Johanna Basford (born 1983) is a Scottish

illustrator An illustrator is an artist who specializes in enhancing writing or elucidating concepts by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text or idea. The illustration may be intended to clarify complicate ...

. Her illustrations are hand-drawn, predominantly in black and white, with pencils and pens. Her works can be found in products such as colouring books, wallpaper, beer labels and tattoos. She has published colouring books for adults.

Biography

Johanna Basford was born in 1983 in Scotland and grew up on her parents' fish farm in

Auchnagatt Auchnagatt () is a village and rural area in Buchan, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, situated on the Ebrie Burn and on the A948 road between Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Ellon and New Deer. Schools Auchnagatt Primary School is situated in the village. The ...

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Aberdeenshire (historic), Aberdeenshire, which had substantial ...

. She graduated from

Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design (DJCAD) is part of the University of Dundee in Dundee, Scotland. It is ranked as one of the top schools of art and design in the United Kingdom. History Attempts were made to establish an art sch ...

(DJCAD) in

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

in 2005 with a degree in

textile Design Textile design, also known as textile geometry, is the creative and technical process by which thread or yarn fibers are interlaced to form a piece of Textile, cloth or Textile, fabric, which is subsequently printed upon or otherwise adorned. Texti ...

and a specialization in

screen printing Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen in a "flood stroke ...

. Basford lives and works in

Aberdeenshire, Scotland Aberdeenshire (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the historic county of Aberdeenshire, which had substantially different boundaries. The Aberdeenshire Council area includes all of the areas of the historic ...

, where she owns a studio in a converted farmhouse. She believes computer generated graphics can feel "cold and soulless", which is why she uses traditional media. Since publishing her first adult colouring book ''Secret Garden'' in 2013, she has sold more than 21 million books worldwide. She was previously married to

James Watt James Watt (; 30 January 1736 (19 January 1736 OS) – 25 August 1819) was a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist who improved on Thomas Newcomen's 1712 Newcomen steam engine with his Watt steam engine in 1776, which was f ...

, the co-founder of

BrewDog BrewDog is a Multinational corporation, multinational brewery, Distillation, distillery and pub chain based in Ellon, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. With production of over 100 million litres, BrewDog is the seventh-largest beer brand in Britain, ...

, and together they had two daughters. In February 2021, she announced on social media that she had separated from her husband the previous year. She was appointed

Officer of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(OBE) in the 2016 Birthday Honours for services to art and entrepreneurship. In 2019 she broke the Guinness World Record for the Largest Drawing by an Individual, creating a floral drawing over 501 sq m (5,395 sq ft) in 12 hours at her former school, Ellon Academy in Aberdeenshire. In 2021, she hosted the University of Dundee's Annual Public Lecture in Entrepreneurship and received the university's Entrepreneurial Recognition Award.

Works

Basford's commercial clients include

Sony is a Japanese multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at Sony City in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The Sony Group encompasses various businesses, including Sony Corporation (electronics), Sony Semiconductor Solutions (i ...

, Nike,

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery in London, housing the United Kingdom's national collection of international Modern art, modern and contemporary art (created from or after 1900). It forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Live ...

and

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

. Queensberry-Hunt, a ceramics manufacturer, commissioned her to create hand drawn designs for their tableware collection in 2008. In 2010, she created graphics for the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

app ''The New Goodbye''. Basford was commissioned by

Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as the Edinburgh Fringe, the Fringe or the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest performance arts festival, which in 2024 spanned 25 days, sold more than 2.6 million tickets and featur ...

to illustrate the cover of their 2010 program. She worked with an Edinburgh-based design agency, Whitespace, to create a series of illustrations for the program and the final artwork for the #FringeCover #Twitterpicture

crowdsourced Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digit ...

illustration campaign. In addition to her illustrations, Basford has designed glowing

wallpaper Wallpaper is used in interior decoration to cover the interior walls of domestic and public buildings. It is usually sold in rolls and is applied onto a wall using wallpaper paste. Wallpapers can come plain as "lining paper" to help cover uneve ...

s, printed using special

ultraviolet Ultraviolet radiation, also known as simply UV, is electromagnetic radiation of wavelengths of 10–400 nanometers, shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation is present in sunlight and constitutes about 10% of ...

-sensitive inks. In May 2013, Basford opened her first solo exhibition at

Dundee Contemporary Arts Dundee Contemporary Arts (DCA) is an art centre in Dundee, Scotland, with two contemporary art galleries, a two-screen movie theater, cinema, a printmaking, print studio, a learning and public engagement programme, a shop and a café bar. The cur ...

called ''Wonderlands''. In November 2017, she created a Scottish themed Google Doodle for the search engine's homepage on St Andrew's Day.

Books

*''Johanna's Christmas'' (1 January 2013) –

Virgin Book Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. History Virgin established its book publishing arm ...

– Johanna's debut colouring book. *'' Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Colouring Book'' (2013) –

Laurence King Publishing Laurence King Publishing is an publishing house based in London, with offices in Europe and the USA. It was founded by Laurence King in 1991. Laurence King Publishing publish over 120 new titles every year for the mainstream adult, children's an ...

— As of March 2015, more than 10 million copies of this book have been sold worldwide(three million in China alone). The book has been published in over 40 territories and has appeared on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list. *''Secret Garden: 20 Postcards'' (21 January 2014) – Laurence King Publishing *''Secret Garden: Three Mini Journals'' (19 August 2014) – Laurence King Publishing *''Enchanted Forest: An Inky Quest and Colouring Book'' (2015) – Laurence King Publishing — Sold out all 226,000 copies within weeks of its release on 17 February 2015. The publishers printed a second edition of 250,000. It has also appeared on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list. *''Secret Garden Artist's Edition: A Pull-Out and Frame Colouring Book /anglais'' (4 July 2015) – Penguin Random House *''Enchanted Forest Postcards: 20 Postcards'' (28 July 2015) – Penguin Random House *''Lost Ocean: An Inky Adventure and Colouring Book'' (27 October 2015) –

Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...

— Has sold over 1.3 million copies in the US alone. Debuted at Number 1 on the US Non Fiction Bestsellers list in its first week of publication and peaked at number one on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list. *''Johanna Basford's Secret Garden Journal'' (1 December 2015) – Laurence King Pubslihing *''Magical Jungle: An Inky Expedition and Colouring Book'' (9 August 2016) – Penguin Random House *''Magical Jungle'' (11 August 2016) – Virgin Books *''Johanna's Christmas: A Festive Colouring Book'' (25 October 2016) – Penguin Random House *''Johanna Basford's Enchanted Forest Journal'' (29 November 2016) – Laurence King Publishing *''Lost Ocean: Artist's Edition'' (6 April 2017) – Virgin Books *''Magical Jungle: 36 Postcards to Color and Send'' (30 May 2017) – Penguin Random House *''Ivy and the Inky Butterfly: A Magical Tale to Color'' (10 October 2017) – Penguin Random House *''Ivy and the Inky Butterfly: A Magical Tale to Color'' (12 October 2017) – Virgin Books *''World of Flowers: A Colouring Book and Floral Adventure'' (23 October 2018) – Penguin Random House *''World of Flowers: A Colouring Book and Floral Adventure'' (25 October 2018) – Virgin Books *''Johanna Basford 2020 Weekly Coloring Planner Calendar'' (13 August 2019) – Andrews McMeel Publishing *''How to Draw Inky Wonderlands: Create and Colour Your Own Magical Adventure'' (15 October 2019) – Penguin Random House *''Johanna Basford Land, Sea, and Sky: Three Colourable Notebooks'' (10 March 2020) – Clarkson Potter *''Johanna Basford 2021 Weekly Coloring Planner Calendar'' (14 July 2020) –

Andrews McMeel Publishing Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (formerly Andrews, McMeel and Parker (1975–1986) and Andrews and McMeel (1986–1997)) is a company that publishes books, calendars, and related toys. It is a part of Andrews McMeel Universal, which comprises A ...

*''Miniature Secret Garden: A Pocket-sized Adventure Coloring Book'' (22 September 2020) – Laurence King Publishing *''Miniature Enchanted Forest'' (23 February 2021) – Laurence King Publishing *''Worlds of Wonder: A Coloring Book for the Curious'' (30 March 2021) – Penguin Random House *''Johanna Basford 2022 Weekly Coloring Planner Calendar'' (28 September 2021) – Penguin Random House *''Johanna Basford 2022 Weekly Coloring Wall Calendar: Special Collection of Whimsical Illustrations From Her Best-Selling Books'' (28 September 2021) – Andrew McMeel Publishing *''30 Days of Creativity: Draw, Color and Discover Your Creative Self'' (26 October 2021) – Penguin Random House

Awards received

*2007 –

Elle Elle may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Elle (magazine), ''Elle'' (magazine), a fashion publication ** Elle Style Awards * Elle (India), ''Elle'' (India), the Indian edition * Elle (film), ''Elle'' (film), a 2016 French film * ''Elle: ...

Decoration Design Award *2009 –

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

Talent Award *2021 – University of Dundee Entrepreneurial Recognition Award

References

External links