Pushpin Extravaganza

Two events profile the work of Pushpin founders Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast.

A documentary film, Milton Glaser: To Inform and Delight by Wendy Keys is playing in New York and Seymour will be speaking at the AIGA on June 16th.

Seymour: the Obsessive Images of Seymour Chwast has just been released by Chronicle Books, they'll be copies available to purchase at the event and you might even get Seymour to sign a copy.

Lunch with Brian Grimwood

I had the good fortune to meet the iconic figure of British illustration yesterday, Brian Grimwood--I'd say it would be like a Brit getting to meet Milton Glaser for lunch. Thanks to Louisa St Pierre of B-A Reps who arranged the meet at the lovely restaurant off Bryant Park, Koi. I was also introduced to Ben Cox who is also with C-I-A in the UK, unfortunately the lunch was short--they all had appointments later in the afternoon--so I didn't get to speak with Ben that much. 

Brian has been a supporter of the magazine since the early days and has been featured in our magazine's Gallery section and has been a multiple winner in our annual ProShows. He's a delightful character and looks a bit like the drawing above--all except the upturned nose. 

Brian was the founder of the British illustration rep firm C-I-A back in '83 and it happened all by accident. He was looking for someone to represent him to advertising art directors but the word got out that he was becoming a rep and received calls from four fellow artists to join. First dismissing the idea, he later concluded it might just be a great idea as he felt who better to represent illustrators than an illustrator. Interesting that he purposefully asks any interested artists who want to join to show him their personal work as he feels that it's a better indication of what an artist has to offer. He's built up quite a roster of extremely talented illustrators and still finds time for assignments himself. 

The conversation ran the gamut of trends in British illustration, the influence of Pushpin on his early work, the overall enthusiastic interest by the UK's art directors to specify illustration today--boy, could we use some of that and his thoughts on Francis Bacon--not well I'm afraid. A throughly pleasurable outing.

For What It's Worth No. 3

So far this year I've been asked to judge one show and have just finished looking over our show results and taking a look at another show that's been around much longer than us. Their entries dwarfed ours but it brought into question, why is there so much bad or mediocre work out there? I guess it's reasonable to expect there aren't 8,100 excellent pieces done in a given year, given the climate. And I'm not talking necessarily about the economy, but more about the lack of respect for illustration. The lack of juicy assignments or adventuresome art directors.

Not every piece that is entered will get in-- we are all looking for the very best work done in a given year. We for one do not subscribe to a quota, we never tell the judges how many pieces we're looking to have in the show. And all judging is done digitally so no judge knows how the others voted. I think this makes for a much cleaner show, no biases, no canoodling or bartering. And it takes a majority of the judges votes to have a piece accepted into our show. Which can disappoint a few people. There were at least another 70 pieces that just fell just shy of getting in our show and another 1,140 that would have met the two-vote requirements for some shows. Our show had 14% of the work accepted into the show, while the other major show had 04%. I'd say at the end of the day I'd rather judge 2,000 really good pieces and let the judges mutually decide on a top pieces than to labor through really bad work. 

One thing about judging, it's all subjective, What I always taught my kids at Parsons was if a piece gets in one show, be happy, if that same piece gets into two or more shows you know you've got a real winner. It's met the taste level of multiple judges.

One last thing, I'm concerned that I'm seeing a bit of the status quo happening. There doesn't seem to be any new movements as there was back in the early 2000s. Don't get me wrong, the really great work still stands the test of time but where is the next movement, the new stars, the next plateau? This is also the first year that I didn't see anything in our student show that really jumped out at me; all of it was very well done but I didn't see the next Andrew Hem who swept our show two years ago. Let's hope that it's just a fluke and not a trend. We need fresh talent and fresh thinking to move illustration forward.

The Little Chimp Society Interview

Darren Di Lieto of  The Little Chimp Society has uploaded his interview with me on his online illustration news portal. Not your typical interview Darren asked some pretty interesting questions both illustration and non-illustration related. Thanks Darren for publicizing our work here at 3x3.

3x3 ProShow Winners Announced

The judges have made their decision, another year of tough judging from a great field of illustration entries from the US, Canada, the UK, France, Italy, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. 71% of our entries received more than one judge's vote and only 15% of the entries received no votes, 14% received a majority of votes and will be in this year's show.

To be accepted into the show an entry must receive the majority of the nine judge's votes, 5 out of 9. Entries receiving 6 out of 9 votes receive a Bronze, 7 out of 9 receive a Silver, 8 out of 9 receive a Gold and 9 out of 9 receive Best of Show honors. There was actually a tie this year for Best of Show and pre-selected judges were asked to make the final decision. Entrants who were also judges abstained from voting for their own work.

This year's judges included art directors Alexandre Lagoet, Saatchi & Saatchi, The Netherlands; Raban Ruddigkeit, Friestil, Germany; SooJin Buzelli, Planadvisor, US and Darlene Simidian, former art director ALA and illustrators Roman Klonek and Monica Aichele, Germany; Marco Ventura, Italy; Nate Williams, Argentina and Yuko Shimizu, US.

Winners will be contacted next week regarding their winning entries. All winners will be included in the 3x3 Illustration Annual No. 6 due out later this year.

Thanks to all for entering and we look forward to seeing your new work next year.

Best of Show
Yuko Shimizu, Advertising

Gold
Edel Rodriguez, Advertising
Olaf Hajek, Advertising
Takahisa Hashimoto, Advertising
Cristóbal Schmal, Books
John Hendrix, Sequential

Silver
Brian Stauffer, Advertising
Allessandro Gottardo, Books
Chris Buzelli, Editorial
Olaf Hajek, Gallery

Bronze
Penelope Dullaghan, Advertising
Marco Wagner, Editorial
Yuko Shimizu, Editorial
Aya Kakeda, Institutional
Mike Kerr, Self-Promotion
Daniel Bueno, Sequential

Distinguished Merit
Marcos Chin, Advertising
Rob Wilson, Advertising
John Hendrix, Editorial*
Catia Chien, Sequential
Christian Gralingen, Unpublished

Merit
A. Richard Allen, Editorial
Scott Bakal, Editorial*
Scott Bakal, Gallery
Scott Bakal, Institutional
Scott Bakal, Self-Promotional*
Scott Bakal, Unpublished
Andrew Bannecker, Gallery
Andrew Bannecker, Unpublished
Istvan Banyai, Editorial
Karen Barbour, Unpublished*
Pat Barrett, Sequential
Ashley Barron, Self-Promotional
Mark Bender, Advertising
Morgan Blair, Editorial
Marty Blake, Advertising
Paul Blow, Editorial*
Claudia Boldt, Institutional
Jens Bonnke, Editorial
Barry Bruner, Unpublished
Nigel Buchanan, Editorial*
Daniel Bueno, Institutional
Jude Buffum, Editorial
Marc Burckhardt, Gallery
Chris Buzelli, Editorial*
Chris Buzelli, Gallery
Michael Byers, Self-Promotional
Jill Calder, Self-Promotional
Bill Carman, Unpublished
Sophie Casson, Editorial*
Alberto Cerriteno, Gallery
Alberto Cerriteno, Self-Promotional
Marcos Chin, Advertising*
Marcos Chin, Editorial*
Marcos Chin, Fashion
Joe Ciardiello, Editorial*
Devin Clark, Books
Fernanda Cohen, Advertising
Fernanda Cohen, Sequential
James Cohen, Books
Christopher Corr, Books*
Cristiana Couceiro, Self-Promotional
Sid Daniels, Fashion
Tim Dinter, Advertising
Ivonne Dippmann, Unpublished*
Angela Dominguez, Editorial Spots
Inga Dorofeeva, Editorial
Penelope Dullaghan, Editorial*
Penelope Dullaghan, Institutional
John Dykes, Institutional
Robin Eley, Editorial
Robin Eley, Institutional
João Fazenda, Editorial
Pamela Fogg, Editorial
Gilbert Ford, Editorial Spots
Ellie Foreman-Peck, Self-Promotional
Tom Frey, Institutional
Yoko Furusho, Fashion
Justin Gabbard, Advertising
Justin Gabbard, Books
Justin Gabbard, Self-Promotional
Kenneth Garduno, Gallery
Beppe Giacobbe, Books
Beppe Giacobbe, Editorial
Ben Gibson, Books
Ben Gibson, Books
Michael Glenwood, Editorial*
Michael Glenwood, Self-Promotional
Alessandro Gottardo, Advertising
Alessandro Gottardo, Editorial
Benjamin Guedel, Advertising
Martin Haake, Advertising
Martin Haake, Books
Martin Haake, Editorial*
Olaf Hajek, Editorial
Olaf Hajek, Institutional
Chris Haughton, Editorial
Ryan Haywood, Unpublished*
John Hendrix, Editorial*
John Hersey, Books
John Hersey, Editorial
John Hersey, Editorial Spots
Antje Herzog, Books
Jody Hewgill, Advertising*
Jody Hewgill, Books
Jody Hewgill, Editorial*
David Ho, Self-Promotional
Mark Hoffmann, Self-Promotional
Brad Holland, Advertising
Brad Holland, Books
Brad Holland, Editorial*
Jeremy Holmes, Books*
Paul Hoppe, Self-Promotional
Jordin Isip, Books
Aya Kakeda, Editorial
Aya Kakeda, Gallery
Blair Kelly, Editorial
Mike Kerr, Editorial Spots
Mike Kerr, Self-Promotional
Edward Kinsella, Editorial
Tatsuro Kiuchi, Editorial
Tatsuro Kiuchi, Gallery
Tatsuro Kiuchi, Institutional
Jean-Christian Knaff, Self-Promotional
Jon Krause, Editorial
Anita Kunz, Gallery
Anita Kunz, Self-Promotional
Yunmee Kyong, Gallery
Yunmee Kyong, Unpublished
Marc Lalumière, Medical
Travis Lampe, Gallery*
Dongyun Lee, Editorial*
Ho-Jun Lee, Unpublished
James Lewis, Unpublished
Renata Liwska, Books
Liz Lomax, Three-Dimensional*
Sophia Martineck, Editorial*
Jorge Mascarenhas, Self-Promotional
Bill Mayer, Advertising*
Bill Mayer, Unpublished
Robert Meganck, Advertising
Luc Melanson, Books
Aaron Meshon, Three-Dimensional
Aaron Meshon, Unpublished
Dushan Milic, Editorial
Joe Morse, Gallery
Martin Mueller, Advertising*
Sylvie Müller, Self-Promotional
Andrea Offermann, Editorial
Bert Oppenheim, Medical
Anita Ortega, Animation
Ken Orvidas, Editorial
Eun-Ha Paek, Animation
Ryan Peltier, Self-Promotional
Ian Phillips, Books
Ian Phillips, Unpublished
Emiliano Ponzi, Editorial*
Oleg Portnoy, Unpublished
Natalie Pudalov, Self-Promotional
Brian Raszka, Unpublished
Antoine Revoy, Unpublished
Edel Rodriguez, Advertising
Kim Rosen, Self-Promotional
Marc Rosenthal, Institutional*
Tin Salamunic, Self-Promotional
Guido Scarabottolo, Editorial*
Guido Scarabottolo, Self-Promotional*
Rick Sealock, Unpublished
Andrew Selby, Editorial
Yuko Shimizu, Advertising*
Yuko Shimizu, Books
Yuko Shimizu, Editorial*
Steve Simpson, Books
Lasse Skarbovik, Gallery
Alena Skarina, Gallery
Brian Stauffer, Editorial
Brian Stauffer, Fashion*
Otto Steininger, Editorial*
Otto Steininger, Unpublished*
Steven Tabbutt, Gallery
Jay Taylor, Self-Promotional
Tricia Tharp, Self-Promotional
Jacob Thomas, Editorial
Paul Thurlby, Editorial
Tim Tomkinson, Animation
Cristian Turdera, Editorial
Pol Turgeon, Unpublished
Mark Ulriksen, Editorial*
Mark Ulriksen, Institutional
Alexei Vella, Editorial
David von Bassewitz, Unpublished
Sam Weber, Editorial
Carl Wiens, Unpublished
Rob Wilson, Advertising
Selena Wong, Institutional
Stephanie Wunderlich, Editorial
James Yang, Editorial Spots
Jeni Yang, Gallery
Andrew Zbihlyj, Advertising
Andrew Zbihlyj, Unpublished
Anthony Zinonos, Self-Promotional
Daniel Zitka, Unpublished
Red Nose Studio, Editorial*
Ghostshrimp, Editorial

*multiple entries

Issue 12 Hits the Newsstand

Hot off the presses, 3x3 will be on the shelf in the US and Canada later this week. And in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and parts of Europe later this month.

This issue features James Jean, Eddie Guy and Christopher Silas Neal, our Icon is Henning Wagenbreth, art director profile is Nicholas Blechman and our ad campaign is Fuse. We also talk about diversity in our CareerTalk column and showcase the work of artists Orlando Hoetzel, Germany; Catherine Denvir, Italy; Kerry Meyer, USA and Neil Webb, UK. In our Gallery are artists Viola Welker, Germany; Sofia Lopes Dias, Portugal; Maja Bechert, Germany; Drushba Pankow, Germany; Stefan Vnbroek, The Netherlands; Jan Feindt, Germany; Kerstin Stephan, Germany; Antje Herzog, Germany; Krister Flodin, Sweden; Damyeong Yoo-Hartlaub, Germany; Felix Stumpf, Germany; Linda Lubbersen, Switzerland; Stephane Goddard, France; Eric Giriat, France and Matthias Gephart, Germany.

Cover design by Krister Flodin, Sweden.

Issues are available at select bookstores and newsstands or available online. If your store isn't carrying 3x3 encourage them to do so--where they see demand they'll add a magazine.

Issue 12 Cover Design

As part of our efforts to take you behind the scenes here at 3x3 I wanted to share with you how we created this issue's cover. Traditionally we have always asked one of our featured artists to develop our cover image. In the beginning we selected a representative image and then did a type treatment that mirrored the art. Then starting with Issue 4 we asked each artist to incorporate the letters "3x3" into their execution. And with Issue 9 to the present we ask artists to interpret the issue number. This last approach has been very successful, Issue 9 was a finalist in cover design in the Society of Publication Designers (SPD) show and was featured in last year's Print Magazine Regional Annual. It was just announced that Issue 11 has been accepted into the Communication Arts Illustration Annual.

Working with the numbers has been a challenge and with Issue 12 we opened the door to artists other than our featured artists. Everyone was invited to participate, some created original art while others adapted an existing piece or found one of their works that was appropriate or somehow incorporated the number 12.

We then put each illustration in the cover format and took it to the newsstand to judge the effectiveness of each image. We also were interested in just how interesting the cover could be and still make sure our reader knew it was Issue 12.

Above are the finalists. left to right, top to bottom: Eric Giriat, Paris; Orlando Hoetzel, Berlin; Kerstin Stephan, Hamburg: Felix Stumpf, Stuttgart: Krister Flodin, Stockholm and Orlando Hoetzel, Berlin.

Krister's image was selected for the issue. Everyone we showed the cover to was intrigued by the image and quickly discovered the six fingered hands together adding up to 12. While it will take a few more covers for our readers to anticipate finding how we incorporate the issue's number, this was the perfect solution for this issue. Thank you Krister, oh and by the way, the model was Krister's girlfriend, illustrator Malin Lindgren, and no she really only has five fingers.