Biography
Anne Pikkov (1974) is an illustrator, graphic designer, and book designer. She graduated in graphic design from the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has worked at an advertising agency, and as a visiting professor and the 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 realise that the pictures are bridge-builders, helping to see the similarities rather than differences between cultures.
Profile photo: Piia Ruber
Fables for Robots (Robotite muinasjutud / Bajki robotów)
The Violet Princess
25 Best Designed Estonian Books, Certificate of Merit (Viiu-Marie Fürstenberg. Brothers and Liise)
2021
Edgar Valter Illustration Award
The White Raven (Anti Saar. Anni's Things)
5 Best Designed Estonian Children’s Books, Certificate of Merit (Helena Koch. The Potato's Kingdom)
Good Children's Book (Helena Koch. The Potato's Kingdom)
2020
Good Children's Book (Anti Saar. 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)
Raisin of the Year Award (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)
2021
Tallinn Illustrations Triennial TIT 2020, Moscow, Krasnoarmeysk, Russia
Biennial of Illustration Bratislava (BIB 2021), Slovakia
TIT 2020 & "Leafing Through Estonian Children's Books IV", Mytishchi, Russia
Exhibition “Fables for Robots”, Estonian Children’s Literature Centre, Tallinn; Haapsalu, Estonia; Central Library of Lääne County, Haapsalu; Gdansk, Poland
Spring exhibition of Estonian illustrators, Tapa Public Library
Exhibition of Estonian artists "Christmas Tale", Syktyvkar, Komi Republic
2020
Tallinn Illustrations Triennial (TIT), Estonia
Midsummer spring exhibition of Estonian illustrators, Estonian Children's Literature Centre
"Picture World of Tales and Fairy Tales", Central Library of Lääne County
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; Kondas Centre, Viljandi
2015–2020
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; Tapa, Estonia; Budapest, Hungary
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 Illustrations 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
