HOW International Design Awards: 4 Years in a Row

What a wonderful way to start off the new year!  We just received notice that 3x3 has been accepted into the HOW International Design Annual. And not just one winner, but three winners: Issue 14, 15 and 16. Also among the winners was a series of issues of our sister publication, Creative Quarterly—for the second year in a row!

This is the fourth year that 3x3 has been honored by HOW and what makes it especially gratifying that our series of magazines were honored. As a judge I know how rare that is, too many times two of the three entries are great and the third is less so, so these judges saw strength in all issues. And to be continually honored each year is an indication that we must be doing something right.

What's also gratifying is that each year a new set of judges are being exposed to the best illustrators around— as they thumb through the entries they had to be impressed by the quality and diversity of the work they were seeing. These are not only design awards for us, these are big announcements that illustration is alive and well and thriving. Since in each of publications illustration is king—not design, the very fact that judges four years in a row have honored us speaks well of the illustration industry.

We’re only as good as the work we present. Our cover artists Paul Blow—Issue 15, Q. Cassetti—Issue 16 and Alessandro Gottardo, aka Shout—Issue 17 certainly caught the attention of the judges as they sifted through the thousands of entries and provided a welcome greeting to what was inside. The judges had to be impressed with our publications cover-to-cover for them to receive this honor, so a great big thank you to these illustrators for making us look good.

Look for the issue on newsstands in March.