Top Designers and Illustrators of 2024
From bold, colorful illustrations to sleek and polished product designs, this list features outstanding creatives shaping the future of the industry. We created this initiative because design is powerful, representation matters, and championing the next generation of creative talent is critical.
This year’s list of honorees was curated by Noun Project, the world’s most diverse and extensive collection of icons and mission-driven photos, and our partners at Canva, Dribbble, and Webflow.
Rachelle Baker
A multi-disciplinary artist from Detroit, Michigan, Rachelle has a background in relief printing, illustration, comic art, video art, and music. Over the course of her career, she has worked with clients including The New York Times, Netflix, National Geographic, MTV, IBM, Adidas, and Google, and has illustrated a number of published books.
Mick Champayne
Mick is a designer at Google on Doodles & Delight who moonlights as an illustrator. In a nutshell, she loves internet culture, navel-gazing about the future, and connecting people through visual storytelling and concept-driven design. From doodles to design, she's always scheming ways to inject a little personality and friendliness into anything she makes.
Sophia Chang
Hailing from the borough of Queens, New York, Sophia has championed a name for herself in the art, design, and streetwear communities. Her distinct design style typically features iconography and illustrated type, combined for visual impact. Over the course of her career, Sophia has collaborated with some of today’s best-known brands including Samsung, Nike, Refinery29, Adidas, Apple, and the NBA.
Bri Cortez
A graduate of Seattle Pacific University with a degree in Visual Communication Design, Bri is currently an Art Director at REI. Her work includes crafting visual identity systems, design in digital and print, illustration, creative direction, and copywriting.
Kristen De Palma
With a distinct style pairing ornate Victorian-era flourishes with exceptional lettering, you can find Kristen’s murals and artwork in dozens of locations around Nova Scotia and beyond. Her most recent personal project, To & From, is a product line of seed packets and thoughtful gifts inspired by floriography.
Anya Derevyanko
Anya is an independent 2D illustrator with a passion for creating playful, unconventional, and vibrant characters that bring a unique charm to her artwork. Her distinct style has attracted clients from all over the world, including brands and animation studios.
FOREAL Studio
With a focus on crisp, high-end animation, illustration, and art direction, FOREAL creates unforgettable work infused with attitude and whimsy. The FOREAL crew has produced work for agencies, magazines, publishers, and companies like IKEA, Google, Spotify, and XBOX.
Jeanetta Gonzales
Known for creating art that delights and inspires, Jeanetta is a Los Angeles-based designer, illustrator, and artist’s coach who has created work for a variety of clients including Target, The New York Times, Michaels, Crayola, Adobe, Facebook, and more. She is a talented surface designer and works with a range of mediums to create colorful, inspiring art.
Brad Hansen
Brad is a seasoned illustrator and graphic designer with a passion for meaningful design and authentic illustration. Over the course of his career, Brad has collaborated with esteemed brands such as Target, Danger Jones, and DailyOM.
Itzel Islas
Itzel’s work is inspired by Mexican culture, vibrant color palettes and playful elements of everyday life. She primarily works in digital design, but loves sketching and incorporating hand-drawn elements into her work. As the founder and CEO of YAY Itzel, Itzel’s mission since 2016 has been to create a positive bi-cultural impact through design and empower folks to pursue their creative career.
Malia Killings
Based in Austin, Texas, Malia is a graphic designer, art director, illustrator, ceramicist, hiker, camper, skier, and carpenter. In 2021 Malia joined Oatly North America where she helps concept and guide creative across campaigns, experiential, point of sale, and more. Prior to joining Oatly, Malia spent a number of years at Wieden+Kennedy working with brands like Nike, EA, Coca-Cola, Airbnb, Corona, KFC, and Milka.
Mary Maka
From her work as an illustrator to her accomplishments as an art director, Mary has created whimsical worlds that play upon themes of nature, fairy tales, and mythology. Since 2019, Mary has collaborated with companies around the world, including Google, HP, Unicef, Xiaomi, Kiehl's, Affinity Designer, and Snapchat.
Gilda Martini
Born in Santa Fe, Argentina, Gilda grew up surrounded by rivers with an immense diversity of flora, fauna and cultural influences. She has a special preference for projects related to the environment, human rights, valuing indigenous peoples, sustainability, and new materials.
Breeona Nechole
Breeona is a creative designer with a focus on creating beautiful, functional brands and Webflow websites, as well as extracting the essence of a brand to create a digital experience that truly represents a company's values and mission.
Matt Plays
From dialing in components to establishing an entirely new brand direction, Matt’s goal is to craft brands that look the part and live up to their missions. Over the course of his career, he’s worked on projects for a variety of companies and causes including HubSpot, Epicurrence, and Burton Snowboards.
Siena Quides
A Manila-based illustrator, visual effects artist, and motion designer, Siena specializes in bringing imagination to life. Her work is infused with pops of color and she enjoys playing with light and shadows to create depth.
Abbie Renzema
With a signature illustration style characterized by whimsical imagery, colorful palettes, and thick inky black line work, Abbie creates cute kind things for cute kind people. She designs everything from greeting cards to enamel pins and more featuring inspirational phrases and fan art for some of her favorite movie and TV moments.
Doug Rodas
A creative director and illustrator based in Toronto, Canada, Doug’s work features a vibrant fusion of colors, textures, and patterns paired with typography. He often explores themes around creativity, equality, diversity, and social inclusion. Over the course of his career, he has worked with a variety of clients including Coca-Cola and Wacom.
Khyati Trehan
Khyati’s career has seen her work across disciplines, drawing inspiration from the context of the work and often exploring the edges of all things visual for the likes of the Oscars, Vogue, New York Times, New Yorker, Apple, Google and Instagram. She currently works at the Google Creative Lab in NYC.
Magdalena Wielopolski
Magdalena specializes in solving user problems through easy-to-use, accessible, delightful experiences. Outside of her accomplishments in the world of design, she is a coach, an ADPList mentor, a basketball player, and co-founder of Bird, a digital publication and podcast showcasing the stories of exceptional women around the world.