Martin French

Martin French is an illustrator, designer and educator. His distinctive style, an interplay of marks, signs, and symbols spanning a diverse media context, has been recognized internationally for its dynamic visual exploration of life & culture.

His images have won awards of excellence from American Illustration, Communication Arts, Creative Quarterly, Graphis, The Society of Illustrators, Spectrum, Print, and 3×3. He has received a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators in New York, and Gold, Silver, & Bronze Medals from the Society of Illustrators in Los Angeles. Press includes feature articles in Step by Step, May/June 2000, Communication Arts March/April 2003, Illustrator Illuminated/Adobe Press 2003, Revista Ilustrar (Brazil), December 2007, and Idea-Design Magazine (China), February 2008. In 2014, 2016, & 2018 Martin was selected for Lüerzer’s Archive 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide. In 2019, Martin was presented with the Patrick Nagel Award for Excellence by the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles.

Martin’s clients include American Express, Apple, The Atlantic, Barneys New York, Candlewick Press, Coca-Cola, Columbia Pictures, Discovery Channel, DreamWorks, Dutton Children’s Books, Foreign Policy Magazine, ESPN, The Gap, Grammy Awards, The Harlem Arts Alliance, Honda Motorcycles, House of Blues, Island Records, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Joffrey Ballet, JVC Jazz Festival, Major League Baseball, Macy’s, McDonald’s, Microsoft, National Geographic, NHL, NBA, New York Times, NFL, Nickelodeon, Nike, Nintendo, Penguin Putnam, Pepsi, Random House Publishing, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Sony Entertainment, The Smithsonian, Sports Illustrated, Stanford University, St. Martin’s Press, Time/Warner, United States Olympic Committee, United States Postal Service, USA Today, and The Village Voice.

In 2006 Martin began an association with the Pacific Northwest College of Art and the development of a BFA program in illustration. In 2013, Martin became chair of Design Arts at PNCA. Martin is an associate professor and department head of Illustration.

A California native, Martin is a graduate of ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena.