Michael Kirkham

Michael's work deals with the relationship between people and place. He uses the picture space as a stage with set, props and characters. Drawing underpins all his work with a constant desire to learn. His background in printmaking provides the foundation for his digital process.

Michael has worked on museum projects for Sea City Museum and Bristol Aerospace, illustrated catalogues for the Italian furniture company Arper as well as De Padova and Vitra. He has worked on branding for Daybase co-working spaces across the US, and on marketing campaigns for Reuveni real estate developer in New York. Michael illustrated the book ‘This is Frank Lloyd Wright’ for Laurence King and has created wine labels, colouring posters for The School of Life, advertising campaigns for Kwik-Fit and information leaflets for Bayer Pharmaceuticals. He works with a wide range of international editorial clients and has created book covers for Faber & Faber and Penguin Random House.

@michael_kirkham

Personal work
Heart Taking Heads # 2
Heart 'Conversations' Zine
Personal work
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
Laurence King Publishing

A Book Lovers Christmas, 1,000 piece jigsaw

A new 1,000 piece jigsaw for Laurence King Publishing featuring a winter landscape filled with scenes from the works of well known authors. The artwork brings together a range of Christmas experiences, from fantasy worlds, to frontier America, to a village in early 20th century Wales. Featuring authors ranging from Tolstoy to Benjamin Zephaniah.

Michael Kirkham: "I always think of Christmas as a festival of light and plenty in a time of darkness and scarcity. There are so many amazing and varied depictions of this in literature. I started to wonder what it would be like to bring them together in one giant, wild Christmas party. This is where the idea for the jigsaw artwork came from."

New Scientist
The Telegraph
The Telegraph
Arper
Arper
Arper
Arper
Arper
Heart
Heart
Laurence King Publishing
Laurence King Publishing
Laurence King Publishing
The New Yorker

Humane World for Animals

A commission to create character designs for puppets that feature in a new stop motion film for Humane World for Animals directed by Johnny Kelly at Nexus

The beagle, pig, ermine, whale and owl were chosen as they are also the five animals that are represented in the client’s updated logo. The Humane Society has joined forces with their international affiliates to become the Humane World for Animals

The goal with the designs was to capture the spirit of each of the animals and distill their characters down into something expressive and engaging

The designs were then passed to Nathan Flynn at Sculpt Double to create various versions of the animals for use in the film. The animal characters were made with cruelty-free materials, including individually applied faux fur fibres and hand made feathers

The New York Times
BBC Sports
The Guardian
The Financial Times
Faber
Faber
Avis
Avis
American Express
American Express
American Express
American Express
Reuveni Real Estate
Reuveni Real Estate
The Los Angeles Times
The New York Times
New Scientist
Personal work
Block Magazine
The Believer
The New Yorker
Arper
Arper
Arper
Arper
Arper
The Guardian
Property Professional
American Institute of Architects
Süddeutsche Zeitung
The Telegraph
Laurence King Publishing
Laurence King Publishing
The Telegraph
Real Simple
Personal work
Personal work
Personal work
The New Yorker

Sea City Museum

Southampton City Council alongside their exhibition designers, Martin McGrath Studios, commissioned Michael to create a 1:24 scale drawing of a cutaway of the Titanic. The final drawing of the ship measured over ten meters and contained thirty artworks each depicting a self-contained location on board the Titanic. The artworks contained crew members and named individuals, all of whom had to be researched to create an accurate likeness, as well as the layout, architecture and furniture within each of the rooms, including kitchens, furnace and engine rooms, the radio room, ballroom, the ships deck and the bridge

As well as appearing as an exhibition panel, the artworks have been used in education materials, posters, leaflets and a guidebook for the museum

Esquire
The Telegraph
The School of Life
Guildhall School of Music & Drama
ESPN
Calgary Municipal Land Corporation
The Economist

© 2025 Heart Agency

Design and build by Josh Attwood Studio