Gilbert Ford grew up in a family of professional photographers in Jackson, Mississippi, and moved to New York to attend Pratt Institute. After graduating, he worked as a designer and illustrator for a giftware company, creating educational puzzles, games, stickers, stationery, and activity books for children, before setting out on his own. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY where he has illustrated many New York Times bestselling middle grade novels and also award-winning picture books.

In 2015 he received his MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts. He is the author/ illustrator of the non-fiction picture books The Marvelous Thing That Came From A Spring and How The Cookie Crumbled, both published by Atheneum. He is also the author/illustrator of his debut middle grade novel, Kindred Spirits, to be published by Macmillan/Ottaviano in 2020.

He is currently illustrating Alice Across America by Sarah Glenn-Marsh (Macmillan/Ottaviano 2019).

Partial List of Clients include Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Disney/ Hyperion, Abrams, Random House, Delacourt, Dial, Penguin, Aladdin & Atheneum of Simon and Schuster, Chronicle Books, Bloomsburry/Walker Books, Scholastic, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Macmillan, FSG, Harper Collins, Sterling, Storey, Lerner, Source Books, NPR, Target, Shutterfly, M & C Saatchi, Blue Note Records, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Family Circle, San Francisco Chronicle, Business Week, and The Atlantic Monthly

His illustrations have been recognized by The Society of Illustrators, American Illustration Chosen,3×3, and The Society of Publication Designers. His toys won Parenting Choice and Openheimer awards. His books have been selected by The Junior Library Guild, The Society of Illustrators’ Original Art Silver Medal, Bank Street Cook Prize Honor, Bank Street Irma Black Honor, Orbis Pictus Honor, NSTA Best Stem Book, and others.