Ross Murray Reimagines Place With Vintage Color, Modern Clarity, And A Touch Of Surreal Calm

Ross Murray is a New Zealand illustrator and comics creator whose work moves between natural landscapes, city scenes, storyboards, picture books, and editorial imagery. His visual world is built from clean lines, restrained color palettes, and a strong sense of composition, often giving familiar places a slightly surreal or nostalgic charge.

What makes his work feel distinctive is the way he translates real-world reference into images that are both simple and quietly strange. He draws heavily from vintage travel posters, comics, and New Zealand landscapes, which gives his illustrations a sense of place without losing graphic clarity. The recurring tone is bright yet tranquil, with themes of travel, nature, nostalgia, and the emotional texture of everyday life.

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Murray works across advertising, publishing, editorial, packaging, picture books, and posters, and has created work for clients including Lonely Planet, Rolling Stone, Greenpeace, NASA, Apple, and Disney. He also makes comics and personal projects, which suggests a practice that balances commercial briefs with a more reflective, authorial voice. Across all of it, there’s a careful attention to color harmony, shape, and narrative timing.