Pierre Pratt: Illustrator – Canada

I think about stories with images in mind. Text comes closing bit by bit the possibilities of various meanings. An illustrator is a storyteller in some ways.

P. Pratt

pierre pratt was born in Montreal, Quebec, in 1962. As a child, he loved observing and drawing his surroundings. His education in graphic design at Ahuntsic College in Montreal was a starting point for his formal entry into the world of illustration, comic strips, cartoons, editorial illustration, and children’s books since the early 1980s. Since 1990, he has illustrated and written over fifty children’s books.

With his choice of colors, shapes, and perspectives, Pierre Pratt creates self-contained images which allow children to interpret his imaginary worlds. In his illustrations, Pratt regularly plays with perspective and uses cinematographic techniques to give his reader an understanding of how a child perceives the adult world. In his humorous illustrations, characters have unusual features and even objects have their own distinct personalities. Pratt’s illustrations are simple, varied in technique yet recognizable, and allow children to imagine freely. He tries to create moods and convey different emotions in each story.

His illustrations have been exhibited in different countries, from Canada to Slovakia, Japan, France, and the USA. Since 1989, Pratt has won several national prestigious awards such as two times Governor General’s Literary Award and Mr. Christie Book Award for his illustration for Les Fantaisies de l’oncle Henri as well as IBBY Canada Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Awards for Where’s Pub. In 2015, his illustration for Doors in the Air won the TD Grade One Giveaway Program in which over 500,000 books were distributed to every first grade English and French speaking student in Canada. Pratt has also won many international awards such as the Golden Apple and Golden Plaque in Bratislava, Totem at the Montreuil Salon du Livre in France, the UNICEF Prize in Bologna, and the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award to name but a few. Today, Pierre Pratt lives both in Montreal and Lisbon.