Outstanding alumni

Some of our alumni take their careers far beyond the promise they showed as students, maybe becoming known amongst the most significant names in their fields, or receiving a nomination for Anglia Ruskin's Outstanding Alumni Awards.

Our outstanding alumni from the past 100 years include:

 

Kristin Roskifte, BA (Hons) Illustration

After graduating from our BA Illustration, Kristin (pictured) went on to produce a number of children's books and co-found publishers Magikon Forlag. She has more than 10 years' experience as a freelance illustrator, with rights to her books sold to USA, South Korea, Singapore, France, Germany and Denmark. In 2019 she was awarded the prestigious Nordic Council Children and Young People’s Literature Prize by Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven during a ceremony at Stockholm Concert Hall.

Read our Spotlight interview with Kristin

 

Mark Coulier, HnD Illustration, 1994

Marc is Creative Director of one of Europe's leading make-up effects companies, Coulier Creatures FX, and has a truly outstanding list of awards wins and nominations. In 2024 he won both an Oscar and a BAFTA for his makeup and hairstyling work on the film Poor Things, having previously won both awards in 2015 for his work on The Grand Budapest Hotel and in 2012 for his work on The Iron Lady.

 

Bethan Woollvin, BA (Hons) Illustration, 2015

Bethan (pictured) graduated with a First Class degree, and currently lives and works in Brighton as a freelance illustrator. In 2021, her collaborative picturebook Meet the Oceans (written by Caryl Hart and illustrated by Bethan) won the Best Curriculum Support award in Books for Topics' EYFS category. In 2014, while still on the course, she won the Macmillan Children’s Book Competition with her debut picture book 'Little Red', which also received The New York Times' award for Best Illustrated Children's Book in 2016. In 2017, she won the World Illustration Awards' 'new talent' category. Since winning the Macmillan book prize, Bethan has worked closely with her publishers, Two Hoots, to create new and exciting children’s books, including Rapunzel (2017), and Meet The Planets (2020), which was also written by Caryl Hart.

 

Beatriz Lostale Seijo, MA Children’s Book Illustration, 2017

Beatriz (pictured) is a Spanish illustrator. She graduated first in her year in Fine Arts at the University of Salamanca before moving to the UK to study on our MA Children’s Book Illustration. During her time at the Cambridge School of Art,her work was selected in various illustration competitions. Most notably, she was the winner of the prestigious Victoria & Albert Student Illustrator of the Year Award, being selected among hundreds of participants for her artwork The Odyssey.

 

Andre Rosendo, BA (Hons) Graphic Design, 2008

Andre is the founder of Portuguese student recruitment agency Ok Estudante and CEO of Vermilion Group, an advertisement, design and student services company. He started Ok Estudante whilst still a student at Anglia Ruskin and, in 2016, won the New Partners Award at the NAVITAS Business Conference. Andre also founded start-up UKADEMICS, an online platform and app helping students find the right university/course for them. UKADEMICS took the top spot at the European Big App 2014 competition, receiving a £150k investment prize.

 

Matt Power, Graphic Design

Matt joined Sony Computer Entertainment Europe's Cambridge Studio soon after graduating and worked on the BAFTA-award winning hand-held version of the game LittleBigPlanet. He currently works as Senior Designer at Material, a strategic brand and design agency in New Zealand.

 

Nic Benns, Graphic Design, 1997

Nic Benns is an Emmy-award-winning and BAFTA-nominated director of many film and TV titles and advertisements. The co-founder of film design studio MOMOCO, he has built a career on both sides of the Atlantic, his portfolio including films such as Cuban Fury, Love, Actually and Alien Vs Predator, and television programmes such as Ripper Street, Fresh Meat and Misfits.

 

Dan Hillier, Illustration and Graphic Arts, 1995

Dan's work (pictured) is displayed in many galleries including Saatchi Gallery, London, Louis Vuitton's Marc Jacobs show at The Louvre, Paris and The Globe Theatre, London. In 2014 he won the Best Art Vinyl award for his design work on Royal Blood's debut album and in 2015 he was invited by the British Council to display his work 'Pachamama' at the Great Creator: UK Graduate Show in Beijing, China.

 

Thomas Taylor, Children's Book Illustration, 1995

Thomas is an author and illustrator of children's books. He designed the cover for the original edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

 

Poul Webb, Art, 1968

After graduating from Cambridge Art School (as we were then called), Poul worked as an Assistant Art Director of Harper’s Bazaar magazine, before moving to New York in 1969 and working with Andy Warhol for a short time on Interview magazine. Now back in the UK, Poul is a full-time painter and printmaker and has held 16 one-man exhibitions on Mayfair, London as well as contributing to many international exhibitions. Poul is also an art blogger, generating in excess of 5 million views, and has published two collections of poetry.

 

Syd Barrett and Dave Gilmour, 1962 

Syd Barrett was a founding member and guitarist/vocalist of progressive rock band Pink Floyd along with Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Richard Wright. Dave Gilmour joined as guitarist and vocalist in 1967. Over a span of nearly forty years, the band sold more than 250 million records worldwide, and were inducted into both the American Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the UK Music Hall of Fame.

 

Roger Law and Peter Fluck, 1960

Law and Fluck were caricaturists who created the seminal 1980s satirical puppet show Spitting Image. Roger now works as a ceramicist in China, and Peter as an artist in Cornwall.

 

Gustav Metzger, 1945

Gustav Metzger was a political activist and artist who pioneered the concept of auto-destructive art, in which the act of destruction became part of the process of creation.

 

Ronald Searle, 1937

Ronald Searle was a renowned cartoonist and graphic artist, and the creator of St Trinian's series of books and films. He trained at Cambridge College of Arts and Technology (another previous name for Cambridge School of Art) but, at the start of World War II, enlisted in the Royal Engineers and spent several years as a prisoner of war, secretly documenting the experience with illustrations that were later published in his 1986 book, Ronald Searle: To the Kwai and Back, War Drawings 1939-1945 (see picture). After his release, he returned to the UK and continued his career in illustration, publishing cartoons and drawings in papers and magazines including The New Yorker, the Sunday Express, Life, Holiday and Punch, creating advertisements and posters, as well as writing books, including the St Trinian's and Molesworth series.

 

Edward Bawden, 1925

Edward Bawden was a graphic artist, illustrator, printmaker and painter. He also served as a war artist during World War II.

Find out more about our award-winning MA Children's Book Illustration students and graduates.