ELLSA

Anne Pikkov (1974) is an illustrator, graphic designer, and book designer. She graduated in graphic design from the Estonian Academy of Arts, worked at an advertising agency, and a visiting professor and vice rector of academic affairs at the Estonian Academy of Arts. Pikkov has illustrated 14 children's books and contributed to the Estonian magazines Täheke, Pere ja Kodu, and Jamie. She has received many awards at annual Estonian book design and illustration competitions. Her art is ornamental, laconic, spiced with humour, and evocatively expressive.

My love is to draw pictures, to search for connections to my own life within them, to mix various techniques and materials, and to establish new associations. That is my emotional side. My rational side forces me to shape those outbursts of emotion into the rational pages of a book at a computer. The designer within me does not sleep; she always asks WHY and for whom I do anything. I enjoy spicing my works with humour and an evocative manner of expression, always experimenting and being curious.
Maybe it all began when as a child, I would stare at the clouds and see speeding ships and roaring tigers. Or when I snatched a white sheet from my mother’s linen closet and tried to make a home cinema, or when I drew paper dolls and pasted them together into wallpaper. Or when, during my gymnasium years, I collaborated with children’s magazines, illustrating crafts- and cooking pages.

A more conscious decision was probably my bachelor’s thesis, when our entire graphic-design course produced logos, but I decided to make a three-dimensional children’s book. After that came book covers, pictures for magazines and newspapers, and actual picture books. Then there were exhibitions, in which the works sometimes roam very far and bring back messages from unfamiliar observers. Then, you realize that the pictures are bridge-builders, helping to see similarities rather than differences between cultures.

Profile photo: Piia Ruber

Bibliography

The Potato’s Kingdom

2021

Anni’s Things

2020

Pandemonium

2019

Tap, tap!

2019

Catherine and the Peas

2017

The Old Broken Cat

2016

Oskar and the Things

2015

The Violet Princess

2015

What Happened to the Crocodile?

2014

A Frog Kiss

2013

And Yet It Swims

2011

Stars and the Moon

2008

The Gothamites

2004

A Rare Sort of Daddy

2004

Translations

Поцелуй лягушку!

2014

Frösche küssen

2015

날아라, 고양이

2017

Oskars un lietas

2018

Oskar i rzeczy

2018

Oskar in govoreči predmeti

2020

Que le paso al cocodrilo?

2017

Cosa è successo al coccodrillo?

2020

Lila királylány

2014

Què se'n va fer, del cocodril?

2017

Tuk-tuk!

2020

¿Quién está haciendo este ruido?

2021

Awards

2020
Good Children's Book (Anni's Things)

2017
25 Best Designed Estonian Books, Certificate of Merit (Kadri Hinrikus. Catherine and the Peas)
5 Best Designed Estonian Children’s Books, Certificate of Merit (Joel Sang. Come Visit Yesterday)
Good Children’s book (Kadri Hinrikus. Catherine and the Peas)

2016
Good Children’s book (Triinu Laan. The Old Broken Cat)

2015
25 Best Designed Estonian Books, 2 Certificates of Merit (Andrus Kivirähk. Oskar and the Things; Péter Dóka. The Violet Princess)
5 Best Designed Estonian Children’s Books, Special prize for perfect harmony of form and content (Andrus Kivirähk. Oskar and the Things)
Good Children’s book (Andrus Kivirähk. Oskar and the Things)

2014
5 Best Designed Estonian Children’s Books, Certificate of Merit (Marina Moskvina. What Happened to the Crocodile?)
Good Children’s Book (Marina Moskvina. What Happened to the Crocodile?)

2013
25 Best Designed Estonian Books, Certificate of Merit (design – Reeli Reinaus. Practical Magic)
Good Children’s Book (Andrus Kivirähk. A Frog Kiss)
The Knee-High Book Competition, Honourable Mention for illustrations (In the Land of Bubbles)

2008
5 Best Designed Estonian Children’s Books, Special prize for a new and promising illustrator and designer (Ülo Pikkov. Moon and Stars)

2006
25 Best Designed Estonian Books, Certificate of Merit (design – David Lodge. Nice Work)

2005
25 Best Designed Estonian Books, Certificate of Merit (design – Silvia Rannamaa. For You, Mum)

Exhibitions

Since 2005, Anne Pikkov has taken part in exhibitions in Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom.

2020
Tallinn Illustrations Triennial (TIT), Estonia

2015–2020
International illustration exhibition, “It’s Always Tea-Time”, Estonian Children’s Literature Centre, Tallinn; Riga, Latvia; Uusikaupunki, Finland; Gdansk, Wrocław, Toruń, Elbląg, Poland; Berlin, Germany; Szczecin, Płock, Poland; Budapest, Hungary; Oxford, the United Kingdom; Moscow, Krasnoarmeysk, Mytishchi, Vyborg, St. Petesburg, Russia

2015–2019
Exhibition of Estonian Illustrators, “Once Upon a Time...” (Grimm’s Fairy Tales), Aosta, Anagni, Lagonegro, Bernalda-Metaponto, Corato, Matera, Roma, Lacco Ameno, Irsina, Siracusa, Sassari, Roma, Bologna, Italy; Estonian Children’s Literature Centre, Tallinn; Minsk, Belarus; Kraków, Łomża, Białystok, Szczecin, Płock, Warszaw, Elbląg, Gdańsk, Opole, Poland

2016
Spring exhibition of Estonian illustrators, Estonian Children’s Literature Centre

2015–2016
Travelling exhibition, “Made with the Heart. Estonian Children’s Book Illustration”, Moscow, Krasnoarmeysk, Cheboksary, Russia

2015
Exhibition of the Works of Children’s Books Illustrators, “Baltic Illustration”, Vilnius, Lithuania

2014
Solo exhibition, NUKU Theatre, Tallinn, Estonia
1st Riga Picture Book Quadrennial, “Picture Story”, Latvia

2014–2017
“Tallinn Illustration Triennial 2013. Estonian Illustrators”, Estonia, Poland

2013–2015
Exhibition by Estonian and Hungarian Illustrators, “Crisscross Stories”, Estonia, Hungary, the United Kingdom

2013
Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava (BIB), Slovakia
Tallinn Illustrations Triennial (TIT), Estonia
Travelling exhibition of Estonian illustration, “Etelästä tuulee – Lõunatuul puhub” (The South Wind Blows), Finland

2010–2011
Travelling Exhibition of Estonian Book Illustration, Russia, Finland

2009
Biennial of Illustrations Bratislava (BIB), Slovakia
Spring Exhibition of Estonian Illustrators, Estonian Children’s Literature Centre, Tallinn

2008
Two-person exhibition with Ülo Pikkov, Estonian Children’s Literature Centre, Tallinn

2006
Tallinn Illustrations Triennial (TIT), Estonia