The Big Picture

The Big Picture Campaign was launched in 2007 as a new initiative aimed at promoting picture books and illustrators. Supported by a range of children’s publishers, the campaign aimed to stimulate confidence in the market for picture books, by encouraging new audiences to discover picture books, supporting new and emerging illustrators and celebrating the contribution that picture books can make to a child’s development. It also looked at how picture books are valued as collector’s items and pieces of art in their own right.

As part of the campaign, the first Booktrust Best New Illustrators Awards took place in 2008. Ten emerging children’s book illustrators were awarded the title of Booktrust Best New Illustrator, including Oliver Jeffers, Emily Gravett, Catherine Rayner, Alexis Deacon and Polly Dunbar.

The second Booktrust Best New Illustrators Awards took place in 2011 and a second cohort of ten illustrators, including Joe Berger, Katie Cleminson and Viviane Schwarz were named Booktrust Best New Illustrators. An exhibition of work by the 2011 Best New Illustrators is currently touring the UK.

The Big Picture campaign has been supported by a number of authors and illustrators, including former Children’s Laureate Anthony Browne, Shirley Hughes, Michael Foreman and Ken Wilson-Max.

Since the campaign was launched in 2007, the sales of picture books have demonstrated healthy growth despite a challenging period for publishing.