Illustration Student Wins National BBC Peaky Blinders Competition

Holly Reynolds - Billboard

Holly Reynolds, from Birmingham, was one of just 16 winners in a recent competition run by the BBC for its new season marketing campaign.

The winning submissions were chosen from over 1,000 entries by artists from across the UK and have been rolled out online and across the country in a nationwide poster campaign to publicise the show.

The 21-year-old third-year student said: “When I submitted my artwork, I did it more for the experience of working to a real-life brief and didn’t really expect it to go anywhere so it was such a surreal moment for me when I received the first email saying that I have been selected as one of the winning entrants.

“It didn’t feel completely real until I started to receive photos of my work around the country on from friends and family. I have seen it myself and it has been wonderful to see my work on billboards and bus stops.”

“The most surreal was seeing it on the big screen in Birmingham near to the Bullring and New Street because it’s such a central location in the city where I have grown up,” she added.

Holly was an avid watcher of the series in her final year of university and entered the competition after seeing it posted on social media. She said: “When I looked into it, it seemed like something I would really like to get involved with. I have always loved painting portraits and it was something I hadn’t had the chance to do alongside completing my degree, so finding out about this in the weeks after I finished was really great timing.” 

Holly has just finished her Illustration degree at the University of Worcester and will be graduating this November.

“My plan now I have finished my university degree is to try and continue to work as a freelance illustrator,” she said. “I have always wanted to work in children’s book illustration, so I will most likely be contacting publishers over the next few months whilst continuing to make new work. I also run an online Etsy shop selling prints and original work, which I plan to continue and expand in the future.”

Tobias Hickey, Senior Lecturer in Illustration, said: “Holly is a very talented artist who has always shown an entrepreneurial ability and has taken advantage of our course’s dedicated modules concerned with employability and industry awareness.”