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Lessons From the Trade: Key experiences that changed the way I work and think about design.
ROADSHOW: PORTLAND is a pop-up event and marketplace showcasing the work and wares of over 60 exhibiting illustrators and artisans. More info: http://theillustrationconference.org/roadshow/
Three highly creative people who all keep a strong practice of experimental personal projects alongside client and company work discuss their roles as art direcotrs and artists in the realms of print, digital and motion. Moderated by an equally inspiring person who also plays both roles.
Josh Boston, Cole Gerst & Alexandra Zsigmond
Justin "Scrappers" Morrison, moderator
Clayton Brothers will be lecturing about life's strange beauty, the absurdity of fear, the neighborhoods around our lives, and the idea of acceptance.
What if we made a movie but gave the camera to the audience? Director Jan Pinkava will introduce Spotlight Stories, a new immersive form of storytelling designed specifically for smartphones at Google’s Advanced Technologies and Projects group.
New York Times graphic editors Jennifer Daniel and Alicia DeSantis offer an honest discussion about how information graphics do more than describe relationships and reveal patterns—they create a sense of wonder. This session will uncover the identity crisis of simultaneously being an illustrator, writer, editor and art director.
Social media is great for self promotion but is your work safe there? What exactly are you agreeing to when you click "yes" to the terms on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Tumbler and Twitter? What steps should you take to protect your work when you display it on your website? Does a simple copyright notice suffice? What about watermarking? Is it worth it to register your copyrights in every illustration you make?
Lilla Rogers will discuss her long-standing experience as an illustration agent who licenses surface design of behalf of her artists for items ranging from fabrics and ornaments to wall art and food packaging.
Nelson Lowry, LAIKA’s Supervising Production Designer, will discuss his passion for design and creativity which is woven throughout his inspiring work on such films as The Boxtrolls (in theaters September 26, 2014), ParaNorman (2012), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) and Corpse Bride (2005).
Nobrow, working with talented illustrators from around the world to produce books, prints and other fine collectable objects, started in 2008 with the aim to provide an independent platform for graphic art, Illustration and art comics in the UK and abroad. They are leading proponents of quality in book design and a standard bearer for original creative content in print publishing, working with only the best artists and illustrators in the world.
Uncool: The Anti–Gun Violence Project at Art Center College of Design produced a series of award-winning illustrated children’s books and a teacher's kit to spark a dialogue among middle school students about the consequences of U.S. gun culture. Join the project’s artists to learn about the creative process and the pilot implementation of the initiative. With student presenters Areil Lee and Cassie Zhang.
We are seeing a lot of work made for hire clauses in client contracts. What does this mean, exact-ly? And why are clients insisting that they must have our illustrations as work made for hire, or they might have to give us back our rights in 35 years? Does our work even qualify as work made for hire? This talk will explain the copyright doctrines of work made for hire and termination rights, and how to deal with them in your client contracts.
Carson Ellis, a multiple New York Times Bestselling illustrator, ICON8’s featured conference artist and one of Portland’s very own will dazzle you as she shares her work, wit and insight on music illustration, the children’s market and Portland itself.
Grace Lee and Robert Priest will talk about the process of creating their new, self published, quarterly soccer magazine called Eight by Eight. They will talk about their collaboration with illustrators when running about twenty five full page illustrations in each issue, including the cover. They will also describe the thinking behind creating covers for the newly relaunched print edition of Newsweek.
Calef will be speaking about keeping creative in a creative job, taking nonsense seriously, visual typecasting, the horrible beauty of snails, art and language as a musical sandwich, retraining the drawing hand, illustrative detours, internal rhyme style, and creating children's books for everyone. Or he may just talk about Captain Beefheart.
Georgeanne Deen will discuss how the 1960s influenced her life, how drugs forever altered the way she saw the world and how the decisions she made as a teenager in that era shaped and guided her career.
Craig Bartlett's career has been like one long free-fall from a plane and he has been enjoying every minute of it. The talented creator of Nickelodeon's successful Hey Arnold! animated series did not start out to be an animator but the many twists and turns of his life led him there, nonetheless.
Behind the distinctively illustrated gift publishing of Chronicle Books is a creative collaboration between publisher and artist. Editorial Director Christina Amini, Design Director Kristen Hewitt, and Illustrators Lisa Congdon and Susie Ghahremani will discuss how Chronicle Books moves beyond a traditional licensing relationship to see things differently.
Christina Amini, Lisa Congdon & Kristen Hewitt
Susie Ghahremani, moderator
How does a boy growing up in Colombia and a girl from Hong Kong one day wake up and decide illustration is the life for them? A Korean boy from Oklahoma talks and compares notes with Leo Espinosa and Victo Ngai about growing up in a different country, family dynamics, and how cultural influences and New York City shape their work.
James Yang, moderator
Three art directors who create treasured items like collectible books, beautifully designed magazines and illustrated DVD packaging will dicuss their process and products with an award-winning illustrative designer.
Diane Chonette, Eric Skillman & Len Small
Steve Simpson moderator
Twin brothers Aaron and Owen Smith both find inspiration in history and culture, but have managed to develop individual artistic identities. They discuss the effects of upbringing, temperament, and obsession on the development of artistic style and content. Their careers encompass illustration, fine art, public art, and art education.
Victor Juhasz and Janet Hamlin discuss their observation of war and terrorism and its effects, from battlefields to behind closed doors, be they courtrooms or hospital wards. Victor Juhasz has been documenting the military since 2006, from training to battle to hospital wards. Janet Hamlin is an illustrator and courtroom artist. She has been the only artist covering the courts of Guantanamo from 2006-2013.
Four mystery attendees take the stage for brief, but powerful presentations, each tackling the conference theme of “Work and Play” from their own perspective with 20 rapid-fire slides in five-minute segments. Curated by AIGA’s Abe Vizcarra to arouse curiosity, interest, discussion and debate.
Abe Vizcarra
Brian McMullen is the founding editor and art director of McSweeney's McMullens, the acclaimed kids' book department at McSweeney's in San Francisco. If each of the picture books and novels in the series is beautiful and unique, it's because all of them are products of an idiosyncratic and sometimes extraordinarily messy bookmaking process.
Artist Souther Salazar creates imaginative mixed-media illustrations and art objects derived from found objects that evoke a familiar, playful world within our reach. Learn about his work, his traveling art installation The Trading Tortoise, and his insight on the importance of play as an artist in this exciting glimpse into his work and process.
Los Angeles-based Illustrator Jason Holley and New York-based designer Lisa Wagner have been collaborators since their first date to a decommissioned prison in 1995. Now married and ensconced in suburban LA, they’ve turned their home into a live/work compound for clients, kids and chickens. Their latest project is an experimental book that began as a children's story written by Wagner’s father.
Andrea Dezso is a visual artist who works across a broad range of media while maintaining a unique, singular voice. Dezso will share her process for creating large-scale public art installations.
Queer comics represent a true artistic underground. Denied access to the broader comics industry, they thrived in the media ghetto of LGBT newspapers and bookstores, as well as in underground comix and punk zines. Now, with greater acceptance of queer stories, they’re moving into the mainstream, while retaining their distinctive voices.
In 2011 Modern Dog Design was alerted that 26 illustrations from their monograph, "20 Years of Poster Art" were used to advertise a Disney movie and placed on a Disney product that was sold through Target stores nationwide. This is the story about why they decided to fight back and how other companies or individuals facing a similar situation can do the same. At this writing, their ordeal is not over, but they remain hopeful that truth and justice will prevail in 2014. They will share what they have learned along the way and present the three most important points they have learned on their journey to justice. (At this writing, their case was recently settled after a more than two-year battle. Justice prevails. It was hard, they say, but worth it.)
Mac and Jon have made two picture books together and many other books separately. Here they will discuss where the process of writing and illustrating overlap and how the books and stories evolve through collaboration.
The career arc of an illustrator is fraught with both triumphs and challenges. This panel conversation with illustrators Vivienne Flesher, Kate Bingaman-Burt and Kelsey Dake, all at different career stages, touches on their collective dreams and ambitions, industry and technological changes, personal and professional growth and the lives they’ve chosen. It’s like a hot tub time machine full of illustrators.
Kate Bingaman-Burt, Kelsey Dake & Vivienne Flesher
Thomas James, Moderator
July 9-12, 2014
Portland Art Museum
Portland, Oregon
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309 SW Broadway, Portland OR 97205
503-228-2000, 800-663-1144
ICON8 Group Discount: 888-523-6766
1241 NW Johnson St
Portland, OR 97209
1219 SW Park Ave
Portland, OR 97205
1332 W Burnside St
Portland, OR 97209
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