John Shelley

John Shelley was born in Birmingham UK and grew up in Sutton Coldfield. He studied at Bournville School of Art, then illustration at Manchester Polytechnic under children's illustrator Tony Ross. From 1983 he began working as a freelance illustrator in London, and by 1984 had co-founded the artist's collective Facade Studios with designer Andy Royston and illustrators Jane Ray and Willie Ryan. In 1987 he moved to Tokyo making it his home for the following 21 years. The intervening time witnessed an outpouring of commercial illustration for clients in Japan and children's books for publishers across the globe. In Japan his award-winning commercial art has been used in everything from animated TV ads, poster and newspaper campaigns to character merchandising and editorial illustration. Fluent in Japanese and with a unique insight into the Japanese creative market he has stood as a committee member of JAGDA (Japan Graphic Designer Association) and presented at colleges across the country. Shelley's work for publishing follows a more elaborate vein of pen and watercolour. Following his first major picture book The Secret in the Matchbox (1989 Mother Goose Award runner-up), his children's illustrations have been published in the UK, USA, Europe, Japan and the Far East, and have continued to gain steady recognition across the world. As an author his own published stories include Hoppy's New House (Fukuinkan Shoten) and The House of the World (Benesse). Now based back in Staffordshire in the UK, Shelley is active on the world stage, having run events on children's illustration in locations as far apart as Los Angeles, Manila, Paris, Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) and Bologna, as well as Tokyo and his native UK.