editor Charles Hively
design director
Charles Hively
deputy design director
Sarah Munt
production advisor
Bruce Cohen
show coordinator
Ahwon Min
intern
Jun Hui Im
contributors
Anna Jane Grossman
Gayle Gaynin
Grady McFerrin
Guy Billout
John Hendrix
Mary Gardella
Olivier Gariépy
Ronda Kaysen
Randy Wong
Sophie Casson
Vicki Morgan
cover illustration
Michael Slack
3x3
table of contents {no. 18}
3 .................................. OpArt
4 .................................... Icon
6 ......................... SurveySays
7 ..................................Profile
9 ..........................CareerTalk
10....................Michael Slack
26......Christiane Beauregard
42.....................Jaime Zollars
58 ........................The Gallery
80 .................... 20 Questions
© Copyright 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the express written permission of the publisher.
publisher
Artisanal Media LLC
printed in canada
The Prolific Group
issn number 1546-640x
3x3 Magazine is designed by HivelyDesigns, 631 Vanderbilt Street Second Floor Brooklyn
New York 11218 (p) 718 435 4047.
a brighter future.
As I sit down to write I’m conscious of just how much has changed since I began my career as an illustrator that led to a career as a graphic designer and eventual ad agency creative director and business owner. I’m going to sound really old right now but this was the time before computers and even fax machines. We made appointments by phone. We carried large portfolios that also served as delivery envelopes. Work was presented directly to the client—both the roughs and the finish. The art was prepared on a surface—hot or cold watercolor paper, vellum, paperboard, canvas—that would then be photographed by a large camera prior to assembly at the printer or publisher’s facility. Handwork was the modus operandi of the day from the artist to the printer. Type was handset. And then hand-sliced, sometimes word for word, line by line, to get the best kerning and rag. We used wall-mounted Artographs and stats to size both type and imagery for comps and reproduction. Film was hand-stripped. Back then designers were more commonly called commercial artists, which also encompassed those graphic artists working directly for printers and publishers. Walking away from the term commercial artist was the first major step in establishing graphic design as a more specialized part of the graphic arts. As a designer there were primo jobs to be had, newsletters, annual reports, corporate brochures, album covers, posters, book covers. Budgets were good, i.e. you could actually make a living designing newsletters. These were not your everyday corporate communications tools, these were conceptual and colorful and expensive to produce. That all changed. Enter Pagemaker and the CEO could have his secretary “produce” the newsletter. Those projects disappeared. As did annual reports. Album covers became CD covers and are now reduced to postage stamp- size images on iTunes. Social media takes the place of many branding projects. YouTube is now an advertising media for new products. The projects are dwindling for everyone. As we head further into a totally digital world I contend design will take a backseat, but illustration won’t. Where once I thought being a designer had many more advantages with not only the type of projects but also the budgets, my feeling today is that design will continue to shrink, illustration will expand. Why the optimism? The market will crave images and those that will be doing the craving will be without a resource. Except for hiring illustrators. Look no further than the area of game design, 3-D movies, apps and information graphics, which are totally illustrated. Think somebody’s secretary can do that? Art trumps design in all these areas. And if designers can’t draw they’re missing out on tomorrow’s opportunities; illustrators aren’t. The bottom line is that the future of illustration is brighter than any time in the past. We will be able to charge more for what we do because we’ve combined the essence of design and illustration into a new art form. We’ll stop referring to what we do by traditional classifications; we’re now visual communicators.
Charles Hively
Publisher
3x3, the magazine of contemporary illustration (issn 1546-640x) is published three times a year, (fall, winter, spring/summer) by artisanal media llc, 244 fifth avenue, suite f269, new york, new york 10001, for $48 per year (regular subscription), $70 (premium subscription-includes our annual). prices vary outside the usa. to subscribe go to www.3x3mag.com, click on subscribe. limited copies of back issues and annuals are also available.
