3x3 Directory Goes to Press

We’re sending this year's 3x3 Illustration Directory to the printer today. We have a total of 335 illustrators from 29 countries represented inside our 480-page Directory. Work is divided in nine categories ranging from conceptual to children’s, whimsical to decorative, landscape to lettering, figurative to fashion with animal rounding out our categories.

What we’ve found is that art directors and art buyers really like our Directory. They love our selection—our Directory is curated, you must be invited to be in. They love our size—it’s portable. They love our design—single image per page grouped by color or theme. And they like the categories and our online counterpart that clicks directly to the artist’s site. They'll also like the option to view the Directory on their iPad.

Illustrators love our Directory because they’re surrounded by the best illustrators around. And they love our page price, anyone can afford to be in our Directory.

The Directory is distributed free to over 6,000 art directors and art buyers in the United States. The list is highly targeted to those who have an interest in illustration whether they’re in advertising, publishing—magazine and books, in-house corporate, entertainment or design.

The Directory will be distributed in January.

Cover illustration by Wonil Suh

3x3 Annual Goes to Press

We’re sending out the 3x3 Illustration Annual No 8 to the printer today. Chock full of excellent work, this 424 page annual displays most of the images in a single page plus this year we’ve added a separate Medalist section where the medal winners from each of our shows is displayed. Best of Show, Gold, Silver and Bronze winners from the professional show, children’s show and student show will appear in the front of the book, merits and distinguished merits will be displayed by category.

You’ll see some familiar names but also bear witness to some of the new talent our judges found around the world. Looking at 6,164 entries, the judges selected 347 winners. The judges were perhaps the most severe with the student show with only 34 winners from 479 entrants entering from 103 schools worldwide. The children’s show showed more winners from any previous show with a mix of 45% coming from outside the US. A frustration was how few animations were entered—this continues to be a small category; a disappointment was how uninspired judges found many of the unpublished entries this year. Perhaps it’s due to the economy, this should be a category along with self-promotion where experimentation can take place. Gallery was stronger this year than in some previous years, advertising was improved and of course, editorial was strong.

Winners receive a complimentary copy of the annual which we hope to have in the mail by the end of the month; international deliveries take a bit longer. We try to have the annual out in mid-December but due to the holidays and a bout with a terrible bug we fell behind. We also have the 480-page 3x3 Illustration Directory going to press later this month for a delivery date of mid-January, so as you can imagine we’ve been quite busy getting a total of 904 pages out the door, not to mention 84-page income survey and 252-pages of Creative Quarterly during the production process.

We’re rounding up next year’s judging panel as we speak and will start accepting entries mid-January for Annual No 9. Mark your calendars: deadline for the professional show is March 2, student show, March 23 and the children’s show, April 20.

Congratulations to all our winners. Look for the annual on selected newsstands worldwide; we’ll also be sending a free digital version of the annual to a select group of art directors and art buyers in the US.

Cover illustration by Bill Mayer

István Orosz Exhibition in New York

István Orosz (1951), one of the most prolific and best known printmakers, graphic artists and animated filmmakers of Central Europe has been creating his trademark art often employing forced perspectives, anamorphoses, illusions and impossible objects since the 1970s. Initially best known for his prints (including film and exhibition posters), his resumé has expanded to include unique trompe l’oeil graphics and some of the most inspired animated films to come out of Hungary (or Europe, for that matter).

He has had individual shows in Chicago (I Space Gallery), The Hague (Escher Museum) and over a dozen other major cities and art centers. Prizes awarded to István Orosz include the Gold Medal at the Biennial of Graphic Design (Brno), the Creative Distinction Award of the European Design Annual (Dublin), the Gold medal at the Annual Exhibition of the Society of Illustrators (NewYork) and the Main Prize of the KAFF Animated Film Festival (Kecskemét).

Join us to celebrate István Orosz’ first solo exhibition in New York, featuring posters, graphic art and animated shorts on multiple screens.

The opening will be followed by a reception with the artist.

December 14, 7pm
Hungarian Cultural Center
447 Broadway {between Canal and Grand}, 5th Floor