Meet the author

Ariyana Taylor.

Illustrator · United States

Ariyana Taylor: a Brooklyn-based illustrator whose expressive artwork brings Tolá Okogwu's funny, warm-hearted Bim Blake diary series to life.

Ariyana Taylor is an American illustrator and character designer based in Brooklyn, New York, who graduated in Illustration from the Fashion Institute of Technology and has worked with animation studios including Titmouse and Netflix. In the corpus she illustrates Tolá Okogwu's Bim Blake's Hot Takes, a warm, funny, highly illustrated diary series about a Black British girl navigating the chaos of Year Seven while quietly carrying the loss of her mum. Her expressive, contemporary artwork threads through Bim's story, sharpening the comedy of first crushes and maths misery while holding space for its tender, grief-touched heart. A lively, character-led illustrator for illustrated diary fiction in the vein of Dork Diaries and Lottie Brooks.