Creative Boom

We asked 380 illustrators what they actually charge in 2026 – and only 21% of them feel fairly paid 👀

The UK median day rate came out at £350 (yes, London too), but most illustrators don't price by the day at all. The bigger frustration is licensing – the usage fees clients forget sit on top of the work itself.

Honest, useful reading if you've ever second-guessed your prices.

Full survey on Creative Boom. 👇

Read more: https://www.creativeboom.com/insight/illustrator-pricing-in-2026-what-380-illustrators-told-us-about-day-rates-licensing-and-the-21-who-feel-fairly-paid/

Illustrator Marcos Montiel could've picked any big-name client as his career highlight. Instead, he chose a jigsaw puzzle 👀

For the Buenos Aires illustrator, the magic is when a piece of work becomes an object you can hold – 'not an image any more, but a relationship'. And when AI imagery took off, he went back to pencil on paper before anything touches a screen.

A warm, thoughtful read on keeping your process human.

More on Creative Boom. 👇

While most AI brands rush to look the same, Granola zagged 👀

Ragged Edge rebuilt the AI notepad around 'progress over process' – handmade, warm and a little imperfect on purpose.

There's a deliberately wonky 'G' that looks dashed off in a hurry, and a script typeface drawn from co-founder Sam Stephenson's real handwriting.

Full feature on Creative Boom. 👇

Two of Britain's biggest bread brands are now one business – and the new identity has no wheat in sight 👀

Hovis and Kingsmill (plus Allinson's and Sunblest) now sit under one roof as Hovis Bakeries, and BrandOpus was brought in to give the combined business its identity.

Rather than reaching for the usual wheat fields and sunrises, they built it around the four elements – earth, water, air and fire – as a metaphor for two companies coming together. The launch line: 'Nourishing the Nation'.

We go deeper on Creative Boom. 👇

Andy Aitchison has spent two decades photographing inside Britain's Victorian prisons – and his new book sees the people there as people, not headlines 👀

Incarcerated gathers 20 years of work shot across nearly 50 jails, more than 30 of them still in use today.

It's documentary photography that refuses every prison cliché, paired with research into what these Victorian buildings still mean.

She treats the supermarket like a museum, and it shows in every playful, colour-drenched project 👀

Martina Miocevic – aka Mathilda Mutant – has run a one-woman studio for 14 years, photographing grocery shelves for inspiration and letting her inner 'grown-up Pippi Longstocking' loose on the page.

From Manti Manti kids' eyewear to the B**B chocolates raising breast cancer awareness, her work is proof that a little play goes a long way.

Full feature on Creative Boom. 👇

A winning proposal isn't about you – it's about the client and their problem 👀

It's one of the most useful skills a freelancer can build, and one of the easiest to fumble.

This guide walks through writing a proposal that actually wins the work: do your research, design it properly, lead with the client's project, and save your own bio (and the costs) for near the end.

Full feature on Creative Boom. 👇

Read more: https://www.creativeboom.com/tips/how-to-write-a-killer-proposal/

A red packet built around a horse's mane. Cookies called Luck Absorbers 👀

Joanne Chew started Fictionist Studio from her bedroom in Kuala Lumpur. Twelve years later, her self-initiated Lunar New Year projects are some of the most inventive packaging you'll see anywhere.

Scratch-off fortunes. Mirror-metallic paper. Custom-styled hairpieces for the Year of the Horse.

"I want it to be a physical object or a narrative that people feel is worth keeping," she says. It shows.

Full feature on Creative Boom. 👇

A blank arm printed on a slipcase, popcorn bags standing in for a circus Big Top – Taipei studio Houth makes graphic design you can almost feel 👀

Founded in 2014, they build branding, editorial and book design out of everyday observation – a walk through the city, an afternoon in a bookshop – all in service of making Taiwanese culture visible and heard.

The tattoo-history project alone, eleven booklets with translucent paper and red line drawings, is worth a proper look.

Full feature on Creative Boom. 👇