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.