Debbie Cook is an internationally recognised designer and illustrator. She has worked extensively in the area of communication design, creating design and illustration for animation, postage stamps, books, newspapers, posters, advertising campaigns, TV graphics and museums. She has spoken about illustration on Radio 4, BBC 1 and lectured internationally.

As a tutor at the Royal College of Art, Debbie Cook researches interdisciplinary group learning.

Debbie Cook comes from a background in printmaking and textiles. In the 1980s she worked for the Observer newspaper. She developed her illustration career through journalism for publications including the Guardian, Financial Times, and Sunday Times. She went onto work in the design industry for clients as diverse as IBM, HSBC, Penguin Books, the BBC and the Natural History Museum (London). Her wide-ranging work for the Royal Mail includes designs for centenary stamps for St John Ambulance (1987), commemorative stamp books for Fox Talbot (1989) and Postal Transport (1993), and illustrations for Pioneers of Communication (1995). She designed iconography and animations for the new media installations that showcased the future of play in the Play Zone (2000), Millennium Dome, London.

Since the late 1990s Debbie Cook’s practice has developed to include consultancy, curating, and commissioning for design. As consultant to St Luke’s she commissioned the site-specific installations for London Green Map (2003), and curated Think Print (2001). Her recent drawings were shown at the design art gallery, 72 Wigmore Street, London. Shelflife (2009) – Drawings, explored ideas surrounding English domestic interiors and responded to the 606 Universal shelving system designed by Dieter Rams.

Debbie Cook’s work is held in the permanent collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Debbie Cook has been a visiting lecturer at the RCA since 1989, and was an influential teacher at Central Saint Martins and Kingston University, until her appointment as tutor at the RCA in 2005. She is associate director of the critical forum programme in the School of Communications. This gives a platform to discuss new technology and current trends in contemporary creative disciplines, their convergence and the impact this has on their interpretation in new, differing contexts. She has taught extensively in the UK and is currently external examiner for BA (Honours) M Des Illustration at the University of Brighton. She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.