3x3 Show Save the Date: March 27, 2020

As we head into the new year, we’re starting our preparations for the 3x3 International Illustration Show No. 17.

This year’s Show Chair is Berlin art director and illustrator Christian Gralingen. Christian is in the process of putting together our international panel of judges for the 3x3 ProShow and 3x3 Student Show. Once we have the judges in place we will be announcing this year’s panel.

A big thank you to Italian illustrator Simone Virgini for providing the image and animation for our Call for Entries.

A couple of notes about Show 17: we’ll be adding a Games category and changing the qualifications for Series entries. In the past we have always asked for three to five images in a series, however we understand that in some cases an illustrator may only be providing two images for a project so we have lowered the number to between two and five images for a series for the same project.

We will once again honor one of our student winners with the special Gary Powell Young Illustrator Award, honoring the memory of illustrator and educator Gary Powell.

Our show will be open for entries beginning January 11th, so watch your inbox for our announcements and be sure to follow us on social media for all the latest news. Early deadline is March 27, 2020, Late deadline is April 3rd.

We’re pleased to announce that Annual 16 is off the press and will be in the mail next week.

Stay tuned for more interesting news in the new year.

Wishing you all a Happy Holiday and Artful New Year.

Illustration by Simone Virgini

Little Chimp Society Illustrator Survey 2019

Just heard from Darren Di Lieto at the Little Chimp Society and Hire an Illustrator site that they’re doing their annual Illustrator’s Survey.

If you're not on Darren’s mailing list here's the pitch: ‘This survey will not just give us all an overview of the way things are, but the anonymous results will be available publicly, with the good stuff giving us all a bit of positive reinforcement and the not-so-good stuff making way for change and a better future. Together, we’re a huge community, but as individuals we are more isolated than most. By giving us just five minutes of your time to fill out this survey you’re contributing to something bigger than yourself and showing the world we are a force to be reckoned with.’

He’s had around 1,000 illustrators from all over the globe respond so far, be sure to add your voice to this important study.

Click here to participate. You can also check out the results from the 2018 survey.

Art by Ben the Illustrator

Edel Goes Back Home

This summer artist and illustrator Edel Rodriguez went back to his home country to paint the people who made him who he is today. You can follow his journey here. Photography courtesy of Rebecca Sanchez.

Yen-Chen Liu Wins Special Gary Powell Award

We’re pleased to announce the first recipient of the Gary Powell Young Illustrator Award, Yen-Chen Liu. 

Our 3x3 Student Show Winners were eligible for this special award honoring illustrator/educator Gary Powell. This year’s judging was completed by his esteemed colleagues Roderick Mills, Dr. Ed D’Souza, Dave Williams and Andrew (Foz) Foster. We’re pleased to add that Yen-Chen was the unanimous choice of the group.

The Gary Powell Award Winner will receive a distinctive embossed certificate from 3x3 and a one-year mentorship with these four leading illustrators in the United Kingdom. 

Gary Powell (1962-2017), a graduate of Central St. Martin’s School of Art & Design, established a significant international reputation as a graphic designer and award-winning illustrator working on projects that spanned editorial, design, advertising, multimedia. Noted as one of the country’s influential educators he was affiliated with a number of universities, including University of Brighton and University of Arts, London, for more than 25 years. This special award is given in his memory.

Congratulations to Yen-Chen Liu for this special honor. 

Top Winners Announced by the Associazione Autori di Immagini

I was honored to have been invited to be a part of the jury for the 2019 Annual Associazione Autori di Immagini awards. Other members of the AI 2019 jury included President, illustrator Arianna Papini, and Creative Director Vicky Gitto, Comics Artist Ratigher, Lecturer Ada Natale, Artist Rep Debbie Bibo, Graphic Designer Clara Bolduri, Author Livio Sossi and Character Designer- Story Artist Marco Zanoni.

We viewed nearly 700 images in nine categories and selected 320 illustrations for publication.

Special awards include the Toppi, Wacom Digital Award and Fine Arts Award.

Toppi Award 2019 - Marco Soma

Marco Soma is a children’s book illustrator who works for publishers in Italy and abroad and as a professor of illustration at the Cuneo Fine Arts Academy and the Illustration School for Publishing Arts in Fabula. His work has received recognition from the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Bratislava Biennial of Illustration, The Original Art Exhibit at The Society of Illustrators the Nami Concours.  In 2015 he received the Emanuele Luzzati Award and first prize for a children’s book written by Bruno Tognolini and published by Rizzoli. In 2017 he received the second prize at the Sharjah Children's Reading Festival International Competition. The Toppi Award is for his work for Kite Edizioni.

marcosoma.blogspot.com

Winner of the Wacom Digital Award 2019 - Alessandro Ferraro


Alessandro Ferraro is an illustrator and painter, a graduate of the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan he is a freelance illustrator based in Rome. As an illustrator he works with visual communication for companies, editorial and publishing.His work has been exhibited in Shanghai, Rome and New York. The Wacom award is for his work for Corsiero Editore.

alessandroferraro.it

Winner, Fine Arts Award Signed by Lyra - Sergio Olivotti

Sergio Olivotti is a graphic designer, illustrator and author of children's books and former architect and current adjunct professor at the Politecnico di Milano. He is an author and illustrator of a number of children’s books and has received recognition in numerous illustration competitions. He is the creator of the Italian Poster Biennale and his work has been selected by the Mexican, Finnish, Polish, Bolivian, Ecuadorian and Russian poster biennials. His winning image is showcasing the Unicycle as part of The Magnificent Journey exhibit.

www.olivotti.net

From top left: Marco Zanoni, Vicky Gitto, Ratigher. Second row: Debbie Bilbo, Clara Bolduri, Livio Sossi. Third row: Ada Natale, Charles Hively, Arianna Papini.

Meet Our Student Show Illustrator Judges

We like to have art directors help judge our Student Show and are very pleased ot have Creative Director and Founder of Point5, Alissa Levin filling that role this year. In addition, we have a group of illustrators with outstanding credentials, many of whom have worked with young illustrators. It hasn't been that long ago that they themselves were entering the field. We are pleased to have illustrators Lisk Feng, China, Aad Goudappel, The Netherlands, Edward Kinsella and Pablo Luebert, Chile as part of our jury.

Lisk Feng is an award-winning illustrator based who is initially from China, and now a New York-based freelance illustrator. Her editorial and advertising work includes The New Yorker, Apple, Penguin, Airbnb, the New York Times, Chanel, to name a few. Her illustrations have received  recognition from the Society of Illustrators—a Silver Medal,  Communication Arts, 3x3—a Silver Medal, and American Illustration. She has also illustrated several children`s books with Flying Eye Books, Abrams and Kids Can Press. She was awarded the Art Directors Club Young Gun award in 2017, and the 2019 Forbes 30 Under 30 award in the art category. www.liskfeng.com

Aad Goudappel is a freelance illustrator living and working from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. He studied illustration at the Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, in addition to courses at Camberwell College of Art in London and the Art Institute of Boston. His clients include EdenSpiekermann, Fortune, Golf Digest, Harvard Business Review, Herman Miller, Men’s Health,   to name a few. His work has received recognition from the Society of Illustrators—including a Silver Medal, American Illustration, 3x3 ProShow—including a Gold and Bronze Medal, Communication Arts, ADC Germany—including a Gold and Bronze Medal, Red Dot Award, Applied Arts, Society of Illustrators, LA to name a few. When not in his studio you’ll probably find him at home with his wife, two daughters and two cats. www.aadgoudappel.com

Edward Kinsella III is an award-winning Illustrator from St. Louis, Missouri. His accolades include five medals from The Society of Illustrators and three medals from Spectrum. His clients include: The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, The Criterion Collection, Reader’s Digest, The Wall Street Journal, Folio Society, Atlantic Monthly, Playboy, Penguin, Simon and Schuster, The United States Postal Service, Entertainment Weekly, Smithsonian Magazine, Wired, Texas Monthly, Scientific American, Washington Post, Scholastic and the New York Times. www.edwardkinsellaillustration.com

Pablo Luebert is a Chilean illustrator and author. He was born in 1985 in Santiago de Chile and studied philosophy and graphic design. His work is a blend of absurd spaces, a little humor, and a naive sense of wonder. His illustrations are heavily influenced by poetry of things and the simplicity of child painting. He have been working as an independent illustrator for more than 10 years, collaborating with expositions, agencies, artists, and projects from all over the world. www.luebert.com

3x3 International Illustration Awards Show No. 16
Deadline: Friday, March 22, 2019 without late fees
Final Deadline: March 29)
Show Chair: Melinda Beck

Enter Today

Meet Our 3x3 ProShow Illustrator Judges

We’ve introduced you to our art director judges, now we’re pleased to introduce you to our esteemed group of illustrators who will be judging the Professional Show.

In addition to Chad Beckerman, Sheri Gee, Dave Plunkert, Stephen Petch and Len Small we have illustrators Catarina Sobral, Portugal and Olimpia Zagnoli, Italy judging the ProShow.

Born in Portugal in 1985, Catarina Sobral is a published author and illustrator of picture books and animated films. After studying graphic design, she graduated in illustration in 2012. Her illustrations are a regular presence in editorial illustration, album covers and posters, and she has twelve books published in fifteen different languages.

Her work has been exhibited both in solo and group shows in many places around the world and recognized by the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, the Portuguese National Illustration Award, the Portuguese Authors’ Society and the White Ravens catalogue.

Olimpia Zagnoli was born in Reggio Emilia on the leap day in 1984. As a child she moved to Milan, where she currently lives and works. Olimpia studied illustration at the Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan, graduating in 2007. The year after graduation she was living in New York and began publishing her illustrations in Italian and international newspapers. Throughout the years she has collaborated with the New York Times, Taschen, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and Rolling Stone, to name a few.

She has illustrated three children’s books and created her version of  The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Her bright and ironic images have acted as a framework for advertising campaigns for Google, Apple, Barilla and Air France. She has worked with leading fashion brands, among them Fendi, Prada, Hermes and Marella (Max Mara group).

Along with her commissioned assignments, Olimpia’s personal projects meld illustration and different artistic media. She has experimented with the relationship between drawing and tri-dimensionality, crafting a series of design objects, kinetic sculptures and has directed music videos.

Her work has been showcased in numerous group shows around Italy and Europe, and in solo shows in Düsseldorf, Milan and Los Angeles (2018).

www.catarinasobral.com

www.olimpiazagnoli.com


3x3 International Illustration Awards Show No. 16
Deadline: Friday, March 22, 2019 without late fees
Final Deadline: March 29)
Show Chair: Melinda Beck

Enter Today

Meet Our Judges: Dave Plunkert, AD, GD, IL

Dave Plunkert is a man of many hats i.e. graphic designer, art director, illustrator, cartoonist, educator and design firm principal.

Plunkert's work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, GQ, The New Yorker, Time, Reader's Digest, Playboy and Rolling Stone magazines, as well as in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. He has also worked extensively with publishers and recording artists; among his credits are the covers for Natan Sharansky’s Case for Democracy and Richard Thompson’s You? me? us? Major entertainment clients have included MTV and Capitol Records. He has illustrated postage stamps for the United States Postal Service and produced over 70 posters for Theatre Project Baltimore.

In addition, Plunkert has produced illustrations for the 2000 Sundance Film Festival and for Woodstock 94. In 1995 he created the art for the Yugo Next exhibition poster at New York's Grand Central Terminal; The National Endowment of the Arts in Washington, DC described Yugo Next as “one of the greatest ever examples of public art.”

With an early interest in cartooning, he self-published comics in high school which helped land him a summer job in a small printing company. A graduate of Shepherd University with a degree in Visual Communication, he worked first for a graphic design firm art directing and doing some of the illustrations himself.

His first big break as an illustrator was with Mid-Atlantic Country magazine. Unlike his present mode of production, this was all cut-and-paste. While he had art directed illustrators at the design firm, he’ll admit he had no idea how an editorial illustator operated on a day-to-day basis. This first assignment provided some practical essentials—things like nailing down the deadline, budget and keeping travel to a minimum. Seeking work as an illustrator was mostly door-to-door in the beginning until several of his pieces made the big time in American Illustration. Then it was katy-bar-the-door for the rest of the 90s and 00s. After freelancing for a few years in 1995 he and his wife, illustrator Joyce Hesselberth, formed Spur Design in Baltimore, Maryland.

Asked if being an art director affects his illustration work, he replied “I think being an art director/designer makes me more informed of how illustration fits into the thing. By thing I mean poster, animation, newspaper, magazine, etc. Illustration is one other thing in a designer’s quiver with photography and type to solve a visual communication problem.” He added a very helpful hint, “I suspect that a sketch is way more likely to get approved by the way, if the art director shows it to the editor in context on the page, or with the cover dress as opposed to on its own.” Working as an illustrator has made him a more laid back art director, “You generally get better work from people if you give them space to do their thing and getting pleasantly surprised is the best part of working with a talented illustrator.”

His illustrations have been recognized by American Illustration, Communication Arts and The Society of Publication Designers. Dave’s work has been collected by the Library of Congress and The Cooper-Hewitt Design Museum among others, and exhibited at the Baltimore Museum of Art and The Design Museum of London. He has received gold medals from the Society of Illustrators  and was awarded Best Magazine Cover of the Year by The American Society of Magazine Editors for his August 28th, 2017 cover of The New Yorker. His work is in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, The University of California Design Museum and the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. In 2011, Plunkert was inducted into the prestigious Alliance Graphique Internationale.

He has taught graphic design and illustration at his alma mater and Maryland Institute College of Art.

www.spurdesign.com

3x3 International Illustration Awards Show No. 16
Deadline: Friday, March 22, 2019 without late fees
Final Deadline: March 29)
Show Chair: Melinda Beck

Enter Today

Meet Our Judges: Chad W. Beckerman, Creative Director

Chad’s resume is quite impressive, especially for such a young man. His most recent job was Creative Director at Abrams where he oversaw the design of picture books, novels, graphic novels and art and entertainment books.

A graduate of the illustration program at RISD, he spent his first summer after graduation looking for work as an illustrator, his former teacher, Judy Sue Goodwin-Sturges gave him a lead at Scholastic based on some comp novel jackets in his portfolio. And after two interviews he went to work with art director, Elizabeth Parisi as a design assistant at Scholastic. He followed that with a move to the HarperCollins imprint, Greenwillow Books, where he started as a designer, later to be promoted to senior designer and in 2006 he moved to Abrams starting as an art director, eventually gaining the title Creative Director. While at Abrams he oversaw the imprints Amulet Books, Abrams Books for Young Readers and ComicArts. All total he has been involved with over forty New York Times bestsellers, received a gold medal and three silver medals from the Society of Illustrators and walked away with Caldecott, Newbery and Corretta Scott King awards.

Previous to his current judging duties he's helped judged the Society of Illustrators Annual—twice, Communication Arts Illustration Annual—twice, American Illustration, SCBWI, The New York Book Show and the Society of Illustrators Original Art Show. He’s a regular speaker at the SCBWI and offers portfolio reviews to aspiring children’s book illustrators.

Asked where his passion for art comes from, he answered, “I got a copy of Adventures with Superman and Dick Tracy and couldn’t put them down. I can’t remember what prompted me to pick up a pencil and try to replicate the bold lines and tones, but it was enough to make me fall in love with the medium of comics.”

When asked if he always knew he’d end up as a creative director he says, “Absolutely not. I knew I loved narrative, I knew I loved to draw. I knew that I wanted to do something that involved both of those but I never considered children’s books." He credits his training at RISD in helping him solve visual problems and credits his time as a TA (Teaching Assistant) in preparing him to interact with illustrators and bringing out the best in people’s work. “...the whole reason I went into the art field is that I knew I like to make things to be part of something physical. At the end of a project you get to hold onto something you helped make, that is so rewarding.” And as a true designer, the first thing he does when he gets a copy fresh off the press, is to smell the pages. The smell of ink is intoxicating.

The hardest part of the job is doing something everyone is going to like but doing what he likes first and then making everyone else like it. “You want to be happy with what you make at the end of the day, no matter how small.”

One of his great joys is working with illustrators and he's enjoyed working with many of the who’s-who in illustration. And looks forward to continuing that journey.

www.chadwbeckerman.com

3x3 International Illustration Awards Show No. 16
Deadline: March 22, 2019 (late deadline is March 29)
Show Chair: Melinda Beck

Enter Today

Meet Our Judges: Len Small, AD

Len Small is the art director for Columbia Magazine. He was the founding art director at Nautilus magazine and previously was the art director at Tablet Magazine, a Jewish news website. In 2018 he served as co-president of ICON10: The Illustration Conference.

He recently received the prestigious 2019 Richard Gangel Award from the Society of Illustrators. Established in 2005, the Richard Gangel Art Director Award honors art directors currently working in the field who have supported and advanced the art of illustration. This award is named in honor of Richard Gangel (1918–2002), the influential art director at Sports Illustrated from 1960 to 1981.

Small earned his his BFA in Fine Arts from Washington University in St Louis and MFA in Design from the School of Visual Arts.

He grew up in Moline, Illinois, his mother is a librarian and his father,  a newspaper man, so there was always plenty of reading material around, and “we were encouraged and rewarded for enjoying books”. 

Small’s first break came in 1997 by cold-calling the art director of Matador Records, Mark Ohe, who gave him a job. “I spent my first decade in design on the agency and commercial side, with pockets of freelancing until I decided that I wanted to be part of the making of stories, not just building a better website to sell a product”.

Small originally planned to be an illustrator, but quickly found that he was more interested in what was happening on the other side of the conversation. His approach to editorial illustration: “will it advance the article’s premise without being too literal?” As a big advocate for illustration he realizes that illustrations can bring the connection and wonder that you can’t always find in photography.

His work has been recognized by Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Society of Publication Designers, The Webbys, ASME, Society for News Design, and Communication Arts.

www.lensmallisanartdirector.com

3x3 International Illustration Awards Show No. 16
Deadline: March 22, 2019 (late deadline is March 29)
Show Chair: Melinda Beck

Enter Today

Meet Our Judges: Alissa Levin, CD

Alissa Levin is founder and creative director of Point Five, a New York City-based design studio. Alissa is from Cleveland, Ohio and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). She began her career in Los Angeles at the Santa Monica Museum of Art. In 1997, Alissa moved to New York to launch Point Five.

For twenty-one years, Levin has art directed award-winning independent and academic publications for both print and screen, with a focus on politics, religion, and science.

One of the studio’s first clients was Lingua Franca, a magazine that took a witty, irreverent approach to covering the world of ideas. That project brought into focus the core mission of Point Five: To create engaging and provocative design that puts idea-driven content at the center. The studio went on to work with a variety of other magazines, non-profits, academic institutions and entrepreneurs, who shared Point Five’s passion for inspiring ideas and smart design.

Clients include Columbia Journalism Review, The Paris Review, Harvard Divinity School, Nautilus, and The Rockefeller University to name a few.


The studio’s work has been recognized by American Illustration, The American Society of Magazine Editors, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, Folio Magazine, Graphic Design USA, Print Magazine, The Society of Publication Designers, Society of News Design, Society of Illustrators, The Webby Awards and W3 Awards.

www.point5.com

3x3 International Illustration Awards Show No. 16
Deadline: March 22, 2019 (late deadline is March 29)
Show Chair: Melinda Beck


Enter Today

Meet Our Judges: Sheri Gee, AD

Sheri Gee is an award-winning Art Director with over twenty years’ experience in book publishing and design.

Graduating from The Kent Institute of Art and Design Maidstone (now University for the Creative Arts) with a degree in Illustration, Sheri shortly afterwards became Production Assistant with The Folio Society, illustrating and painting in her spare time.

The Folio Society, based in London, is renowned for publishing carefully crafted editions of the world’s finest literature. During the course of her 20 years with the company, Sheri has learned about all aspects of fine book production and was made Art Director in 2010.

She has had essays published in books on Illustration, juried  national and international illustration competitions and spoken internationally about illustration. She has won numerous awards for her art direction.

In her spare time one of her greatest joys in life comes from painting people, whether in a portrait or a more scenic piece. Click on her link below to see her work.

In 2018 she was selected as one of 21 finalists in the Holly Bush Emerging Woman Painter Prize and also had a piece selected for the Society of Women Artists 157th Annual Exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London. She has had over thirty group and solo exhibits.

www.foliosociety.com
www.sherigee.com

3x3 International Illustration Awards Show No. 16
Deadline: March 22, 2019 (late deadline is March 29)
Show Chair: Melinda Beck

Enter Today

Meet Our Judges: Stephen Petch, AD

Stephen Petch is an award-winning art director and graphic design based in London.

He has extensive experience within the editorial and publishing industries working for publications such as i-D, Time Out, The Independent, The Times (of London), The Guardian, Grazia, Creative Review and most recently The Economist.

His work has gained him recognition and awards including a Silver Medal and Award of Excellence (Best Overall Design) from the Society of News Design Awards; a three-time winner with Award of Excellence from the European Newspaper Awards and the Winner for Best Editorial Redesign from Design Week Awards.

Hear how Stephen helped in the recent re-design of The Economist. Part of the redesign includes using Illustrator Noma Barr for covers and some of the inside illustrations as well.

www.stephenpetch.co.uk

3x3 International Illustration Awards Show No. 16
Deadline: March 22, 2019 (late deadline is March 29)
Show Chair: Melinda Beck

Enter Today

3x3 Directory 2019 Goes to Press

We’re pleased to announce this year’s Directory is off to the printer and will be going out to art directors in just a few weeks.

Thank you to all the illustrators who participated in this year’s eleventh edition, we’re so pleased with the images presented inside.

A lot of work goes in to putting out the Directory each year, a special thanks to art director Sarah Munt and coordinator Skye Bolluyt.

Free copies are available to art directors, art buyers and art producers in the States, our pdf version is available worldwide. And the online gallery will be up just as soon as the Directory is off the press.

We'll be starting the next edition in a couple of months, if you’re interested in participating in the 2020 edition just shoot us an email with a link to your site.

Cover illustration - Jon Krause

3x3 International Illustration Show Jury

Thanks to Show Chair, Melinda Beck we have our final list of judge’s for this year’s sixteenth annual awards show. Over the next several weeks we’ll be introducing each judge to you but in the meantime here’s who we have:

Stephen Petch, Art Director, The Economist, United Kingdom
Sheri Gee, Art Director, Folio Society, United Kingdom
Len Small, Art Director, Columbia Magazine
Chad Beckerman, Freelance Art Director
David Plunkert, Graphic Designer, Spur Design
Alissa Levin, Creative Director/Founder, Point5
Catarina Sobral, Illustrator, Portugal
Olimpia Zagnoli, Illustrator, Italy
Lisk Feng, Illustrator, China
Aad Goudappel, Illustrator, The Netherlands
Edward Kinsella, Illustrator
Pablo Luebert, Illustrator. Chile

3x3 International Illustration Show No 16 - Open
Deadline: March 22, 2019

Ready to Enter

Pictured above (first row) Aad Goudappel, Alissa Levin, Catarina Sobral, Chad Beckerman (second row) David Plunkert, Edward Kinsella, Len Small, Lisk Feng (third row) Olimpia Zagnoli, Pablo Leubert, Sheri Gee, Stephen Petch.