2022 marks the 50th anniversary of the V&A Illustration Awards. Established in 1972, they have since become the UK's most prestigious annual illustration competition. The Awards celebrate excellence in student illustration and three categories of contemporary practice:

• Book Cover Design
• Book Illustration
• Illustrated Journalism

The aim is to encourage and celebrate high standards of creativity in the industry. The awards are free to enter and offer some of the most substantial financial prizes for illustration in the UK.

Entries may be a sequence as for an illustrated book or may be alternative trials or preparatory work for a single piece such as a commercial illustration. Entries should have a clearly defined illustrative brief, which must be described on the competition entry system. The brief is open. Students may submit work set as coursework by their tutors or they may define their own imagined brief.

There is no entry fee.

Eligibility

Open to illustrators living in the UK or publishing within the UK market. Works published in the years 2020 and 2021 are eligible for this year’s awards. The student category is open to anyone aged 18 and over who has attended a course of study in the UK during 2020 or 2021. This includes non-art courses and short courses.

Prize

Award winners and the student shortlist will feature in a display of digital prints in the V&A South Kensington galleries. Each category winner receives 3,000 GBP and the student runner-up receives 2,000 GBP. The overall 2022 winner of the competition is awarded the Moira Gemmill Illustrator of the Year Prize, receives an additional 5,000 GBP and their work enters the collection of the V&A.