Henning Löhlein grew up in Germany, studied for three years in Toulon and Marseille (France), before coming to Bristol on an Erasmus exchange to finish his studies in illustration at the University of the West of England. This was followed by an MA in editorial design and narrative illustration at Brighton University.
For the next 15 years or so he illustrated for national and international magazines and newspapers including The Financial Times, The Guardian, and Country Life. At the same time he worked as a visiting lecturer at UWE on the illustration course. However, he was increasingly drawn to illustrating children’s books and this has now become his full time occupation.
In 2003 his work was selected for the Illustrator Exhibition at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair. Since then he has published over 35 books for many different publishers within the U.K. and Germany, which have been translated into numerous languages. His most recent book, Ludwig the Space Dog was published in September 2016 by Templar Books. In Germany he is published with Ravensburger, Carlsen and Gerstenburg, his next title being Was schwimmt denn da?, published by Gerstenburg.
One of Henning’s most successful titles, My Name is Mr Fox, written by Shen Roddie and published by Macmillan Children’s Books in 2006 was selected by Julia Donaldson amongst her top 10 favourite picture books of recent times (The Guardian, 22/10/2011)
Since 1996 he has been selected every year for the exhibition of the German Cartoon Prize. Fish Food, in collaboration with Andy Mansfield and published by Templar, won the Sheffield Children’s Book Prize 2014, Baby Book category. In 2015 Henning was selected to paint a “Shaun the Sheep”, sponsored by Triodos, as part of Aardman Animation’s Shaun in the City fundraising campaign.
Henning Löhlein continues to live in Bristol and is based at Centre Space, a thriving artist’s cooperative and gallery in the heart of the city.
