Award-winning Illustration alumnus on working as a Senior Designer at The Economist
29 June 2026
Soon after graduating from Falmouth’s BA(Hons) Illustration course in 2019, Jake Hawkins secured a full-time position as a Designer at The Telegraph, a role that quickly saw him taking his illustrations to print and earning a living from his passion.
Since then, Jake has gone on to become a Senior Designer for The Economist and has also had the opportunity to create editorial illustrations for publications including The Washington Post, The Guardian and The Big Issue.
We caught up with Jake to learn more about winning three awards at this year’s NYX Awards, the compelling yet clear visuals he creates and how his time at Falmouth helped him thrive within his career in illustration.
Can you tell us more about the work you do as Senior Designer at The Economist and what a typical day looks like?
In my role I’m creating visual identities and campaigns across marketing, events and brand projects. A large part of my job involves developing design systems, campaign assets and bespoke illustrations that help communicate ideas with clarity.
My days vary quite a lot. I might be developing concepts for a new campaign, creating key visuals for an event, refining designs across different formats or collaborating with stakeholders to shape a creative direction. I enjoy the variety of the role and the opportunity to work across both illustration and design.
What illustrations have you created since your time at Falmouth that you are most proud of, and can you tell us the story behind them?
Since graduating, I've continued developing my illustration practice alongside my career in design. I’m particularly proud of the work I’ve created across editorial, campaign and in-house projects, where I’ve been able to explore ideas through visual storytelling and communicate complex subjects in a clear, engaging way. Highlights include the national branding campaign I illustrated for Best for Britain which explored political and social themes, alongside recent illustration-led marketing campaigns for The Economist.
You were recently awarded with one gold and two silver wins at the 2026 NYX Awards, in the Illustration in Advertising category. Can you tell us about the pieces you submitted?
The awarded pieces were three illustration-led campaigns created for The Economist Group. The Gold-winning project, Resilient Futures, was created for a new Economist Enterprise initiative exploring climate risk and geopolitical fragmentation. The central illustration shows a coin in motion, with its changing faces revealing three symbols representing the initiative’s core pillars: energy transition, resilience and adaptation, and regenerative systems. The moving coin acts as a metaphor for both chance and intent, reflecting the uncertainty of climate risk and geopolitical instability, while suggesting the deliberate choices needed to build more adaptive systems.
The two Silver-winning pieces were A Clever Bunch and Brewed Daily for Bright Minds. A Clever Bunch was developed for The Economist’s Mother’s Day gifting campaign. It positions a subscription as a thoughtful and lasting gift, pairing the familiarity of flowers with ideas and insight. Brewed Daily for Bright Minds promoted The Economist’s Espresso app to students, visualising the delivery of ideas and insight in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of coffee.
Across all three, the aim was to use simple visual metaphors to make each message feel clear, memorable and distinctly ‘Economist’.
In what ways did your time at Falmouth support you to thrive within your career?
My time at Falmouth gave me the space to develop my own visual language and build confidence in my ideas. It encouraged me to think conceptually, experiment with different approaches and find clear visual ways to communicate a message.
Those skills have been fundamental throughout my career, from freelance illustration projects to my current in-house role. The ability to respond thoughtfully to a brief, develop strong ideas and communicate complex subjects visually is something I continue to use every day.
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