ILLUMINATING CLIENTS:
Scholastic
Two Lions/Amazon Publishing
The Jim Henson Company
Sesame Street Workshop
Spiffy Pictures
Sourcebooks
Quirk Books
Fred Rogers Productions
Insight Editions
Imprint
Hachette Book Group
Grosset & Dunlap
Penguin Random House
Workman Publishing
Highlights magazine
Storytime magazine
Goldie Blox
Soap Box Films
Little Bee Books
Albert Whitman & Co.
Capstone Publishing
Cantata
Igloo Books
Oxford University Press
Discovery House Publishing
Barbour Publishing
Gallery 1988
CREATIVE CAREER HIGHLIGHTS:
”A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” poetry of Fred Rogers (Quirk Books) New York Times Best Seller (32 weeks, 2019)
”A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” poetry of Fred Rogers (Quirk Books) GOODREADS 2019 Best Picture Book
”A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” poetry of Fred Rogers (Quirk Books) GOLD Parent’s Choice
2011 Commuincation Arts Illustration annual winning entry (advertising)
2012 Communication Arts Illustration annual winning entry (self-promotion)
2014 Communication Arts Illustration annual winning entry (self-promotion)
5 Gold Addy Awards for design
5 Silver Addy Awards for design
1 Gold Addy Awards for illustration
3 Silver Addy Awards for illustration
1 Gold Illumination Book Award
illuminate the imagination.
Ahoy! I appreciate that you want to explore a bit more about me and my creative journey. I suppose it all began back in '79, in the mountain town of Buena Vista, Colorado. Ever since I can remember I was drawn to drawing. I found an endless sea of inspiration in storybooks, comics, cartoons, toys, every Scholastic How To Draw book I could get my hands on, all those classic 80's movies, and the wild adventures with my brothers. A treasured childhood gift, was my grandfathers drawing desk that I spent countless hours creating upon. It had this wonderful extending arm lamp that truly illuminated my world of imagination! Most kids at that age would trade sports cards with each other. I would trade my drawings of sports heroes for sports cards. It was then I thought, "Maybe someday I could actually make a career of this"!
Thankfully I had a supportive family and incredibly talented art teachers that cheered me on in this pursuit. I attended Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design, and graduated in 2000 with a BFA in Illustration. I left with a head full of dreams, a hefty school loan and a wedding ring. Words can't express the gratitude I have for my wife/best friend who has forever blessed every step of this journey. Her love and encouragement has been the greatest source of inspiration in my life.
I moved from Denver to Colorado Springs and went to work for Young Life in the Creative Services Department. I spent 10 richly inspiring years serving the mission of Young Life and growing as a designer/illustrator. During that time my wife and I also grew a little family. I had started freelancing early on in my career so my wife could be home with our kiddos. Little did I know that this decision would impact my work in unimaginable ways. The creative opportunities I had as a freelancer led to achieving my life-long dream of owning my own creative studio.
In 2010, I launched Luke Flowers Creative, and have been sailing the sea of creativity ever since. Luke Flowers Creative was founded on the goal to bring "illumination of imagination" in every area of my work. This idea was inspired by the meaning of my name (Luke, means Light) and I strive to embrace that each day in the creative cave. I deeply hope that my work and life story will be a source of illumination to many.
In 2015, I shifted my focus to pursue my lifelong love of children’s books, as both an author and illustrator. Since then I have illustrated more than sixty children's books with a range of truly inspiring clients (see sidebar). Some of the major milestones have been illustrating the New York Times Best-seller "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" poems by Fred Rogers, the award-winning "Unicorn Day" by Diana Murray, and Disney's "The Muppet Christmas Carol" storybook. I reached my dream of being author and illustrator with the "Moby Shinobi" and “Moby Shinobi & Toby Too” book series with Scholastic. The "Moby Shinobi" book series has sold over a million copies since book #1 was published in 2016. A treasured opportunity was celebrating my lifelong creative hero, Jim Henson’s, wildly imaginative fantasy film “Labyrinth” with my alphabetical adaption "Jim Henson's Labyrinth ABC Storybook" in 2019.
When I’m not illustrating or writing in my creative cave I enjoy puppetry, playing banjo, basketball and outdoor adventures with my family. All of these continue to fuel the illumination of imagination.