Javirroyo

Javier Royo Espallargas, better known as Javirroyo, is an illustrator, designer, and professor who holds a fine arts degree from the University of the Basque Country. His specialty is taking complex ideas and boiling them down into simple yet thought-provoking illustrations bordering on the abstract. The aim of his work is to tell stories and discuss topics like death, sex, love, friendship, and topical issues. In 2020, he won the Gràffica Award, which every year recognizes the top ten creative professionals in Spain's visual culture.

In addition to running the illustration and design studio Chispum, he currently collaborates as an illustrator and cartoonist for El País, El Semanal, Visual, La Maleta de Portbou, Uppers, El Meteorito, and El Estafador. When he's not drawing, he's teaching others how to do so as a professor of illustration and design at the Open University of Catalonia, Eina, IDEP, and BAU. He is also a board member and the head of education at Foundawtion, a nonprofit organization devoted to promoting and developing education and architecture in Africa. His latest published books include Martín Berasategui y David de Jorge, La Tortilla de Patatas, La Escuela, Grandes cócteles del mundo, Life is Sho, Homo Machus, and Laborachismo.