Mark Summers - USA
Mark Summers has been a full time freelance illustrator since graduating from the Ontario College of Art in 1978.
He has devoted the past 35 years of his career to the technique of scratchboard, a onetime popular medium which had become all but obsolete by the mid 70’s.
Author and illustration historian Steven Heller credits Summers giving the medium a second life.
Mark’s career started off primarily in the newspaper industry, with clients like the New York Times, the Chicago Times, the Wall Street Journal and many others, but quickly moved into all forms of publication.
He has worked for every major magazine, and has contributed work for Rolling Stone, Newsweek, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated and numerous covers for Time.
He has also written and illustrate short articles for Vanity Fair.
Mark has contributed covers for most of the major publishers in the world and has collaborated with James Michener and Issac Asimov amongst others.
He has also done lavishly illustrated volumes of Poe, Dickens, Moby Dick, Gulliver’s Travels as well as writing and illustrating two book of his own.
Mr. Summers has also designed and published 16 stamps for the United States Postal Service, as well as The Royal Mail and Canada Post.
His work is best remembered for his decade long collaboration with Barnes and Noble, where he created the visual persona of their stores, doing portraits of famous authors that decorated their walls.
For his work Mark has received 6 medals from the Society of Illustators in New York and was given The Hamilton King Awards for best illustration in 2000.
At last count he had received just over 350 awards at home and globally.
Mark’s list of clients is large and far reaching.
He has done work for Ford Motor Company, Pacific Bell, Seagrams and for clients as far away as Dubai and China.