IAN FALCONER, born on this date (d: 2023), was an American author and illustrator of children’s books, and a designer of sets and costumes for the theater. He created 30 covers for The New Yorker as well as other publications. Falconer wrote and illustrated the Olivia series of children’s books, chronicling the adventures of a young pig, a series initially conceived as a Christmas gift for his young niece.

Falconer was active in the world of theater design. In 1987, he assisted the artist (and romantic partner) David Hockney with the costume designs for the Los Angeles Opera’s production of Richard Wagner’s , Tristan Und Isolde, and in 1992, assisted Hockney with the Chicago Lyric Opera’s production of Puccini’s Turandot. In 1992, Falconer designed the costumes (Hockney designed the sets) for The Royal Opera’s production of Richard Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten at Covent Garden.

In 1996, Falconer designed the set for The Atlantic Theater’s production of The Santaland Diaries, written by David Sedaris. Of this, the theater critic for The New York Times, Ben Brantley, wrote, “The cartoon cutout set by Ian Falconer looks totally chic in its monochromatic grayness.”

In 1999, Falconer designed scenery and costumes for the Boston Ballet’s production of Firebird, choreographed by Christopher Wheeldon. That same year, he designed the sets for Igor Stravinsky’s Scènes de Ballet, and in 2001, the sets and costumes for Felix Mendelssohn’s Variations Sérieuses, both choreographed for the New York City Ballet by Wheeldon. In 2002, Falconer designed the sets and costumes for Stravinsky’s Jeu de Cartes, choreographed for the New York City Ballet by Peter Martins.

According to the designer and filmmaker Tom Ford, Falconer’s boyfriends included the artist David Hockney, and Ford himself. Ford said in interviews since that he and Falconer had remained good friends. Decades after their breakup, Ford used Falconer’s surname for the title character of A Single Man, his 2009 film (based on Christopher Isherwood’s novel, in which the title character has no surname).

Falconer lived in Rowayton, Connecticut, a village within the city of Norwalk. He died from kidney failure in Norwalk in March 2023, at the age of 63.