Quirky, exaggerated, theatrical – the human form is a playground for illustrator Zosia Bońkowska

Originally from Poznań in Poland, Zosia Bońkowska – AKA Zov__ska – moved to London five years ago to study for a master's at the University of Hertfordshire. Since graduating in 2021, she's developed an illustration portfolio that isn't just interesting – it's outrageous, captivating, full of energy, and totally unique.

"I'm fascinated by the human body, and I love creating character-driven lifestyle illustrations using playful contemporary style, with a bit of humour and loose linework. Line and gesture are very important in my work," she explains.

Constantly drawing, she fills her sketchbooks with quirky characters, exaggerating their expressions to the limit, stretching and compressing different parts of their anatomies, finding ways to bring out the drama, the humour and the emotion before embarking on a new character with a new, soon-to-be mangled personality. Nobody is safe from Zosia's morphological explorations.

There is a lot of motion in Zosia's work, something she puts down to studying ballet for 14 years while growing up. Her style continues to develop, from pencil and ink studies of light and shadow to abstracting human forms in life drawing classes to works that balance simplicity and detail, monochrome and saturated colour. The process is ongoing.

Clients seem to love Zosia's approach, which is fearless and dynamic. Some of her characters might not be pretty, but who evaluates artwork on those terms anymore? Her self-initiated campaign No Room for Judgement, which focuses on mental health, exemplifies this open-minded attitude.

Perhaps it's her style, but Zosia seems to attract some truly unusual clients. After graduating, her first commission as a freelancer was Marco Pablo, a Polish company that rebuilds and restores military vehicles and artillery, such as Panzer tanks and Howitzers. Toys for boys. The company wanted Zosia to create military-themed beer labels to adorn its promotional brew.

"The biggest challenge was the initial research – I knew little about the military, so my first draft included some outdated artillery details and inaccurate uniforms. It was a great learning experience, and I love that illustration lets me dive into different subjects depending on the project," says Zosia.

Since then, she's created a range of merchandise for Marco Pablo, such as greeting cards and mugs, continuing in her inimitable style.

One of her favourite recent projects was to create imagery for the carrot issue of Rebel Roots, a magazine about plant-based foods. "They loved my suggestions, and I ended up creating three illustrations and a bunch of mini spots scattered throughout the magazine. To celebrate the launch of the new issue, they hosted a pop-up event at a small gallery in Barcelona last month, showcasing two large-scale prints of my work. It was so exciting to see them on display," she says.

When she's not busy with a brief, Zosia pursues self-initiated work, filling in areas of her portfolio she feels are lacking and aiming to attract her dream clients. Recently, she has been exploring nature and the outdoors in her work, as well as characters from Greek mythology inspired by the Netflix series Kaos. Next, she wants to cover mindfulness and wellbeing.

"I'd love to work on more illustrative branding projects, such as developing chocolate packaging or a mental health campaign for a charity," she says. "I think what's important to us as creatives right now is collaboration and human connection, so the ideal client would be someone open-minded who shares similar values and trusts that the designer will swiftly guide them through the creative process.