Central Illustration Agency

In short

The Central Illustration Agency has been placing commercial artists from London since 1983, when illustrator Brian Grimwood founded it. Its roster now covers three areas that it sells separately: illustration, motion and large-scale murals, the last through partners Global Street Art. It describes itself as a curator of a tight stable rather than a catalogue, and it ranks #8 on our illustration list.

The client list reads like four decades of London advertising and publishing: Apple, Nike, Burberry, Cartier, Alexander McQueen, Bentley, Harrods, Penguin and The Economist, plus most of the big ad agencies. This year's work includes Doaly's Sonic the Hedgehog 35th-anniversary art for SEGA, hand-painted as giant murals across Shoreditch, Darren Hopes' first fully illustrated edition of The Wasp Factory for the Folio Society, and David De Las Heras' 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix poster.

Ad agencies, publishers and brands with a clear idea that needs a distinctive image-maker will be well served, and the mural arm is unusual among illustration agents if the brief is a wall rather than a page. CIA handles the commercial terms and then puts you in direct contact with the artist. It does not supply strategy, copy or campaign planning, so a full creative agency is the better starting point for those.