You know those cool people who sketch in museums? Yeah. Aya Borucki is one of them. While they may be new to Seattle, Borucki is no stranger to illustration—strolling around town with sketchbook in hand, doodling little plants and animals, and even winning competitions along the way. That’s right. Borucki is the winner of the 2026 Frye x Design Poster Competition.

Originally from New England, Borucki graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design with a degree in Illustration before joining the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program. Surrounded by the rural Mie Prefecture’s rice fields, mountains, and poorly maintained backroads, nature and Japanese aesthetics inspire their art.

Their work is all about the process, sketching until an idea forms. “I can't actually see things in my head. So it's really fun for me to be able to practice and figure things out on a piece of paper,” Borucki muses, flipping through their sketchbook. At the Frye, they doodled thumbnails and sketched the building’s layout before translating it into the poster’s dollhouse-like design. Borucki captures the warm and welcoming feeling they experienced while visiting the Frye, then infuses it with their trademark whimsy. Harking back to their time teaching in Japan, they include a teacher and students at the bottom of the poster. “I think about narrative a lot … there's always a little story in most things I make.”

What’s next for Borucki? Don’t be surprised if you come across a graphic novel written and illustrated by them, or see their prints in a local coffee shop. 

Borucki’s design is on display in the Frye Art Museum’s courtyard and for sale at the Museum Store.

This article was originally written for ARCADE Issue 43.1: A Human Kind of Problem.