Toronto-based illustrator, printmaker and surface designer Alanna Cavanagh
"I have always been a big fan of Alanna Cavanagh’s work. Her jaunty depictions of everyday items like a men’s shoe or a pair of scissors remind me of the exaggerated pointiness of ’60s-era Disney film One Hundred and One Dalmatians or the early advertising work of the young Andy Warhol."
Karen von Hahn, fashion columnist, The Star
Internationally acclaimed illustrator and printmaker Alanna Cavanagh's signature whimsical style is at once simple and sophisticated (think 1950s Paris). Famous for her intentionally distressed covers for a number of Penguin Books classic reprints, Alanna - a Riverside resident - has had her work featured in a host of magazines, including Apartment Therapy, Canadian House and Home and Covet Garden.
Alanna graduated from the University of Toronto with a humanities degree before beginning her illustration career. She studied printmaking in Toronto at Open Studio and in New York with Lotta Jansdotter and her client list is as extensive as it is impressive. Included are Neiman Marcus, The Toronto Symphony, The New York Times, Tattly, Crane stationary, Bon Appetit Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, Four Seasons Hotels, InStyle Magazine, Forbes Tokyo, Smithsonian, One Kings Lane, VISA, The Globe and Mail, Hudson's Bay, Wall St. Journal, National Post, Simon and Schuster, Hollace Cluny, Little Brown and Co, Arnold Worldwide, Air New Zealand, Type Books, Chicago Tribune, Good Egg, Harper Collins, The Atlantic, Elle Magazine and Papyrus.
Living up to the playfulness of her illustrations, Alanna catalogues an incomplete list of things she adores: Saul Steinberg, Paul Rand, brogue shoes, vintage bar carts, Stephen Sondheim musicals, wandering in bookshops, kilim rugs, my partner Myles and the word 'aplomb'.
Take a look at Alanna's printmaking video by clicking HERE
