Category Archives: Illustration Industry

Soo Kyung Kim in “100 Postcards”

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Illustration Senior Soo Kyung Kim is part of a huge exhibition called “100 Postcards from World New Creators”.  Through September 30th, all the postcards will be on view at Sunshine Studio in Tokyo.  Here is Soo’s contribution:

You can also see Soo’s image here, along with almost all the other postcards received.  So if you can’t make it to Japan, at least you can still experience some of the fantastic illustrations included in the exhibition.

Bonus: Soo was interviewed for Graphic Magazine, an art publication put out in Korea.  An image from the article is below, but you can check the rest out at Soo’s blog.

Congratulations, Soo!

After the Fact: ICON5 & Xerox project

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As a sponsor of ICON5, held July 2 – 5 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, Xerox Corporation worked in partnership with ICON5 to produce a deck of cards as a commemorative gift for the more than 400 illustrators who attended. ICON5 organizers arranged for top students from three New York design schools – the Fashion Institute of Technology, Parsons The New School for Design and the School of Visual Arts – and the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, to contribute original illustrations and designs by 52 students.

“As illustrators, we don’t go to an office every day, so ICON5 is a great opportunity to be around people who do what we do, to talk about trends and issues and to get re-inspired,” said Whitney Sherman, president of ICON5 and chair of the Illustration Department, Maryland Institute College of Art. “It’s important for ICON5 to use projects like the deck of cards to engage our future attendees. And for the students, it’s a great opportunity to get exposure to a few hundred of the world’s top illustrators, designers and others who can influence their careers.”

She added: “From an academic perspective, the project fits well with contemporary educational models of  blending creativity and professional development. It gave students creative freedom and realistic deadlines.”

To develop the cards, each school was assigned one suit – clubs (FIT), diamonds (MICA), hearts (Parsons) and spades (SVA) – and the school’s chairpersons or deans overseeing illustration programs selected 13 students to provide card designs.

Congratulations and thanks to all of the students involved in this unique project: Cat Lauigan, Arlette Espaillat, Emmanuel Tavares, Nick Gannon, Lindsay Podd, Jesse Tise, WoonHye Bae, Christine Young, Sae-am Lee, Jasmine Wigandt, Roxanna Vizcarra, Toby Liebowitz, and Lindsey Balbierz.

[photo of Jasmine Wigandt with her contribution to the deck]

Poketo Wallet Jam is on!

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The Poketo Wallet Jam is this Sunday, September 28th! The Illustration department is hosting the event in rooms 802 and 803 at 2 West 13th Street.

Poketo is partnering with Parsons for this special competition. It’ll culminate during Illustration week in NYC. Students are invited to attend the Jam to create artwork for submission to Poketo. There’ll be a judging happening on Monday, September 29th and the top five pieces will be produced as a limited edition line of wallets.

Attendance at the Jam is mandatory for competition participation. It starts at 11 and ends at 5. The rooms will be stocked with supplies, cookies, pizza and music so don’t miss it!  We’ll send out more emails this week to remind y’all about it. In the meantime, email Noël if you have any questions!

Keren Richter works with Vans

Illustration Alumni, Illustration Industry, News, , , , ,

From the Illustration Inbox, Keren Richter (Illustration ’03) has given us some fantastic news.  She recently worked with Vans to create the fabulous sneakers you see above.  You can grab your pair here.  Keren also created a tote bag based off the same illustration, which you can sneak a peek at here.

Bonus: Keren and her sister Julie created this rad video which produced the painting used for both shoes and tote.  Check it out:

[wpvideo y3nHeyTS]

If you want to keep up with her many projects and interests, make sure to check out Keren’s blog.

Congrats, Keren!

Political illustration show at Society of Illustrators

Exhibitions, Illustration Industry, , , , , ,

The Museum of American Illustration at the Society of Illustrators presents “Politics ‘08.”  On view through October 4, 2008, the exhibition will showcase the original art from today’s top illustrators surrounding this year’s primaries and general elections. With recent coverage of the debates, a growing awareness in politics has piqued the media’s interest in political illustration and caricature once again, creating an array of important and controversial images. Through magazine websites and artist’s blogs, illustration is bringing Americans together online to discuss the politics of the day, stressing the importance to vote in the upcoming elections. Art from magazines and newspapers of all political affiliations will be represented in this exhibit, allowing artists to express their views on the 2008 election in print and in a variety of new media.

Curated by former Art Director at TIME Magazine, Edel Rodriguez, the exhibition features the work of political illustrators including Steve Brodner, Philip Burke, Tim O’Brien, Hanoch Piven, Stephen Kroninger, Luba Lukova and Barry Blitt. Original art used for print by Rolling Stone, The New York Times, TIME Magazine, The New York Observer and the controversial New Yorker cover of Barack and Michelle Obama will be on display along with the printed publications.

In an interview with the Nation, illustrator Steve Brodner explains the importance of political illustration: “They are an important part of the mix. They are a way to encapsulate ideas, to make them clear and find what is compelling. We look for meanings, for passions, for true things. If you can have all these factors working simultaneously, you are a master.”

Politics ’08
On view through October 4th, 2008
Society of Illustrators
128 East 63rd Street
New York, NY 10065
212.838.2560

Quick Hit: Workshop for Classical Representation

Education, Illustration Industry

INTENSIVE PROFESSIONAL PROGRAM IN CLASSICAL REPRESENTATION
Weeklong Intensive, Friday September 19 – Saturday, September 27, 2008
$1,750 (Scholarships Available)

Instructors:  Cindy Porcu, Architectural Renderer; Christine Franck, Architect and ICA&CA Board Member;  Michael Grimaldi, Fine Artist and Drawing Atelier Head, Art Students League; Stephen Harby, Architect and Watercolorist; Andre Junget, Architectural Render; John Woodrow Kelley, Architect and Fine Artist;  Edward Schmidt, Fine Artist and Faculty Head of Drawing, New York Academy of Art; Andy Taylor, AIA, Architect; Geoffrey Taylor, PhD, Architectural Historian, Metropolitan Museum of Art ; Andrew Zega and Bernrd H. Dams, Architects, Authors, Watercolorists and Historians;

The intensive professional program supports ICA&CA’s core curriculum and aims to provide a working knowledge of various drawing and rendering practices, materials and techniques applicable to the graphic representation of classical architectural form.  The program’s faculty comprises architects, designers, professional renders and fine artists having noted national and international careers based upon their drawing, design and allied fine studio practices.

Course segments include: Contour Rendering, Measured Drawing, Analytique, On Site Watercolor Rendering, and a private viewing of the Metropolitan Museum’s architectural drawing collection.  Guest presenters include the famed watercolorist and authors Zega and Dams and Alma Shapiro Prize recipient Michael Grimaldi.

Lastly, to encourage drawing as a traditional skill within the classical tradition and in recognition of excellence in practice the program will culminate with a juried cash prize in the amount of $2,500 funded by Zivkovic Associates Architects to be awarded for work completed during the program.

For detailed course information and class schedule please visit this site. For scholarship information or to register please contact Leah Aron, Education Programs Coordinator or call (212) 730 -9646 ext 101.

JibJab’s success continues!

General Info, Illustration Alumni, Illustration Industry, , , , , ,

Illustration Alum Evan Spiridellis passed along this exciting news about the success of JibJab, a site he co-created with his brother, Gregg.

Four years ago we launched ‘This Land’ which, after almost 5 years of hard work, brought us overnight recognition.  Last night we had the honor of world premiering our 2008 election parody on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno!  That was our 12th premiere on the show in the past 4 years and after the west coast airing of the show the video went live on our newly remodeled website.  We have been working hard for the past 9 months redesigning and rebuilding JibJab.com to better reflect who we are as a studio and a company and I couldn’t be happier with the results.

A final bit of news is that the new video contains a Starring You!® component which enables you to cast yourself, friend or family member in the grand finale.  Since we launched Starring You! less than a year ago our audience has created over 12 MILLION heads (which is larger than the population of our home state, New Jersey!)

So, if you have a few minutes please swing by http://jibjab.com and, if you like what we’ve created, share it with your friends.  Or better yet put your friends IN it and then share it!

Bonus:  Here’s a short video about JibJab’s creation.

[vodpod id=ExternalVideo.646157&w=425&h=350&fv=]

Way to go Evan and Gregg–keep up the exciting work!

Blab!: A Retrospective

Events, Exhibitions, Illustration Faculty, Illustration Industry, Publications, , ,

“BLAB!: A Retrospective” opened August 1, 2008 at the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art on the campus of Kansas State University. The exhibition will be on view through November 2, 2008. It is the first American museum exhibition devoted to the work of BLAB!, Monte Beauchamp’s periodic anthology of sequential and comic art, illustration, painting, and printmaking. The exhibition, which focuses on BLAB! #8-18 (1995-2007), features the work of forty-six artists and includes 150 works of art from thirty-nine collections.

This exhibition features an eclectic gathering of stylistically varied work by alternative comics artists, illustrators, graphic designers, printmakers, and painters from BLAB!, the annual anthology of visual art produced by Chicago-based graphic designer and art director Monte Beauchamp.

BLAB! began in 1986 as a self-published fanzine (fan-produced magazine) devoted to MAD magazine and other EC Comics publications. Today it is a significant outlet for a wide variety of contemporary artists. BLAB!‘s influence has cut a broad swath across contemporary visual culture. It has helped launch many artists’ careers. It has introduced American audiences to important contemporary European graphic and comics artists. And, it has contributed meaningfully to the blurring of boundaries between alternative graphics and mainstream illustration. All of the work in this exhibition has been featured in BLAB!.

Artists in exhibition:

Michael Bartalos, Gary Baseman, Richard Beards, Tim Biskup, Stéphane Blanquet, Calef Brown, Greg Clarke, The Clayton Brothers, Sue Coe, Don Colley, Brian Cronin, Nicolas Debon, Douglas Fraser, Drew Friedman, Geoffrey Grahn, Steven Guarnaccia (Illustration Department Chair), Ryan Heshka, Peter Hoey, Tom Huck, Teresa James, Jeffrey Kamberos, Nora Krug (Illustration Department Faculty), Peter Kuper, Mark Landman, Laura Levine, MATS!?, Walter Minus, Christian Northeast, John Pound, Archer Prewitt, CJ Pyle, Helge Reumann, Xavier Robel, Spain, Jonathon Rosen, Marc Rosenthal, Sergio Ruzzier (Illustration Department Faculty), David Sandlin, Bob Staake, Fred Stonehouse, Mark Todd, Chris Ware, and Esther Pearl Watson.

The accompanying 128-page, full-color catalogue was designed by Monte Beauchamp and contains contributions by David A. Beronä, Mark Frauenfelder, Matt Dukes Jordan, and Bill North.

BLAB! cover

Related Events

Sept. 18 – Gallery talk by Bill North, senior curator, Beach Museum of Art, 5:30 p.m.

Sept. 25 – Lecture, “From Highbrow Comics to Lowbrow Art: The Shifting Contexts of the Comics Art Object” by Bart Beaty, noted comics scholar and associate professor of communications studies, Faculty of Communication and Culture, University of Calgary, 5:30 p.m.

Oct. 23 – Artist talks by Steven Guarnaccia and Nora Krug, associate professors, illustration department, Parsons: The New School for Design, 5:30 p.m.

You can see installation views on Flickr and grab your own Blab! here.

Blab!: A Retrospective
August 1st-November 2nd, 2008
Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art
Kansas State University
701 Beach Lane (14th & Anderson Ave.)
Manhattan, KS 66506
785-532-7718

Kim Deitch Retrospective at MoCCA

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MoCCA will be hosting a fantastic artistic survey of legendary comic artist Kim Deitch.  Even better, the exhibition is curated by Parsons Illustration faculty Bill Kartalopoulos.  Here’s the official press release:

Kim Deitch: A Retrospective will display original comics pages and other work covering the artist’s entire career to date, beginning with full-page comic strips drawn for the East Village Other in the sixties up to recent graphic novels including The Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Alias the Cat, Shadowland, and Deitch’s Pictorama. The exhibit will also feature rarely seen work including elaborate preparatory drawings, hand-colored originals, animation cel set-ups and lithographs.

Kim Deitch was born in Los Angeles in 1944, the eldest son of Oscar-wining animator Gene Deitch (Tom Terrific, Munro). Deitch studied at the Pratt Institute, traveled with the Norwegian Merchant Marines and worked at a mental institution before joining the burgeoning underground press in 1967. As an early contributor to the East Village Other and the editor of Gothic Blimp Works, Kim Deitch was a charter member of the underground comix scene that exploded with the 1968 publication of Robert Crumb’s Zap #1. Forty years later, he stands alongside Crumb, Bill Griffith, Aline Kominsky-Crumb, and Art Spiegelman as one the most notable and prolific artists to emerge from that milieu. In addition to his comic books and graphic novels, Deitch’s work has appeared in venues including RAW, Weirdo, Arcade, Details, the L.A. Weekly, McSweeney’s, Nickelodeon Magazine, and The New Yorker.

“Kim Deitch’s career spans the entire post-war history of avant-garde comics, from the underground to the literary mainstream,” said exhibit curator Bill Kartalopoulos. “Deitch brilliantly weaves vast intergenerational narratives that enfold a deep history of American popular entertainment. Distinctions between fiction and reality blur in his meta-fictional world just as real madness bleeds into the visions and schemes of the artists, entertainers, and hustlers who populate his stories. The result is a rich narrative tapestry as compelling and as breathtaking as Deitch’s densely layered, tightly woven, and intricately detailed black and white comics pages.”

Deitch’s body of work stretches outward from comics to embrace a spectrum of visual-narrative modes, including extra-textual single images and illustrated prose modeled after Victorian illustrated fiction. His most recent book is Deitch’s Pictorama, a collection of illustrated fiction produced in collaboration with brothers Seth and Simon Deitch. The exhibit includes several examples of Deitch’s career-long experimentation with text/image modes.

MoCCA will publish an original poster and 1″ button featuring the “Sunshine Girl” character who stars both in Deitch’s earliest and most recent work. The Museum will also host a series of talks and events related to the exhibit.

• Exhibition dates: September 9 – December 5, 2008
• Opening Reception: September 12, 2008, 6 – 9 pm (free & open to the public).

MoCCA
594 Broadway, Suite 401, between Houston and Prince
New York, NY 10012