Alexandra Citrin-Safadi is an award-winning illustrator and art director based in NYC. You can call her Alex. Everyone does. She is currently the Art Editor at The Wall Street Journal where she creates and oversees editorial art across the newsroom.

Before that, Alex was the art director of Quartz, prior to which she served as an associate art director at The New York Times. She started art directing as a deputy art director at Time Out New York before moving on to work in-house as a freelance art director for Women’s Wear Daily, Refinery29, and Penguin Random House. As a freelance illustrator her clients have included The New York Times, New York Magazine, Meta, Playboy, The Howard Hughes Corporation, Condé Nast, Pentagram, Urban Outfitters, Politico, Simon & Schuster, and Ten Speed Press.

Alex has also been an associate professor in the Communication Design department at Pratt Institute since 2016, teaching illustration, animation, and design-based research. She is on sabbatical right now but will lecture and guest critique at other universities sometimes, feel free to email her about that.

Education:
2014: Maryland Institute College of Art, MFA Illustration
2009: Skidmore College, BS Fine Arts

Awards & Recognitions:

2025: Newswomen’s Club of New York (Award winner, Beat Reporting), Summer is Endless and Expensive When You’re a Working Parent, Comic for The Wall Street Journal
2025: Pulitzer Prize (Finalist, International Reporting), Illustrations for The Wall Street Journal
2025: Society of Publication Designers (SPD 60), Illustration for The Wall Street Journal
2022: Society for News Design, Art Direction portfolio, Quartz
2019: American Illustration (AI-AP 38), Illustration (Editorial)
2018: Society of Illustrators Annual (SOI61), Editorial (Series)
2018: American Illustration (AI-AP 37), Illustration (Editorial)
2017: International Motion Art Awards (IMAA6)
2017: Society of Illustrators Annual (SOI60), Editorial  
2017: Society of Illustrators Annual (SOI60), Advertising
2016: 3x3, Art Direction (illustration), Women's Wear Daily
2016: American Illustration (AI-AP 35), Art Direction (illustration), Time Out Kids  
2015: Society of Publication Designers (SPD 50), Merit Award for Until Now  
2015: Society of Illustrators Annual (SOI58), Art Director for work in Until Now
2012: Graduate Scholarship, Maryland Institute College of Art

Alex lives in NYC with her husband and two daughters. She is ambivalent about referring to herself in third person for the sake of this bio.

Email: alex@alexcitrin.com
Social: @alexcitrin

ATTN: ILLUSTRATORS WHO WANT TO SEND ME PORTFOLIOS !!! Email me at acs@wsj.com :)