Book Illustrators Gallery 2025

Who can apply: 

1. Illustrators whose illustrative artwork have been featured in picture books, audiobooks, magazines, comics or graphic novels, stills from webtoons and other feature animation, as well as personalised storybooks, pops-ups, die-cuts and foldouts, both in print and/or digital formats, under either fiction or creative nonfiction categories, intended for youths and young readers, published from 15 March 2024 until, and/or will be published by, 15 March 2025.

2. Illustrators should be of Asian descent, or are based in Asia or have illustrations dealing with or of Asian diaspora.

3. For illustrators below 18 years old, a signed consent letter from their parent or legal guardian should accompany the application.

What to prepare before you apply:

1. Up to 5 illustrations that are saved in the given format into a single .zip file
2. Book details, including but not limited to
   • Book title
   • Author’s name
   • Illustrator’s name & bio
   • ISBN
   • Publisher’s name
   • Date of publication
   • Video bio [optional]
3. Illustrator’s profile photo
4. 50-word description of book
5. 80-word description of illustration/illustration process

Submission guidelines: 

1. All submissions should be made via the official BIG 2025 Submission form.

2. Illustrations submitted to previous iterations of BIG will not be accepted.

3. Submissions must be in high resolution (at least 1500px/150dpi) and as a thumbnail in JPEG (.jpg) format within the online BIG 2025 Submission Form. Illustrations must be saved into a single zip folder. RAR files will not accepted.

4. All illustrations must be individually labelled with the publication title that they are from and the month/year of its publication. Illustrations from multiple publications must highlight the theme for each illustration in the filename:

   • Book title A, Theme, Author, Publisher, ISBN (Publication Year)

   • Book title B, Theme, Author, Publisher, ISBN (Publication Year)

5. For online/digital publications, a time-stamped screengrab of when the illustration was released must accompany each submission. The folder must be named in the following format: BIG2025_[Applicant’s legal name] (e.g., BIG2025_Macy Neo). Compress the folder and upload it as a zipped (.zip) file in the submission form.

6. Illustrators and/or their representatives may submit only up to 5 illustrations from either the same title or taken from different titles published within the given period. Please note that if an illustrator/representative submits more than 1 set of 5 illustrations, only the first set sent in will be considered for curation.

7. Do not send or post the original illustration(s) to Singapore Book Council (SBC). SBC will not be responsible for any loss or damage to the illustration(s).

8. AI-generated/assisted illustrations are not qualified for submission. Submitters will be asked to attest that the illustrations submitted are not AI-generated or were made with AI assistance.

9. Through the submission of the illustration(s) for BIG 2025, the applicant agrees to allow SBC to use a reproduction of the illustration(s) for the BIG exhibition online gallery and publicity of AFCC and Singapore Book Council, both online or in print.

10. The applicant agrees to be included in the online directory for BIG 2025, and allows SBC to exhibit their work for the duration and/or purposes of BIG 2025.

11. Applicants may also be asked to submit additional information and images for the online gallery, whether selected or not. Video submissions are optional.

12. The selection made by curators is final. SBC will not accommodate any enquiries regarding the selections made by its curators.

13. Successful applicants will receive a 50% discount on AFCC 2025 tickets. Details will be included in the notification they will receive from AFCC organisers after the curation period.

14. SBC reserves the right to disqualify entries that do not adhere to these submission guidelines.

SBC strongly encourages artists, whose illustrations have been selected, to drive their own publicity to create awareness of the exhibition of their work. Artists selected for BIG 2025 will be notified latest by early May 2025.

SBC reserves the right to disqualify entries that do not adhere to these submission guidelines.

For enquiries, please contact programmes@bookcouncil.sg.

Deadline to submit entries is on 10 March 2025, 23:59 SGT.