3x3 Summer Self-Promotion Workshop July 26

We’re once again offering a one-day self-promotion workshop. This new and improved workshop is broken into two sessions. Session One is devoted to the strategy of self-promotion, what and how we promote. Session Two is devoted to the tactics, where and when to promote.  We’ll also review your current materials and for those who take both sessions, we’ll give you a project for a new promotion piece and critique the results. A full explanation of what is covered in each session can be found on our registration page.

Our workshop is different than others as it comes from an art directors point-of-view. Using interactive exercises, we walk you through each step to a clearer understanding of what you should be communicating. The seating is limited so you receive more individual attention. And it’s affordable, $125 for each session or $210 if you take both.

So if you’re not getting the response you want when sending out postcards or email blasts this workshop can help. Research shows 80% of art buyers and art directors continue to respond to these traditional methods when hiring new illustrators.

Sign-up early as seating is limited. Registration closes on July 19.

Here are a few remarks from previous workshops:

“I thought the workshop was very informative, in regarding about the focus on ‘Self.’ I enjoyed learning about ourselves and each others. The discussion about different colors were very informative and fun. The printed email list was of great help, it was clear and direct, put us in the shoes of art directors.”

“I feel as though the workshop was something that was pivotal in my becoming an established illustrator or graphic designer. I don't intend to go back to school and doubt I would have learned this information from any other way.”

“The workshop had a lot of information and showed me new ways to think about marketing.”

“Charles is easygoing, well spoken, and clearly an expert in his field. He makes the information accessible and the workshop participatory.”

“The workshop helped to bring into a focus a lot of things that had been vague about how I think about my work, and how to select who to market myself to. It also was very helpful in showing ways of doing that.”

“The workshop provided me with some new ways of looking at myself as an artist, forcing me to ‘define’ my work in simple terms.This was tough, but I think continuing to refine my definition will end up being incredibly valuable. I am looking forward to approaching clients with this new perspective in mind.”

“The afternoon workshops was my favorite part of the workshop. There was more specific examples and guidelines that was relevant for me and I appreciated how specific he got with what to send to where and how.”

“The workshop was supremely informative. I only wish I had all of this information years ago. The workshop would be a value at twice the price.”

For more details or to purchase tickets through our Eventbrite page, click the button below.

3x3 Summer Workshop - Self-Promotion
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Brooklyn, NY

Session One: 9-12pm
Session Two: 1-4pm

Dinner with Franziska Walther

We’re always happy when a visiting illustrator accepts our invitation for lunch or dinner. This time it’s Hamburg-based illustrator/designer Franziska Walther.

We had last seen Franziska when she flew over for a three-day visit and a portfolio review. She has been a past winner in our picture book shows so it was nice to put a face with the work.

Architect-trained Franziska decided early on that she preferred the design portion of a project rather than the nuts-and-bolts of building a building. Asked why she choose that route we found out that both her parents are architects in Germany, that an the fact that she grew up in Weimar close to the Bauhaus it was only natural that design and art would be in her future.

Due to the divided Germany she, unlike other young people in her country, didn’t learn English in school. As she puts it, “I was in the middle I didn’t learn Russian or English, only French,” to solve that issue she migrated to New Zealand for a three-month stay to learn English followed by a train trip from Malaysia to Shanghai where she landed a job at an architectural design firm. It was there that she decided to change careers and after a year’s stay she took the Trans-Mongolian Railway to connect with the Trans-Siberian Railroad back to Europe and life as a graphic designer and illustrator.

Splitting her time between a lovely home on the outskirts of Hamburg and the equally peaceful Weimar she chooses to spend her time in quiet places broken up by hectic trips abroad. She is a new board member of the German illustration organization, Ilustratoren Organisation E.V. and will represent that group at the European Illustrators Forum later this year. Future plans include trips to Oslo, Vienna and next year back to Bologna and yes, a trip back to New York. Once back in Hamburg she’ll retreat to her studio alongside her two cats, Jpeg and Tiff, energized by her experience in the big-city.

Save the Date: 2014 Nuts & Bolts Conference

We’re happy to announce that we’ve penned in the dates for this year’s Nuts & Bolts Conference.

Day One will be a workshop open to all illustrators at all levels and Day Two is our series of lectures from leading illustrators and art directors directed towards young illustrators who are about to graduate, have just graduated or have been in the field for a couple years.

Be sure you’re on our mailing list to receive future announcements, just go to tiny.cc/NutsBolts to be added.

And be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Nuts & Bolts Conference 
October 17 & 18, 2014

Meet the Judges: Andy Potts

The 3x3 Student Show is out for judging so it’s time to catch up with our illustrator judges.

Andy Potts is a London based illustrator and animator originally from Kingswinford in the UK. He graduated with a BA Honors degree in illustration from Portsmouth University and his career has encompassed image-making, graphic design, animation and art direction including seven years as Lead Designer at Abbey Road Studios.

Since going freelance he has been commissioned by a wide variety of clients in advertising, publishing and design and his eye-catching images have appeared in many international newspapers and magazines. 

What Andy will be looking for:

I’ll be looking for original and innovative work that fulfills a creative brief really well in ways I wouldn’t have considered. Ideally I want to be knocked for six by an illustration and wish I’d done it myself.

Meet the Judges: Doug Panton

The 3x3 Student Show is out for judging, time to catch up with our illustrator judges.

Doug Panton is an illustrator and educator based in Toronto. Chair of the First Program area for the past five years he also teaches in the illustration faculty at OCAD University.

Over the years he has worked with clients from all around the world, and his illustrations have received recognition from publications such as 3x3, Creative Quarterly, American Illustration, Society of Illustrators, Los Angeles and Applied Arts.

Some of Doug’s clients include: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Walrus Magazine, Reader’s Digest and Oxford University Press.

What Doug will be looking for:

The work of potential illustrators requires a degree of passion, sensitivity and, above all, a hungry mind: being open to new experiences, nonconformist, and curious.

These personality characteristics are stronger determinants of a long-lasting creative superstar. As an educator, I’m always looking for a successful idea that can make a difference in the final analysis. It can win acclaim or, better still, create a final product that is relatable, balanced and beautiful to those who behold it.

Bob Gill: Workshop with a Legend

Art Directors Club Hall of Fame Laureate and designer/illustrator extraordinaire Bob Gill is looking for six intrepid souls to spend the week of June 9–13, 2014 from 9am–5pm in his New York studio for a very intensive workshop, where we will explore his process of changing ordinary design and advertising problems into exciting, original solutions.

The workshop is free. The coffee and bagels are $850. A deposit of $425 will secure a place.

Need more info? Give Bob a call at 212-460-0950.

Meet the Judges: Mark Smith

The 3x3 Professional Show is out for judging, time to catchup with our illustrator judges.

Working out of Exeter in the southwest of England, Mark’s illustrations have been featured in newspapers, magazines, books and in advertising campaigns around the world.

His work has also won international recognition from the likes of the New York Society of Illustrators, Los Angeles Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, 3x3 Magazine, the V&A illustration awards, Communication Arts, the Society of Publication Designers and more.

What Mark will be looking for

I’ll be looking for a smart concept that delivers more than just a reflection of the text, and it will do this concisely, and with clarity and punch. And of course it will have to be rendered immaculately to stand out from what is sure to be extremely stiff competition.

Judges are not permitted to vote on their own entries. Results of the judging process will be announced in early June.

Meet the Judges: Klaas Verplancke

The 3x3 Professional Show is out for judging, time to catchup with our illustrator judges.

Klaas Verplancke has been a full-time illustrator since 1990. At first glance, his drawings and paintings differ a great deal in appearance and execution. But they always display the qualities that characterize him as an illustrator and designer: a sense of humor that can vary from mild to sardonic, a poetic imagination, a preference for illustrating abstract concepts and universal emotions—and a sideways, surrealistic view of reality. He has been honored with a whole series of national and international awards, nominations and selections, culminating in winning the Bologna Ragazzi Award, a bronze medal in the 3x3 Picture Book Show and a selection for the Original Art Show by the Society of Illustrators. www.klaas.be

What Klaas will be looking for

Emotions created by the visual rhetoric of an image are undoubtedly prior to everything else in the process of selection. We embrace our taste, our preferences, our ambitions, our heroes who achieve to starring level that we strive for every day. But illustration is also the art of translating ideas, meanings, opinions and thoughts into a unique visual identity. And seeing is, besides feeling, also a process of recognizing and understanding. Therefore, professional judging needs a mental approach as well, by consciously stepping outside your spontaneous self and questioning your own choices and methods.

The eye opening answers will undoubtedly lead to haunting images of what we see with closed eyes: dazzling shots that make us wonder what happened before and what will happen subsequently, newborn icons that will become history and can stand alone outside the context for which they were originally made, ingenious balance acts on the fine line between clarity and mystery, between simplicity and complexity, between vulnerability and camouflaging mannerism, between academic tradition and groundbreaking innovation.

One thing is for sure: there is no right or wrong in art, only right respect for every piece of art, the most human creation ever.

Judges are not permitted to vote on their own entries. Results of the judging process will be announced in early June.

Serge Bloch Exhibit, New York, June 5-July 4

Opening reception, Thursday, June 5th from 6 to 9pm.
Michele Mariaud Gallery
153 Lafayette Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10013