18 of London’s most promising illustrators and artists create portraits of the Wieden+Kennedy London team

Every agency has its team headshots but Wieden+Kennedy London’s new crop are as creative and varied as they come. Made by 18 of London’s most exciting emerging illustrators and artists, the New Faces series of portraits range hugely in style and media, from coloured pencil to Riso, watercolour, felt and glossy, ceramic-like 3D. The agency worked in collaboration with our team at It’s Nice That to find the line-up and commission the 200+ portraits, which now hang proudly on the walls of its London office.

W+K London says the idea was conceived as a “nod to the iconic photo wall” first introduced at Wieden+Kennedy’s Portland headquarters and continued in its international bases. “Each office’s portraits show off their people in a way that feels relevant to that office’s culture and the city,” explains Freddy Taylor, creative director at W+K London. He says London is “the centre of creative eclecticism; nowhere else do you find so many different cultures, tastes, ideas and languages melting in one pot”. The set of portraits was intended to reflect that creative diversity.

Lotte Cassidy, for example, used her energetic, expressive coloured pencil drawings to portray her subjects, aiming to combine her self-described “playful, quick and scribbly” approach with the “personality and quirks” making each portrait unique. “The most challenging part of the portrait process was trying to capture the essence of each individual,” she explains, adding it was also “the most fulfilling part of the process” as she tried to match each person with colours and backgrounds to suit their personality. “It was almost like getting to know each person through drawing and studying their facial expressions, whether that’s a cheeky smile, a pout or side-eye.”

Vince Ibay and Jessica Miller’s Fromm Studio created a series of portraits in its signature ceramic-like 3D aesthetic, based on 3D scans of the team members. “The most challenging part of the process was cleaning up the scans we took, and sculpting them in a more flattering and refined way,” Fromm tells us. Then the duo added its own stamp by crafting clothes and adding extra details to each piece.

Likewise, illustrator Olga Rokosz says her favourite aspect of the project was “getting to know everyone’s little quirks” and trying to bring those into the depictions, “to get even more character out of them and tell a little story”. Olga’s pieces use needle felting, a “time-consuming but equally rewarding” process that has produced some of our favourite pieces from the project.

The full line-up of artists and illustrators comprises Alex Ram, Chi Park, Cyntia Agata, Fromm Studio, Holly Szczypka, Jae Yeon Kim, Joshua Scurville, Josie Sommer, Laina Deene, Livia Carpineto, Lotte Cassidy, Maisie Cowell, Marta Morientes, Nell Mitchell, Olga Rokosz, Rui Pu, Thomas Bryson-King, Wei Wu.

The agency will open to the general public from 2-6 October, 10am-4pm, if you’d like to see all the portraits up close.