3x3 Children's Show Winners Announced

Our final show of the season has received our judge's votes and we are pleased to announce the winners. Receiving our Best of Show award is Jamey Christoph, Children’s Book Illustration. Other winners include André da Loba, Gold - Unpublished Children’s Book Illustration; Anna & Elena Balbusso, Silver - Published Children’s Book and two Bronze winners, Vitali Konstantinov and Renata Liwska, Published Children’s Book. 

Just to get in the show you must receive a majority of votes from our eight judges. To receive a medal you must receive all eight judge's votes and then a minimum of three judges must select the entry as their favorite. Congratulations to all our winners.

Best of Show

Jamey Christoph, Children’s Book Illustration

Gold

André da Loba, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Silver

Anna & Elena Balbusso, Children’s Book

Bronze

Vitali Konstantinov, Children’s Book

Renata Liwska, Children’s Book

Distinguished Merit

Martin Haake, Editorial

Red Nose Studio, Children’s Book

Merit

A. Richard Allen, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Ofra Amit, Children’s Book

Ofra Amit, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Marion Arbona*, Children’s Book

Carin Berger, Children’s Book

Orit Bergman, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Brian Biggs, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Brian Biggs, Children’s Book Illustration

Josée Bisaillon, Children’s Book Illustration

Aljoscha Blau, Children’s Book

Aaron Blecha, Book Covers

Patricia Cantor*, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Maria Carluccio, Children’s Book Illustration

Julien Chung, Editorial

Julien Chung, Children’s Book Illustration

Julien Chung, Misc

André da Loba*, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Owen Davey, Children’s Book

Victoria Davis, Book Covers

Judith Drews, Book Covers

Judith Drews, Children’s Book Illustration

Laura Filippucci, Children’s Book Illustration

Susan Gal, Children’s Book

Susan Gal, Children’s Book Illustration

Alejandro Galindo, Children’s Book Illustration

Manon Gauthier, Children’s Book Unpublished

Dean Gorissen, Children’s Book

Martin Haake, Editorial

David Hohn, Children’s Book Illustration

Tim A. Jones, Young Adult

Ilja Karsikas, Children’s Book

Young Kim*, Children’s Book Unpublished

Young Kim, Editorial

Vitali Konstantinov, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Alice Lickens, Children’s Book Unpublished

Andrew Mitchell, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Simona Mulazzani, Children’s Book Illustration

Kelly Murphy*, Children’s Book Illustration

Neil Numberman*, Children’s Book

Neil Numberman, Children’s Programming

Jim Paillot, Book Covers

Valeria Petrone, Children’s Book

Greg Pizzoli, Children’s Book

Giselle Potter, Children’s Book

Daniel Powers, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Simon Prescott, Children’s Book

Natalie Pudalov, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

John Rocco, Book Covers

John Rocco, Children’s Book Illustration

Jessica Romberg, Book Covers

Claudia Rueda, Children’s Book Unpublished

Michael Slack, Children’s Book

Michael Slack, Editorial

Michael Slack, Children’s Book Illustration

Mike Smith, Children’s Book Unpublished

Emerson Tung, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Stefano Vitale, Children’s Book

Alice Wellinger, Children’s Book Unpublished

Lee White*, Children’s Book Unpublished Illustration

Lee White*, Editorial

Lee White*, Children’s Book Illustration

Jenny Whitehead, Children’s Book

Tania Willis, Misc

Sarah Wisbey, Editorial

*multiple entries

All winners receive a complimentary copy of 3x3 Illustration Annual No. 7 due out in December 2010. Non-winning entrants will receive a discount on the annual.

We are very pleased with the quality of work that has been entered this year and the international participation that grows each year. We look forward to seeing your new entries starting in March 2011.

3x3 Annual Undergoes A Re-Design

We're in the process of redesigning the 3x3 Illustration Annual. Same great size, just larger images for all categories—both professional and student.

We've always wanted to reproduce the winning images larger it has just been a budget constraint up until now. But even with this year's  increased number of winning entries we are moving forward on the re-design. Certainly the increased publication fees help us look at making the change plus we've added several new resources on the printing end, the only cost factor we cannot control is postage and shipping.

We expect this year's annual to be about double the number of pages over last year's and comparable to our 3x3 Directory. We will reduce the weight of the inside paper stock slightly to compensate for the additional pages so you may notice a bit of a difference—but the quality won't change. And there will be fewer images per page, moving towards a single image on each page in most cases.

Our on-the-shelf price at the bookstores will go up slightly but not enough to discourage the very people we want to attract. Online sales will see a more dramatic increase, we're estimating a $35 retail price over the $25 price last year. We'll be offering all show entrants a discount—check your email inbox over the next several weeks for that announcement.

We're excited about the re-design and look forward to sharing it with you later this year. Once we have the materials back from the Children's Show we can begin the layout process and our plan is to have the annual out in December.

3x3 International Children's Show Winners Announced This Week

The judges have made their decision and we'll be sending out our notice to all entrants later this week and also post the winners on our web site. Stay tuned.

Student Show Winners Announced

Judges have reached their decisions and we're ready to announce the winners of this year's 3x3 Student Show. We had more entries than ever before from over 20 countries and I have to say the quality of the entries was excellent, there were very few weak pieces—our judge's selected their favorites.

The voting process was based on the typical grading system but only work receiving a 3 or 4 were considered. Entries must have received a majority our judges votes with at least one of the judges awarding the piece a score of 4. To receive medals more than one judge had to award the entry a 4 with the best of show receiving a majority of 4 votes.

Alexandra Dommett of Kingston University, UK will receive our $1,000 cash prize as our Best of Show winner. $500 cash-value prizes will go to Gold Medal winners Victo Ngai, Rhode Island School of Design and Matthew Wood, Art Center College of Design.

Silver medalists include Helen Davies, Kingston University, UK and Jonathan Bartlett, School of Visual Arts. Bronze winneres include James Chong, Art Center College of Design, Victo Ngai, Tobias Joacob, Burg Giebichenstein Hochschule für Kunst und Design Halle, Germany. And Distinguished Merits go to Jessie Durham and Sean Lewis, Ontario College of Art & Design, Canada and Rachel Lillie, Kingston Universtiy, UK.

Winners will be contacted this week requesting credits for their winning entries.
Congratulations to all.

Best of Show
Alexandra Dommett, Kingston University, United Kingdom

Gold
Victo Ngai, Rhode Island School of Design, USA
Victo Ngai, Rhode Island School of Design, USA
Matthew Wood, Art Center College of Design, USA

Silver
Helen Davies, Kingston University, United Kingdom
Jonathan Bartlett, School of Visual Arts, USA

Bronze
James Chong, Art Center College of Design, USA
Victo Ngai, Rhode Island School of Design, Hong Kong
Tobias Jacob, Burg Giebichenstein Hochschule für Kunst und Design Halle, Germany

Distinguished Merit
Jessie Durham, Ontario College of Art & Design, Canada
Sean Lewis, Ontario College of Art & Design, Canada
Rachel Lillie, Kingston University, United Kingdom

Merit
Michael Hirshon, Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Jon Rothenberg, Washington University in St. Louis, USA
Colin Kaesekamp, HBK Saar, Germany
Young Soo Kim, Parsons The New School for Design, USA
Stella Lee, Parsons The New School for Design, USA
You Jung Min, Parsons The New School for Design, USA
Garrett Pruter, Parsons The New School for Design, USA
Katie Turner, Parsons The New School for Design, USA
Nilufar Hashemi, Parsons The New School for Design, USA
Paohan Chen, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, United Kingdom
Deepa Vekaria, University of the Arts London, United Kingdom
Billy Norrby, School of Visual Arts, USA*
Adrian Forrow, Ontario College of Art & Design, Canada
Tran Nguyen, Savannah College of Art & Design, USA
Houston Trueblood, Brigham Young University, USA
Eda Akaltun Akaltun, Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design, United Kingdom
Daniel Lee, School of Visual Arts, USA
Daniel Downey, Ontario College of Art & Design, Canada
Johnny Dombrowski, School of Visual Arts, USA
Becca Johnson, Savannah College of Art and Design, USA
Irvin Rodriguez, Fashion Institute of Technology, USA
Sara Saedi, Art Center College of Design, USA
Joerg Barton, Fachhochschule Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, USA
Jonathan Bartlett, School of Visual Arts, USA*
Hye Jin Chung, School of Visual Arts, USA
Emilie Leduc, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada
Victoria Sica, School of Visual Arts, USA
Anjo Chiang, Ontario College of Art & Design, Canada
Marian Dilan, California College of the Arts, USA
Mark Ingram, Art Center College of Design, USA
Steven Smith, School of Visual Arts, USA
Kaitlin Koch, College for Creative Studies, USA

*multiple winners

Lunch with Adam Graff

Illustrator and educator Adam Graff was in town last week for a bit of pleasure and business. Leaving his young daughter with her grandparents Adam and his wife took a holiday to New York City. Adam is a practicing illustrator as well as being Level 2 instructor of the illustration program at the University of Hertfordshire—check out our previous blog spot on our UK trip—which is where we first met Adam.
Adam recently completed his MA at Central St Martin's and is pursuing a new direction with his work. Having amicably parted ways with his London rep Adam is exploring a lot of new areas. During our lunch he shared a comp of a children's book he's been working on as well as his portfolio. He has been showing his new pieces and getting a very good response from those art directors he's shared his book with here in New York.
There was also an interesting project where a single sketchbook is passed around a group of illustrators and on the day they receive the book they must do something about the weather that day. Then they mail the sketchbook on to the next artist. This is a year-long project that Adam hopes will be reprinted as a book.
Sarah wasn't feeling well so Jessica took over as hostess—we must do a video of her carving prowess as she carves a bird like no one we've ever seen. Lunch was our salad, roast chicken, parsnip puree followed by homemade chocolate sorbet and of course plenty of wine and enough espresso to get us back to work. And of course Adam was off to drink in the sites and sounds of the city before heading back across the pond.

Pascal Staub Visits

The man of many styles dropped by during the cocktail hour last Thursday. Pascal Staub was visiting New York from Bern—one of his many trips to the US and New York and brought along his good friend, photographer and soon-to-be graphic designer, Jada Vogt. Pascal and Jada went to school together in Minneapolis before Pascal headed for Boston to work as a graphic designer for a few years before returning to his native Switzerland. And Jada worked in Minneapolis before she headed to New York and is now studying graphic design at Parsons The New School for Design—in the same program I used to teach in!
Pascal is unique in that he has any number of styles on his site--and all good ones! I gravitate towards a single focus in illustrators but when I first saw Pascal's work on his Grafilu site I thought he was actually an artist rep firm since his flyer had so many different portraits in different styles. When I invited his "group" to be in our next issue of 3x3 he quickly told me that no, he was the sole illustrator on all the work I'd seen.
In our talk on Thursday he related that both his parents and his teachers always pressed him to concentrate on one type of drawing. But he couldn't and hasn't. And shouldn't. Trained as a graphic designer he's only been a full-time illustrator since 2004 and will have his first major US assignment in the upcoming New Yorker summer fiction issue—portraits naturally. He's been sending Chris Curry work for some years now and as luck would have it one of his mailers reached her desk just as she was assigning the fiction issue!
We had a wonderful discussion about illustration here and there, students, young illustrators, New York and why he needed to move here. He shares a wonderful studio is in an old Toblerone chocolate factory in Bern so the chances of him migrating here are slim. But you never know.


COCKTAILS: Lillet spritzers, Lillet with homemade seltzer with a twist of lime and Pimm's Cups, Pimm's, ginger ale with a twist of lime.

Seymour Chwast's First Graphic Novel

We just got the advanced copy of Seymour Chwast's latest book and his first graphic novel, Dante's Divine Comedy coming out in October from Bloomsbury. In his version, Dante and his guide Virgil don fedoras and wander through noir-ish realms of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, finding both the wicked and the wondrous on their way.In his adaptation of this skewering satire, Chwast creates a visual fantasia that fascinates on every page: From the multifarious torments of the Inferno to the host of delights in Paradise, his inventive illustrations capture the delirious complexity of this classic of the Western canon.
One hundred and twenty-eight pages of delightful drawings, a must-read, a must have from America's living legend.

Anita Kunz to Receive Honorary Doctorate Degree

We just received word that The Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) will present honorary doctorate degrees to illustrator Anita Kunz, artists Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge and singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie at the university’s convocation ceremony at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto on Friday, June 4.

“Condé and Beveridge, Kunz and Sainte-Marie exemplify OCAD’s commitment to engaging creative skills to allow a deep understanding of the complex world around us,” said Dr. Sara Diamond, OCAD President. “It is with great pleasure that we honour their contributions, and welcome them to share their visions for the future as inspiration for this year’s graduating class.”

Recently appointed as an Officer of the Order of Canada, Anita Kunz is an accomplished and acclaimed illustrator contributing to the world’s leading magazines, design firms, book publishers and advertising agencies. Her clients include Time, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, The New York Times, Sony Music, Random House and many others. She has produced cover art for many magazines including The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated, Newsweek, the Atlantic Monthly and The New York Times Magazine. She has also illustrated more than fifty book jacket covers.

Kunz teaches workshops and lectures at universities and institutions across the globe, and has been honoured with many prestigious awards and medals. Her critically acclaimed paintings and sculptures have appeared in galleries worldwide, including the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts and the Teatrio Cultural Association in Rome.

Her works are in the permanent collections at the Library of Congress, the Canadian Archives in Ottawa, the Musée Militaire de France in Paris and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome. A number of her Time Magazine cover paintings are also in the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. Kunz has been named one of the fifty most influential women in Canada by the National Post.

Congratulations Anita!

To Err

It seems in my haste to get the winner's notice out to our entrants I made a couple of clerical errors and caught the ire of two illustrators. My sincere apologies.

This year's show was more automated, all judging is done by numbers and not names, when tallied the winners are pulled by number which then identifies the image that won and the artist's name, this then results in a spreadsheet which is then converted to a word document which is then used for our web site—which was the link for our email announcement. That same list is used to send the winner's their announcement which includes a pdf of their winning entry.

With the multitude of projects in-house at the moment I personally took over the task of gathering and uploading the information. And to expedite the process I used last year's web page as the template. By accident John Hendrix's name was left on the list of Gold medal winners instead of being removed—John was a gold medal winner in ProShow No. 6. I can't use that excuse for Hiromichi Ito, in inserting his name in the web document I put him in the Gold Medal category and not in the correct list of Silver medalists; Hiromichi and Andrea Innocent both received a Silver in the Gallery category. The updated, corrected and proofed list has been uploaded to our site.

This will be the last time I rush the announcement and in the future the entrant-wide announcement will go out after the winner's have all been notified. Lesson learned.