Brian Cairns is an internationally acclaimed award-winning artist/designer and educator. He was awarded a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators of New York along with multiple Distinctive Merits, the Art Directors Club of New York (ADC) have awarded him multiple Distinctive Merits, he has received Wooden & Graphite Pencils from D&AD, and was nominated as a Creative Future for Illustration by Creative Review among other awards.
His work is featured in international awards annuals which include American Illustration, Design & Art Direction, Society of Publication Designers, Communication Arts Awards, World Illustration Awards (AOI) and Creative Review. In 2010 he was invited to Chair the Illustration jury for Design & Art Direction Professional awards, and has been a jury member on the Deutsche Bank Awards, World Illustration Awards (AOI) and Saltire Book Design Awards.
His work is featured in design publications including Typographic Sketchbooks, Handwritten, 100 Illustrators, Illustration Now 2, The Fundamentals of Illustration, Print Magazine, Communication Arts, Creative Review, Design Week, I-D, The Los Angeles Times and The New Yorker.
Clients include Ridley Scott Associates, Nike, BBC, United Airlines, British Airways, Hyatt, The New York Times, Warner Brothers, Royal Mail, Penguin Books (UK & USA), Bloomsbury, Newsweek, Time, The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones, Frankfürter Allegemeine Zeitung, IDEO, Herman Miller, Fast Company, Channel 4, Hewlett Packard (HP), and The Observer which he was a weekly contributor for over 15 years.
Brian Cairns is Senior Lecturer in Communication Design and Programme Leader for the Masters in Communication Design pathways. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and an Adobe Education Leader. He has presented peer-reviewed research at international conferences including ICON, Portland, USA (2014), Confia International Conference on Illustration & Animation, Portugal, (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) and iJade Conference (2021).
