The eldest of 5, Jacquie Boyd scribbled and strummed her way through a tomboyish and happy childhood in the north east, drawing, writing and playing guitar, but always happiest when she could find her own space. She chose Graphic Design as her first route at art college in Newcastle in the mid 80s purely because it looked like the best route to being able to draw for a living. She couldn’t ever envisage herself doing anything else ( apart from being a rock and roll star and she quickly realised she was a much better artist than she was a guitarist!)

Before computers became a tool in design, Jacquie Boyd was trained using gouache and magic markers to produce designs and storyboards. ‘Time’, she was taught, ‘is money!’, so she learned to draw and colour quickly.

After studying illustration at Lincoln, she began working as what was known as a ‘ visualiser’ in the busy and fast paced advertising industry in London in the late 80s. Always working at the rough design stage, Jacquie Boyd found herself loving the pace of the work but quickly frustrated at never being able to produce finished pieces.

Jacquie Boyd found working as a freelance editorial illustrator for several years much more satisfying before going into teaching for 10 years in further education in Newcastle while her two boys were growing up.