By Ken Wilson-Max
How did you discover your interest in children’s books? Reading for pleasure wasn’t really a thing when I was in primary school; it was reserved for learning. None of the books available were interesting, nor did they have any characters that looked like me. I didn’t know about illustration as a career, but I enjoyed my early illustration work with graphic designer Chaz Maviyane-Davies, which was seriously political and issue based. After winning a silver medal at the Biennial of Graphic Design in Brno at nineteen for an illustration about Zimbabwean election violence, I realized that I was starting at a high level without much understanding of the illustration field. Later, while studying in the United Kingdom, one of my assignments was to create a children’s book. I read some children’s books for research, and it was quite a revelation. Suddenly, the idea of creating stories and images seemed so obvious. I was hooked.