Amy Steele

Illustrator: class of 2025

Amy Steele is an illustrator and graphic designer whose work is bright, playful, and full of humour. She loves creating ridiculous, imaginative stories inspired by the oddities of everyday life and the small, overlooked moments that make them special. Alongside her illustration practice, Amy works as a designer, mainly focusing on book design, branding and product packaging.

Amy was mentored by Debi Gliori

“Working with Debi was so much fun! From the beginning, she encouraged me to lean into my wild, wacky storytelling, and to choose the craziest idea I came up with, then push it even further. Debi gave me new ways of thinking about my creative process by sharing her own: showing me her roughs, her work-in-progress pages, and her behind the scenes experiments. Seeing how she approached her work helped me challenge my process and try out new ways of doing things. Together we developed my story and came up with a dummy book. Debi helped me iron out the kinks and technical problems in my story in a child-friendly way. She was endlessly supportive and I’ve learned so much from her, about storytelling, illustration, the publishing industry and trusting my creative instincts. I’m leaving this mentorship feeling inspired and excited for future projects.”