Monica Hellstrom

Sweden, Stockholm

Biography

Monica Hellstrom is an illustrator who’s regularly on the go. She spends her time jetting between New York, Rome, Northern England, and her hometown of Stockholm, retreating, on occasion, to a cottage in the south of Sweden. Hellstrom uses illustration to make sense of it all, looking for beauty in every face, object, and situation she encounters.
She decided to become an illustrator at six years old when she realized that someone created the pretty pictures she saw in ads. Her big sister, the beauty of nature, and children’s books from the 70s, inspired her to pursue illustration.

Hellstrom studied art at Beckman’s College of Design in Stockholm. She’s drawn to details and enjoys creating patterns. If she hadn’t become an illustrator she may have chosen life as an astrophysicist, a historian, or an interior designer.

With a passion for combining colors, Hellstrom’s illustrations are clean, yet organic with an emphasis on block colors and bold, simple line. Her work appears in magazines, newspapers, books, and in product ads.