The Mexican Andrés López, Illustration Award at the Bologna Fair

Culture Writing, 23 Mar The Mexican Andrés López won today the International Illustration Prize of the Children's Book Fair in Bologna, awarded by the SM Foundation, for his “quality of composition” and “evocative representation of nature with a strong pictorial texture”. As reported by the SM Foundation, the ruling was announced at an event held at the International Children's and Youth Book Fair in Bologna (Italy), chaired by Elena Pasoli, director of the fair, and José Manuel Ciudad, president of SM. The jury, composed of illustrators Gusti Rosemffet and Alessandro Sanna, and Pablo Núñez, Manager of Corporate Art at SM, unanimously awarded this award to López (Mexico, 1991) for “the quality of the composition, the evocative representation of nature with a strong pictorial texture and a traditional style of great meticulousness in the treatment of details”. Likewise, the jury also appreciated its “ability to create a very precise, credible and enveloping world that gives whoever looks at it to imagine it beyond illustration and want to enter it”. The award, worth $15,000, also entails the creation of an illustrated children's album to be edited by SM and presented at the Bologna Children's and Youth Book Fair in 2023. López studied graphic design as a second career, after graduating as an engineer. He has also worked in companies such as EATON, Telefónica México - where he was part of the Telefónica Foundation supporting children with disabilities - and Apple in its education department. Since 2016 he has been working independently in a self-created studio dedicated to design and advertising called MALECHO®. He won the National Poster Competition (2017) and the Illustrators Catalog (2018), both organized by the Mexican Secretariat of Culture. CHIEF pmv/cg