Malika Favre's revealing monograph tells the story of an authentic artist who finds beauty in the simplest things

Whether creating illustrations for advertising, editorial or publishing – or focusing on her more personal pieces – Malika’s artwork is imbued with an iconic sense of style and underlying meaning. Her sophisticated images are a striking lesson in the use of positive/negative space and colour; while in others, she conjures up optical illusions with repeating lines and patterns.

Now you can enjoy seeing her best work in a revealing new monograph, published by Counter-Print. It's work that has established her as one of the world’s most sought after graphic artists, with clients including The New Yorker, Vogue, BAFTA, Sephora and Penguin Books, amongst many others.

How did she even manage to choose what made the final cut? "The curating part was the most time consuming, actually," Malika tells Creative Boom. "I realised how prolific I had been in the past eight years and it was hard to make sense of it. I first broke down the work into bigger themes like travel, patterns or society to name a few and then choose to only feature work I was still proud of after all this time. It was very therapeutic."

A lot of Malika's work focuses on women and beauty. It's a subject that has fascinated her for a long time. However, while the women, landscapes and architecture she draws are almost always beautiful in a conventional sense – pleasing, enticing, evocative – her understanding of beauty as a concept has broadened and deepened throughout her creative journey.

Just like the famous fashion illustrator René Gruau was able to conjure up a beautiful dress in a few brush strokes, Malika creates stunning and sensuous women – confident and proud of their sexuality – using just a handful of perfectly refined vector shapes.

Does she have any piece she's especially proud of? "There are so many projects I love for many different reasons but If I had to choose a favourite section of the book it would be 'Society' and in particular my New Yorker covers tackling feminist issues. They reflect where I am today and where I want to head to more than any other project."

Malika Favre, by Garrick Webster & Malika Favre, is published by Counter-Print and available to purchase at counter-print.co.uk. Priced at £30.