PP USA MEGATRIP! Week Two: Manhattan

Wow, what a week! BEA may have been jam packed with fabulous client meetings but week two of my trip has been even more so! This week I have been shooting around Manhattan to visit all of our NYC based clients both old and new and with between 4 and 5 meetings a day it’s been an extremely exciting week!

After fantastic Bologna and London Books fairs and such an incredible reception to our illustrators’ work at BEA this year I was keen to see how our NY based clients would respond to both our beautiful artist folios and some of the amazing concepts and project ideas that we have worked on with our author/illustrators. I am extremely proud of all of the work they have done on concept material and I was extremely confident that all of it was going to be a hit with our NY clients.

I wasn’t disappointed! They were blown away by the incredible array of talent that we represent and the Plum Pudding team are already busy following up on the extensive leads and vast request for samples. I’m delighted to say that we already have several projects in the pipeline and that many of our author/illustrators were extremely well received. It’s always a pleasure to learn what commissioning editors are looking for and I’m so delighted that wonderful concepts from Kate Pankhurst, Paula Bowles and Graham Howells were some of the most talked about of the week! Check out just a taste of some of our wonderful author/illustrator concept material below:

It was clear to me that young character driven concepts, particularly characters that have series potential, is what the vast majority are looking for and I cannot wait to work more on some of the ideas we discussed with the NY editors and designers I have met when I am back in the office.

It was also a joy of course to see the finished copies of the many books and projects that our illustrators have been working so hard on with our NY clients to date. Here are just a few of them:

Graham Howell's incredible work on Scholastic's Dragon Masters series.

Paula Franco's delightful covers for Simon and Schuster's series The Kicks.

Alison Brown's cover for Bloomsbury's I Love You Night And Day which reached number 4 in the New York Times Bestseller list!

An incredible 3D game piece from Marta Costa’s wonderful Ten Tiny Turtles with Scholastic. Marta had to illustrate all the characters from all angles so Scholastic’s team could produce these wonderful little models.

Most exciting for me is the reception that PP is receiving in the USA as a creative hub for publishers’ illustration needs. Without fail, all of the editors and designers I met with told me that they were extremely excited by our illustrators and delighted with the talent that we represent, with many of them explaining that Plum Pudding is often one of their very first stops when searching for an illustrator. This thank you from Sara Corbett, the Associate Art Director at Penguin Random House says it all:

Hi Hannah,

Thank you so much for coming in and filling my day with delight and inspiration! I love so many of the artists you showed and I can’t wait to work with you in the future! I hope you have a lovely stay in New York (and I’ll see you in Bologna!!)

Thanks so much again!!

Sara

I am so thrilled that this was the reception I had all round and I know that PP's continued expansion into the US is being swiftly viewed by American publishers as the perfect place to go for some of the most wonderful illustration talent around! Well done to all of our extremely talented illustrators and author/illustrators. I am exceptionally proud of you all! More to come next week so stay tuned!