The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is held in the Spring every year in Bologna, Italy. The Fair is the event in the publishing year’s calendar, built around children’s content today.
Zoë Tucker, our beloved co-teacher of the Illustrating Children’s Books course and a highly regarded children’s book art director, attended in 2018. Zoe wrote a report about the fair here and we also asked some of our MATS students who went along to send us some thoughts.
So in today’s post, MATS students share a few images and thoughts on attending the fair in person!
Caroline Bonne-Muller
This is me in front of the fantastic artwork created by Chloe Almeras and a photo of a 1.5 hour line for a portfolio review at Nosy Crow. I was at the fair with my 16 year old daughter, who has ambitions to go to the art academy, so I thought it was nice to bring her. The review was a super interesting and a positive experience!
It was my first time going to the fair and I could only stay one day. But it was absolutely worth it! And I met some MATS students, that was so nice!
The illustrator exhibition was so great, I loved to see all that work, it was one of the things I liked best at the fair! So inspiring! The exhibition of the silence book contest I also enjoyed a lot! And this year there was also a exposition of Chinese illustrators, as it was the guest country.
I liked to explore the different publishers, I made photos of the books they published to remember which one and why I liked them.
You can spend time exploring and reading new picture books, I love that! There is also a little bookshop at the fair, but may be better to go to the bookshop in Bologna, to bring back some treasures! Its on the main square in Bologna, very easy with the bus 28 to reach, Via Rizzoli, 1
See Caroline’s work here: Website | Instagram | Facebook
Constanze Guhr
I loved it very much to wander through the different areas of the fair, all full with great stuff and inspiring illustrations. But meeting artist friends from MATS and talking to Zoe in real was the best experience I had in Bologna. One day we had dinner together and I ask everyone to sign or even doodle in my diary.
See Constanze’s work here: Website | Instagram
Mateja Lukežič | Mima Illustration
It was my second year visiting Bologna Children’s Book fair. I already knew what I could expect from the fair and pretty much how I wanted to spend time to make the best of it. I got a great contact with the publishers and good reviews for my portfolio. The reason why this year was also very special for me is that I saw my books at the publisher stand for the first time. They were already promoted in Frankfurt book fair, but I couldn’t make it there. I also had opportunity to speak with my publisher and it was nice to see a person behind the emails! The fair can show you so many amazing books in one place, which is a great opportunity to explore and learn. For the end, I just need to say that I really love the fair, because I always meet so many great artists and we make a great connection and become friends. This year was no exception. I met the old and new friends and I was happy to have a gathering with MATS people.
I recommended everyone to visit the fair. Be prepared, but also do have fun there! Don’t take it as work, but as a opportunity to open the horizon.
See Mateja’s work here: Website | Instagram | Facebook
Shelly Laslo Illustration
Last month, I was lucky enough to travel to Bologna, Italy to visit the annual Bologna Children’s Book Fair. I hadn’t heard of the fair until I was enrolled in the Make Art That Sells Illustrating Children’s Books course, and I admit that when it was first mentioned in one of Lilla and Zoe’s videos, I didn’t dream of actually going! In my mind, that was reserved for serious illustrators, the ones with tens of thousands of Instagram followers, and their names on the covers of dozens of books. However, as the course progressed, I felt myself slowly but surely improving, and the thought of visiting the fair lingered in my mind for weeks after the course.
Finally, after some encouragement from my loved ones and some sudden courage, I decided to believe in myself and book a ticket. After all, at the very worst, this experience would be an excellent learning experience where I could become more familiar with the field and soak in all there is to see and learn!
The weeks leading up to the fair were hectic and exciting! I fervently created new pieces for my portfolio, printed business cards and postcards, and touched up my website. I kept reminding myself of Lilla’s advice of loving where you’re at now, and hushed that nagging inner voice that told me I wasn’t quite ready.
Fast forward to the end of March, and I’m in beautiful Italy, waiting outside the exhibition place in the crisp morning air, along with what seemed like hundreds of eager fair-goers, waiting for the doors to open.
Walking the fair, I was enthralled by the endless exhibitor booths, each displaying books more beautiful than the last. It was so exciting to see the biggest names in the industry packed into two long halls. I had managed to pre-book several portfolio reviews with publishers and was lucky to meet with some art directors who were available as well.
The rest of my time was spent walking around and meeting ICB classmates with whom I’d been in touch on Facebook. It was so amazing to finally put a face to their names, and funnily, we recognized each other more easily once we showed each other our portfolios!
One of the most fantastic moments was being able to finally meet Zoë Tucker, art director extraordinaire, who had written the story “Pet Problems” for the ICB course as the class text. About ten of us ICB graduates sat in the sunny outdoor courtyard, taking turns discussing our experience since the course. If you can believe it, Zoë is even more charming in person, and it felt like I came full circle in meeting her.
After a total of four days, I left Italy feeling incredibly inspired and pumped to create new work. I met amazing people and got to visit one of the most beautiful countries in the world. The trip left me with surge of confidence that, yes, I am ready. And yes, there is a place for me on those shelves.
See Shelly’s work here: Website | Facebook | Instagram
Annabel Tempest
This was my first Bologna Book fair and I loved every minute. I’d been wanting to go for years but hadn’t ever quite managed. Being surrounded by beautiful picture books and people passionate about picture books, from illustrators and authors to publishers and purchasers, is a pretty heady environment.
I think my experience, retrospectively, was entirely different to what it would have been if I had gone in earlier years, as now I’m lucky enough to be represented by the lovely Bright Agency and also to have a book about to be published by Simon & Schuster. So I was really going to look and learn rather than have portfolio reviews or try and show a dummy book. So from that point of view it wasn’t nearly as daunting as it might have been. I met many brilliant and brave illustrators who were doing just this. And meeting so many fabulous people was a massive highlight, including Zoë Tucker and and all the gorgeous MATS girls.
Although I didn’t take a portfolio, I did take postcards, business cards and stickers, and had lots of annoying fun stickering everyone and everything including the illustrators’ wall and my long-suffering travel companions. This meant I did have things to leave with people that I met, so at least they had a visual reference from our encounter, as I imagine with so many illustrators it would be easy to be forgotten; and to sweeten the deal I tied sweeties, humbugs and lemon sherberts on to my cards, because who doesn’t love a sweetie!
Finally it was extremely exciting to see ‘Gideon’ the Gorilla from It All began when I said Yes, written by the brilliant Simon Philip and illustrated by me (eek!) as a panel on the Simon & Schuster stand and the titles I’ve done for BabyLit on their stand. Not sure I managed to be particularly cool about it, but excited, YES!
See Annabel’s work here: Website | Instagram
Jennifer M Potter
The Bologna Children’s Book Fair was an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s huge and there’s so much to see, but I spent most of the time in line waiting to meet with publishers and agents. It’s not every day that you have the chance to get in-person feedback on your work from industry professionals, so I made sure to take advantage of every opportunity.
Apart from the hustle and bustle of the fair itself, what I loved most about my experience was getting to meet so many of my fellow MATS alumni. It is unbelievably inspiring to be in the company of so many talented and supportive women, all having a wonderful time, sharing insight, and rooting for each other’s success. I wish I could go back every year!
See Jennifer’s work here: Website | Instagram
Margaux Kent
The Bologna Children’s Book Fair experience was a feast of books, art, and humans from all over the world. I am certain my mouth hung open for much of my walks around as I was blown away by the talent and variety of work presented. It is easy to be trapped in our small insta-worlds online, so to see the vastness was quite an experience. I spent much of my time floating about with Annabel (Tempest). We walked to the event which was glorious and chatted non-stop. A highlight was meeting the delightful Zoë (Tucker), who was so absolutely generous with her time and as enthusiastic as ever in person. I was psyched to meet fellow online classmates and Insta-friends – funny how we turn out to be real people, all of us.
See Margaux’s work here: Website | Facebook
About the Fair
The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is the event in the publishing year’s calendar, built around children’s content today.
With over 50 years of experience the fair has succeeded in bringing together a unique and diverse global audience. The result is the world’s premium copyright exchange hub when it comes to publishing and now it includes an extra core that extends to all multi-media and licensing business for children’s content.
Publishers, illustrators, graphic designers, literary agents, authors, translators, mobile developers, licensors and licensees, packagers, printers, distributors, audiobook professionals, booksellers, brands, librarians and teachers flock to the event each spring to experience the business world of books and multimedia products in hundreds of booths across six huge halls. This year’s guest of honour country is China bringing new exhibitions and events to the busy programme of BCBF2018.
The world famous Illustrators Exhibition and industry recognized BolognaRagazzi awards are some of key pillars that make this event so special. With more than 26,000 people taking part in 4 packed days of events, it is a unique mix of a cultural book show and an international rights business forum for all types of content for children.
