Sophie Binder is a freelance designer/illustrator. A native of France, she studied art and design at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Appliqués Duperré in Paris, then worked as a designer in France and Italy for several years for Grady Larkins, a designer who works around the world for theme parks, zoos, and international fairs. In 1989, she became a contractor for Suzanne Sessions Incorporated, a design firm in St. Louis, Missouri, and moved permanently to the U.S.

Sophie’s work has brought her close to conservation issues affecting many animals and habitats, such as the low-land gorillas and chimpanzees of Western Africa, for which she created the graphics (“Myombe Reserve,” Busch Gardens Tampa.) She has also worked on projects about orcas, polar bears, sharks, moray eels, and other deep ocean creatures (interpretive graphics for “Terrors of the Deep” exhibit, SeaWorld Florida).

Sketching and illustration has always been at the core of Sophie’s life, both professionally and privately. In 2001, she put her belongings in storage and embarked on a one-and-half year “field study” and circled the globe on her bicycle with sketchbooks and watercolors stowed in her bike bags. She came back with 600 sketches of people, places, architecture, and animals, believing even more in the power of drawing.
After her voyage, she settled in St. Louis where she currently freelances in graphic design, illustration, web design, and commissioned drawings. She created a multimedia presentation about her travels and is an active speaker in schools and universities both in the U.S. and France. She recently was involved in the International Conference for Children and the Environment, a UN-sponsored event.

When not working, she splits her time between her new passion for rock climbing and another daunting task: working on a book about her round-the-world journey.