Sarah Wade is a freelance designer and illustrator based in East Anglia. She started her career working in-house for two of the UK's market leaders within the greetings card industry: International Greetings and UK Greetings. There, she designed gift wrap as well as social stationery products for high street chains including WhSmith, John Lewis, Boots, Clintons, Sainsbury's and House of Fraser. In 2007, after a four-month artist's residency in Northern Italy, hand painting ceramics and Venetian masks, Sarah turned freelance. Since then, her work has been commissioned widely for a variety of products including children's books, textiles, wallpaper, ceramics and jewellery.
Her work has also taken her to the Middle East, where she created the mural 'Tropical Flamingo' for Topshop Stores in Kuwait and Dubai, personally overseeing its implementation in both countries.
With more than 50 children's titles in publication, including picture, novelty and sticker books, Sarah's illustrations are enjoyed by children around the world. Publishers include Readers Digest, Macmillan, Usborne and The BBC. Sarah was also a featured artist in 'The Exciting World of Surface Pattern Design' by Zeixs Feierabend (Unique Books).
With a keen eye for detail and an appreciation of decorative design, Sarah's work has become very popular within the colouring book market, producing a mixture of adult and children titles for stores such as Sainsbury's and WHSmith. She finds inspiration from many visits to Italy (visiting relations) family forest walks, outings to local public gardens and beautifully illustrated botanical encyclopedias.
