Steve Simpson grew up in a small town in the heart of Cheshire, England. His keen interest in art was encouraged from an early age and at the age of 15 he landed an exciting opportunity to spend his school holidays working alongside John K Geering, one of the most prolific children’s cartoonists in the UK at that time.

This proved to be a dream job for a teenager with an interest in drawing for a living and saw the young Steve work on some of the favourite cartoon strips of the time. These included Smudge, Banana Man and Desperate Dan, produced for DC Thomsons, the Dundee-based publisher of The Beano and The Dandy, among other well-loved titles.

Steve then began a more industrial application of his talent when he traveled south to Portsmouth to study Technical Illustration. However, the world of perspective grids and isometric engine cutaways had to survive without Steve’s particular talents as, shortly after completing his studies, he happily threw his pristine rulers and technical pens into the nearby Solent River!
Pencil in hand, he chose instead to embark on a career at a leading Manchester based animation company (where isometric cutaways were rarely required!). Over the next six years at Cosgrove Hall Productions he worked on a wide range of animated classics including Danger Mouse, Count Duckula and Wind in the Willows, as well as the feature film of Roald Dahl’s BFG.
In the late 1980s a rapidly developing Irish animation industry called for Steve’s well-honed skills and he moved to work in Ireland as an animator of several TV series including Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles and Budgie the Little Helicopter. His flexibility in technique and ability to work across a range of styles soon saw demand grow for Steve’s unique imagery beyond the scope of the animation industry. Although, he is still involved in occasional animation projects for TV or cinema, Steve now works primarily as an illustrator. In this field, he can combine his technical training and cartoon background to illustrate for a wide range of creative projects, across the full range of modern media.

Steve has illustrated children’s books, including a series for Irish language publisher, An Gum. Steve also illustrates for many advertising agencies and graphic design companies, in Ireland and abroad. His impressive client list includes international names such as Kellogg’s, Coca-Cola and Microsoft as well as some closer to home, such as Tayto and RTE. Broc, the IRFU Mascot (you may see him run on Lansdowne Road before rugby matches) is another well-known creation from Steve’s drawing board. He is a founding member of the IGI, the Illustrator’s Guild of Ireland.

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