Mr. Lif, The Discovery Channel, and the Monolith Music Festival (and more). Chris holds degrees in Visual Communication Design and Art History from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford.

Website: Dave Murray Illustration

Dave, like Chris, is awesome at cycling illustration. The piece shown here, for example, comes from Dandyhorse Magazine. He also does a ton of cool beer stuff. He graduated from the Sheridan College Illustration program and, as you'll note, loves cubism, futurism, and Russian avant-garde art.

Website: The Blake Wright

Blake Wright is from Dallas. He appears to be a bit of an asshole, but in the way that is kind of hard not to like. He draws cars. He also draws really hilarious fashion stuff.

Website: Jesse Hora

Based in Chicago, Hora has done killer illustration for adidas Originals, Mountain Dew, and Clandestine Industries. Hora is one half of MAKE, a design team specializing in art direction, lettering, and the kind of detail oriented illustration you see above. His athlete objects, which are illustrations of 80s and 90s stars based on memory and wikipedia entry, are also really awesome.

Website: The Young Mens Danger Club

Latham-Brown is the brains behind A Beast A Week, an awesome collective project creating all types of wild creatures. Other things to know —this illustrator lives in Seattle and has an amazing studio name (though seems to be changing).

Website: Esymai

Sophia Chang is from Queens, New York. She has a real knack for character illustrations. Jeremy Lin, Mark McNairy, assorted others… you know, folks that resonate with our interests.

Website: Kristian Hammerstad

Self-taught animator, fully-trained illustrator Hammerstad lives and works in native Olso, Norway. His clients include Penguin Books and Wired. We can't front, still impressed about work commissioned by A Bathing Ape.

Website: Dutch Uncle

Based in London, Noma Bar is author of two acclaimed books, The Many Faces of Noma Bar and Negative Space. His illustrations begin on paper and end on computer, and feature a terrific sense of shape and form. His pictograms are fun, and even the darkest themes have a sprinkle of humor.

Website: James Jean

Jean was educated at the School of Visual Arts, New York, NY, and now lives in Los Angeles, California. He has shown in an expressive number of exhibitions including shows at The Museum of Modern Art and the Riverside Art Museum. Reclamare (2012), shown here, is his most recent work.

Website: Olly Moss

Born in England, Moss keeps himself busy creating movie posters and fantastic pop culture silhouettes (which he calls paper cuts). When he needs a few quid, Moss has illustrated editorially for the likes of Time and The New York Times. Lucasfilm, Nike, and Sony Entertainment have also found use for his talents.

Website: Always With Honor

This trio, known collectively as Always With Honor, create illustrations that are full of curiosity. They've completed work for The Atlantic, Monocle (shown here), GQ, the New York Times, and others. The style is distinct. Oh, and by the way, Zoe is a dog.

Website: Mr. Hipp

Dan Hipp lives in Southern California. There he draws a lot and coaches water polo a little. He has done illustration for DC Comics, Random House, REAL SIMPLE, and Wired. Personal work is nerdy pop-culture stuff that, frankly, we really dig.

Website: Siggi Eggerston

Born in Iceland, Eggerston is a highly decorated (meaning award winning) illustrator and designer with a quirky 8-bit style. She dreams of designing a kit for Chelsea FC and working on a cover for fellow Icelandic star, Bjork.

Website: McBess

Bessdudo's bio reads: "My name is McBess. I'm an expensive illustrator/director. What else do you need to know? He fills landscapes with pop references and awesome creatures (sometimes these are tattooed) to create often funny, always exciting narratives.

Website: FoxNathan

Artist and illustrator extraordinaire Nathan Fox has a sick comic style. He does murals, pinups, skateboards, and a whole lot more. There is gore. There are super powers. There is a basically a gang of awesome. Fox has recently published a collection of postcards with Chronicle Books, Stay Tuned!, featuring panels from his acclaimed comic DMZ and pages from The New Yorker.