Karolis Strautniekas is a Lithuanian illustrator based in Vilnius, freelancing since 2012. Since then, he has worked with clients ranging from niche brands to global corporations, and from social initiatives to cultural institutions, creating book, music, and film covers, festival posters, and a variety of animated works.
A fan of the Film Noir era and an admirer of retrofuturism, Karolis works with muted palettes, soft tonal shifts, and long shadows, building minimal yet layered conceptual scenes with a quiet, cinematic narrative.
He approaches every commission as a personal piece, pushing his work a step further. Rather than relying on familiar solutions, he looks for new perspectives- and usually finds them.

Contacts:
Represented by FOLIO around the globe. Personal email strautniekas@gmail.com or info@folioart.co.uk if you're interested in commissions and projects.

Selected clients:
Audi, Apple, Adobe, Airbnb, Air France, American Express, Banco Sabadell, Beefeater Gin, BPCE, Calm, Camille Fournet, CBS, Creative Review, Criterion, Deseret, Die Zeit, El País, Facebook, Forbes, GQ France, Harper Collins, HuffPost, IBM, YSL, Knight Frank, La Reppublica, Les Echos, Loro Piana, New York Times, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Robb Report, Rolling Stone, Royal Mail, The Independent, Penguin Random House, Sanofi, Smith Journal, Stella Artois, Sunday Times, Siemens, V&A museum, Vice, Variety, The Washington Post, Turkish Airlines, T Mobile, Wall Street Journal, Wired and more.

Jury:
ADWARDS XVIII 2025
ADC103 ILLUSTRATION 2024

Awards:
ADC AWARDS Merit 2024
Global Healthcare Illustration Awards Silver 2022
D&AD Wood Pencil 2021
Brand Impact Awards Bronze 2021
World Illustration Awards Highly Commended 2021

Publications:
PICAME, AIGA, dezeen, Creative Boom, Collateral, LM magazine, Hi-Fructose, Creative Review, People of Print, Thunder Chunky, Ape on The Moon, It's Nice That #2, It's Nice That, Fubiz, TAXI, ArtJuice.

Featured in: 
Computer Arts magazine, October 2015
It's Nice That Annual 2014
Computer Arts. Illustration Annual 2014
Directory of Illustration 31. 2014
Communication Arts. Fresh 2014

Interviews:
Vizionieriai (Lithuanian)
L’Officiel (Lithuanian)
Bad Apples
BLOG 002 (in French)

Pictures by Dovalde