May 2018 UArts Illustration Grad Creates Cover for The New Yorker Magazine

May 30, 2018

New University of the Arts alum Loveis Wise BFA ’18 (Illustration), who graduated just three weeks ago, has accomplished a professional feat that eludes many illustrators over the entire course of their careers: they were commissioned to illustrate the cover of The New Yorker magazine.

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Their illustration, “Nurture,” graces the June 4 – 11 fiction edition of the publication, which also features a Q-and-A style interview with the Washington, DC-born, Philadelphia-based artist.

“For an illustrator, the cover of the New Yorker is the pinnacle in an editorial career,”

“For an illustrator, the cover of the New Yorker is the pinnacle in an editorial career,” said Mark Tocchet, director of the UArts School of Design. “For a recent graduate to receive such an opportunity is unheard of.”

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Loveis Wise, Photograph by Tre Watson, The New Yorker

Wise was recognized with UArts’ President’s Award at the school’s commencement ceremony on May 10. During their senior year they completed commissioned work—motion graphics, hand lettering, surface design, product design and editorial illustration— for clients as wide-ranging as The New York Times, Vice, Cartoon Network, Buzzfeed, Penguin/Random House books, and Planned Parenthood.

They also recently completed a large-scale mural for The March of Dimes in Washington, DC. In addition, their work was selected for inclusion in the 2017 and 2018 Student Award Competitions at The Society of Illustrators, the leading organization for professional illustrators.

In their interview in The New Yorker, Wise says that early on, their creative expression took many forms, but then came together as a focus on illustration.

“Early on in school, I was doing gouache, oil paintings, graphite, woodcuts,” they say. “I just dabbled in everything, until I saw that what I was doing was illustration. I would always do things with line, and then I realized my line wasn’t that great, so then I decided to play around with shape. I’m still figuring out what my voice is, and how to personalize it a bit more. As artists, I think we can be afraid of putting all of ourselves into the work.”

Read the Q + A in The New Yorker

Loveis Wise Alumni Spotlight

Loveis Wise Website