Stuart Kolakovic
Stuart Kolakovic was born in the Midlands, UK - home to Black Sabbath and industrial pollution. Graduating from the Illustration course at Kingston University in 2007, his final major project, Milorad, an 80 page comic about his Serbian Grandfather, won a D&AD New Blood Award and came runner up in The Observer / Jonathan Cape, Graphic Short Story Prize.
Since graduating Stuart has worked consistently, consolidating his drawing, inspired and influenced by his Eastern European heritage and it’s folk art aesthetic. Whilst the visual impetus behind his work may be apparent, for Stuart, the need to communicate and to tell a story, is the most important aspect of folk art.
Stuart is currently working on his first full length comic book, ‘Lichen’, a story loosely based on Saami culture, which will be published by Blankslate books later this year
He works from home, in the town of Rugeley, where he grew up. It is from here that he can stare out of his window, gently musing on an idea whilst munching on a bowl of cornflakes. If he is lucky, which is frequently, he can spy deer outside his window, munching on their favourite bit of pasture.
In a fast-paced start to his career Stuart has been repeatedly commissioned by a variety of clients across a diverse range of subject matter. In tandem to this work Stuart has taken part in a number of exhibitions and underground ‘zines’, printing and publishing his own silkscreened posters and mini comics.
Stuart’s only regret is that he has less time for his much loved skateboard. But then that was only ever going to be the alternative career if illustration didn’t work out.
Clients
Barclays
Wired Magazine
Ted Baker
Howies
House & Garden
The Telegraph
Nobrow
Dazed & Confused
The Guardian
Klutz
John Murray
Macmillan
To Dry For
Atlantic Books
Little Brown
Quercus Books
Power magazine
Natural History Museum
Rollersnakes
The Fray
Sony
Le Monde Diplomatique
Marks & Spencer
New Scientist
Nido magazine
United Airlines
GQ
Links
