Inside Illustration Podcast 8: Handmade
Guests for the Handmade Illustration season podcast are award-winning illustrator, Gail Armstrong, whose pioneering work in paper sculpture has made her a leading figure in the field, and Ruth Symons, Editorial Director, Preschool & Complex Novelty at Templar Books. Our host is Rachel Emily Taylor.
Our guests discuss the appeal of paper sculpture, along with its practicalities and challenges, and how Gail and Ruth tackled their Paper Worlds pop up book series which matched Gail’s work with paper engineering. Two notable commissions which changed her career are also analysed by Gail.
Find out the backgrounds of our podcast guests and host below, and listen below or search Inside Illustration on Spotify, Apple or where you find your podcasts.
Gail Armstrong, Paper sculpture Illustrator
Gail Armstrong is an award-winning illustrator whose pioneering work in paper sculpture has made her a leading figure in the field. Over three decades, she has transformed her love of cut and folded paper into a celebrated career, collaborating with international brands, publishers, and agencies. Her intricate three-dimensional creations have been commissioned around the world, from billboards to postage stamps.
She first discovered the creative potential of paper while studying at Glasgow School of Art, and has spent her career pushing the boundaries of what this simple material can express. Embracing a medium often seen as humble, Gail has elevated paper into a tool for sophisticated visual communication. At a time when digital tools were becoming dominant, she built a niche by celebrating the handmade and the sculptural, bringing a distinctive voice to advertising, publishing, and editorial projects alike, all tied together by that unmistakable sense of craft and detail. Her ongoing Paper World Series is just one example of how she continues to explore the depth, versatility, and storytelling power of paper, turning the everyday into something extraordinary.
Alongside her commercial work, Gail is passionate about sharing her journey and encouraging fellow illustrators, offering both inspiration and honest insight into the realities of sustaining a creative career.
Ruth Symons, Editorial Director, Preschool & Complex Novelty, Templar Books
Ruth is an editor and author with over 15 years’ experience in the industry. She started her career at a small book packagers in Oxfordshire, before moving to Quarto, Nosy Crow, then Bonnier where she has been for nearly a decade. While there, she has worked on the Big Picture Press and Templar lists, spanning all aspects of four-colour publishing, from baby books to long-form non-fiction – before carving out her niche in complex novelty and preschool.
Ruth is the co-creator of the award-winning Paper World Series illustrated by Gail Armstrong, and author of the international best-selling Baby on Board series.
She loves the collaborative process of publishing, working with designers, paper engineers, illustrators, authors, and subject experts, to produce books that spring out of the page – often quite literally!
Dr Rachel Emily Taylor, podcast host
Rachel is the Course Leader of BA Illustration at Camberwell College of Arts. She has undertaken residencies at the Foundling Museum, the Bronte Parsonage Museum, Bowes Museum, and the Horniman Museum.
Her research explores how illustration practice might communicate the historical person’s ‘voice’ and examines the value of multiple voices in the museum.
Rachel’s book, Illustration and Heritage, explores the re-materialisation of absent, lost, and invisible stories through illustrative practice and examines the potential role of contemporary illustration in cultural heritage.
