Bologna Children's Book Fair 2026: For Art Director DJ Stout, the Best Illustration Begins with Getting Out of the Way
DJ Stout has spent nearly four decades commissioning award-winning illustration in American publishing and magazines. His core advice for working with illustrators has stayed consistent throughout: give them the story, not the solution.
“You’re not hiring them because of the way they draw,” said Stout, a partner at Pentagram’s Austin office, and the only Texan partner at the renowned design firm. “You give them the story. Let them come up with the idea, because that’s what you’re paying for.”
Stout arrives in Bologna for the first time this week as a featured participant in the Designer Studio, a new program within BolognaBookPlus dedicated to art direction, editorial design, and illustration for the general trade market. His presence carries institutional weight beyond his sessions. Pentagram is sponsoring Balbusso Twins: Illustrating with Two Souls, a 25-year retrospective on the Italian artistic duo curated by the Society of Illustrators, which previews at the fair before its New York opening this week. Stout designed and wrote the introduction for the exhibition catalog.
His critique of how illustration is typically commissioned is pointed. Too many editors and art directors dictate rather than collaborate, he said—a habit he traces to the editorial chain of command in magazine publishing, where editors are more accustomed to working with photographers. Uncertain about how to properly utilize illustrators, they tend to pass prescriptive instructions down to designers, who relay them to illustrators.
“A lot of times it’s not the editor’s fault,” Stout said. “But you’re not going to get [an artist’s] best work, because if they’re really professional illustrators, they’re proud of their ability to come up with a solution.”
The better model, he said, is the one he observed during his nearly 14 years as art director at Texas Monthly, working alongside editor Greg Curtis. “He would commission a great writer, and he wouldn’t tell them what to do. You’re not going to get their best work if you tell them exactly what to write. You tell them what it is you’re trying to communicate, give them whatever information they need, but then you leave it to them.”
The same principle distinguishes great illustrators from merely skilled ones. “The best illustrators are really smart conceptual thinkers, and that leads to the best illustration.” He pointed to the Balbusso sisters as a prime example. When Elena and Anna Balbusso send preliminary sketches, each direction arrives with a carefully worded paragraph explaining the concept and research behind it. “They always have really good ideas,” he said. In his intro for the exhibition catalog he writes, “When I work with Anna and Elena it’s apparent that they have design experience. They have an innate sense of layout and composition and their illustrations are always smart, conceptual solutions that solve the problem."
That principle extends to book covers, a format Stout knows well. “I’ve also designed a lot of books,” he said, adding that even there, commercial formulas can be rigid and the need for a book to be legible and attractive as a thumbnail can be especially challenging when it comes to illustration.
“A lot of times I’ll have a more conceptual idea and it’ll be, ‘DJ, we have to change it because it’s not going to look good on Amazon.’ But I still find ways to work with illustrators,” he said.
On AI, one of the big themes at this year’s Bologna Fair, Stout is measured. His team uses tools like Midjourney for client comps—which is useful for getting approval on a direction before committing to a shoot or commission—but he draws a clear line at execution. “AI doesn’t know how to solve the problem. The reason I’m still in business is because we get paid for our ideas, just like good illustrators do, too.”
Stout will appear on two panels at the Designer Studio, in Hall 29. In the first, April 13, 11:00–11:45 a.m., organized by BolognaBookPlus and the Society of Illustrators in cooperation with Pentagram Austin, he joins Arabelle Liepold, executive director of the Society of Illustrators, and Steve Compton, director of exhibitions and collections, to discuss the evolution of the Society’s Annual Competition, covering archival highlights, book design, application processes, and selection criteria. In the second, on April 14, 1:45–2:30 p.m., moderated by illustrator Steven Guarnaccia, Stout joins the Balbusso Twins and Liepold to reflect on the duo’s 25-year career and their upcoming New York exhibition, Balbusso Twins: Illustrating with Two Souls, which runs April 15 through July 11 at the Society of Illustrators.