We back organisations working at some of the hardest turning points in people’s lives. Someone leaves prison with no money and nowhere to go. A young person leaves care and loses their support network overnight. A newborn arrives into a home already under pressure. A survivor leaves violence or persecution behind, but the trauma follows.
These moments can be treated as routine. They are not. What happens next can shape a life for years.
We back organisations working at these points, with long-term, flexible funding that lets them adapt and stay alongside people as circumstances change. We also fund organisations working to improve how systems respond, joining up services, building evidence, and influencing decisions that shape practice and policy. Alongside this, we continue long-standing commitments providing care, relief, and stability where it is needed.
A consistent idea runs through all of it: the right support, at the right time, changes what is possible.
Why we need illustration
A significant portion of the work we fund cannot be photographed. A newborn in a vulnerable household. A young person in custody. Someone rebuilding their life who has not consented to be pictured. These people sit at the centre of our communications. We need a visual language that can represent them with care and without compromise.
We produce blogs, social posts, impact reports, and policy pieces throughout the year. We are looking for illustration that can work across all of these, handling subject matter that is sensitive, often abstract, and always about real people.
The residency
One day a week, every Tuesday, for one quarter (thirteen weeks). You would be based at our office on Pentonville Road, near King’s Cross, working from a desk in an open-plan office with opportunities to collaborate with our team
Your art materials need to suit the setting. No easels, oil paints, or spray. Beyond that, the medium and style are yours. You’ll need to bring your own equipment and materials.
We hope to run four residencies a year, with each bringing a different illustrator and a different set of influences. Our aim is to build a library of illustration that reflects a genuine range of styles and voices. If you apply and are not selected first time, we encourage you to apply again.
What you will be doing
Each week you will typically produce two or three illustrations for a range of live briefs: blog articles, social media posts, and reports. The work is week-to-week, so you will need to move from brief to finished piece within a single day. Style and approach are yours, but pace matters.
What this residency offers
This is a freelance opportunity. You will be engaged as a self-employed illustrator.
£400 per day, plus up to £100 in travel costs per visit, reimbursed against receipts at standard public transport rates, invoiced monthly.
Copyright remains with you. The Foundation will hold exclusive rights to use your illustrations in print and online, across multiple contexts, indefinitely.
This residency suits illustrators at the start of their career who want sustained, paid engagement alongside the flexibility of freelance work. It offers an income anchor, a body of published work, and the experience of producing illustration for a real brief in a professional setting, week on week.
The residency is open to everyone. We would prefer you to work on site, but we are willing to discuss arrangements if that presents a barrier.
How to apply
Send the following to illustration@henrysmith.foundation by 30th June 2026:
- A digital portfolio of up to 5 pages and no larger than 5MB, showing your work and something of who you are. Tell us how long each illustration took you to complete.
- A short background note, CV and preferred contact details.
- A rough outline of your schedule over the next few months, and details of where you are based
We are looking for illustrators at an early stage of their career who bring a distinct illustration style. We are not looking for a single Henry Smith house style. We want a range across residencies, and we will make the first selection with that in mind.
Depending on the volume of applications, we may not be able to respond to each one individually. Successful candidates are likely to hear from us within two weeks of the submission deadline.
Questions?
Contact illustration@henrysmith.foundation
