Artist Spotlight: Stephen Millership

Manchester-based freelance Illustrator Stephen Millership specialises in artwork influenced by the golden age of the travel poster with a modern twist; with subjects from Tudor halls and rolling countryside to the concrete Brutalism of the 1970’s.

Millership grew up in an industrial part of England within walking distance of beautiful countryside, moving to Manchester to study Graphic Design in his teens.

First working in graphic design and then computer games, he became a founding member of a successful computer games company in Cheshire. More recently he returned to illustration.

The style of his art draws on both his interests and his influences: Classic travel posters of the 1930’s and the optimism for the future; a reflection of growing up with heavy industry and being surrounded by rural Derbyshire.

Millership’s prints have been exhibited in museums, hotels, and exhibitions around the country, with his works being used by the National Trust and many other museums and galleries including the London Transport Museum and the National Museum of Scotland.

His rail posters have been seen on mainline stations, on the London Underground and in exhibitions dedicated to the golden age of the travel poster. Other recent commissions in tandem with the design studio “Dorothy” are to illustrate the Lost Destination series of prints and the new range of products for the Barbican.

He has illustrated books for publishers such as Ladybird Books and Thames and Hudson. Other clients include Bespoke Hotels, The Royal Exchange Theatre Manchester and the National Museum of Football.

He says, “Research is the key for me, and I see the illustration process as a journey to a greater understanding of my subject. If I come away from a finished commission knowing more than I did before I started, then I am happy.”

Framing options are available for all pieces, please click through to see more options.

For more detailed enquiries, please contact our senior curator, Keith Allsopp.