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ICON6 Speakers, Workshop, Roundtable and Tour Hosts
Kathryn Adams studied art at OCA (now OCAD) before moving to the illustration program at Sheridan College to complete her studies. She then spent a year studying calligraphy in England before returning to Canada in 1986 to begin her freelance career. Since then Kathryn has continued freelance illustration work the present time.As a freelancer Kathryn has been a prolific and award-winning illustrator. She has worked for clients in the United States , Canada and Europe . Because of the versatility of her illustration style, she has worked on diverse projects including advertising, books, magazines, packaging, murals and logos.Kathryn began teaching at Sheridan College in 2001, quickly specializing in teaching business practices. She began teaching a similar course at OCAD in 2005. In addition to teaching business to illustrators, Kathryn also teaches an entrepreneurs course at OCAD and has taught illustration at both schools as well.
Kathy Altieri
Kathy Altieri recently wrapped her duties as production designer on DreamWorks Animation’s upcoming 2010 release, “How to Train Your Dragon,” based on the children’s book by Cressida Cowell. Prior to “How to Train Your Dragon,” Altieri was Production Designer on “Over the Hedge” and “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.” When arriving at DreamWorks Animation in 1994, Altieri worked as an Art Director on “The Prince of Egypt.” She was the first artist hired when DreamWorks was formed.
Before joining DreamWorks, Altieri worked at Disney Feature Animation as a background supervisor on “Aladdin,” the featurette “The Prince and the Pauper,” and the Roger Rabbit short “Tummy Trouble.” She was also a background painter for such animated successes as “The Lion King,” “The Little Mermaid,” “The Hunchback of Notre Dame,” and another Roger Rabbit short, “Roller Coaster Rabbit”. It was this opportunity at Disney, working directly with Jeffrey Katzenberg that made her talent and work ethic known.
Kathy attended the University of California at Los Angeles as an Art Major and also studied Illustration at Pasadena’s Art Center for three years. She frequently teaches and speaks at conferences, festivals and at various schools about art, animation and hard work.
Peter Arkle
Peter Arkle lives in New York City, where he’s a freelance illustrator of books, magazines, and ads. He occasionally publishes a newspaper, Peter Arkle News, containing stories of his everyday life which he’s been publishing since 1993. He grew up in Scotland and studied illustration in London. He moved to New York in 1995. Words and humor are an important part of his work.
Born in Hungary, Istvan Banyai quickly made his mark in the United States after his arrival in 1981, with his striking and innovative illustrations appearing in such publications as Atlantic Monthly, Time,The New Yorker, Playboy, and Rolling Stone. Istvan has crafted cover art for Verve, Sony, and Capital Records, and has created an animated short film for Nickelodeon, MTV Europe, and Jean Michel Jarre. His unique vision found ample room to bloom in children's book ZOOM. This wordless journey through receding perspectives was hailed as one of the best children's books of the year by the New York Times and Publisher's Weekly, and won a National Children's Choice Award based on the judgements of kids themselves. Zoom was suscceeded by Re-ZOOM amd R.E.M.: Rapid Eye Movement, which takes one through a dreamscape of changing shapes and sublte connections to an outer world. Currently, his work will be featured on the November issue of American Illustration. Istvan Banyai lives in New York with his wife and son.
Jesus Barraza is an activist printmaker based in San Leandro, California. Using bold colors and high contrast images, his prints reflect both his local and global community and their resistance in a struggle to create a new world.
Barraza has worked closely with numerous community organizations to create prints that visualize struggles for immigration rights, housing, education, and international solidarity. In 1998 Barraza was a co-founder of ten12, a collective of digital artists. He has also worked as Graphic Designer for the Mission Cultural Center/Mission Grafica, where Calixto Robles, Juan R. Fuentes and Michael Roman mentored Barraza in various screen printing methods. In 2003, he co-founded the Taller Tupac Amaru printing studio to foster resurgence in the screen printing medium, where completed over 100 prints. Additionally he is a partner at Tumis Inc., a bilingual design studio helping to integrate art with emerging technologies
Printmaking has allowed Barraza to produce relevant images that can be put back into the hands of his community and spread throughout the world. He believes that through this work and the work of Dignidad Rebelde, he is playing a role in keeping the history of graphic art activism alive. He proudly continues the tradition of graphic art in the spirit of Jose Gaudalupe Posada, OSPAAAL and Juan R. Fuentes, whose artwork has always been in solidarity with oppressed people of the world. Barraza prides himself on his continued connection to his community and on his availability as an activist artist who can be relied on for help at any time.
Barraza has exhibited at Galeria de la Raza (San Francisco), Museo del Barrio (New York); de Young Museum (San Francisco); Mexican Fine Arts Center (Chicago); Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco); and internationally at the House of Love & Dissent (Rome), Parco Museum (Tokyo), and Mexico. He was a 2005 artist-in-residence with Juan R. Fuentes at San Francisco’s prestigious de Young Museum, and is a recipient of the “Art is a Hammer” award in 2005 from the Center for the Study of Political Graphics.
Melinda Beck is an illustrator, graphic designer and animator who works out of her studio in Brooklyn, New York. She received a BFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1989. Her illustration and graphic design clients include Chronicle Books, Fit Pregnancy, GQ, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Neiman Marcus, Nike, Target and Time. Melinda also creates animated spots for Nickelodeon. Her work has received awards from and publication in annuals including American Illustration, The Art Directors Club, Society of Publication Designers, Communication Arts, Print Magazine, BDA, Society of Illustrators, The AIGA and ID Magazine.
Ryan Berkley is a comics inspired gentleman surrounded by toys and Chewbacca masks. He likes drawing sharks and animals and creatures and daredevils and superheroes. Sometimes he combines all of them - sometimes they are on their own - it really depends on his mood.
Tim Biskup (b. Santa Monica, CA. 1967- ) is a fine artist whose work has been shown worldwide, including galleries and museums in Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco, Tokyo, Kyoto, Barcelona, Berlin, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Melbourne.Long recognized for his complex color and design theories and a decidedly populist aesthetic, Biskup has amassed a cadre of loyal fans and collectors. With a consistent output of original artwork, prints, sculptures, books and other editions Tim Biskup has produced a body of work that extends into the far reaches of the art and design worlds.
His history in the illustration, animation and graphic design fields lends his work a polish and style that often belies its conceptual underpinnings. With recent forays into the writing of theoretical text, and performance art he seems determined to remind his audience that he has a lot on his mind. But he's not just musing. His theories and actions, while quite well thought out, verge on nihilism and anarchy, matching the visual intensity of his paintings, sculptures and prints. A recent NYC solo exhibition featured a 60 page manifesto that railed against the established art world as a "post-art wasteland populated with pathetic vampires struggling to maintain the illusion of their own relevance". At a performance in Rome earlier this year, the artist, to the surprise of the audience, revealed a giant catapult and began firing upon his work, destroying an entire courtyard full of his own symbolic pyramid sculptures.
In 2007 Biskup began a project called "Ego Killer", in which he offers "Nice" caricatures at a price or "Mean" caricatures for free. Participants always opt for the latter which gives the artist a free hand to insult them with his interpretation of their visage. The results of these experiments, which have occurred mostly in nightclubs and bars have been wide ranging, from hugs and laughter to tears and even threats of physical violence!
Thomas Blackshear has produced illustrations for postage stamps, posters, plates, magazines, greeting cards, calendars, books, and advertising. His clients include Anheuser-Busch, Disney Pictures, Coca-Cola, Coors Beer, Jim Henson Studios, George Lucas Studios, and National Geographic. His work has appeared in numerous annuals and has won many awards, including Gold honors and medals from The Kansas City Art Director’s Club, The Illustration West Show, and the national Society of Illustrators, and silver medals from the San Francisco Society of Illustrators. Blackshear was also named the National Association of Limited Edition Dealers’ “Artist of the Year” in 1999.
Wade Buchanan is curator for Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California. Gallery Nucleus is a premier illustrative arts gallery located about five minutes outside of downtown Los Angeles. The location features 2400 square feet of gallery spaces as a boutique offering artist-related items. Since 2004, the gallery has presented over 70 exhibitions including solo showing of artists such as Bob Peak, Drew Struzan, William Stout, and a number of artists who have been awarded by the Society of Illustrators. In addition to exhibitions, the gallery also presents exclusive artists panels, signings, and workshops while providing a platform for the art community.
SooJin has been art directing and designing magazines for more than 14 years. She implemented a new vision for the design of PLANSPONSOR magazine, and translated that success into the art direction of many Asset International's products, including PLANADVISER and Global Custodian magazines and the newest Asset International brands, ai5000™ and PLANSPONSOR Europe.
SooJin's art-directed pieces have been recognized by the Society of Publication Designs, Art Directors Club, Communication Arts, Print, 3x3, Society of Illustrators, LA Society of Illustrators, AI, Spectrum and AltPick. SooJin holds an Illustration BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. She has judged many illustration competitions, including American Illustration and Society of Illustrators. SooJin also teaches a senior course at School of Visual Arts. She lives in East Village with her husband Chris Buzelli and mini-pincher Sota.
John Jay Cabuay is an illustrator based in NYC. He majored in Fashion Illustration at the Fashion Institute of Technology where he got his B.F.A. degree. He later continued his studies at the school of Visual Arts. His illustrations have appeared in major publications, books and Magazines as well as advertisements and promotions in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. He recently was part of a group show in Paris, France along side Europe’s contemporary fashion illustrators at the Galerie Arludik. This coming Spring and Summer 2010, he will be doing several speaking engagements on the topic of his illustration career starting in the East coast and South Africa and finishing off at the Icon 6 Conference. He currently teaches at F.I.T. and the New School of design.
Michael Cho is a freelance illustrator and cartoonist who lives and works in Toronto, Canada. Most of his time is spent working on illustration assignments for clients like the New York Times Book Review, Canadian Business Magazine, Nickelodeon, Random House and Penguin Books. He also writes and draws comics and is currently working on a graphic novel and completing an art book of urban landscapes to be published by Drawn & Quarterly.
Saiman is a illustrator, designer and animator.
He shows his works at gallery sometimes.
He was born in Hong Kong and is now based in Brooklyn, New York.
Jeremy Clark Jeremy Clark is Senior Experience Designer for Adobe Systems, where he influences the design of Adobe's platform products and contributes on various Flash-related fronts including mobile applications. In years at Adobe he has worked on various design teams and was product manager for Flash 4, 5 and MX. Jeremy also worked as a senior producer at Second Story in Portland, Oregon, where his projects for National Geographic, AIGA and the Smithsonian Institute have won numerous industry awards. Recently he demonstrated the digital version of Wired Magazine at the TED conference.
Working from their Californian high street studio, the Clayton brothers draw inspiration from their immediate environment, incorporating local businesses, neighbourhood regulars, and snippets of overheard conversations as subjects for their paintings. Composing their pieces conjunctively, motifs, gestures, places, and figures reoccur within different works, creating inter-linked dramatic scripts. Set on collaged canvases, the physical layering of their surfaces reflects their condensed tableaux. Approaching painting as a visual representation of pure energy, everyday scenes explode in vortexes of blinding colour, animated movement, and product placement, giving the effect of viewing every frame of a film simultaneously. Through presenting a locality, the Clayton brothers relate the personal to the global. Offering a vision of America-as-it-is, they celebrate and share all its diverse, spectacular, and solitary splendour.
Fernanda Cohen is an award-winning illustrator whose clients include MTV, The Gap, Target, Sex and the City, The New Yorker and Nestle. She’s a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts and runs a lecture series at the Society of Illustrators of NY.
Rachael Cole is associate art director at Schwartz & Wade Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books. Rachael has been the art director for picture and chapter book projects with Ed Koren, LeUyen Pham, and Hanoch Piven among others, and has introduced illustrators Christoph Niemann, John Hendrix and Ray Fenwick to Schwartz & Wade Books.In addition to working for Schwartz & Wade Books, Rachael teaches a course in Children's Picture Book Illustration in the undergraduate department of the School of Visual Arts (SVA), and is a thesis advisor for the MFA Illustration as Visual Essay program at SVA. She has also designed and produced a line of hand screen-printed pillows called "village pillows" which have been featured on Design*Sponge are available for sale online. Rachael received her MFA from the Illustration as Visual Essay Program from SVA.
Jordan Crane is an American comics creator, and is noted for well observed narratives that focus on the vulnerability and mystery of the human experience. Crane's immaculate sense of design, powerful cartooning, striking posters and objets d’art have had a profound effect on alternative comics and the way comics are perceived as an art form. Infusing a punk rock D.I.Y. aesthetic with a clear understanding of craft, Crane’s work feels both like humble, handcrafted objects made in the garage of a lonely teenager, and amazingly planned and sophisticated works of an artist at the height of his form.
Winner of numerous awards and prizes in both design and comic industries, Crane first emerged in 1996 with the anthology NON, which he edited, contributed to, and published. This anthology took the best of what made Art Spiegelman’s RAW a classic and combined it with a clear sense of where the future of comics lay. After two more issues of NON, he moved to Massachusetts, and began collaborating with the now defunct comics publisher Highwater Books. His first novel, The Last Lonely Saturday, a simple but powerful tale of love and loss, demonstrated that Crane was an artist who had come into his own. He followed that with Col-Dee, a work that expanded on the emotional ideas in his first novel. Following two eventful days in the life of a seven-year-old, the work masterfully wrestles with a child’s understanding of life’s mysteries and the reality that is forever imposing itself. Crane's most recent book, The Clouds Above, is a fast-paced children's story which follows the adventures of a boy named Simon and his large cat named Jack. They battle angry clouds, peevish birds and elude the grasp of an overbearing teacher, with the effect resonating somewhere between Where the Wild Things Are and The Wizard of Oz.
Crane is currently working on a quarterly comic book called Uptight where he will present new short stories and serialize his sprawling, epic meditation on family, death, and the imagination called Keeping Two.
Scott Dadich Scott Dadich is the creative director of Wired magazine. His 2007 redesign was honored with the 2008 National Magazine Award for Design, the American magazine industry’s highest design honor. He won the coveted NMA for Design again in 2009. His August 2006 cover with Stephen Colbert was named Best Celebrity Cover by the American Society of Magazine Editors. Dadich has received more than 100 national design and editorial awards, including 35 gold and silver medals from the Society of Publication Designers (SPD). In 2008 and 2009, Wired won SPD Magazine of the Year, and Dadich served as President of the Society, rebuilding and redesigning the organization's website and identity.
In addition to overseeing design, photography and production for the print magazine, Dadich directed the 2007 redesign and relaunch of Wired.com (Condé Nast’s highest-trafficked website) and was the creative director for the 10-hour PBS television series Wired Science
Kevin Dart is a freelance illustrator living in Southern California, and a co-owner of Fleet Street Scandal. He is an illustrator and entrepreneur with his own line of prints based on his own popular character, Yuki 7.
For more than seven years, Jesús has been an integral creative force in many of MotionTheory Studio’s best-known projects, including campaigns for HP, Budweiser, and Nike, and commercials for Lexus, Honda, Guinness, RESFEST, DIRECTV, and the City of New York. Jesús has also art directed music videos for David Gray, Beck, The Used, and Papa Roach.
Jesús’s work has been honored by the The Art Directors Club, D&AD, The Type Directors Club, the AICP awards, and highlighted at MoMA, Siggraph, The One Show, and in Communication Arts magazine, among others. He has been a featured speaker at numerous events, such as AIGA, RESFEST Seoul, SemiPermanent, and universities like UCLA, Otis, and IED Madrid.
Kelly Doe is currently focusing on cross-platform branding at The New York Times. Along with her work on the Times Reader, TimesCast and other multi-media projects, she recently completed the re-design and re-launch of the International Herald Tribune. Ms. Doe also founded and runs a collaborative studio specializing in identity development. Her clients have included the National Archives and the Smithsonian Institution as well as a wide range of international newspapers and print publications. Her work has been recognized by awards in the worlds of advertising, editorial and fine art.
Bil Donovan is an artist, educator and fashion illustrator whose work has appeared editorially in various publications as well as promotional and advertorial campaigns worldwide.
Donovan’s unique blend of elegant style wit and spirit has been utilized by clients such as: Mercedes Benz, St. Regis Hotels, CFDA, Saatchi & Saatchi, Escada, Givenchy, Vogue, Bazaar, Town & Country, Elle, Travel and Leisure, InStyle, Harper Collins, Sterling Publishing, Peter Pauper Press, Yves St Laurent, Christian Dior, Lancôme, L’Oreal, Revlon, Starwood Group, The Fragrance Foundation, Estee Lauder, Nordstrom’s, Lord & Taylors, Macy’s, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Ave, Barney’s, and Bloomingdales to name a few.
Douglas B. Dowd is a professor of Communication Design and American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Dowd is active as a curator, essayist and critic in the realm of modern graphic culture, writing on theoretical and historical topics in comics, animation, and illustration. He writes the blog Graphic Tales at http://www.ulcercity.blogspot.com/ and serves as an advisor to the Norman Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He co-edited Strips, Toons & Bluesies: Essays on Comics and Culture for Princeton Architectural Press in 2006 and served as a curator for Ephemeral Beauty: Al Parker and the American Women's magazine, 1940-1960 at the Rockwell in 2007. Originally trained as a printmaker, Dowd’s books and prints are in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Fogg Museum at Harvard University. His illustration work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, the New Yorker, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Last year, Dowd published Visit Mohicanland, an online illustrated novel, at
Daniel Drennan is an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture and Design at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. He has been associate art director of Saveur magazine and worked with many illustrators. Daniel has always been interested in illustration put to a socially or politically activist purpose, and his department focuses on class projects that have messages of a socially and politically activist nature, ensuring that not only does their message get through, but that a focus of their work and working method brings home the idea that true change can result from our endeavors, our practice, and our example. These basic ideas have expanded into Drennan’s university-based research, which has been focused on the historical concept of the artists’ collective and the use of graphics for social activism.
Over the past 20 years, Stuart D’Rozario has worked at agencies across the country and around the wold. Most recently, he was a Creative Director at Fallon Minneapolis, overseeing, among other things, the worldwide advertising creative for United Airlines. Before moving to Minneapolis, Stuart was a Partner and Creative Director at Kirshenbaum Bond & Partners in New York. He has also worked in Seattle, Boston, Hong Kong and Bombay.
Stuart’s experience spans a diverse range of product categories including hotels, cars, banks, airlines, electronics and healthcare, to name a few. Over the years he has won practically every advertising award, including the Grand Prix at Cannes for his work on the Volkswagen New Beetle. His work has been featured for Copywriting Craft in British Design and Art Direction. Together with Bob Barrie, he created the Emmy-Nominated work for United; 5 of their commercials are on permanent display at the Museum of Modern Art.
Arem Duplessis
Arem is currently the Design Director of The New York Times Magazine Division. He has held positions at Spin, GQ and Blaze magazines. His work has been recognized by the Society of Publication Designers, Communication Arts Magazine, The Art Directors Club, The Type Directors Club, The AIGA, Print Magazine, American Photography among others. Arem is an Instructor at The School of Visual Arts and teaches a yearly Masters Workshop in Copenhagen. He has lectured in New York, Washington D.C., Louisville, Los Angeles and Scandinavia.
Craig Elliott Craig Elliott is an artist based in Los Angeles, California. He received his education at the famed Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California and studied under artists such as Harry Carmean and Burne Hogarth. Craig’s carefully crafted and arresting images of nature and the human form have captivated audiences with their visual and intellectual celebration of the beauty in this world and beyond. In addition to his fine art work, Craig has had a hand in designing many of today’s most popular animated films from studios such as Disney and Dreamworks. A multi-faceted artist, he is also an accomplished landscape architect, sculptor and most recently, jewelry designer. Especially known for his exceptional ability with the human figure and creative composition, Craig’s work has evolved into a unique vision informing and influencing fine art, print, animation, and commercial worlds.
After attending Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, he began illustrating for various clients and started working full time in the animation industry. He has worked primarily for Disney and Dreamworks, designing their animated films such as Hercules, Mulan, The Emperor's New Groove, Treasure Planet, Shark Tale, Flushed Away, Bee Movie, and Enchanted, Monsters vs. Aliens, and The Princess and the Frog as well as other upcoming features. Craig has also done fully painted comic book and cover artwork for Dark Horse Comics, World of Warcraft Trading cards, editorial illustration for Realms of Fantasy magazine, and more. His work can currently be seen in the books "Treasure Planet a Voyage of Discovery", "The Art of The Princess and the Frog", "Spectrum: the Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art" #10, 11, 12, 13 & 15 and a gold medal in 16 and Silver Medal in 17, “The World’s Greatest Erotic Art of Today Vol. 2”, “Erotic Fantasy Art”, “Fantasy art Now 2”, Aphrodisia I and his 3 sketchbooks. Several monograph art books are also in the works.
Tatiana is an illustrator artist who has shown at the Cactus Gallery, Hangar 1018 Gallery, Photographers' Gallery, CSUN West Gallery, to name a few. Among her illustration and design clients are Black Entertainment Television (BET), Air Force Art Program, NAACP, Urban Ministries, Inc (UMI), B Sharp Records, ComicMix.com, and Pfizer. Tatiana has been profiled on the Tyra Banks Show, Coin Op TV, American Superstar Magazine, ComicMix.com, and spotlighted by the Graphic Artists Guild and the Americans for the Arts. She has also served as the the 1st Vice President and show and web chair of the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles. In her spare time, Tatiana teaches art to children in hospitals and hopes to one day create her own children's Art foundation.
Susan A. Grose Susan A. Grode is the Co-Chair of Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP's national Entertainment and Media Practice. Ms. Grode concentrates her practice in entertainment, intellectual property, licensing, merchandising, interactive games, Internet and media law, counseling and representing domestic and international motion picture studios, film and television production and distribution companies and entrepreneurs, as well as book publishing, toy, game and on-line companies, theater and arts institutions. Ms. Grode was formerly a partner at the law firm of Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler, LLP, where she was a member of the entertainment and intellectual property group. Before becoming a lawyer, she was Vice President at Harry N. Abrams, Inc., the world’s largest art book publisher.
Michelle Katz is an intellectual property, licensing, and promotions lawyer with over 25 years of experience. She has worked for Paramount Pictures, Universal Studios, and Art Center College of Design. She created and directed the intellectual property program at Art Center College of Design, and provides counsel for writers, artists and designers.
Mike Kelley is the owner of Junc Gallery in Silverlake. Junc Gallery is an experimental project space and collaborative lab working with artists, curators and creative innovators from LA and beyond. Most recently Kelley curated "We Come in Peace" a collaborative Installation that united a cross section of galleries, artists and independent DIY culture, in the form of zines, books and printed matter.
Jon Klassen is a Canadian illustrator who currently lives in Los Angeles, California. He works in animation design on projects of varying size and scale, and more recently has been involved in print and book illustration.
Chrystal Falcioni
http://www.magnetreps.com/
Michael Fleishman was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA. He earned a BS in Art Education and an MA in Fine Arts (painting and drawing), both from Indiana University of PA. He began his illustration career in Kansas City, MO, and then wound his way back east to Yellow Springs, OH, where he's lived and worked since 1982 (some of his clients include Antioch Press, CTW, Hallmark, Kansas City Star, Pictura Sweden, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Scholastic). For the last 9 years Mike has taught Graphic Design, Illustration, and Fine Arts at Edison Community College in Piqua, OH (where he's also Program and Staff Coordinator). "My writing career," he says, "is the direct offspring of the illustration gig", and he's written for a variety of publications: including The Artist's Magazine, the Artist’s and Graphic Designer’s Market, Computer Arts Projects (UK), How Magazine, and Step Inside Design. Mike will be featured in the upcoming Exploring Adobe Illustrator CS5 by Annesa Hartman (Cengage, 2010). Available at the ICON6 bookstore are books 3, 4, 5, and 6: Drawing Inspiration: Visual Artists At Work (just published by Cengage), How To Grow As An Illustrator , Starting Your Career As A Freelance Illustrator Or Designer (Allworth) and Exploring Illustration (Thomson/Delmar). Mike's been a featured presenter at DesignWorld, How Magazine’s annual conference in 2002; NISOD 2004 (where I was also awarded a national Teaching Excellence award); and ICON 4 in 2005, and a visiting artist/guest lecturer at Kendall College of Art and Design, Savannah College of Art and Design, and Minneapolis College of Art and Design. He's the winner of a regional SOCHE Excellence in Teaching award in 2008. Mike is married (since 1987) to the award-winning documentary filmmaker, Joanne Caputo—easily the most beautiful woman in any room. They're the awe-struck parents of Max and Cooper.
Irene Gallo has been the Art Director for Tor / Forge Books since 1994, and Starscape Books since it’s launch in 2001. She enjoys working with all of the wonderful artsist her job allows, and becoming good friends with many ofthem. Irene is on the board of Directors of the Society of Illustrators. In 2005, she helped curate and organize and exhibition of American Illustration for the first 11 years of Spectrum. Since then she has served on Spectrum’s Advisory Board. Irene runs a regular painting demo series, “Art Out Loud” with Daniel Dos Santos, and an annual charity auction of miniature science fiction and fantasy paintings called MicroVisions.
Ian Gooding Ian Gooding began his career at Walt Disney Animation Studios in 1990. After seeing his award winning student film, the Head of Effects at Feature Animation recruited Gooding to join the Disney team. Gooding came on board as an Effects Animator on the Prince and the Pauper.
Before joining Disney, Gooding worked for Electronic Arts creating video game graphics. While working for companies such as West Indigo and Renegade, he painted backgrounds for animated commercials. He was also an Effects Supervisor on the animated television series “Family Dog”.
Gooding worked in Visual Development and Background Keys on such films as Aladdin, Hercules, Mulan and Dinosaur before making his debut as Art Director on Disney’s first all CG animated feature, Chicken Little. As Art Director, Gooding is responsible for coming up with the look of the movie and making sure that the visual mood amplify the story. Gooding works with all the different departments to ensure that the approved look of the movie is consistently carried out through every phase of production. He is currently the Art Director for The Princess and The Frog, which marks the studio’s much-anticipated return to the warmth and richness of 2-D, hand-drawn animation.
Sammy Harkham was born in Los Angeles on May 21st 1980. When he was 14 he moved with his family to Sydney Australia. It was while in Australia, he discovered the work of Jamie Hewlett, Dan Clowes, Kim Deitch, Renee French, Chris Ware, Julie Doucet and Jim Woodring. Inspired, Harkham started making his own comics and a zine, Kramers Ergot which has evolved into one of the most highly influential comics anthologies being published today. After high school he went to CalArts, studying experimental animation and filmmaking, but dropped out to focus on comics. His comic strip Poor Sailor, originally published in Kramers Ergot 4, was subsequently included in The Best American Nonrequired Reading of 2004 and has been published in French, Korean, and Italian. He was nominated in 2002 for an Ignatz Award for 'Promisng New talent', and kramers ergot has been favorably reviewed and placed on numerous best of the year list's including the LA Weekly, Time.com, Dazed And Confused, The Comics Journal, and Publisher's Weekly. Harkham currently lives in Los Angeles working on his comic series Crickets and the next volume of Kramers Ergot.
Cultural anthropologist and graphic design historian Jim Heimann is Executive Editor for TASCHEN America, and author of numerous books on architecture, pop culture, and the history of the West Coast, Los Angeles, and Hollywood. His unrivaled private collection of ephemera has been featured in museum exhibitions around the world and dozens of books.
John Hendrix loves to draw. John’s work has appeared in such publications as Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker and The New York Times among many others. He has also drawn for many book jackets for the likes of Random House, Harper Collins, Knopf and Penguin Books. John’s work has won numerous awards, including the Society of Illustrator’s Silver Medal in 2006 and 2008. Many of his drawings have also appeared in the award publications American Illustration, Society of Illustrators, Society for Publication Design, Communication Arts and Print’s Regional Design Annual. His first picture book “Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek,” was named and ALA Notable book of 2008 and won the Comstock Award. John’s newest book, “John Brown: His Fight for Freedom,” the first he has both written and illustrated, won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal and was named by Publisher’s Weekly a “Best Book of 2009”. In addition to his illustrations, John is teaching design and illustration at Washington University. He lives in St. Louis with his beautiful bride Andrea, son Jack and daughter Annie.
Eli Horowitz has edited and designed McSweeney's books and journals for the past eight years, working with writers including Nick Hornby, Michael Chabon, Joyce Carol Oates, and Salvador Plascencia. Horowitz's design work has been honoured by I.D., Print and the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Before McSweeney's, Eli was employed as a carpenter and wrote science trivia questions tenuously linked to popular films. He was born in Virginia and now lives in San Francisco.
Derek Howard joined Walt Disney Imagineering in 2007 after graduating from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena with a Bachelor of Science degree in product design. As a concept designer for the creative design and development division of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, he brainstorms and develops ideas for Disney parks around the world. Currently, he’s working on concepts for the expansion of Fantasyland for the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World and a new Disney park being developed for Shanghai, China. Howard was born in New Hampshire and raised in California. Prior to returning to school and before joining Disney, he had worked for nearly a decade as an industrial designer and illustrator.
Rod Hunt has built a reputation for retro tinged illustrations & detailed character filled landscapes. With UK & international clients spanning publishing, design, advertising & new media, he's created works for everything from book covers to advertising campaigns, theme park maps & even the odd large scale installation too.
Rod is also the artist behind the book Where’s Stig? for the BBC's Top Gear. Where’s Stig? was the UK’s 4th bestselling hardback non-fiction book of 2009, & 35th in books overall, selling in excess of a quarter of a million copies. His clients include Barclays, BBC Worldwide, Computer Arts Magazine, The Economist, FHM, Maxim, Orange, Random House, Time Inc, Top Gear, Vodafone, We Are What We Do... In August 2009, Rod was elected as the Chairman of the Association of Illustrators. The AOI was established in 1973 to advance and protect illustrator’s rights and encourage professional standards.
Kazu Kibuishi is the talented mastermind and artist behind the Amulet graphic novel series published by Scholastic, as well as the author and illustrator of Copper and Daisy Cutter. He is also known for being the creator and editor of Flight, a full-color, comics anthology begun as a forum for illustrators to produce sequential work, now in its seventh epic volume.
Matt Kindt is the Harvey Award winning writer and artist of the graphic novels Revolver, 3 Story, Super Spy, 2 Sisters, and Pistolwhip. He has been nominated for 4 Eisner and 3 Harvey Awards. Super Spy, was named the 2007 Indie Book of the Year by Wizard magazine and made Booklist’s Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2008. His debut graphic novel, Pistolwhip, was on Time Magazine's Top 10 Graphic Novels of 2001. Matt lives and works from his home in St. Louis with his wife and daughter who has promised to start filling in blacks when she's old enough.
William Lebeda is a graphic designer, animator and director who has worked in the field of entertainment design for the last fifteen years. Currently he is Creative Director of Picture Mill, a Hollywood-based motion design studio.
After a metaphorical coin-toss, he moved to Los Angeles to pursue film and animation. He arrived in 1990 to attend graduate school in film and animation at CalArts (MFA 93) after completing a BFA in graphic design from West Texas State University (BFA 1990).
(The other side of the coin was The School of Visual Arts in New York City, to pursue illustration.)
His first job in Hollywood was designing motion graphics for ABC Network Television On-Air Promotion. He was fortunate enough to be a part of the last Golden Age of Television, working on campaigns for Roseanne, Home Improvement, The Wonder Years and many others.
Since joining Picture Mill in 1995, William has designed and directed projects for motion pictures, advertising agencies and television, ranging from Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds to Citibank to HBO. In 2007, William directed the 2nd Unit for M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening.
William has recently completed work for The Last Airbender, Jonah Hex, and The Other Guys as well as countless other film and television projects.
He is particularly delighted to have been named the best and worst film title designer (The ID Forty, February 2003) for two wildly different projects: Panic Room for David Fincher, and Signs for M. Night Shyamalan.
Previous to his experiences in California, William spent most of his youth in and around northern New Mexico, growing up in Los Alamos. He used to draw a lot more than he does now.
Drawing on over thirty years of experience as a creative consultant, Tony Luna, will help you get back to the reasons why you chose a career in the creative arts. Mr. Luna delivers career consultation to creative professionals worldwide. He is an Adjunct Professor at the Art Center College of Design where he conducts three "Crafting a Meaningful Career" classes to mid-career professionals eager to take their careers to the next level. He also offers lectures and workshops based on the principles established in his book, "How to Grow as a Photographer: Reinventing Your Career," Allworth Press.
John Mahoney
"As censorship takes hold of our culture, strangling our artists and filmmakers, the digital revolution marches forward with infinite possibilities for independent thinkers to get the work out into the world." JM 2007
John Mahoney has produced over twenty short films and two independent features. He has directed numerous documentaries on such prominent people as Doug Chaing, designer of the new Star Wars films and Tyrus Wong, designer of Bambi. He taught such diverse classes as figure drawing, sculpture, film design, storyboards, stop motion animation, and character design. John's illustration work has been showcased in Spectrum, the Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art and in the book Erotic Signature, the World's Greatest Erotic Art of Today. The release of the book will mark the launching of the Exhibition Tour starting in Miami, then New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam and London.
Adam McCauley enjoys illustrating, playing music, and making things. His illustrations have appeared in magazines, publications and campaigns world wide. Adam's work has been included in group shows in Osaka, San Francisco, New York, Tokyo and Nashville.
Adam’s clients have included Time, MTV, Apple Computer, National Geographic, Levi's, Viking, Harper Collins, Microsoft, and many others. His awards have included American Illustration, Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, Print Regional Design Annual, 3 x 3, and How Magazine.
Adam received the Society of Illustrator's Gold Medal for his illustrated monster stamp endpapers for the book "The Monsterologist:A Memoir In Rhyme" by Bobbi Katz.
He works out of his studio in the sunny Mission district in San Francisco.
http://www.adammccauley.com/
Jo Ann Miller For the last eighteen years, Jo Ann Miller has been the Illustration Consultant for Serbin Communications’ Directory of Illustration, American Showcase and Theispot.com. She has been an invited guest speaker for the Society of Illustrators, Colorado Alliance of Illustrators, SCBWI, AIGA, ICON, Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and San Francisco’s Academy of Art. She has been published in numerous industry publications, including The Society of Illustrators and The Artist’s and Graphic Designer’s Market. Jo Ann currently shares her love of the illustration industry as well as her keen marketing sensibility to help artists make the most of their advertising investment. Jo Ann is one of the founders of The First Illustration Conference (ICON) and served as president of the board and was co-chair of the first conference organizing committee. She also served on the board as Community Liaison for the Society of Illustrator’s of Los Angeles.
Wyatt Mitchell Wyatt Mitchell has been the Design Director at Wired Magazine since 2007, and has a broad range of magazine experience, from Design to Production to Digital Initiatives. Previously, Wyatt has held titles at O, The Oprah Magazine, VIBE, Esquire, Details and TV Guide. He has received over 50 national design and editorial awards from groups such as the American Society of Magazine Editors, Society of Publication Designers, Print Magazine and Communication Arts.
Sally Morrow is the Creative Director at Sandstrom Partners.
Nelson began his professional career as an artist upon graduation from Pratt, publishing his work and receiving commissions from publishers and production studios such as Dreamworks, where he served as a the lead conceptual artist for Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad” and “Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron,” Sports Illustrated, Coca-Cola, The United States Postal Service and Major League Baseball, among others.
In 1999, Nelson began to collaborate with several notable authors on a series of picture books. Presently, almost twenty illustrated books are in print, including Debbie Allen's DANCING IN THE WINGS, Ntozake Shange’s Coretta Scott King Award-winning book, ELLINGTON WAS NOT A STREET, Deloris and Roslyn Jordan's best-seller SALT IN HIS SHOES, Spike and Tonya Lee’s PLEASE, BABY, PLEASE, and Carol Boston Weatherford’s MOSES: When Harriet Tubman Led her People to Freedom,” for which Nelson won a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, a Caldecott Honor and an NAACP Image Award.
Christoph Niemann is a German award-winning illustrator whose clients include The New Yorker, Schwartz and Wade, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times.
Todd Oldham is a designer and photographer living in New York City. Oldham launched his first clothing line in 1989 and won the Council of Fashion Designer Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent in 1991.[1] In 1998, Oldham moved to New York with his business partner, Tony Longoria. Oldham served as creative consultant to Escada in the late 1990s. He launched a perfume line in 1995 and designed a clothing line for Target (2002 - 2003). In 1995, he produced a clothing line associated with the Warner Brothers film Batman Forever. Oldham designed furniture and home accessories for La-Z-Boy Furniture (2003 – 2007) and served as creative director for Old Navy.[2]
Oldham designed The Hotel of South Beach in 1999.[3] He is currently designing the annex to the hotel. Oldham has become widely known to American TV audiences through his many television appearances, most notably as host of Todd Time on MTV's House of Style in the 1990s. He hosted Fashionably Loud on MTV in 1999 and recently served as mentor to contestants on Bravo’s Top Design.
Oldham is also actively involved in book publishing. He has produced a number of books on various aspects of style for Ammo Books as part of the Place Space series. Books in the series include photos and essays on filmmaker John Waters, the artist compound in upstate New York owned by Joe Holtzman (the founder of Nest magazine), and the Rhode Island School of Design’s off-campus housing and Bedrock City. Oldham has also created Hand Made Modern, Without Boundaries, and various other titles. In June 2007, Oldham released a monograph of artist Charley Harper’s work titled An Illustrated Life.[4]
Dave Peterson makes a living killing shitty marketing. He has spent 18 years helping companies with complicated products and services talk about their value in simple human terms. Dave believes that a strong point of view and a provocative position will drive up your value and price of your products and services. He has helped large publically traded software companies, world renowned architects, web media design software vendors, giant construction equipment, and super boring techie software companies apply and execute on this strategy.
Dave is currently on assignment as chief marketing officer at Coverity. Coverity eliminates software defects in your smart phones, cars, televisions, and in the Mars Rover to make sure software doesn’t crash your business and your life. Prior to Coverity, Dave had tour of duties as CMO at Aggregate Knowledge, VP of Marketing and Corporate Communications at Mercury Interactive Corporation, and LOCHHEAD Consulting, Cybrant, GiveMeTalk!, and Vantive Corporation. He also served hard time in a few advertising and marketing agencies.
Greg Pincus is a poet, novelist, screenwriter, and social media lover (and consultant). He and his blog GottaBook (http://gottabook.blogspot.com) have gone viral and into the New York Times, helping him land a two book deal with Arthur A. Levine Books. He’s sold poetry off his blog, received press coverage, made great connections with social media and had fun doing it. You can find him posting poetry and children’s book musings at GottaBook, talking social media at The Happy Accident (http://www.thehappyaccident.net), and tweeting all that and more (http://twitter.com/gregpincus). He bats and throws righty.
Maria Piscopo has been a creative services consultant and an art/photo rep for twenty five years. Maria’s fifth book, Graphic Designer's and Illustrator's Guide to Marketing and Promotion is published by Allworth Press. She teaches classes for creative professionals at Orange Coast College and Laguna College of Art & Design and taught the Managing Creative Services program for Dynamic Graphics Training as well as industry conferences. Her articles have been published in magazines such as HOW Magazine, STEP inside design, Communication Arts, Applied Arts and Dynamic Graphics. She is a member of Society of Photographers and Artist’s Reps and has served on the Board of Directors for the University of California at Long Beach Arts & Humanities Board, Visual Artists Association, Women In Photography, The VICOM Conference and The PHOTO Plus Conference Advisory Board.
John T. Quinn studied Illustration and graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City in 1992. He has worked as a free lance illustrator (clients include Reader’s Digest, Scholastic Books, 20th Century Fox, American Greetings) and a layout artist/background painter for Ralph Bakshi Zootoons. John has taught figure drawing at the School of Visual Arts, Illustration at the Lancaster Academy of Art and Design and Caricature at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art as well as Walt Disney Feature Animation. He began his career with The Walt Disney Company in 1996. He is currently Vice President, Character Art on the Global Creative team for Disney Consumer Products.
Brian Rea is the former art director for the Op-Ed page of the New York Times and a guest art director for GOOD Magazine. He has produced work for books, posters, magazines and music videos. Clients include The New York Times, Men's Journal, Kate Spade, Time Magazine, Honda, Billabong and MTV and he has exhibited work in Barcelona, San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo. He currently lives in Los Angeles and teaches at Art Center in Pasadena.
Maria Rendón has been making images since she graduated in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Her clients include: American Airlines, BusinessWeek, Computerworld, Dow Jones, Harcourt, Lynda.com, NPR, Oracle, Reader’s Digest, Runner’s World, Scholastic, The Washington Post. Maria’s work has been featured in Illustration Now!, Graphis, and a! Diseño; recognized by The Society of Illustrators, 3Dimensional Awards Show, Communication Arts, American Illustration; and exhibited at Atkinson Gallery, The Folk Tree and Random Gallery. She has lectured and taught for University of Hartford, AIGA and Art Center College of Design. Currently lives and works in Santa Barbara.
Dawn Rivera-Ernster Dawn manages the Talent Development Artists Program created for new artists interested in animation. Films in development includeTangled, Tick Tock Tale short film and Winnie the Pooh. Before Disney Animation, she worked in the entertainment industry supporting the talent resources, design support and creative resource needs for the theme parks, rides, shows and attractions; consumer products creative services and product design development for Universal Studios, Saban Entertainment, Equity Marketing, ASCII Entertainment and Hallmark Cards, Inc. Rivera-Ernster majored in Advertising and Design from the American Academy of Art, Chicago, Illinois. Rivera-Ernster is currently a member of ASIFA, and Society of Illustrators-Los Angeles.
Paul Rogers
Paul Rogers has been an illustrator since 1980. Clients include the Los Angeles Metro, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, The New York Times, The New Yorker, Pixar Pictures, and United States Postal Service. He has illustrated two books, /Jazz ABZ/ by Wynton Marsalis and /Forever Young/ by Bob Dylan.
One day a year he is Santa Claus, but the other 364 days Dan Santat works as a children's book writer and commercial illustrator.
He is also the creator of Disney's animated hit, "The Replacements"
Dan graduated with honors from the Art Center, College of Design.
He lives in Southern California with his wife, two kids, a rabbit, a bird, and one cat. Some of Dan’s clients Include: The Wall Street Journal, Esquire, The Village Voice, GQ Russia, Macy's, Scholastic, Harpercollins, Simon and Schuster, Random House, Knopf Books, Dutton Books, Atheneum, Hyperion Books, and Walt Disney Animation.
David Saylor joined Scholastic in 1996 and has since guided the art direction and design of all trade book publishing, including art directing all American editions of the bestselling Harry Potter series. In 2005, he became the founding editorial director of Scholastic’s graphic novel imprint Graphix, which launched with color editions of the hugely popular Bone series by Jeff Smith. Many of the books Saylor has designed and art directed have won awards and honors from The Society of Illustrators, The New York Times Book Review (Best Illustrated Children’s Books Awards), the Bookbinder’s Guild of New York, the American Library Association, and the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Saylor received the 1999 LMP Award honoring excellence in graphic design for his work in children’s books. He worked at Random House in adult books before starting his career in children’s books at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. David has also been an art director at HarperCollins Children’s Books, Ticknor and Fields Books for Young Readers, and Houghton Mifflin Children’s Books.
Bill Schwab Bill Schwab is a graduate of Pratt Institute with a degree in illustration. His animation career began in New York at MTV where he cut his teeth as a designer on the Beavis & Butthead Movie. After ditching his dreams of becoming a professional foosball player, Bill moved to Los Angeles in 1997 to pursue animation. Bill has worked at numerous studios including Disney, Cartoon Network, Dreamworks, Warner Bros., R&H, and Nickelodeon. In the world of television Bill has designed for several shows such as The Fairly Odd Parents, Time Squad, Mission Hill, and Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends. Bill's most notable commercial creation is Mr. Mucus for Mucinex sometimes known as "Bill's Booger". In feature films, Bill has worked on several projects including The Princess and the Frog, Barnyard, Prep and Landing, Monsters vs. Aliens, and Tangled.
Jeff Sedlik Jeff Sedlik is a photographer, director, educator, publisher and consultant. A leading expert on image licensing, copyright and the business of photography, Sedlik is President of the PLUS Coalition, past National President of the APA, and a Professor at the Art Center College of Design. Recognition: 2005 International Photography Council Industry Leadership Award. 2006 PhotoMedia Photography Person of the Year. 2007 APA Industry Advocate of the Year. 2008 Honorary Masters Degree for Professional
Achievement, Brooks Institute. Other awards: Clio, Ozzie, Creativity, Art Directors Club, Communication Arts, One Show, PDN/Nikon, Art Direction Magazine.
Yuko Shimizu is an award-winning illustrator whose clients include The New Yorker, The Gap, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. She’s a faculty member at the School of Visual Arts.
Jeffrey Smith is a full-time Professor at the Art Center College of Design, where he has taught since 1994. He is also a freelance illustrator, and his work continues to thrive. He has won numerous awards from CA, the New York Society Of Illustrators, Print, the A.I.G.A., the Society Of Newspaper Design, The Society Of PublicationDesigners, and the University & College Designers Association. His clients include Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Esquire, The New York Times, The New York Times magazine and New York magazines, to name a few. Smiths’ work consistently appears in American Illustration and The Society Of Illustrators in New York, where Smith received a Gold medal in 2004.
Through striking visual imagery, Jeff Soto communicates profound visions and fears, nostalgia of his youth, and themes of love, lust, and hope. Soto’s distinct color palette, subject matter, technique and bold themes resonate with a growing audience. Inspired by childhood toys, the colorful lifestyle of skateboarding and graffiti, hip-hop and popular culture, Soto’s representational work is simultaneously accessible and stimulating. Environmental issues also take precedent for Soto, who is concerned with conflict of humans trying to harness, or take advantage of nature. His paintings exude this tension, as robotic creatures duel, organic tentacles and flower bouquets thrive, and black smog looms amidst floating, ominous skulls. In 2002, Soto graduated with Distinction from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. He currently lives in Southern California, with his wife Jennifer and daughter Shannon.
Brian Stauffer As a contributing artist to publications including The New York Times, TIME Magazine, The New Yorker, The Nation, The Village Voice, Rolling Stone, Esquire, GQ, and over 300 others worldwide, Brian's illustrations are best known for its conceptual take on social issues.
Through a unique combination of hand drawn sketches, painted elements, and scanned found objects, Brian's work bridges both the traditional and digital realms. His images are in the permanent collections of The Wolfsonian, The Museum of The Society Of Illustrators in New York, The American Institute of Graphics Artists, The Newseum of Washington D.C. and The Art Directors Club of New York. Brian was born and raised in Arizona and graduated from The University of Arizona in 1989 with a BFA emphasizing graphic design.This year, Brian received an Editorial Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators 52 competition. His work is featured in the March/April issue of Communication Arts.
Katherine Streeter lives and works in New York City , surrounded by many things that inspire her mixed media collages.
Her illustration clients include The New York Times, Harper Collins, McSweeneys, Warner Brothers, and Target, while some of her awards and recognitions have come from American Illustration, Communication Arts, 3x3, The Society of Illustrators, Print Magazine, Luzer's Archive, and Folio.She is also featured in Drawing Inspiration: Visual Artists at Work by Michael Fleishman.
Her work in galleries includes various traveling exhibitions including “American Illustration 25 year Time Line” , and, she was recently part of the The International Exhibition of Illustration: "The Fabulous Coloured Pencils of the World" sponsored by Cultural Association Teatrio.
Gary Taxali is an award-winning illustrator who has work has appeared in major magazines and newspapers. Gary is also a gallery artist and toy designer. His vinyl figure, The Toy Monkey, along with a special edition silkscreen print, was commissioned by The Whitney Museum of American Art. Gary created the cover art and inside illustrations for Aimee Mann’ album @#%&*! Smilers, which won a 2009 Grammy Award Nomination for Best Art Package. This year, Scholastic will be releasing his first children's book entitled "This Is Silly!" Gary also devotes a portion of his time teaching/lecturing at various organizations and schools. He is a Founding Member of IPA and sits on the Advisory Board of 3x3 Magazine. Gary lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
Jennifer Vaughn is an artist agent based in San Francisco. After working in the business for almost 10 years, she launched her own agency in 2003. Since then, she has continued to build her brand while maintaining her philosophy of quality over quantity. Jennifer Vaughn Artist Agent has become a boutique agency representing a stable of award-winning illustrators incorporating styles as varied as the artists themselves. Together, she and her artists have worked with some of the most notable advertising agencies, design firms, corporations and publishers in the U.S. and abroad. Their clients include United Airlines, American Express, Microsoft, Disney, Urban Outfitters, Nike, Chronicle Books and Rolling Stone, just to name a few.
Ellen Weinstein is a native New Yorker. She creates images for editorial, advertising, institutional and publishing clients including: Time Magazine, Georges DuBeouf wine, Viking Penguin Books, and Yale Repertory Theatre.
She has received awards from The Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Communication Arts, The Art Directors Club, and Print's Regional Annual. She has been included in several illustration anthologies including Curvy, New York Based Creatives (from Taiwan) and Drawing Inspiration: Visual Artists at Work by Michael Fleishman. Ellen also exhibits in galleries and exhibitions including a show featuring the work of 40 Women illustrators which traveled through Italy sponsored by Cultural Association Teatrio.
Will Weston is a highly experienced professional artist and art instructor. He has worked as an artist in several capacities for Disney Feature and Television Animation, Nickelodeon Studios for “Avatar, the Last Airbender” and Sony Pictures for “Open Season”.
Prior to his animation work, Will was an advertising and editorial illustrator, working nationally through agents in New York, Los Angeles & Chicago. Will holds an MFA in painting from Claremont Graduate University.
While solidly grounded in traditional art and illustration technique, Will is equally at home with digital drawing and painting, and moves between the two as needed for the project at hand, as was the case at Disney Studios, Nickelodeon and Sony Pictures.
Will is currently a full-time professor at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and is the Entertainment Arts Advisor to its Illustration Department. Will also teaches seminars to professionals and graduate students at various locations, including the USC Graduate School of Animation and the Animation Guild. His past teaching experience includes Otis Art Institute, where he helped develop the Communications Design and Illustration department, The California State University, Northridge, and California State University, Fullerton, where he advised the curriculum committee developing its digital animation program. Additionally, Will has taught at numerous community colleges throughout Southern California.
Wayne White’s painting and sculptures have been exhibited in galleries and museums across the world. He is a three-time Emmy winner for his set and puppet designs on “Pee-Wee’s Playhouse,” as well as an art director for music videos such as Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time” and the Smashing Pumpkin’s “Tonight, Tonight.” Recently he created an art installation of a 23-foot-long puppet head of the country music legend George Jones titled Big Lectric Fan To Keep Me Cool While I Sleep at Houston’s Rice University. A monograph of his 30-year-career Maybe Now I’ll Get The Respect I So Richly Deserve edited by Todd Oldham has just been published by Ammo Books.
Kim Witczak, art buyer/producer, started working with BDM since inception of agency where she is responsible for negotiating, securing and producing all illustrative and photographic needs for clients like United Airlines, Best Buy, Applied Materials, etc.
Prior to BDM, Kim was Senior Art Producer at Fallon Worldwide working on accounts like BMW of North America, Citibank, Nordstrom,and Lee Jeans.
Kim started her advertising career in 1989 at Jordan Tamraz Caruso Advertising in Chicago, where she worked as account executive on the national Buick Dealer Marketing Group before going to Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis to work on the International Dairy Queen advertising account.
In addition to her professional experience, Kim was one of the founders of Free Arts for Abused Children (www.freeartsmn.org) in 1996, a non-profit dedicated to bringing the healing power of the arts to abused and neglected children in Minnesota. She has served on the organization’s Board of Directors for the past 5 years. Currently, she is Board President.
Craig Yoe has written and designed 50 books on pop culture, comics and cartoonists. Craig operates Studio out of a castle on 3 1/2 wooded acres an hour from New York with his partner Clizia Gussoni. Yoe was formerly VPGM Creative Director for Jim Henson and the Muppets, a Creative Director for Disney and Nickelodeon and Senior Designer of Marvin Glass, the world’s largest toy think tank. Yoe Studio’s clients have included MTV to Microsoft, Mad magazine to Mudd Jeans. Animation Magazie has called Yoe, “Dr. Suess on Acid”, Vice Magazine ways he is “The Indiana Jones of Comics Historians.” Publisher’s Weekly, while they call Yoe “brilliant and e a “madman/visionary,” says, “he is ruining America’s youth!”
Ben Zhu is the founder and owner of Gallery Nucleus in Alhambra, California. Gallery Nucleus is a premier illustrative arts gallery located about five minutes outside of downtown Los Angeles. The location features 2400 square feet of gallery spaces as a boutique offering artist-related items. Since 2004, the gallery has presented over 70 exhibitions including solo showing of artists such as Bob Peak, Drew Struzan, William Stout, and a number of artists who have been awarded by the Society of Illustrators. In addition to exhibitions, the gallery also presents exclusive artists panels, signings, and workshops while providing a platform for the art community.
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