Issue 20 Goes to Press

Great news, we’ve finished the next issue of 3x3 which features Jonathan Bartlett, Mark Smith from the UK and Wesley Allsbrook. And as a part of our redesign we’ll exhibit the winners of the 3x3 Student Show.

Since we’re focussing on young illustrators in this issue we chose a number of illustrators that have caught our eye and in addition to Jonathan, Mark and Wesley we’re showing the work of Jude Buffum, Peter Diamond from Austria, Aya Kakeda, Shannon May, Keith Negley and Yeji Yun from South Korea. And as part of CareerTalk we have an interview with Victo Ngai; rounding out the issue is our profile of Andrew J Nilsen, SF Weekly, Part Two of our Social Media Survey and our Icon is David Sandlin who is also our Educator/Illustrator for 2012.

With the holidays we should be on the shelves at the end of the month or first of January. You can pre-order your copy now online, or better yet save 20% off the newsstand price by subscribing. Full details online.

Cover illustration by Jonathan Bartlett

3x3 Names David SandlinEducator/Illustrator for 2012

Education has always been important to David Sandlin. Growing up Belfast, Northern Ireland he drove himself to be the best student in primary school so he could win free tickets to the natural history museum. He had calculus and French under his belt before he was fifteen. And graduated high school in America with honors when he was sixteen.

His early introduction to art was thanks to his mother’s interest in horror comics and like any little kid he’d start copying them along with images from his illustrated children’s Bible.

He once seriously considered a major in math before being lead to the art path by one of his 
college art teachers.

All these experiences helped form both his current artistic sensibilities and his desire to help students find the part of the visual world that engages them most completely.

Sandlin has been teaching at the School of Visual Arts since 1982 and also began working in the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program in 1999.

Sandlin’s art first appeared in New York on the streets of the Lower East Side, in the form of hand-screened political posters and prints advertising local art and music events. His comics have appeared in RAW, Strappazin, Blab, Nozone, Zero Zero and other publications. He has also published illustrations in The New Yorker and The New York Times and recently completed an advertising campaign for SVA. Sandlin has exhibited his prints, paintings, books and installations throughout the United States and in Europe, Japan, and Australia.

We are pleased to name David Sandlin our 3x3 Illustrator:Educator of the Year, 2012.

Our complete interview with David will appear in our next issue, Issue 20 as will as the 3x3 Illustration Annual No. 9.

Painting by David Sandlin

Perhaps the Perfect Christmas Present

Looking for a gift for someone on your Christmas list? Or how about a gift for your favorite art director? Or just a little something for yourself? Might we suggest a gift subscription to 3x3 Magazine. There’ll be gift for them and something special for you.

It’s the gift that keeps on giving throughout the year at a price that is affordable. Just $54 for a year-long subscription to 3x3—save 20% off the cover price. Or you can order a digital version for just $27.99—that’s almost 60% off the cover price. And if you order a print subscription for someone, we’ll send you the digital version free—this offer expires on December 17.

It’s so easy and safe with our new ordering process and if you tell us it’s a gift we’ll be sure to include a specially-designed gift card announcing that you’re the gift-giver.

Be sure to order soon, we’ll need your order no later than December 17th to make sure it gets in the mail.

So what’s stopping you, it’s a great gift full of great art, wonderful stories about illustrators, career advice, profiles, the results from each of our shows and great peeks inside studios—perfect for under any visual person’s tree. Just click here to order. Perfect.

From all of us here at 3x3 we wish you a very happy and healthy holiday season and an ever brighter new year.

Foreign print subscriptions are higher, see our web site for details.

3x3 Named One of the Top 100 Visual Magazines Worldwide

For the third straight year the Belvedere Festival is including 3x3 Magazine in its exhibit of the top 100 visual magazines worldwide. This year’s exhibit will be held in Rome’s Museum of Contemporary Art  (MARCO), Casa delle Letterature and the Istitutio Europeo di Design (IED) headquarters.

Belevedere is an international visual magazine festival sponsored by the IED. The artistic director of the Festival, Luigi Vernieri announced that this year’s selection will be the first time visual magazines have been exhibited in a contemporary art museum.

3x3 Illustration Directory Goes to Press

In these final hours before Thanksgiving we’re uploading the final files for the 2013 3x3 Illustration Directory. With over 250 illustrators from all over the world covering 388 pages—plus the cover—we once again have a strong showing of talent.

Unlike other directories, ours is curated, you must be invited to be in and unlike other directories our per page fee is in the low-hundreds not thousands of dollars. And our list of 6,000 art directors and art buyers is pre-sorted pinpointing those who are most likely to commission illustration. And this year the Directory will be available in both print and digital form with a free app. And for the first time we’ll be adding to our list with selected art directors and art buyers abroad.

Our compact size is a big hit with our audience, they also like the fact that we divide our Directory into categories and only permit one image per page. We continue to hear from both illustrators and art directors about the success of the Directory.

We’re always looking for new talent so be sure to add us to your mailing list and enter our shows, these are the two prime ways we are introduced to illustrators.

Sorry, the Directory is only available free of charge to those who commission illustration.

Cover illustration by Aad Goudappel, The Netherlands

3x3 in Print Regional Design Annual

We are again humbled by being included in the New York section of the Print Regional Design Annual. While it’s tough to get into any regional section the competition in New York is especially fierce so it’s doubly good to be featured with so many key design studios and agencies from New York. And...we lead off the section, what better place to put illustration!

Our hope by entering shows like this is to expose more art directors and designers to the incredible talent that is out there. We look at it as advertising not only our magazine but also affording judges to see some of the best illustrators around. By seeing entries such as Shout’s cover for 3x3 they will inevitably gain more respect for what illustrators can bring to the party. And hopefully they can see how much fun it is working with illustrators.

Congratulations to Alessandro for his cover and to all the illustrators who continue to support our efforts.

Society Announces 3x3 Winners

 We just heard from the Society of Illustrators that two of our entries will be in Illustrators 55: The cover image by Michael Slack for Issue 18 and the opening image for Phil Wrigglesworth’s article in Issue 19. Congratulations Michael and Phil!

Michael’s cover image incorporated the issue number eighteen within the art and was the last cover we did with that direction. Beginning with Issue 9 we commissioned covers incorporating the issue number by one of our featured illustrators in each issue. And quite a number of these covers have been recognized by the Society or other leading illustration and design competitions. Starting with Issue 19 we are now asking each of our featured illustrators to incorporate their feature number as a part of their opening spread. This allows us to showcase all three featured artists with original images specifically done for their article. And the number doesn’t have to be all that obvious—Phil’s number was 55 so if you count them there are 55 dogs acting up within his “Doggie Dystopia”!

Open Studio Fridays: Portfolio Reviews in December

We're continuing our complimentary Portfolio Reviews with two additional dates in December. 

The sessions are held in our Brooklyn studio on Friday, Dec. 7th and Friday, Dec. 14th between 2pm to 5pm. Each session will be a maximum of 30 minutes. Our portfolio reviews are open to all illustrators, you can be a college student, recent graduate or been in the field for years, we're happy to give you honest feedback on your book.

Portfolio reviews will be conducted by the founder, editor and design director of 3x3 Magazine, Charles Hively.  Our studio is located 45-minutes from midtown Manhattan on the F or G line. You'll receive complete directions once you've signed up.

About Charles Hively 

Charles started his career as an illustrator, has founded two award-winning advertising agencies and has worked for major international advertising agencies during his illustrious career. During his career he has commissioned both illustrators and photographers for local, regional and national campaigns. As founder, editor and design director of 3x3 Magazine he is constantly engaged with the world of contemporary illustration and combined with his experience as an former art director and creative director he provides a unique perspective on the field than few can match. He has lectured at important industry events and universities here in the US as well as Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany and has taught senior-level graphic design courses at Parsons The New School for Design. In addition, he is the author of Nuts & Bolts: A Blueprint for a Successful Illustration Career and is currently working on his second book.

Set an appointment

Standing Room Only

We hosted a group of illustration students from Stockport College in the United Kingdom on Wednesday. We managed to fit all 26 students plus their two professors, Joanna and Gary Spicer in a space that’s usually limited to a max of 21 students, so unfortunately several had to stand for the almost 2-hour talk.

It’s always wonderful to get in front of the next generation of illustrators and hopefully offer some guidance about entering the field once they graduate. As always there were questions about promotion, web sites and the general market for illustrators and what it takes to succeed. When the fact that only one in eighty graduates continue as illustrators after their first year out of school and only .0001 percent are actively working right out of school, graduates must plan their future carefully. Defining success means pursing something you love and being able to make a living doing it. Which of course is not limited to illustration, it could be fine art, art direction, design which offer opportunities for all graduates.

One thing I missed passing along is the importance of getting a second job once they graduate, it is so difficult to break into the field of illustration that a part-time or full-time paying-job takes a lot of the pressure off meeting financial obligations. This second job should be in a related field i.e. book publishing, advertising or editorial and at the very least someplace where they are able to interact with people even if it’s a menial job in retail. As young graduates they have the abundant energy needed to work at a job and still pursue their true love of illustration. It takes discipline and long hours but a good many successful illustrators have taken this path before they made their name known and many still do today. What I don’t recommend is to take a job teaching right out of school, even if it’s after a master’s degree. I’ve seen too many drained by the pressures of academia, too many are swallowed up by the dedication to be good teacher and too many never fully realize their potential as illustrators. It all comes down to making choices, hopefully the right choices.

Photo courtesy of Joanna Spicer

Ode to Creativity

While I’m not a huge fan of Behance I did really enjoy this little short film about creativity. We need more of this type of approach that promotes the creative mind and spirit, not just among ourselves but to those who commission our work. If you’re a New Yorker you should notice some local landmarks and famous faces.

New Website Launches

Despite Sandy all the efforts of my partner Sarah Munt have paid off. Just click this link to take a look at our brand new website.

You’ve probably seen our redesigned magazine, now it’s time for our web site to compliment our new look. This isn’t our first website redesign, but it’s the only one to see the light of day. Ten years ago one of my graphic design students at Parsons designed the website that we’ve been using up until this moment. Throughout the years there have many rough sketches done for a new website and discarded and one full-blown redesign that sat awhile and was trashed—I find it’s very hard to do something for yourself. But with the magazine redesign everything started to fall into place and I think you’ll see how the site ties into the magazine.

The new site allows us to show more art on every page with a banner that showcases features in our current issues along with offerings of our books and annuals. Our splash page will change with each issue, this one features Aaron Meshon’s Williamsburg map from Issue 19. The page quickly dissolves to our welcome page with links to our complete site.

And it is now easier to order from us. We’ve adapted an outside source for our shopping cart where you can now log-in and create an account if you wish. And when you order a digital copy of one of our magazines, books or annuals it will be an automatic download—up until now we did each order manually. We’ve run a beta test and everything looks to be working fine, if you encounter any problems please let us know.

And our new site will read better on any mobile device, something our old site didn’t do.

I can’t thank Sarah enough, there’s nothing I can’t ask her to do that she doesn’t dig in, learn what needs to be learned and take a direction and run with it making it better all the while. Thank you Sarah.

Now take it for a spin and let us know what you think. Oh, you might have to refresh your browser if you’ve been on our site recently.

Lorenzo Petrantoni Exhibit in New York

If you haven’t had a chance to see Lorenzo Petrantoni’s exhibit in Dumbo you have until this Saturday. And if you miss it, we’ll be featuring Lorenzo in the next issue of Creative Quarterly, Issue 28. And you’ll want to take a look at this wonderful short film on how Lorenzo puts together his collages.

Lorenzo Petrantoni
Generation Gallery
55 Washington Street, Suite 802
Brooklyn NY11201
Through October 20

Far Out Isn't Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story

Tomi Ungerer rose to prominence in the late 1950s as the creator of acclaimed children’s books—”I dare say, no one was as original,” Maurice Sendak once ventured.

Ungerer’s creativity also encompassed iconic 60s protest posters and lavish books of erotica; but when his work was banned, he risked fading into obscurity. This film performs a laudable act of rediscovery by capturing his incredible personality on camera and bringing his artwork to life through enchanting animated sequences.

Check out his site for the trailer.

Tickets become available on Friday, October 12, 2012:

1:45 PM, Saturday November 10, 2012 - SVA Theatre 
11:30 AM, Tuesday November 13, 2012 - IFC Center 

Part of the New York Documentary Film Festival - DOC NYC

Open Studio Fridays: Portfolio Reviews ALL BOOKED

Sessions for Portfolio Reviews with Charles Hively are all booked. However, after the New Year we will re-open the studio for more portfolio reviews. We’ll make announcements about the new dates later this year.

Open Studio Fridays: Portfolio Reviews

We'll be opening our studio in Brooklyn for complimentary portfolio reviews on Friday afternoons between 2pm to 5pm. Each session will be a maximum of 30 minutes. Our portfolio reviews are open to all illustrators, you can be a college student, recent graduate or been in the field for years, we're happy to give you honest feedback on your book.
Portfolio reviews will be conducted by the founder, editor and design director of 3x3 Magazine, Charles Hively.  Our studio is located 45-minutes from midtown Manhattan on the F or G line. You'll receive complete directions once you've signed up.

About Charles Hively 
Charles started his career as an illustrator, has founded two award-winning advertising agencies and has worked for major international advertising agencies during his illustrious career. During his career he has commissioned both illustrators and photographers for local, regional and national campaigns. As founder, editor and design director of 3x3 Magazine he is constantly engaged with the world of contemporary illustration and combined with his experience as an former art director and creative director he provides a unique perspective on the field than few can match. He has lectured at important industry events and universities here in the US as well as Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany and has taught senior-level graphic design courses at Parsons The New School for Design. In addition, he is the author of Nuts & Bolts: A Blueprint for a Successful Illustration Career and is currently working on his second book.

Set an appointment

Redesigned Magazine Premieres

Subscriber Copy

Newsstand Version

Hot off the press, we just received the new issue of 3x3 Magazine, Issue 19 from our printer in Canada. After a three-month long redesign, we’re happy and excited to present our new issue.

It was back in July 2003 that the first design of 3x3 took place in a cramped bedroom with a 14-inch monitor, three months later the first issue rolled off the press in Nice. Albeit certain tweaks, the magazine design has remained constant since those very first days. We’ve come a long way since 2003, in equipment—a better set of Macs and bigger monitors—a bit more room though still a live/work space and support from my partner Sarah Munt and a dedicated group of freelance writers and photographers. But reaching our tenth year called for reflection on where we’ve been and where we’d like to go which resulted in changes.

There is no longer a premium subscription.
There is no longer a separate annual.
There is no longer a student discount.

All subscribers receive the annual, it’s a part of the magazine now.
All current subscribers will receive a digital version of the complete annual, going forward this will be offered as an option.
We’ll offer print and digital subscriptions, our digital subscriptions are a flat $27.99 for all countries. And perfect for students worldwide.

Our redesign includes a new size and our juried show results are within each of our three issues.

The 3x3 ProShow winners are in this issue, Issue 20 will include the Student Show winners and Issue 21 the winners of our Children's Show.

Inside the redesign

A smaller size so our newsstand copies will receive front row positioning rather than our current taller magazine which goes on the back row.

A larger format for our annual show winners so that we give more prominence to both single and series images.

And more pages, jumping from our standard 86-pages to 240-pages to justify our cover price of $22—comparable to the CA Illustration Annual at $24. And just $6 more than what we were charging.

We’ve dropped our Gallery section and modified and renamed our Showcase section. Our new Spotlight section will feature six illustrators and each spread shows multiple images with credits as well as answers to our standard 20 questions.

We’ve changed the way we are profiling illustrators especially with the introduction spread. There’s now a large photo of the illustrator opposite an original illustration incorporating their individual article number. All features will have titles and our design of the credits will be modified to work better with tablets and mobile devices.

In addition we’ll ask each illustrator for names of art directors, editors or designers they’ve worked with so we may get direct quotes about why they like working with them and incorporate those into the layout.

Each of our new issues will have a theme, this issue we look at whimsical illustrators, in our next issue we look at the new generation of illustrators and our third issue will focus on children’s books.

Why the change?

As we head into our tenth year we’re reflecting where we’ve been and where we’d like to go. Unlike most magazines we do not make our money from advertising, we are able to produce and publish 3x3 with a combination of newsstand sales, subscriptions and show entries.

What we see on the newsstand is that our annuals surpass our magazine sales counter to what we’d like to see as our audience of art directors and art buyers should be exposed to more of the background of how illustrators work. By combining our magazine and shows we hope to entice more readership for each of our magazines giving our audience a mix of features and award winners.

We’re working on a new web site and an app for our digital subscribers now.

We hope you will continue to support our efforts here at 3x3, we’re excited with our new direction and expect only good things to happen.

If you have any questions please let me know, chively@3x3mag.com. And let me hear your comments on our new direction.

Want to take a look? Subscribe and save 20% off the cover price. And 58% if you choose our digital version.

Cover image by Aaron Meshon. Badge design on the newsstand issues by Sarah Munt.

Studio Visits

We’ve been entertaining a few illustrators lately, something we like to do but haven’t had the time to do for awhile.

Our first visitor was Jason Raish who was on his way to live in France. Jason is a young illustrator who was raised in upstate New York but since leaving school has lived in China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Spain and now France. It was interesting to get his take on his adventures, how he adapted to each new country and new language—he prepares for each trip by boning up on Pimsleur tapes, except of course for his sojourn in the UK. Just goes to show that it’s easy to live almost anywhere and get work from everywhere. His pal, Daniel Fishel joined him for our evening cocktail hour. Sorry we didn’t take any photos of his visit, but as you can see he’s enjoying his stay in Paris.

Our next visitor was Christian Gralingen, an artist that I’ve been following for sometime. Based in Berlin, Christian has been working in a design studio for the past two years but will be returning to illustration full-time starting this fall. Christian’s work is influenced heavily by his father's livelihood—his dad was an engineer so the books in the library were full of diagrams which you’ll see Christian elaborating on in his art. He takes images from these sources and layers them collage-style to form new images that are both intricate and involving. We look forward to seeing what Christian has coming up later this year.

We’d like to get back to our artist lunches which we’ve had in the past as it’s a more intimate gathering where we get to know more about each artist rather than meeting them at crowded industry functions.

Hively Speaks at MECA

Being on vacation in Maine has its perks, certainly lobster and more lobster and tons of seafood was there for the taking but towards the end of the trip I had an added treat to speak at the Maine College of Art in Portalnd. Thanks to Jamie Hogan for setting this up and the wonderful poster and for Scott Nash, the new department chair and Jamie for making it all possible.

The talk was a shortened version of my lecture at our annual Nuts & Bolts Conference and the bulk was taken from a chapter in my book, Nuts & Bolts.

It’s always good to get in front of students as they’re entering their senior year or those who have just graduated. There is so little time to cover the basics of being an illustrator in any classroom, and what I’ve found is that the focus is so much on each assignment and creating a singular voice that it leaves little time to think about what it’s going to be like once they’re out of school. As those who’ve heard me speak will say, I don’t sugar-coat anything but at the same time it’s not meant to discourage anyone, it’s to better prepare them before or right after graduation.

Too many make too many mistakes entering the field of illustration which contributes to the low number who actually continue in the profession. One in eighty graduates are still practicing illustrators two years after graduation and an even smaller percentage are actually making a living as an illustrator. Too often they neglect the simple acts of promotion whether it’s their web site, their portfolio or even something as simple as their email address. It all leads to fewer young illustrators making it once outside the classroom. Our Conference, book and talks are all geared towards changing the dynamics, to offer more counsel in what it takes to make it in the real world.

Illustrators are not alone in this, graduates of most programs have no clue about working in their chosen field but unlike other professions, illustrators are on their own right out of school. They are charged with being business owners as there are only a fraction of jobs where they might land in what might be called a safe harbour. Design graduates go to work for design firms, ad agencies or the corporate environment, illustrators don’t have that luxury. Very few designers start a business right out of school, all illustrators do. It’s not the fault of the educational system necessarily for the ill-preparation of its graduates but it is disappointing to see such talented artists graduate and then disappear. I’d like to change that as much as I can.

Nuts & Bolts: A Blueprint for a Successful Illustration Career is available online for $10 plus shipping.

3x3 Children's Show No 9 Winners Announced

Congratulations to all our winners in this year’s 3x3 Children’s Show!  Entries were up this year with over 1,700 entries from 35 countries. Forty-percent of our entries were from outside America, making us a truly international competition. As always there were many fine pieces entered that just missed getting the nod from our judges.

Congratulations to Marta Madureira from Portugal, our Best of Show winner featured above. Our Gold Medal winners are David Dean, United Kingdom and Thomas Aquinas Maguire and Rosalyn Schanzer, USA.

Our Silver Medal winners include André Letria, Portugal, Children’s Book,
Sungyeon Sansu Joh, Children's Book Unpublished and Jamey Christoph, Educational. Bronze medals go Steve Jenkins, Children’s Book, Timothy Banks, Children’s Illustration Unpublished, Patrick Regout, Belgium, Children’s Illustration Unpublished and Valeria Petrone, Italy, Editorial.

A complete list of all medal and merit winners are available on our site, under Shows. Winners will be displayed in our new annual format coming out later this winter.

To get into the show entrants need to receive a majority of our seven judges’ votes. To be considered for a medal, five of the six judges must vote for the entry. Medals are determined by the number of judges who select a particular piece as their favorite, the more judges who select a piece as their favorite the higher the medal i.e. Best of Show, Gold, Silver and Bronze.

This year’s judges included Yvette Ghione, Editor, Kids Can Press, Canada;
Alexandra Penfold, Editor, Paula Wiseman Books, USA; Lucie Papineau, Children's Book Art Director, Canada and illustrators Ofra Amit, Israel;
Bob Daly, USA; Binny Talib, Australia; Christiane Beauregard, Canada. Judges were not permitted to vote for their student’s work.

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all of you for entering our show this year.

Armin Abmeier 1940 - 2012

We just heard from our friends in Berlin that the editor and publisher Armin Abmeier passed away yesterday, he was 72 years old. Abmeier founded Die Tollen Hefte in 1991 and was responsible for commissioning a multitude of illustrators over the years for his books that received numerous international awards including in our 3x3 Children’s Show starting with No. 6 through this year’s show.

He started his career as a bookseller and eventually went on to become a sales representative for several leading literary and art book publishers before establishing Die Tollen Hefte.

Armin was a huge supporter of all things illustration and was especially fond of German illustrators. Not to say that he didn’t appreciate American illustrators, you’d see him at the annual American Illustration party and occasionally at the Society of Illustrators events.

He would always be perturbed when we listed his name as a winner online, he was quick to correct this and to give the illustrator full credit. He was the entrant but never believed in taking credit for a book, though he was throughly invested in each and every one of them.

He leaves behind his wife, illustrator Rotraut Susanne Berner. The illustration world will miss him greatly.

Call for Submissions - Deadline July 6

We’re starting the design of our next 3x3 Illustration Directory that is mailed free to over 6,000 art directors and art buyers in the United Sates. In addition we’re adding a free digital version of the Directory which we’ll make available to a select list of those art directors and art buyers in Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and Asia.

We’ve added several new categories this year including Lifestyle, Holiday/Seasonal, Food/Beverage, Business/Finance and Hand Lettering and since these categories are so specific we will entertain submissions from our blog readers who haven’t been in our Directory before for these categories.

To be considered please forward low-res images at 4-inches wide, 72dpi, RGB, jpg to me at chively@3x3mag.com. If we feel you are a good fit, we will then offer a you a page or pages and request hi-res files. Our page rate is $550 which includes a single image, contact information as well as a spot and link on our website when the Directory is published in January 2013.

Deadline for submissions is July 6, 2012.

Find out more information about our Directory here.

3x3 Student Show Winners Announced

Congratulations to all our winners in this year’s 3x3 Student Show! In reviewing the voting it looks like this was one of the toughest shows yet. Entries were up and there were more accepted entries and medals this year. However getting into the show was tougher than other years and there were many fine pieces entered that just missed getting the nod from our judges.

Congratulations to Sivan Kidron, Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Israel for her winning entry in the animation category, she will receive our $1,000 cash prize. Our two gold medals go to last year's Best of Show winner, JoHee Yoon, RISD, both gold medals received five out of six votes plus a majority of judges selecting each piece as their favorite. Our Gold medal winner receives a $500-cash value prize.

Our Silver Medal winners include Yen-Chen Liu, Shih Chien University, Taiwan; John Malta, School of Visual Arts, Erin McPhee, Sheridan College, Canada and Molly Stone, Massachusetts College of Art & Design. Bronze medals go to Victoria Semykina, Academy of Fine Arts of Bologna, Italy, Yoshi Yoshitani, RISD and an entrant from Savannah College of Art & Design who will be identified as soon as we reach their professor.

A complete list of all medal and merit winners are available on our site, under Shows. Winners will be displayed in our new annual format coming out later this fall.

The top school winner was the School of Visual Arts, followed closely by Savannah College of Art & Design and OCAD University, Canada. Other schools with multiple winners include Parsons The New School for Design; Art Center College of Design; RISD; Sheridan Institute, Canada; Ringling College of Art & Design; Emily Carr University, Canada; Academy of Art University; Aglila Ruskin University, United Kingdom; California College of the Arts; California State University; Capilano University, Canada; Maryland Institute College of Art and University of Hartford.

To get into the show entrants need to receive a majority of our six judges’ votes. To be considered for a medal, five of the six judges must vote for the entry. Medals are determined by the number of judges who select a particular piece as their favorite, the more judges who select a piece as their favorite the higher the medal i.e. Best of Show, Gold, Silver and Bronze.

This year’s judges included Owen Smith, California College of the Arts, Rick Lovell, Savannah College of Art & Design, Alexander Strohmaier, Universtät für Angewandte Kunst, Austria, Michael Taylor, Stellen Bosch Academy, South Africa, Ronca Catell, University of Gloucestershire, United Kingdom and Toni Damkoehler, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. Judges were not permitted to vote for their student’s work.

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all of you for entering our show this year.

Marcos Chin@Nuts & Bolts Conference 2012

Marcos Chin

I am often puzzeled why there are not more female illustrators
It seems to be to be a field dominated by men.

I was speaking with illustrator Scott Bakal about this over lunch at the studio
And the two women I work with presented a theory which seems plausible.
Women are more pragmatic than guys.

Guys don’t mind sleeping on the floor
Or someone’s couch.
Or missing a bathroom.
Or not taking a shower.
Or having anything coutre.
Men are like dogs
Women are like cats.

Women want to know if this is all worthwhile
Can I make a living doing this or should I 
look somewhere else?
Do something else?

Men never look at it that way
They’re content to keep plugging away
Something will happen
Something good will come of this
They don’t give it a timetable
Or even measure success.

And they don’t look at it as making a sacrifice
It’s just the way it is.

Maybe it’s the hunter in us
Not willing to look at the danger.
Maybe that’s why far fewer women than men are struck by lightning.

As our next speaker heard author/actor Ethan Hawke talk about his new book. Hawke said:
Whether or not he would receive a positive response was unpredictable,
But in the meantime he described the experience of doing it (and possibly failing)
Like being on a boat and vomiting over the edge
In front of onlookers.

Our speaker demonstrates that ignoring a dim future can lead you to the light.

Marcos Chin
How to Make a Living as an Illustrator
4:15pm
July 14
Nuts & Bolts Conference
Society of Illustrators, New York
Sponsored by 3x3 Magazine
Registration Ends July 6

Help Us Win a Grant - Deadline: June 30

Thanks to a program sponsored by Chase and LivingSocial called Mission: Small Business℠,  your support could translate into a $250,000 grant. But we need at least 250 votes to qualify.

To vote for our business:

1. Go to missionsmallbusiness.com click ‘Log In & Support’ and log in using Facebook.

2. Search for our business by name—3x3 Magazine.

3. Click on the blue Vote button next to our business name to show your support for our business.

The award must be used to further expand our business and we hope to use this grant to add staff, complete numerous book projects and update our web site and show entry process.

We would appreciate your support.

Deadline is June 30, 2012

Nuts & Bolts Conference Panel Announced

We’re pleased to announce that children’s illustrator Laura Tallardy will be joining us on our panel to discuss some of the possibilities for the future of illustration.

Laura has just completed her first App and will take us through the process of development and what obstacles she encountered.

Laura joins our other panelist Joe Kauffman who has been quite successful with his casual games for desktop and mobile devices. 3x3 Magazine Founder Charles Hively will moderate.

If you’re a recent graduate or soon to be one this is the conference for you. Check out our site for a complete list of speakers and topics as well as seeing who is conducting our portfolio reviews.

Sign up today.

Registration ends July 6.

Paul Hoppe@Nuts & Bolts Conference 2012

Paul Hoppe

Author, illustrator, art director, graphic designer

Teacher—basic typography and media design

All these titles fit Paul

Born in Poland raised in the south of Germany where he studied graphic design and fine arts
Internships in Stuttgart and London.

Advertising projects
Animations
Several animated TV series.

Another one of those fortunate to win a prestigious DAAD scholarship to the MFA program at the School of Visual Arts
He came, he saw, he stayed.

He co-founded a comic arts magazine Rabid Rabbit and serves as its art director commissioning illustrators.

Completed his first graphic novel in 2004
Illustrated a kids book Metal Man
Authored and illustrated Hat last year.

I’m always asked about trends in illustration I think Paul is on to something with his brush and ink drawings
You can see his hand and thoughts in each stroke
They’re personal
Poignant
Perfect.

The only thing tough about Paul is making sure the introduction doesn’t come out Paul Hope
It's actually pronounced Powell Hoppa

Paul Hoppe
How to Get Yourself Published
10:15am
July 14
Nuts & Bolts Conference
Society of Illustrators, New York
Sponsored by 3x3 Magazine
Registration Ends July 6

Illustrators and Social Media Survey - DL June 29

We’ve partnered with Agency Access to delve into the world of social media and its use by illustrators and by art buyers and art directors.

The first part of the survey is asking questions about illustrators’ usage of social media, what social media they use, how often and what they see as the benefit and we’d ask you to participate by going to this link at SurveyMonkey. All information will be kept confidential, only the baseline results will be posted.

This fall we’ll be asking art directors and art buyers how they use social media to find illustrators. Agency Access has already done such a survey for photographers and we want to see how this compares with their approach to illustrators.

Surveys like this are an important measure to understand the benefits of new media, we hope you will participate. Please do so now so we can begin the process. If  you have any questions please contact me.

Deadline: June 29

Matt Rota@Nuts & Bolts Conference 2012

Matt Rota

I first met Matt when he was still a student at SVA in their master’s program. He was our intern for almost a year.
He’d come once a week and sat three feet from my desk and busily logged in entries or added names to our database.

He was quiet.
Conscientious.
And never complained even
Though it was tedious,
Boring work
And for all of this he was only getting a very small stipend.

Back then he had a ponytail and in many ways he reminded me of my college days both in appearance and attitude.
But he is so much smarter than me. But since there is very little talking in the studio I only knew him as a very talented artist back then.

Most artists are only visual. Matt is visual and verbal.
To me Matt embodies what New York is.

There is grittiness to his work,
A humane-ness that comes through on the page
And in person.

He introduced me to the world of comics.
To graphic novels.
To the work of Martin Wittfooth.
He introduces me to other artists
When we’re at society functions.
He wants everyone to know everyone else.

He’s an artist.
An illustrator.
An animator.
A comic book artist.

He’s worked in print. And in film.

He studied fine art at MICA but slowly got hooked on illustration to the point where he was sending postcards to the art director at the New York Times op-ed page.
Nothing happened.
But he kept sending mailers.
Then one day after moving to New York, it happened.
One assignment become two and pretty soon he had a dozen op-ed pieces in the New York Times.
And he was still in school.
And it hasn’t stopped.

What sets Matt apart is
He’s not an illustrator,
He’s an artist who illustrates.

Matt Rota
10:15am
July 13
Nuts & Bolts Conference
Society of Illustrators, New York
Sponsored by 3x3 Magazine
Early Discount Ends June 12

3x3 ProShow Winners Announced

Congratulations to all our winners in this year’s 3x3 ProShow! In reviewing the voting it looks like this was one of the toughest shows yet. Entries were up but there were fewer medals this year. Judges were particularly tough on the editorial and self-promotion categories with less than 10% of the entries making it into the show and head-over-heels for the book category, 20% of the entries made the cut—does this say something about the business environment we’re living in today? Maintaining the status-quo is normal in a bad economy, art directors are looking for something more “safe” and unwittingly willing to take risks. Getting into the show was tougher than other years and there were many fine pieces entered that didn’t get the nod from our judges, in fact a total of sixty-five pieces were just one vote shy of getting into the show.

To get into the show entrants need to receive a majority of our eight judges’ votes. That means that five judges will have voted for an individual entry just to get into the show. To be considered for a medal, seven of the eight judges must vote for the entry. Medals are determined by the number of judges who select a particular piece as their favorite, the more judges who select a piece as their favorite the higher the medal i.e. Best of Show, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Judges were not permitted to vote for their own work.

Our Best of Show winner received eight out of eight votes plus five out of the eight judges voted it as their favorite, congratulations to Gonçalo Viana (Portugal) for his winning entry in the advertising category. A close runner-up was the young Victo Ngai who also had eight out of eight votes with two judges voting her editorial piece their favorite, hers was the only gold medal this year. Silver medals went to Daniel Zender, Anna & Elena Balbusso (Italy), Thornbery & Forester, Judit Gerencz (UK) and Simone Massoni (Italy). Bronze medals went to Elizabeth Baddeley, Joe Ciardiello, Nigel Buchanan (Australia), Daniel Dociu, Emiliano Ponzi (Italy), Olaf Hajek (Germany) and Rod Hunt (UK). Distinguished merit awards went to Charlie Powell, Allessandro Gottardo (Italy), Jon Reinfurt, Olaf Hajek (Germany), Mark Smith (UK), Edward Kinsella and Steve Simpson (Ireland).

A complete list of all winners and categories are available on our site, under Shows. Winners will be displayed in our new annual format coming out later this summer.

Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to all of you for entering our show this year.

Best of Show winning entry, Gonçalo Viana, Portugal

3x3 ProShow Results Coming

The judges have finished their voting, the results are being tabulated, an announcement is coming this week.

All judging is done independently and takes place over a two week period. Judges are provided the digital entries, instructions and a judging sheet divided by category and entry number. All judges must either vote each individual piece “In”or “Out” and once the judging is complete they are to indicate their particular favorite entries.

Each judge then returns their judging sheets to 3x3 and we then go through each voting sheet and record the “In” votes for each entry and category on our master sheet. This process takes a week to complete.

To get into the show entrants need to receive a majority of our eight judge’s votes. That means that five judges will have voted for an individual entry. Medals are determined by the number of judges who select a particular piece as their favorite, the more judges who select a piece as their favorite the higher the medal i.e. Best of Show, Gold, Silver and Bronze. In most if not all cases, the Best of Show receives an “In” vote from all judges.

Once the winners have been determined we gather the winning entries, create thumbnail pdfs of the winners, gather the credits information we have and send out an announcement to each winner. We then prepare the winners list which is then sent out to all entrants and posted on our web site and blog.

We appreciate the time each judge has taken to complete our judging process their opinions are what continues to make the 3x3 ProShow one of the toughest shows to get into exhibiting some of the best work being done by illustrators worldwide.

Aaron Meshon@Nuts & Bolts Conference 2012

Aaron Meshon

Aaron Meshon makes me laugh
Like Chris Rock makes me laugh.

Not forced humor
Genuine humor you can agree with.

And he can rant
Justifiably so.

He sees injustice and tries to right it
See’s inequalty and strives for balance.

I compare him to a watchdog
In fact I think in a previous life he was just that.

He is honest in his views
And guarded in his legal battles to the point that we may have to edit out some of what he says so it never leaves this room.

His insights on our legal system can be bone-chilling
His assesment of the fertile ground of licensing will make your head spin
But you’ll be laughing your head off
At least inside.

As with many illustrators who fly solo he has a pent-up need to talk
And talk
And talk
And talk
He’ll feel guilty
But for you it will be a guilty pleasure.

Aaron Meshon
1:15pm
July 13
Nuts & Bolts Conference
Society of Illustrators, New York
Sponsored by 3x3 Magazine
Early Discount Ends June 12

COW Int'l Design Festival Jurors and Winners

I was honored to represent the United States in the 2012 COW International Design Festival, other jurors included Michael Weinzettl, Germany; Alexander Kazarin and Alexander Leenetsky, Russia.

Michael is the publisher and editor-in-chief of Lürzer's Archive Magazine and joined the magazine when there was just a staff of two—Michael is in charge of all content of the Vienna-based publication. There were two Alexanders, Kazarin is president of the Society of Designers International Association and a host of other international design-related symposiums. And Leenetsky is the deputy chairman of the St Petersburg Regional Organization of the Union of Designers of Russia and is the founder and chief editor of the news portal design-union.ru. Complete bios and the winners are available on the COW International Design Festival site.

The top ten illustrators included Gabriella Barouch, Israel; Andrew Artyukhin, Russia; Anna Kasnyik, Hungary; Marco Tóxico, Bolivia; Omer Hoffmann, USA; Irina Egorova, Russia; Morteza Zahedi, Iran; Tomaso Marcolla, Italy; Wasted Rita, Portugal and Irina Pryadka, Ukraine.

Thank you to Helen Baranovska for the invitation to judge.

Martin Wittfooth@Nuts & Bolts Conference 2012

Martin Wittfooth:

Martin wants you to be uncomfortable

He wants you 
to not be content with the status quo
He wants you to think
To feel
To observe
To care

About the earth
And about your fellow man
His work is full of yellow lights that scream out
Caution!
His work looks 17th or 18th century Flemish yet modern
Many of his pieces are seemingly post-apoclayptic
Where humans have lost their foothold as the
Dominant specie.

He’s a reader
He thinks before he paints

Buses and refrigerators were an early recurring motif
In his work
He loved to paint them because these objects interested him
And represent the futility of humanity’s obsession
With self-preservation.

He labors over his paintings
Not to make himself famous
But to call attention to what we should all be observing:
The world around us
And the part we play in its survival
What can be more noble than that?
We can simply observe his fine work
Or take the lesson he is presenting and make a difference.

It is really up to us
But it doesn’t mean that Martin will stop saying what he’s saying in paint
And if we pay attention
It might just mean we can save ourselves.

Martin Wittfooth
11:15am
July 14
Nuts & Bolts Conference
Society of Illustrators, New York
Sponsored by 3x3 Magazine
Early Discount Ends June 12

Amazing Marshall Arisman DVD fromAmerican Artist Magazine

One of the perks of being a publisher is we get books and DVDs to review for our website and publications. One such DVD came in the mail from Marshall Arisman.

Produced by American Artist, we get a first hand look at not only Marshall’s studio but get to see him in action. As the DVD touts: No brush required—we get to see how Marshall uses different tools, traditional art supplies, or items from the local drugstore or stationery or hardware store to create powerful imagery. It could be a plastic comb he cuts into different lengths to give him a readily available cross-hatching tool. Or it could be a small printmaker’s roller that he uses not just as a roller but the edge to create a thin/thick line. Or pencil erasers to bring out a highlight. Or faux woodgrain stencils to create shadows.

We get to see him working with papier mâché, ink, pastel and oils. And unlike many instructors he doesn’t hold back, he shares everything. We learn the backstory about his imagery and how important content is over the act of painting and how he can tell if he’s transferred his energy into the finished drawing, sculpture or painting. He makes learning interesting and entertaining and you feel you’re right there in the studio alongside him. What a great experience!

Available on Amazon.com

Falmouth Students Visit 3x3

We had the pleasure of doing a portfolio review for students from University College Falmouth today in our Brooklyn studio. The group included two professors, Sue Clarke and Mark Foreman along with ten students. For those who might not know Falmouth is located on the far western coast of the United Kingdom, and as I hear they have palm trees growing there!

It’s always interesting to see the work from abroad, especially from the next generation of illustrators. One of the highlights was a student, Jo Chappell, who presented her work not only in a portfolio but also on the iPad. What I’ve always appreciated in portfolios from the UK is that most if not all work are examples of problem-solving.

After a pizza lunch and a brief overview about 3x3 and Creative Quarterly and a discussion about my view of the future of illustration we proceeded to review individual portfolios and then sent them on their merry way.

3x3 Subscription Price Increase Prompts New Digital Subscriptions

Due to increased postage cost, new pricing is in effect. To offset this increase, especially for our foreign subscribers who are affected the most, we are now offering both print and digital subscriptions as well as single-copy issues in both formats.

As you know there is less cost in producing a digital issue and our plan going forward is to add more content to our digital issues, but at the moment we’re taking baby steps. The problem becomes how much people are willing to pay for a high-end niche publication. The cost of mailing a subscription outside North American has increased to the point that we felt it necessary to make this offer; there is no end in sight for increased postage costs. Our hope is that with our lower cost digital editions we will be able to reach more international subscribers. Within North American we have absorbed the cost difference but we cannot with our international pricing. We’ve looked at a lighter weight stock—at the moment our publication weighs one-pound (.4536kg)—or fewer pages, neither option was seriously considered.

All publications are facing a tough future as major chains reduce their shelf space, especially for art and design publications. The option for digital subscriptions and single-copy sales is still too new to see how this will impact the industry, but the fact of the matter is that the reduced cost—literally half the cover price must be offset with an increased subscriber base. The design and production costs are the same to produce any publication and even within the current publishing/bookstore partnership, publishers receive less than half of the cover price and must pay a fee, annual advertising costs and shipment to the main distributor and then to all bookstores—the end result is very little goes to profit. And the digital environment is not much better and in many cases worse. Signing up with a digital distributor looks promising in the beginning but after the substantial discounts, the initial fee for adding the publication to the “newsstand” and the cut Apple takes with each issue a publisher is left with pennies. To offset this publishers hope to increase digital distribution two-fold or more, this is where the outlook is cloudy. We’re all too new to this to forecast what the results will be and niche publications, especially ones with little or no advertising inside like ours, have a tougher challenge.

At the moment our digital subscription is only available for use on your desktop or laptop. An iPad app is coming as soon as we determine which route to take, to offer one ourselves or to go through a distributor.

Digital subscribers will receive a link to download each issue when it is published. With this approach, piracy is a problem. Sharing this link with anyone is in violation of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act and will result in termination of the subscription and further legal action. An app will avoid this complication but both forms will be necessary as we know people like to look at magazines on their computer as well as their tablet.

We hope you’ll consider supporting our new digital subscriptions, especially if you’re located outside North America, or you’re a student as there is a cost savings. And we hope that more of you will opt for our printed magazine, there’s nothing quite like the smell of ink on paper.

Subscribe today!

ICON7

In this age, Illustration and design can be a lonely profession. Though the digital revolution has given us speed and the ability to live and work anywhere we choose, it has made true community a rare commodity.

ICON's programming promises to educate, inform, and inspire, but it is the rare energy of a shared experience that will launch countless creative projects and life-long connections. We hope that you’ll join us for a true community experience, where 500 illustrators, designers and image makers come together for a jam-packed weekend marinating with imaginative and inspirational speakers from many different creative fields.

Come to ICON and reunite with old friends and make some new ones.

Come to ICON and see works you’ve never seen before.

Come to ICON and learn about new business practices and experiment with new media.

Come to ICON and chat with that illustrator you’ve always wanted to meet.

Come to ICON and be inspired!

Early Bird tickets still available—limited to 100

ICON7
June 13-16
www.theillustrationconference.org

Illustration by Chris Buzelli

For What It's Worth 33

As I sat down to write the editorial for Issue 18 I became conscious of just how much has changed since I began my career as an illustrator that led to a career as a graphic designer and eventual ad agency creative director and business owner.

I’m going to sound really old right now but this was the time before computers and even fax machines. We made appointments by phone. We carried large portfolios that also served as delivery envelopes. Work was presented directly to the client—both the roughs and the finish. The art was prepared on a surface—hot or cold watercolor paper, vellum, paperboard, canvas—that would then be photographed by a large camera prior to assembly at the printer or publisher’s facility. Handwork was the modus operandi of the day from the artist to the printer. Type was handset. And then hand-sliced, sometimes word for word, line by line, to get the best kerning and rag. We used wall-mounted Artographs and stats to size both type and imagery for comps and reproduction. Film was hand-stripped.

Back then designers were more commonly called commercial artists, which also encompassed those graphic artists working directly for printers and publishers. Walking away from the term commercial artist was the first major step in establishing graphic design as a more specialized part of the graphic arts.

As a designer there were primo jobs to be had, newsletters, annual reports, corporate brochures, album covers, posters, book covers. Budgets were good, i.e. you could actually make a living designing newsletters. These were not your everyday corporate communications tools, these were conceptual and colorful and expensive to produce. That all changed. Enter Pagemaker and the CEO could have his secretary “produce” the newsletter. Those projects disappeared. As did annual reports. Album covers became CD covers and are now reduced to postage stamp- size images on iTunes. Social media takes the place of many branding projects. YouTube is now an advertising media for new products. The projects are dwindling for everyone.

As we head further into a totally digital world I contend design will take a backseat, but illustration won’t. Where once I thought being a designer had many more advantages with not only the type of projects but also the budgets, my feeling today is that design will continue to shrink, illustration will expand. Why the optimism? The market will crave images and those that will be doing the craving will be without a resource. Except for hiring illustrators.

Look no further than the area of game design, 3-D movies, apps and information graphics, which are totally illustrated. Think somebody’s secretary can do that? Art trumps design in all these areas. And if designers can’t draw they’re missing out on tomorrow’s opportunities; illustrators aren’t. The bottom line is that the future of illustration is brighter than any time in the past. We will be able to charge more for what we do because we’ve combined the essence of design and illustration into a new art form. We’ll stop referring to what we do by traditional classifications; we won't be designers or illustrators, we’re now visual communicators.

3x3 Nuts & Bolts Conference 2012

We’re ready to start promoting this year’s 3x3 Nuts & Bolts Conference, the conference for grads and recent grads that we hold each July at the Society of Illustrators. This intense two-day event will explore the ins-and-outs of promotion, provide self-defense tips on how to protect an artist’s work, give direction on building a stronger web presence and share the three things every successful illustrator knows as well as the do’s and don’ts of being a young illustrator.

We’ve lined up an impressive list of speakers who will talk about developing a good mailing list, moving between commissioned illustration and galleries, and about getting published—either self-published zines, comics or children’s books. We’ll cover the subjects of artist representation, reading and writing contracts and offer marketing and portfolio tips as well as look at the future of illustration. Their talks with be both instructional and inspirational; it’s no wonder that when polled past attendees gave it their 100% recommendation—check out their actual quotes on our site.

And as it’s our third annual conference we continue to make improvements.

First we’ve added a day to visit artist’s studios and a chance to sit in on the Society of Illustrator’s Sketch Night. We’ve added smaller breakout sessions that balance our full-day lecture series. Our lectures are shorter and more focused leaving more time for questions. We’ll offer on-the-spot portfolio reviews. And yet we’ve still managed to keep the costs reasonable, conferences like this can cost twice as much or more but our goal is to make this information accessible to the most people we can.

Sitting is limited and an early registration discount is available so if you’re a grad, recent grad or even a senior this conference is for you. For more details or to register head to our website, just click the link below.

Nuts & Bolts Conference
July 13-14
Society of Illustrators
New York, NY
www.nutsandboltsconf.com

Emiliano Ponzi@The New York Times

If you’re in the city or going to be stop by Emiliano Ponzi’s exhibit at The New York Times on April 12 between 7 and 9pm. You’ll need to RSVP to attend.

Issue 18 Heads to the Printer

We’re happy to report that the next issue of 3x3 is off to the printer and is a special issue on picture book illustrators.

Our featured illustrators include Michael Slack, Christiane Beauregard and Jaime Zollars; our Icon is Eric Carle and we have a Gallery full of international illustrators that include Jim Paillot, Pieter Van Eenoge, Lisa Cinar, Sara Gillingham, Bob Daly, Sara Woolley, Peter Farncis, Dan Bob Thompson, Shaw Nielsen, Bill Mayer, Gloria Pizzilli, Bellebrute, Carolina Farias, Sonia Kretschman, YoungJu Kim, Steve Simpson, Isabella Kung, Jannie Ho and Constanze von Kitzing.

CareerTalk points out ways to approach children’s book editors and art directors. Our profile is of Scholastic creative director David Saylor. And our survey about illustrator confidence and an op-art piece by Guy Billout round out this issue.

Issue 18 will be on newsstands in mid-April in North America and late-April in the UK, Europe and Asia. Single copies will be available in print and digital form on our site soon.

Cover illustration by Michael Slack

Joe Kimberling, 1966-2012

We lost a dear friend of illustration yesterday, Joe Kimberling, the art director and designer of Los Angeles Magazine from 2000 to 2009. There's a lovely tribute to Joe on the LA Magazine site. Joe was born in Nebraska, went to school in my part of the world outside Kansas City and then got a Masters in Chicago, came to New York, worked at Entertainment Weekly where he was managing art director, a short stint with Roger Black and then headed west. An exquisite designer his work was honored by the Type Directors Club, Communication Arts, Society of Publication Designers and work he commissioned appeared in all the illustration award shows including ours. Following his stint at LA Magazine he went solo. His talent, his support of illustrators and good nature will be sorely missed.

3x3 Student Show Ends Today

Today is the deadline for the 3x3 Student Illustration Show. Enter your work now!

Post Illustration Panel Discussion at the AIGA

How has the contemporary illustrator – who is now part artist, part designer, part art director, part storyteller, part entrepreneur – managed to remain living not in the present of illustration but in the future of post-illustration, and to consistently pull that future into the present? How are technology and The Information Age changing the illustrator's creative process, sources of influence, workflow, and rhetoric for relevance?

Panelists: 
Jennifer Daniel, Nicholas Blechman and Christoph Niemann, moderated by Maria Popova

Details and Registration

Wednesday April 18
6:30–8:30pm 

Tishman Auditorium
Parsons
 66 West 12th Street
 New York, NY 10016

6:30-7:00pm Doors open and check-in

7:00-8:30pm Discussion

8:30-9:00pm Book signing

Members $10
General Public $30

3x3 International Children's Show Call for Entries

3x3 Magazine is entering its eighth year judging the world’s best contemporary children’s books judged by some of the world’s best illustrators, designers, art directors,publishers and editors. Still one of the lowest entry and publication fees around and at 3x3 we judge not only published and unpublished children’s books but also young adults, children’s illustration, editorial, educational and programming.

Open to all art directors, editors, designers and illustrators in all countries for commissioned and unpublished work produced in 2011.

This year's categories include: Children’s Book Published, Children’s Book Unpublished, Young Adult, Book Covers, Children’s Illustration Published, Children’s Illustration Unpublished, Educational, Editorial, Children’s Programming & Animation and Miscellaneous.

We're pleased to announce this year's jury that includes Ben Norland, Executive Art Director, Walker Books, United Kingdom; Yvette Ghione, Editor, Kids Can Press, Canada; Alexandra Penfold, Editor, Paula Wiseman Books at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, USA; Lucie Papineau, Author and former Editor at Dominique et Compagnie, Canada and illustrators Ofra Amit, Israel; Bob Daly, USA; 
Binny Talib, Australia and Christiane Beauregard, Canada.

Entries must be either uploaded or postmarked no later than April 17, 2012. Complete details online.

Image by Nick Nelson, winner 3x3 Children's Show, 2011 

Illustrator Confidence Level for 2012

The results of our recent survey shows a slim margin of illustrators see a brighter 
future for 2012. Based on the respondents from the US, Canada, United 
Kingdom, Europe and Asia, 40% see themselves as better off financially 
in 2012 vs 2011, 33% say they will be about the same and 25% say they will be worse 
off.

Looking ahead 38% said they will be better off a year from now, 27% will be the same and only 6% said they would be worse off. Unfortunately nearly a third replied they were unsure about the future.

There was pretty much an even split about the number of assignments during the past twelve months, 33% said assignments had increased, 33% said they'd dropped off and 31% said they remained the same.

Asked about fees, only 9% said they had increased, 23% said they'd dropped and the majority, 65% said they remained the same.

Asked how satisfied they were with their career as an illustrator, 23% said they were very satisfied, 37% satisfied, 29% somewhat satisfied and 12% were not satisfied at all.

Asked about how excited they were about the field of illustration, 45% were very excited, 28% excited, 20% somewhat excited, 6% not at all excited.

The majority said they would be learning a new skill this year, 41% said they would be attending a conference, only 8% said they would be returning to school, 22% said they were changing their specialty and 1% said they were leaving the profession.

A majority said they would be promoting themselves more this year, only 19% said they would not.

Participants included 54% from the US, 14% from Canada and 11% the UK,
 16% from Europe and 5% from Asia. 65% were full-time illustrators, 12% 
were part-time; 53% had a bachelor’s degree, 29% had a graduate degree; 
70% were male, 30% female, 52% were between the ages of 25-44.

There are some interesting conclusions when we look at where both the number of projects and fees had increased. And the comparison of male to female career satisfaction level was surprising and disheartening. We will announce those results along with other insights in our next issue of 3x3 Magazine on newsstands in April but for now we wanted to share these top-line results.

Marshall Arisman:The Ayahuasca Cave

Sacred Gallery is proud to be presenting the latest work from the Ayahuasca Series by Marshall Arisman, internationally known painter, illustrator, educator and storyteller.

To quote Paul Theroux, “A Shaman is an enchanter. A Shaman is a priest, a doctor. He’s someone you would drink Ayahuasca with in an Equatorial rainforest and have hallucinations with. Marshall Arisman, as I perceive him, is definitely a Shaman, an enchanter.”

The exhibit runs from April 5 through April 30. Opening Reception: April 5, 7-10pm

Sacred Gallery NYC
424 Broadway 2nd Floor Rear (Between Canal and Howard)
New York
www.sacredgallerynyc.com

Viktor Koen:Metamorphabets

Metamorphabets showcases Viktor Koen’s ongoing preoccupation with integrating images, symbols, and concepts into typography. For the last fifteen years, illustrated type has been a natural extension of his work as an illustrator and artist.

Drawn to typography in his senior year of art school in Israel, he now considers graphic design to be second nature to him. From the publication of his limited-edition portfolio, Funnyfarm: The Alphabet of Mental Disorders, in 1998 to the most recent exhibition of Warphabet in Athens last November, his commitment to social criticism has found expression in his meticulously structured typeforms. The exhibit runs through April 30.

The Type Directors Club
347 West 36th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenue
Opening March 22, 6:30-8:30pm

TDC Members, Free
Non-members $20
Student Non-members $15

News: 3x3 Ad Campaign

In an effort to attract new subscribers, 3x3 is enlisting the help of some of its current subscribers. The initial testimonial campaign includes Aaron Meshon, Istvan Banyai and Taylor Callery. Each artist was asked to answer the question, “Why I subscribe to 3x3 Magazine”; text and artwork were supplied by the artist with design and production done in-house at HivelyDesigns, Brooklyn.

Founder and design director of 3x3 Magazine Charles Hively says of the campaign, “I’m always surprised by who does and doesn’t subscribe to 3x3. We’ve never made a big deal about that, but our hope is that these testimonials will attract new subscribers. Each of these artists are recognized within the industry. Some have been illustrators for a long time, others are just starting to make a name for themselves, this accurately reflects our subscriber-base along with art directors, designers, educators and students.”

Hively notes that the campaign’s next series will introduce art directors, designers and educators touting the magazine. He concludes, “I’m grateful to these artists for supporting our efforts not only with their subscriptions but also their unbiased regard for our publication.”

The ad series is scheduled to run in several publications and online.