The messages on this wall are simple and sparse for now but after some research into gum graffiti and gum art I’m able to recognize that this may be the beginning of something potentially big and interesting.

BIGGER AND MORE INTERESTING

And here are some bigger and more interesting items I found to share with you:

Under Juliet’s Balcony in Verona, Italy you’ll find a wall covered with thousands of love letters and gum.

Londoner Ben Wilson creates tiny works of art by painting over the gum left behind by others. You can watch him work in this Youtube video.

“Kids are not allowed to feel any connection with where they live … The only imagery that children see around them are billboards and TV; every part of their environment is out of bounds or sold off. That’s why they don’t care about their streets. This is a small way of connecting people.”
Ben Wilson, from The Observer

There are other ways to work with gum in public; some are discovered accidentally and some just…happen. Like Bubblegum Alley in San Luis Obispo, California which has been ongoing (aside from a few cleanings) since the 1950s, and The Gum Wall in downtown Seattle which is said to house gum measuring several inches thick (Two fun facts: 1) A scene for Jennifer Anniston’s film Love Happens (2009) was shot at the wall. 2) The Gum Wall has been ranked as #2 of the world’s top 5 germiest attractions by TripAdvisor. Ireland’s Blarney Stone is #1).

Some people might be turned off by this practice of marking an outdoor space with a piece of rubber slathered with an individual’s DNA but just think how gum-free the ground must be for blocks around! And the work can be quite beautiful and artistic- you might even describe it as sticky pointillism.

Jamie Marraccini has been creating interesting gum sculptures for over 20 years.

Maurizio Savini is an Italian artist who makes sculptures from fibreglass and pink chewing gum.

Author Ruth Spiro wrote a book called Lester Fizz, Bubble-Gum Artist, about a boy who creates artful bubbles. Spiro is the founder of Bubble Gum Day: Every student who donates $.50 or more gets to chew gum in school for the day and proceeds go to any charity the school chooses. I can’t think of any teacher who wouldn’t put up with the sounds of chewing and popping for a day and get behind this.*

And that’s just some of the gum graffiti and gum art going on in the world. Got any cool gum links to share?

*Except for my 7th grade English teacher, Ms. Rieser, who, from what I was told by my fellow gum-chewers, would inexplicably cry whenever she smelled grape bubble gum. So naturally, most students showed up daily chewing grape bubble gum.

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As a freelancer that does even a small amount of business, you will at some point have a client who is going to need a W9 form so that they can report their payments to you on their taxes. For many of us, this means filling out a simple federal form with name, address, and of course, Social Security number: everything a budding identity thief would need to run off with a few jet skis and maybe a small condo on Lake Tahoe in your name. Considering how there’s really no way for you to be certain how protective the client can be over this information, it’s a good idea to protect yourself.

How? With an Employer Identification Number (EIN). It’s a special number issued by the IRS that’s tied to your SSN. Since it’s not your Social, it provides a layer of protection in case it ends up in the wrong hands. You don’t need to have an LLC or anything. Additionally, it sets you up as a legitimate business which allows you to easily open a business banking account, get a business credit card, and even register as a reseller with certain vendors (meaning you won’t pay sales tax, your clients do.)

Here’s the best part: you can apply for an EIN in a matter of minutes online. Be certain to write that number down in a few places as it’s a pain to get a reminder or a new EIN.

Get an Employer Identification Number

Start here and click the “Apply Online Now” button…

…which brings you to the page below, and then you’re on your way.

And that’s how good this book is. Here come the adjectives: Heart-warming; adorable; kind-hearted; funny; endearing. Wow- that list might only be appealing to women. Adjectives for guys: Fun; interesting; sporty (not really). Author/illustrator Lauren Scheuer weaves a surprisingly captivating memoir of the bond she has formed with her chickens through words, photographs and colorful, well-crafted illustrations. In fact, as indicated in my opening sentences, the story is so enthralling that I found myself laughing out loud and beginning to care about Lucy, Hatsy and Lil’ White.

Lauren’s style is very warm and engaging; her storytelling is relaxed and without any pretense while her illustrations and photographs help to complete the world she is describing. More than two full pages are devoted to sketches of various coops as Lauren worked out what would best suit her girls. Certainly, the Trojan coop and the Taj Mahal coop would not have been good choices but Lauren didn’t want to leave a stone unturned.

“These chickens were going to be my living lawn ornaments, so color was the first consideration.”

The story takes us on a journey from the author’s desire for a livelier backyard (or was it her desire to conceive and execute a challenging building project?) through choosing breeds based on how nice they might look in the yard. There’s a pause to admire prolific egg production and coop rejiggering, all while sometimes heart-breaking and sometimes heart-warming (but always charming) episodes are recounted for us. And believe it or not but you’ll become invested in those chickens because of Lauren’s sharp observations and her ability to convey their individual personalities. And then you’ll unwittingly find yourself gazing into your own backyard…

This is author Lauren Scheuer’s first book and it had its genesis in her blog Scratch and Peck where she continues to blog about her chickens (it’s sort of the prequel and the sequel to this book, which will please fans of the book).

Pick up Once Upon a Flock at Amazon or anywhere else books are sold. It’s a wonderful read with many funny moments. I’m now reading the book with my seven year old son who loves to laugh at Lauren’s smoothly quirky turns of phrase, comedic situations and fun drawings.

He hasn’t asked me to start a flock yet.

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Illustrations courtesy of and © Lauren Scheuer

NEVER EVER DO JUST ENOUGH
When working on projects be sure to follow, down to the smallest detail, any art direction given and then add to that. For example, if it’s a book cover, maybe you give an idea on how to work the title into the illustration. Or you sketch up a fun illustration for the author’s picture on the back cover. It’s a little extra work that wasn’t requested but will go a long way to show the art director you’re thinking about the whole product and not just the illustrations.

NEVER EVER FORGET PROMOS (because clients will forget you)
It’s always good, even when busy, to keep up a regular schedule of sending both printed postcards and e-mail promos. Though you may have to tell someone your schedule is full, you’ll have that contact to touch base with once your schedule isn’t so full.

NEVER EVER ANSWER EMOTIONAL EMAILS (or texts) RIGHT AWAY
When you’re stressed out trying to negotiate via email a particularly difficult contract or you’re being asked to change something for the 50th time, it’s always better to take a breath and let cooler heads prevail. Though you shouldn’t take forever with a reply, if you need a little extra time to center yourself you can always send a quick email saying you’re running out to a meeting but will get back to them later that day or first thing tomorrow. “It’s better to sleep on things beforehand than lie awake about them afterwards.”

NEVER EVER THINK ABOUT WORK ALL THE TIME
With the majority of illustrators at home working all hours of the day or night it’s easy to figuratively take your work down to the dinner table or out to your kids’ ball game, especially when you’re struggling with something. But giving your mind a break and being present and enjoying life will refocus you when you sit back down to that drawing board. I promise! And your loved ones will enjoy you more too!

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Gary LaCoste is a freelance illustrator living in western Massachusetts. He started his career in 1998 working primarily with licensed characters for the toy and game industry. Clients included Hasbro, Nickelodeon, and Lego. In 2007 his focus expanded to include children’s publishing where he gets to promote his own illustration style. Gary has illustrated over 25 titles (and counting…). See more of his work at garylacoste.com

In the late 1980’s when several top marketers, specifically in the fashion industry, were setting up “in house” advertising agencies, they made a point of bringing top creative talent into the mix in order to keep the quality of the messaging on creative par with ad agencies they once employed. The same typically holds true with the internal packaging, promotions and digital media departments most large companies have today. There’s usually someone at the director level on staff to oversee internal creative efforts as well as to help give creative guidance when external resources are brought in.

So, what bearing does all that have on the innovation department? Well, throughout the recent recession and with budgetary woes still lingering, many leading marketers have been forced to cut back on using outside innovation agencies and in many cases have foregone their services all together, opting to bring their innovation efforts in house. While internal staff can assume many of research and project management roles their innovation agencies once provided, one key role is much harder to fill with existing corporate resources and usually remains conspicuously vacant : The role of the innovation creative. “Innovation creative?” a client might say, “But we’re all fairly creative and can brainstorm ideas internally. We do it all the time. Our consumer insights assistant can write the concepts, and our packaging intern can sketch the visuals . . .” Yeah, and my plumber can probably change an electrical socket, but I’m not about to let him wire my house!

As Chief Creative Officer of a leading innovation agency, I was often called upon to pull a client’s wayward internal innovation project out of the proverbial fire. One example that comes to mind is of a highly regarded food company that created a handful of new product concepts using their internal team. The team leader was a bit unsure of the consumer appeal of a few of the concepts and wanted our professional opinion before going into qualitative testing. Okay, “a bit unsure” is putting it rather mildly. As I thumbed through the deck I could barely keep my face from contorting into the “yucky face” my kids often make when they see or taste something they wish they hadn’t. One concept was for a new meat snack called “Ham Bar.” Yes, you read correctly, “Ham Bar!” The image below the headline was a primitive marker rendering of a 7” long bar of processed ham! How’s that for “yucky face” material? My gag reflexes wouldn’t allow me the time to read the concept copy before turning the page to the next gem of an idea.

I’m not trying to make the point that all internal innovation teams, sans outside creative support, are completely incompetent. Most include highly intelligent, hard working, well-meaning marketing professionals. They just do not typically include a trained innovation creative adept at concepting, and producing strategically grounded, powerful new product concepts. That is the simple point I am trying to make — The addition of a seasoned innovation creative could greatly increase a company’s internal innovation efforts chances of success. Period. Conversely, just think of how an internal ad agency would function without a Creative Director, or how the digital media department would perform without a Digital Design Director.

So who would this innovation team “creative quarterback” be and what should his or her background/credentials look like?

Look for someone who has experience as a CD or above in an innovation agency, ad agency or branding agency. They could be from the art or copy side, but ideally this person would have a track record of developing product concepts that made it to market and grew revenue. They should bring some knowledge of your category as well as a strong sense of strategy and brand savvy to their creative problem solving efforts. Depending on the size and needs of your company, he or she could either be a staff person or an independent contractor. Companies as large as PepsiCo go the independent contractor route for many of their marketing positions.

What would the job description look like?

Most likely it would include (but not be limited to) the following:

• Working with consumer insights and brand group partners to identify areas of innovation opportunity.
• Helping to develop innovation drill sites or platforms to be used in creative exploration.
• Taking a lead role in internal brainstorming and ideating sessions.
• Helping “non-creative” team partners develop their idea nuggets.
• Optimizing existing past and current product concepts. (Did someone say Ham Bar?)
• Facilitating the writing and art direction of product concepts.
• Assisting in the screening of outside innovation resources if needed.
• Taking on a creative liaison role when outside resources are brought in.
• Setting standards for outside resource creative deliverables.
• Attending formative and validation research and leveraging consumer feedback, oftentimes on-the-fly.
• Developing, implementing and assessing all viable creative approaches including those leveraging digital and social media.

Most importantly, what are the key benefits in creating such a position? 

The benefits of having an on-staff Innovation Creative Director are multiple, including:

• Deeper immersion into core brand equity than outside creative resources.
• More creative accountability.
• Better translation of strategic platforms into creative solutions.
• On-demand creative resource.
• Creative input beginning with the project initiation phase.
• Higher quality product concept output.
• Consistent creative oversight of internal and external resource deliverables.
• The addition of a higher degree of clarity to the “fuzzy front end.”
• No more “Ham Bar!”
• Last, but not least, cost savings would be significant, allowing for a larger portion of the project budget to be shifted to commercialization.

There you have it. You may agree. You may disagree. But if you show me two in-house innovation groups, one with a seasoned Innovation Creative Director as part of the team and one without, and give them both the same exact assignment, I can tell you right now which one will be most likely to produce concepts that pass quantitative testing hurdles and become revenue-building brands in the marketplace.

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Bruce Miller is based in Stamford, CT and has been on the creative side of product innovation for the past twenty years with countless in-market successes under his belt, many in CPG food categories. He has written several articles on creativity as it relates to advertising and innovation. Currently, Bruce is a front-end innovation consultant and the creator of the BrandCORE™ innovation process.  He can be reached at bruce@brucemillercreative.com.  

Illustration © 2013 edfredned

What’s worse than a rejection letter? Two rejection letters. From the same publisher. For the same book.

Once a year, a major textbook publisher came by the art school where I used to teach to talk about their titles and solicit instructors for new ones. At the invitation of one of their representatives, I submitted a manuscript, and they rejected it. The next time they returned, she asked how my submission went. I told her. She looked annoyed. “I’m surprised to hear that,” she said. “Send it again and let me see what I can do for it.” So I did, and they rejected it again.

In both letters the publisher said that it was declining the manuscript because the potential market for readers was too small to justify its interest. After the second one, I researched the state of the publishing market, and I learned what a mess it’s in: nanometer-thin margins, miniscule royalties, whole businesses propped up on a handful of bestsellers, authors obliged to do most of their own marketing even when taken on by a prestigious house, and everyone in the industry bracing for the imminent demise of the paper book.

I started publishing my writings about art online in 2000, long before then. This necessitated that I learn how to program my own content management system. So after my disappointing two rounds with traditional publishing, I was apprised of two facts:

1) Self-publishing is only ever going to become increasingly viable and the book publishers are headed for the kind of deep trouble that the music publishers are in.

2) One can solve many problems by adopting a hacker ethos: pry off the cover, learn how things work, build a new version of your own.

When I became interested in comics again in late 2006, I decided to post them online at a site called The Moon Fell On Me. This allowed me to work with ideas about art, text, and technology that I hadn’t seen combined before. It turned out that there were a handful of people working in comics-poetry, and over time we found each other. In 2010, Warren Craghead organized an exhibition at The Bridge PAI in Charlottesville, Virginia that included my work and that of Oliver East, an English artist doing some great things in comics, as well as a few others’. Warren’s work is quite fine as well, sort of a combination of Stuart Davis, George Herriman, and Baudelaire. He draws unceasingly. The following year I got it in my head to produce an anthology of comics-poetry, and in 2012 I decided to make it happen.

By then I had a list of artists I wanted to work with, mostly people I found through Warren and his interactions on Twitter. One artist, Kimball Anderson, discovered The Moon Fell On Me through the Google Group maintained by the Boston Comics Roundtable, and we finally met at the BCR’s convention, the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo, in 2011. Kimball’s sense of narrative is fascinating – he’s written a poetry sci-fi comic that’s haunting – and his painting technique is juicy and lush. The final list, in addition to Warren, Oliver, Kimball, and myself, included Derik Badman in Philly, Julie Delporte in Montreal, Jason Overby in Portland, Oregon, and Paul K. Tunis in New York City. Everyone in this milieu is so inured to self-publishing that when I invited them to participate, I just assumed I would self-publish the anthology and no one blinked when I said as much. Warren, who has been the backbone of this project, reminded me that I ought to at least talk to some other people in publishing. I did, and one of them told me that he loved the idea, but the economy is so bad right now that they couldn’t take it on. Unsurprised, I rolled up my sleeves.

I entitled it Comics as Poetry. New Modern Press was already in informal existence as the entity behind another book I edited, Walter Darby Bannard’s Aphorisms for Artists, which is published online. I have a longtime interest in fine-art modernism that began under Darby’s tutelage, and I embrace an updated form of modernism in which visual quality remains the primary concern while allowing for any other creative need, even those not associated with historical modernism. Discussion at my blog, Artblog.net, hammered out what new modernism might look like, and when it came time to name the press the notion was a natural touchstone.

By the end of Summer 2012 I had everyone’s submission. I produced a cover and Warren handled the design and production. With some trepidation, I contacted the acclaimed poet William Corbett in hopes that he would write a foreword. We’re connected by a strange coincidence – both of us have written catalogue essays for a marvelous painter in New York City, Ying Li. It turns out that he’s a comics fan from way back and he was happy to do it. Also, he directs a small publishing venture, Pressed Wafer, so nothing about the project had to be explained to him.

I printed 40 copies through RA Comics Direct, who did a beautiful job of it, and tabled it at MICE 2012, surrounded by minis from the individual contributors. It did so well that I printed another hundred and put it up at Amazon through its Advantage program. That didn’t work, and I should have done the math more carefully before I went through the trouble. Amazon takes a 55% cut through Advantage, and you pay out of pocket to ship to them so they can ship it to someone else at the recipient’s expense. I lost about $3 on each book I sold through Advantage. If my production costs were a lot lower or my price a lot higher it might have made sense, but it was wrong for this project. I could ship to a reader as easily as Amazon, so I decided to handle my own fulfillments.

I set up an account at Google Checkout, which then completely disappeared. Checkout is on its way to becoming Google Wallet, and under this weird hybrid – I call it Google Whackout – I can neither verify the existence of my account nor set up a new one. With that abandoned, I put up a site for New Modern Press, established a PayPal account, and put their basic Pay Now button for the book on the site. Success! My contributors got the word out to their social media networks and orders started to come in. When I send them out, I draw a goggle-eyed bird that became a personal icon during my residency last fall at the Atlantic Center for the Arts with Megan Kelso on the back of the envelope, thanking the customer.

That’s where we are now. Word is getting out about the book, and the work therein has been written up by Tamryn Bennett, Aaron Geiger, and Noah Berlatsky. A few bookstores and comics shops here in Boston are carrying it; I’m proud to say that the title is both at Grolier Poetry Bookshop and The Million Year Picnic, which might be unprecedented. Since online sales and tabling look like the best way to sell it, my next step is to learn more about how to table effectively and garner visibility beyond the initial Twitter push. I’d like to see the Aphorisms book in print, and there’s already talk of Comics as Poetry II.

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Franklin Einspruch is an artist and writer in Boston. His art has appeared in sixteen solo exhibitions and over two dozen group exhibitions. He has received several notable grants, and completed artist residencies at the Aegean Center for the Fine Arts (Paros, GR), Stock 20 (Taichung, TW), the Heliker-LaHotan Foundation (Cranberry Isles, ME), and the Morris Graves Foundation (Loleta, CA). Einspruch is a member of AICA-USA, and has authored over 120 published essays and art reviews. He contributes regularly to Art in America and The New Criterion. His next solo exhibition will take place at Pine Manor College in late March.

About the book in 2 sentences: Once Upon a Flock was named one of the top 10 most anticipated memoirs of 2013 by Publishers Weekly and is based upon Lauren’s popular blog, Scratch and Peck. It stars Lauren’s backyard chickens with their big personalities, friendships, rivalries and secrets and tells the story of Lauren’s life with her quirky flock with loads of Lauren’s wonderful illustrations and photographs.

We’ll be reviewing the book soon but we wanted to let you know about it as soon as we could!

Update: You can find the review HERE

By Liz Shepherd

Scads of self-help books as well as serious research have been written about creativity and I often find myself nervously drawn to those titles.  I am getting a pretty good sense of where my ideas come from but that doesn’t stop me from anxiously scanning the creativity boosting methodology of others to draw upon when my well of ideas dries up.

I have yet to learn very much from those books, except to confirm much of what I already know about being “blocked”, but I have noticed a few things about what I do when I am between projects and not enjoying it.

First, it is essential to acknowledge and welcome the feeling of being emptied out.  Instead of experiencing this as a frightening void, it helps to bask in the quiet of a resting mind.  Once calm, I am in “receiving mode”:  I read more, more non-fiction in particular,  I listen to other people’s stories of their travels or films they have seen, and books read, with improved attention, I go out of my way to choose films and music that usually wouldn’t interest me or are just rather odd.

It makes sense: If you put the same old stuff in your head, you are likely to get the same old stuff out. 

I have found that it is important to say “yes” to projects that make me feel  particularly cranky to push this theory that the discomfort accelerates creativity.

I was invited to participate in a group project, an exchange between some printmakers in Boston and a group in Strasbourg, France.  The idea was that the French artists would create a background that we, the Bostonians, would work over and we would do the same for them.  This is not a project that sounded fun to me, so I went for it

A watercolor (not a print!) of a forest, painted entirely in pale tones of blue was given to me as my background.  Huh?  I hate watercolor as a medium -so wimpy, so boring if it is not in the hands of a master (like JMW Turner, for one).  However, I love silkscreening which doesn’t require soaking the paper (like printing etchings) so, that was my default choice of medium to work on top of the watercolor.  Then what?  This is where I got cranky (“ I don’t know what to do with this stupid blue forest.”  “This is a stupid project.” etc.)

Dipping into the imagery that I have been working on lately, I screenprinted ladders in silver ink leaning up against a number of the trees in the forest.  I wasn’t sure what it meant; although I did have a hunch it meant something to me, lurking in the back room of my brain.

Fast-forward a few months.  My husband and I decide to take a driving trip out of Paris and settle on driving north: “we have a week, we haven’t been to Belgium before and I have heard interesting things about Antwerp.  Hey, as long as we are in Belgium, let’s go to the Ardennes forest and check out the place where my dad was wounded in World War II”.  This place, where the Allies and Germans fought the Battle of the Bulge, had mythic status for me. I had grown up hearing about my father’s experience, at 19 years old, of walking in the snow covered woods and suffering a devastating head wound that paralyzed the entire right side of his body.

We found the village of Houffalize, the town my father remembers being near when he was wounded.

"Ardennes", Liz Shepherd, 2013, Screenprint, 23" x 34"

There were three roads leading out of the town and we drove on each of them, getting out of the car to walk in the woods.  The forest was just as he described it: It was planted in neat rows, not like the wilds of New England.  I had seen footage of troops fighting here and it seems just the same.  It was October when we visited, already chilly. I imagined those young men wearing only cotton and wool clothing, freezing in one of the snowiest winters on record, terrified, they knew they were replacements for soldiers killed or wounded.  The ladders made sense to me:  “Please, get me out of here” and the spirit (or whatever) of the dead leaving their bodies.

Back in the studio, I collaged together the photos of the Ardennes Forest with my drawings of ladders, and then made four-color silkscreen prints on translucent silk that will be displayed from floor to ceiling.

What’s next?  I’m not sure.  I have to empty out my mind and get out of the studio to see what is going on.

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Liz Shepherd teaches printmaking at the Museum School in Boston and also in her studio, where she rents out use of her studio and press to other printmakers.

She graduated with an MFA from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts/Tufts University where she twice won the Boit Award.   Her prints are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), Edinburgh (Scotland) College of Art, Syracuse University, the collections of Percussion Software and Cell Signaling Technologies as well as numerous private collections.

Visit her website: www.lizshepherd.com and for more information about the studio: www.shepherdprintstudio.com

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Lucie Larousse has been studying illustration, etching and screenprinting at the School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg for the past three years.

Mark W. Slater's inks over Francis Manapul's pencils

What we all need is a foot in the door somewhere. Whether it’s the door to an ad agency, a local shop or a publisher, a door that’s even slightly open to us raises our chances of getting the job.

If you’re looking to break into the field of comic book publishing, then until December 31, 2012, your foot is securely wedged in the Top Cow doorway because the Talent Hunt (which we talked about a few months ago) is going on right now.

I reached out to President/COO Matt Hawkins with some follow-up questions to get those who are planning to submit to the hunt just a little more info.

(Matt offers his general advice to writers and artists HERE)

ED How has the hunt been going? Have you been getting many submissions or does it seem like people are waiting until closer to the last minute?

MH We’ve received quite a few thus far but I don’t have an exact count.  I’m sticking them all in a folder and will be reviewing them all when I get back into the office after the new year.

ED There are always people who skip reading the rules of contests/searches. What have you seen to reflect this?

MH Well people constantly ask me the same questions on twitter or facebook that are answered in the document. It can be annoying, but I answer them anyway. I was going to update the document but it was already so widely distributed and the contest is almost over that I didn’t see the point.

ED You have said that no results will be announced until after December 31 (the deadline) and then you’ll be going through the submissions in January. What will be your process for reviewing and choosing the “winners”? Who else will have a say?

MH Everyone at Top Cow will have some form of participation. Marc (Silvestri) will help me pick the artists and I’ll be reviewing most of the writers myself.

ED By what date are you hoping/planning to announce the “winners” and how will you do it? 

MH End of January. We don’t know how we’re going to announce it yet. The winners will know they won before we make any sort of public proclamation.

ED When writing the Top Cow universe, should writers be working with the post Artifacts universe or is it all on the table? 

MH Post only, we have no interest in pre for now.

ED Why do you want to know if someone has been previously published?

MH Because the intent of this was to find unpublished people and give them an opportunity to show their work to a larger audience.

ED What would you say to someone who is on the fence about submitting?

MH Why not?  If you’ve got an interest in being in the comics industry there aren’t many opportunities like this.  Blindly submitting is pretty pointless if you’re a writer.

ED Finally, what types of helpful questions are you getting the most?

MH People just want to know what we’re looking for and I tried to elaborate on that in the podcasts and in my posts.  We know what we’re doing with the artifact bearers not listed so we want people to come up with takes and stories on the characters on the list.

ED Thanks so much Matt.

Matt offers his advice to writers and artists HERE

You can tweet with Matt at @topcowmatt

WRITERS

Writers need to be able to convey mood, tone and character and do so very quickly.

1) The art tells it’s own story don’t use the dialogue and narrative to repeat what’s in the art. Use that to tell more.

2) Don’t overcomplicate. Especially when you’re starting out.

3) Have someone edit you. Very important, you get too close to stuff and you can’t see the forest for the trees.

4) Write what you know and especially what you want to know. Research makes a dull story interesting. If you write what you want to learn about it’s a nice win win for you and keeps you motivated.

5) Keep a writing schedule. Find times that you can block out to write and write during those times.

6) Writer’s block is bullshit. Just write something, anything. You can always go back and change it later.

ARTISTS

I’m not an artist so I don’t review that many artist portfolios but things I’ll say are important are:

1) Do sequential work like comic book pages and especially a series of pages that connect. If you do a bunch of random pinup shots I don’t even save the submission.

2) Know where your light source is coming from in each panel. And sometimes use more than one.

3) Do forced angle shots and show us you can do foreshortening.

4) Vary your character sizes.

5) Be good.

You can tweet with Matt at @topcowmatt

The Rules and Requirements (PDF)

Submission Form (PDF)

A term that I like to throw around when talking about book design and book theory (if that’s even a thing) is “creative real estate”.  I know this might sound overly romantic, but imagine in your quest to construct/design a book, you are a homesteader arriving at your claim, your untamed tract of wilderness.  There are a number of plots that you can cultivate, or allow to lay fallow.  Similarly, there are a vast amount of design decisions that are made when designing a book.  Some of them are obvious, and some of them aren’t.

During a winter break from attending college at the Savannah College of Art and Design, I visited the University of Vermont Rare Books Collection.  The hospitality of the UVM librarians was incredible; I was allowed to handle, read, and photograph a wide variety of truly innovative books.  Artists like Barbara Tennanbaum, Margaret Kaufman, Damara Kaminecki, Julie Chen, and many more.  What they do with the book as a form, and as an idea, is innovative and challenging; incorporating elements like folds, containers, interactive narrative building, and sculptural forms.  I left the UVM Collection irrecoverably changed, and committed to the idea of innovative and challenging book design.

A collection of Julie Chen’s work. Photo: Siblia Savage.

My favorite book artist, without question, is Julie Chen.  Her books have been a great influence on me, and her quotes on book design and construction have been a guiding light for my own views.  Here is an example:

“I view reading as an intimate act in which the reader must be in close physical proximity to the book, can control the pace of reading through the self-directed turning of pages, or equivalent action, and must interact with the book through the manipulation of the book’s physical structure.”

This is a great example of what I mentioned at the start about creative real estate.  Many people even take the idea of turning a page for granted and assume that it is a given when designing a book.  What is important to note is that the notion of creative real estate is out there and it can be built upon.  When I design books, I try to make the object as original as the narrative within.

In my 2008 minicomic, Whaletowne, I made a one-sheet unfolding comic about a sailor who creates an ever-growing city inside of a whale.  As the comic unfolds, the image area gets bigger and bigger.  This echoes the theme of expansion.  In the above image, you can also see that the comic comes in an envelope that resembles the whale.  To read the book, you have to go INTO the whale which subtly ties into the narrative.

In 2007 I drew a book called Leo Geo.  The catalyst for this story was that I wanted to have a comic, unbound by panels, in a continuous visual narrative.  When I was designing the book, I really put the most effort into designing how the reader would interact with the book.

Let’s start with the orientation: Leo Geo is bound at the top so that it opens vertically.  This creates a tall, skinny shape, resembling a hole.  Naturally, there wouldn’t be as much of an impact if it were a square book.  Additionally, the book reads top to bottom in the first half and bottom to top for the second half (when he has to climb OUT from the center of the Earth. There IS a method to the madness).  This is more effective than reading left to right because of the nature of the story.  Also, when people hold the book open in front of them and start turning pages, they actually start to mirror the physical actions of someone climbing down a ladder!  It’s a really subtle interaction, but now I’m able to use more than just illustrations and words to get the reader into my story!

This is the 2012 published version of Leo Geo.  The book has a horizontal cover, but reorients the reader vertically on the cover page.  Book making and designing for interaction are some of the most exciting things I get to do as an illustrator, and getting to see readers interact with my book and have that “wow” look on their face is beyond rewarding.

If you’re interested in creating your own books, unconventional or otherwise, I recommend you start simple. Take a piece of paper and fold it a few times and see where it takes you. Then start drawing.

Or for a short cut, you can download a free handout (see below) that will take you through the steps to make a Whaletowne-style book.  Try it out and make your own handmade book!  Think of how you can use the idea of an expanding canvas to help tell your story.  Maybe you have a character trying to blow the biggest bubble!  Maybe you have a ninja school that keeps adding new wings!  Be creative, and have fun!

Download folding pages (PDF)

Download folding pages (2 jpegs) on Flickr

Purchase Leo Geo

…………………………………………………………………

Jon Chad graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in 2008.  Shortly after, he moved to WRJ (White River Junction, VT) where he currently teaches at the Center for Cartoon Studies.  Jon’s newest book, Leo Geo was just released from Roaring Brook Press, and he has also done work for Stern Pinball, the FBI, and Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time.

www.jonchad.com

Read more about Leo Geo on Wired.com

To me this is a huge branding and marketing fail. Shame on the bank and shame on the developers of the ATM software for not making it easy on the bank (or for not dropping the bank’s name in there for them).

But at least there were usable pens in the lobby. That’s pretty good, right?

Now, why on earth would a WINDOW company have a logo of a castle (or any building) that has no windows? It’s beyond me. In fact, the lack of windows stands out so much in the image that at first glance I would assume this is a high-security storage company. Perhaps that’s why Castle feels the need to define who they are in quotation marks.

After some research, it turns out that this company has a number of logo variations (and all perplexingly use that same outdated Cloister Black font). Thankfully, there are versions with windows in the castle.

Another print ad header but with a different (windowed) castle:

Logo from website:

Castle employs different branding without any reason; but they’re not alone. Many other companies have this same issue due to a need for branding guidance (whether because they have no graphic designer or no budget to get the branding straight). There’s a lack of coherence in what the public sees which can make a company less than memorable and perceived to be unprofessional. This incoherence can be seen not only in the logo use but also the message or colors and fonts in the body of the ad, website, business cards, letterhead, brochure, signage, leave-behinds etc.

Businesses- take a look at yourself the way the public sees you.
• Are you consistent in your branding (matching business cards, invoices, website, envelopes etc)?
• Are you consistent in your message? Does the text in your ad reflect the text on your website?
• What makes your company stand out (in a positive way)?
• Where can you improve perception-wise?
• Do you have good logo files (EPS files are the best to have- they allow the most flexibility) or is your logo sometimes fuzzy when it’s printed or on the web?

With some introspection and a little help from a graphic designer you can streamline your image, become consistently recognizable and up your company’s image.

Good luck!

You can purchase a print at Society6.

Logo design by Justin Perricone and Ed Shems
Poster design by Ed Shems

On the PAC-MAN Facebook page, they have four looks from which to choose: A 3-D style and three (slightly different) cartoon styles.

I’m not convinced any of them are exactly right but much depends on what sort of look the new game will have (for example, the ghosts and color palette in D look eerie) and how far NAMCO is willing to stray from the original PAC-MAN game.

You can take the survey here: https://www.facebook.com/pacman/app_127709503932081

That’s the question Justin Perricone and I wanted to explore on behalf of art directors and illustrators when we began putting together a panel discussion for June 27, 2012. The event, titled The Art Director/Illustrator Relationship was co-sponsored by AIGA Boston, MassArt Office of Alumni Affairs and Rhode Island School of Design’s Alumni Relations.

A successful collaboration can make all the difference for the final product. It can win acclaim or, better still, create a final product that is relatable, balanced and beautiful to those who behold it.

But, much like a marriage, there’s a give and take involved where each creative must understand how the other functions best and allow them the space and feedback to create.

With the help of freelance designer and art director Jillfrances Gray, we created a laundry list of topics and questions to get the conversation going about the give and take in the relationship.

Scott Magoon: Illustrator & Art Director
First, we started with a wonderful children’s book illustrator, Scott Magoon, who also just so happens to be an art director at a large publishing house, Houghton Mifflin. Scott is the illustrator and writer/illustrator of a growing number of kid’s books and his style is both playful and engaging. Scott agreed to join our panel to represent both sides of the coin.

Ann Stott: Art Director
Ann joined us next. She is an art director at Candlewick Press and has collaborated on a number of award-winning kid’s books including the Caldecott Honor book, Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein and The New York Times Best Seller, I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen, as well as the Judy Moody series by Megan McDonald.

George Restrepo: Art Director
George is a freelance graphic designer and art director and in this capacity has worked with a number of clients for whom he has collaborated with an even greater number of illustrators. He previously was an art director for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and the Improper Bostonian before moving on to a full-time freelance career.

Rob Dubé: Art Director
Rob is a senior art director at Hasbro, where he leads a team of art directors, graphic designers and freelance designers tasked with developing visual brand executions for Hasbro Games. He has led teams working on such brands as G.I. Joe, Star Wars, Nerf, Mighty Muggs, and Beyblade.

Ed Shems: Illustrator & Moderator
I’ve been a freelance illustrator for 21 years, having worked with art directors in a large variety of industries from books to magazines, comic books to board games and small restaurants to major brands.

But even after all that, I still have questions about how it should all work.

• What are an art director’s expectations of an illustrator and vice versa?
• How do Art Directors and Illustrators find each other?
• How should they communicate and exchange necessary information?
• What if an illustrator does not meet his/her deadline? What contingencies are put in place?
• Without naming names, what disastrous collaborations can you recount and what made them so bad?
• What do aspiring art directors need to know?

To start off the night, introductions were made and then the questions began- first from me, then from the audience and a couple from the panelists themselves. You’re probably reading this article because you’re interested in the conversation that unfolded and the answers provided by the panelists, so without any further ado, this is some of what was talked about:

• Some art directors find illustrators through self-promo mailers and some online. Some check out agent websites. Some companies have art resource coordinators (or a similar title) to whom an illustrator should send samples.

• Ann said something interesting that stuck: ADs will come across you on Facebook and they’ll know pretty quickly if you’re not a nice person based on what you say online. So beware! (And be nice!)

• If you’re even thinking about kinda-sorta-maybe working freelance for Hasbro, you should first register as a vendor here: http://vendors.hasbro.com/. Hasbro art directors cannot use a vendor who has not been registered. Anyone can register and you only need to do it once. However, you can update your “listing’s” three portfolio pieces whenever you want.

• Deadlines: Often an AD will buffer the deadlines in case the illustrator is late. On occasion (and this is a rarity among ADs), Rob will commission the same work to two illustrators if he’s working with a newbie. This is just to insure that the work will be done on time.

• How hands-on an art director will be depends on a few factors but ultimately; If there is a previous relationship (proven trust) between the AD and the illustrator.

• At this point, with the web connecting us all, it doesn’t matter where the illustrator is located. It may work to your advantage (or disadvantage) to work with someone in a different time zone. If you’re ahead of them, it buys you an extra couple of hours. If you’re on the west coast with a New York deadline today, you’ve got 3 fewer hours…

• Best way to build your relationship with an art director is to hit your deadlines.

• How should aspiring art directors rack up some experience? Spend some time working for an AD and take on as much responsibilities as you can. Get used to dealing constructively with problems. Work as a designer and get used to the give and take when collaborating. Learn and grow from the experience.

• How does a freelance AD get new work? Network on social media (Facebook and Linked-In are George’s top recommendations). Makes it easier to contact people.

• Get a membership in a design organization (and attend events) to surround yourself with other like-minded creative people. Look for mentors/mentoring opportunities.

• How do you get work through Facebook? George uses his photo buckets as a portfolio. He uses his personal FB page (which is turning into more of a business page) and his work sparks conversations.

• Do you need to get permission from clients to post/promote the work you do? Yes. Call the art director and ask. You have to be especially cognizant when it’s a job that doesn’t see print/web for 6 months (or more!). You cannot show that work until it’s out in public in most cases.

• Art Directors appreciate it when someone is easy to work with and that is one thing that makes them return with new projects. Getting your files right is also helpful as well as keeping to a deadline. Stay in constant contact- even if you fall behind in the work- remember that you’re collaborating.

• Illustrators: “Be a delight to work with!” (Jokingly stated by Scott Magoon- but a very true statement.) Be open to AD’s suggestions- try what they suggest (unless you detest it! Or perhaps, even still). Maybe it’ll work out great, but if nothing else the AD appreciates that you tried. You’ll be building good will while building a good relationship.

• Rob says it’s ok to be a “pain in the ass” as long as there’s a ‘but’. “He’s a pain in the ass BUT he always hits his dates.” This is not true for many (most?) ADs.

• Leave your ego at the door.

• George said it’s important to be a fearless problem-solver.

• ADs don’t mind working with a rep although they recognize it ends up costing more. But often it’s good to have someone else on your side trying to get the artist to hit his deadlines.

• Scott shared a story: An artist representative pointed out to a rep-less Scott that book publishers have a whole crew behind them while illustrators often have only themselves. So a rep is a good person to help you watch your back and look over your contracts. That person became Scott’s rep.

• Generally, Art Directors don’t want you to call them to follow up from a promotion. If the piece is right, then you’ll get a call. Of course, it’s all about timing and a piece might be passed over one day and “just what we’re looking for!” the next because it happens to show up when a job requiring that style is at the top of the queue.

• SCBWI is a great place to network and meet/talk with Art Directors. Ditto Comic Cons.

The panel discussion was tremendously helpful to all those who attended and we are thankful to Scott, Ann, George and Rob who so graciously agreed to relate their experiences and offer advice.

Please leave a comment or question.

You can see photos from this event on Flickr

September 29, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Here are the details:

Screen Printing 2 Workshop 
Set a digital print and a screen print of the same imagery side by side and you will see a world of difference between them. Screen printing makes available the kind of layering techniques that graphic designers know from Photoshop but the resultant print is infinitely more tactile and alluring. This workshop will focus on creating multi-layered, many colored screen prints. Working with multiple variations, images can be juxtaposed to create dramatic effects and bring unexpected meaning and results to the work. The emphasis will be on mixing transparent colors and overprinting them. Attendees will be provided with guidelines for image creation and materials on which to print.

Screen printing is one of the most popular, versatile, and accessible methods of printmaking. Renowned printmaker and instructor, Liz Shepherd, will lead this all-day workshop with an intro to multi-layering. We’ll then prep screens and print the art you provide. Bring whatever paper you’d like, garments or other fabric for printing. You will leave the session with prints of your own work as well as the completed screen to continue printing at home. Liz will also focus on techniques and materials that will allow you to take your newfound skills into the home studio.

This event is open to anyone with a basic understanding of screen printing. If you did not attend our last class that is fine.

RSVP NOW! Space is limited

This exclusive workshop is an all-day event and is strictly limited to the first 12 RSVPs. After registering, you’ll be given instructions on providing a design that will be ready for you when you arrive at the studio. We will have a 30-minute break for lunch- please bring a bagged lunch. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Free parking is available.

Fee includes printing materials. Fee does not include paper or fabric on which to print. If you need a screen, the additional cost for a 20 x 24 aluminum screen is $35 (please purchase at Eventbrite).

You can sign up at Eventbrite for our Screen Printing 2 Workshop

Some of the shirts that were printed during the first workshop

From President/COO Matt Hawkins:

“We are looking to hire two writers and two artists to do paid work for the company in 2013/2014. The goal of the Talent Hunt is to find two previously UNPUBLISHED writers and artists and give them a chance to expose their work to the comic industry in the printed and digital formats. The comics industry is an awesome one to work in… both Marc Silvestri and I thought about this and realized that at some point someone gave us a chance. We’re looking to do the same for a few people.”

There are a bunch of guidelines such as- DON’T send them drawings of Batman. They want to see you draw THEIR characters.

“You need to submit art samples and story samples ONLY based on these characters listed (below). Any submissions that do NOT feature these characters or that feature these characters AND other characters* not on this list will not be reviewed and the submission discarded. I’m willing to bet that most of the submissions we receive will be for Tom Judge. If you want to stand out, try one of the others.”

Sabine (Wheel of Shadows)
Glorianna Silver (The Ember Stone)
Michael Finnegan (The Glacier Stone)
Ian Nottingham (Blood Sword)
Ji Xi ( 13th artifact)
Pandora’s Box wielder TBD
Tom Judge (Rapture)

The talent search will run through 12/31/12 and no decisions will be made until after that date so they strongly urge you to take your time.

The Rules and Requirements

Submission Form

Good luck!

*For clarification on “other characters” please see the comments below

If you’re a graphic designer like me, you’re probably thinking the same thing I am- at least they didn’t use Comic Sans.

But they were kind enough to put a smiley face…

Illustrators and art directors came from all around the country, and some from different countries, to learn, network, and schmooze with their fellow illustrators from June 13–16, at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in downtown Providence.

There were pre-conference workshops that split up the attendees into classrooms to cover character design, artistic anatomy, Adobe’s Creative Cloud, writing for comics, and self promotion. And there was even a soccer game. Those mini events were just preludes to the full conference where everyone was together in the main ‘tent’ (auditorium).

SooJin Buzelli reviews the promos she has received with attendees of her workshop

Art Director SooJin Buzelli’s workshop, Art Director’s Pet Peeves, is worth singling out for the sheer amount of useful advice she offered:

• Don’t post the image you created for a client on your blog until the printed piece has come out (better yet- check in with the Art Director for her okay). Ditto for printing postcard promos.

• Include your phone number on your website.

• Include contact info/website link at the end of every email.


• Sketches should not be in the wrong proportions.

• Watch out for misspellings.

SooJin Buzelli by edfredned


• If you have to move your mouse to click the forward arrow on a portfolio website then there’s a problem.


• Don’t do a contact form on your website. An actual email address is preferred.

• Your portfolio thumbnails should be representative of the full piece- not just a tiny portion of it.


• Websites should be iPad and iPhone friendly, with no flash.

• Send your invoice on time. And include an image of the artwork on the invoice if possible.

At the conclusion of her talk, SooJin poured out two week’s worth of mail and went through each promo postcard and explained why she was placing it on the save or recycle pile.

Drawn Together

Drawn Together was the theme for ICON7, and many of the workshops, presentations, and panels embraced the importance of collaboration. And not just collaboration between two illustrators but between illustrators and whomever could help them meet the needs of their clients in order to take a project from start to finish.

Illustrator to Animator: Christopher Silas Neal talked about pitching an animated short to Kate Spade. Once it was approved, he had to find someone to help him make the animation and score it.

Josh Cochran talks about the 33 models he drew in two days

Illustrators to the Public: Josh Cochran and his studio-mate Mike Perry drew 33 different amateur models (friends, art directors, Craigslisters) for twelve straight hours on two consecutive days at five minutes a pose. They then hung up the hundreds (and hundreds) of illustrations for a very successful show. (They also pitched collecting the illustrations in a book but the idea didn’t get picked up.) You can see many of the final illustrations at http://nudesbyjoshandmike.tumblr.com/

Illustrator to Teacher and Students to Video Producers: Kiel Johnson told an amazing story of begrudgingly teaching a friend’s art class and coming away with a final collaboration of which he is incredibly proud. You can see the trailer for the video that was created at http://vimeo.com/27064566.

Illustrator to Writer: Wife and husband team Robbi Behr and Matthew Swanson of the small press Idiot Books left their normal lives to live in a hayloft with no kitchen and write and draw quirky books for adults until the money ran out. They talked about the importance of doggedness and how it kept them going. For instance, by attending trade shows when they would rather be working, new opportunities were presented to them by certain show attendees. Six years later, they’re still going and now venturing into the children’s genre.

Tommy Lee Edwards talks about his work for comic books and movies

Illustrator to Filmmaker: Tommy Lee Edwards talked about designing and illustrating on-set to help a director firm his vision of a movie’s visuals during preproduction. A lot of the moodiness of The Book of Eli (2010) can be attributed to Edwards. And if Masters of the Universe ever gets off the ground, expect a very cool Edwards-inspired origin for He-Man.

ICON President John Hendrix explained that illustration is collaborative: “Stop thinking of ourselves as Han Solo (boasting about the Kessel Run) but as a contributor to the Rebel Alliance.”

UNDERWIRED

At this time it’s important to talk about ICON6. For those who missed it in 2010 and didn’t get to see Wired Magazine’s presentation on the Future of Publishing panel (you can still find it online), much was said of the death of illustration as a static art and the absolute need to move on to motion graphics. As an illustrator of 20 years, I remember the position I took right away on this premise and it was as close as a guy in his forties can get to the fetal position. And I certainly wasn’t the only one—many illustrators were beside themselves with outrage (and angst).

Fast forward to ICON7 in 2012, where a number of presenters knocked down Wired’s premise. My favorite quote came from Tim O’Brien (his realistic Charlie Brown is eerie): “If something moves, we start watching and stop thinking.” Illustration is illustration and there will always be a need for images that every viewer gets to interpret in his/her own way. Go ahead and make your images move, but the impact and the market is not the same for motion as for illustration (with exceptions).

Kickstart, Behance and Etsy representatives discuss the power of collaboration

The Thursday night Keynote was “The Power of Communities” featuring Kickstarter, Behance, and Etsy, who all offered words of advice on putting yourself out there in as many ways as you are comfortable and capable.

Make Your Own Work

As the conference continued, another informal theme, Make Your Own Work, was introduced by other speakers:

Illustrator Bob Staake talks about how he works and how sometimes the version you prefer of your book cover is not the one that gets used

Bob Staake is a children’s book illustrator, as well as a hotly sought-after editorial illustrator with a growing number of magazine covers (most significantly The New Yorker) sporting his work. However, 75-80% of Bob’s work is self-generated. In other words, he’s not sitting around waiting for assignments to come to him—he’s creating and pitching all the time.

Jessica Hische (look up her poster Should I Work for Free) is extremely motivated. “Learn what you need to learn to make what you want to make,” is what she lives by. She believes that you should look for gaps and try to fill them. When you hear yourself say “Somebody should invent/do that,” you should do it yourself—which is why she created InkerLinker.com and DontFeartheInternet.com.

Some examples from the 'Zines workshop

In a 90-minute workshop, Josh Cochran and Christopher Silas Neal showed us how to quickly construct and illustrate our own ‘Zines (see photos), get them photocopied, and get them out to people which could lead to… who knows?

Julia Rothman talked about starting out creating textile prints to sell at shows and quickly realized that there’s more (royalty) money to be made in licensing. And she retains ownership of her work!

The 99%

At times it got a little depressing to hear many of the same illustrators mentioned during different presentations by the likes of Rolling Stone, Abrams Publishing, and others. But take heart if you are not one of the elite. Adam Rex, somewhat tongue in cheek, offered an inspirational poster with a photo of a catfish captioned “Aim Low: They Wouldn’t Call it Bottom-Feeding if There Wasn’t Any Food Down There.” The context was that he was trying to break into children’s publishing without much of a portfolio of work for the field, so he found publishers who were not very discerning and this led to other, more prominent work. From this we can learn—and also take comfort—that each opportunity will lead us to the next.

Lynda Barry and Matt Groening's keynote on Writing Comics in the 21st Century

Matt Groening appears as Marge Simpson

What had to be the highlight for nearly every ICON7 attendee amid a large number of noteworthy presentations was the keynote given by Lynda Barry with her special guest, Matt Groening, creator of Life in Hell and The Simpsons (he walked out in a Marge Simpson mask). The title of her talk was “Writing Comics in the 21^st Century,” but what we were all treated to was something between fantastic storytelling, stand-up comedy, and inspirational speaking. And that was just Lynda. Groening, who was Barry’s boyfriend in college and has remained a very close friend, let us take a look at a number of his Life in Hell cartoons (which he and Lynda so entertainingly brought to life). Then they both talked about productivity, why Lynda loves Family Circus, when sometimes a job just isn’t worth doing, and most importantly the power we have as visual artists to create work that elicits a response from the viewer and allows us to express ourselves.

The Bazaar Rhode Show

The Bazaar Rhode Show

At the conclusion of the day on Friday was the Bazaar Rhode Show, where attendees could elect to showcase their work and, just as importantly, sell their wares. On display and for sale were comics, mugs, graphic novels, collections of work, prints, shirts, jewelry and greeting cards. And I must add, I was very impressed with the very professional-looking set-ups and the excellent quality of the items for sale.

In Conclusion

I’m proud to report that illustration is alive and well; individually, we need to keep working on finding the jobs we want to do. And we shouldn’t be afraid of getting in too deep—you can always collaborate with someone who can fill in the gaps. Membership in an organization such as the Graphic Artists Guild and participating in events is a great way to network and meet creative professionals with different abilities.

As illustrator/type designer Jessica Hische (have you checked out her sites yet??) said: “Do what you do best and delegate the rest.”

Almost all modern creative professionals quite literally live and die by their computers. We design, illustrate, edit photos and do research on them. And where does all this information end up? On a hard drive. A piece of equipment that’s eventually going to die and render all that hard work useless. That is, unless you have a backup plan.

While it’s incredibly easy for a lifetime of work to be lost to a failed spinning metallic platter, it’s also equally easy to infinitely copy that same body of work.The first part of your backup plan needs to be a local backup. This comes in the form of an external hard drive. Unlike internal drives, there’s no configuration or installation. Just plug in the USB cable and you’re got a new hard drive. NewEgg.com (my go-to for all things electronic) has a range of drives with most 1TB drives under $100 and 2TB drives nearing closer to $150.

Along with this new drive, you’re going to need some software to do the backups for you. Both Mac and Windows users have utilities built into their OS that will do the dirty work for them  on a regular, scheduled basis. Macs have Time Machine and that’s pretty much the beginning and end of your needs. It’s a robust, but simple to use application that runs stealthily so you’ll never know it’s working until you need it. Windows machines also have a built in back-up utility that you’ll find in your control panel. One of my favorite third party apps is CrashPlan. Aside from cloud backup (which we’ll get to), it allows you to back-up to local drives as well as a friend’s remote drive. All for free.

At this point you’ve got two copies for your stuff: one on the main hard drive and one on the backup. Should be good right? Not quite. These two hard drives are still sitting right next to each other. This means floods, leaks, hurricanes, power surges, and thieves can wreak havoc on ALL your data. Francis Ford Coppola learned this the hard way. For this reason, you need to keep a remote back-up.

The old school way of doing this was burning everything to CDs or DVDs or copying to a removable drive and putting them in a safe deposit box or at a friend or relative’s house. Kind of a pain and you’ll always have a gap between what’s backed up and what you’re currently working on.

This is where cloud back-up comes in. There are a number of services that do just this. Many have limits on upload or are pay-as-you-go. I like the unlimited options. For around $5 a month or around $50 a year you can get unlimited storage from companies such as Carbonite or BackBlaze. But my money is on CrashPlan.

This is the same company I mentioned above. Not only do they have great backup software, they have equally awesome service for as little as $3 a month if you buy a few years’ worth (which I did when they had a sale a year or so ago.) But no matter which you choose, you’ll have a small client that runs on your computer and constantly checks for changes and new files and just updates those files. One thing to know is that your first backup could take weeks. Yes, weeks. Depending on how much data you have to upload and how fast your connection is it could be a while until you know you’re truly secure.

There’s really no reason not to backup. You’ve got too much on the line to trust your files to products with a failure rate that sometimes tickles the double digits. Go get backed up!

Creative Relay has partnered with HOW Design Conference and we have a 4-day pass to give away!

This isn’t a national contest. We have a pass that we want to give you. Drawing is on Monday, June 18. Enter today!

Get more info or our $100 discount code

Enter to Win a FREE HDC Registration!

5. Never, ever, ever agree to work for stuff like cigarettes. Newsflash- they’re really bad for you (who knew!?). Work for something more useful, like a set of All-clad LTD pots, an open tab at a local watering hole, cheese, or my favorite – wine. Working in trade is exceptionally beneficial to illustrators – many of us have very little overhead- wink wink- who’s really making out here? Time is money, but it can also be a Cabernet! But really, if you have to work for trade, be sure to come up with a fair value for your work and get the equivalent in trade in return. Maybe more. I mean, stores and restaurants have mark-ups so in the end it costs them less money in cheese than your bill.

4. Never burn a bridge. I know sometimes you really, really want to, and you’d do it in style- douse it in gasoline, duct tape fireworks to it and light up the sky like it’s the 4th of July. But make sure you realize you can never go back there again. Ever. Even if, say, ten years from now, you’re desperate for work and decide to go back into that extremely small industry and the potential employer just had lunch with that, uh, “bridge”… Old Walt is right: It’s a small, small world.

3. Never let yourself have a vague idea of what you’re worth. Know what your hourly rate is going to be before you get on the phone with a new client- write it down so that when you’re mid-conversation you don’t totally wimp out and feel bad for them because they have no budget, but they love your work (they’ll feed your ego until you have to butter your head to fit it through a doorway). Because the next thing you know, you’ve agreed to work for $20/hour with 5 rounds of revisions, a color study and two-dozen flippin’ chocolate chip cookies thrown in for good measure. You’ll get off the phone feeling empty, alone, dizzy, and still broke with an expression on your face that says, “What-the-BLEEP just happened?”

2. Never work for family. Even extended family. You’re too busy to illustrate a damn choo-choo on a wall for Aunt Linda’s cousin’s boyfriend’s kid. For crying out loud, it’s not even his kid.

And lastly…

1. Never ignore the red flags:

• “Are you sure this design is the right size? When I hold my ruler to my computer screen, it’s way off.”
• “The owner’s wife doesn’t think this has enough pizzazz. She wants to work with you directly.”
• “The owner wants you to show his teenage daughter how to use Adobe Illustrator so that we can make revisions in-house.”
• “We don’t need you to spend that much time on it- just get some clip art.”
• “An extra $100 to typeset the page? Nah- we’ll just do it here.”

………………………

About Lisa

From wall murals to gift products, Lisa’s accomplishments are as diverse as her clients. Her designs can be found in Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Macy’s as well as being featured on blogs such as theydrawandtravel.com/, and theydrawandcook.com/.

http://lisagravesdesign.blogspot.com/

Lisa will be a guest panelist at Creative Relay’s upcoming event: Reinventing the Illustrator on July 25, 2012.

Our first event with our new partner roster will be The Art Director/Illustrator Relationship on June 27. This event will delve into what makes the collaboration between an Art Director and an Illustrator good and what it takes to make it great. We are so appreciative of our partners and the assistance they have given us by spreading the word about the content we have to offer to the creative community.

If you’re an AIGA member or a MassArt or RISD alum, look for the discounted rates for our events. More importantly- look forward to networking, mingling and learning with the creative community.

1. First, get it in your head that you need to always be thinking whether or not what you’re working on is “portfolio-worthy.” Create a folder and drop JPGs or PDFs to use or just to remind you.

2. Now, you wouldn’t be months (or, ahem, years) behind on your update if you followed tip one. So tip two is to go through your client files. Go through each and see what jobs you were really fond of and might make a good addition.

3. Don’t be afraid to “fake it.” Did the client make a decision you didn’t really agree with? Skip back a version and show that. Unless it’s something that’s instantly recognizable, you’re the only one who’s going to know. It’s better to receive praise on your work than constantly having to explain how the client made some odd choices.

4. As with nearly all creative pursuits, less is more. We don’t need to see an example of every type of work you’ve ever done, just a nice assortment of the good stuff. Don’t bother adding in milquetoast postcards, a bad political cartoon, or ugly, artsy shots simply to prove you have experience with them. A good portfolio will stand on its own.

5. Work on your online portfolio first. You can fit a lot more on your web site than your book. Use it as a first step in whittling down what you think is the best stuff.

6. Get a simple portfolio. Yes, that book you made for your senior thesis made of barbed wire and 2x4s is really eye catching, but if you can’t easily swap pages out, it’s essentially useless. Find one with 11×14” or 11×17” pages. That way you can print off new work as you do it and just slip it right in there.

7. Lastly, have a pocket for examples of folding pieces. It’s much better to have a client physically engaging with a project rather than trying to explain how that book actually folds. If you have a few extras, leave one behind with a business card!

Remember, as a creative your portfolio is your livelihood. Good ones get work. Bad ones get overlooked. Hopefully, this is the “kick in the pants” you need to get yours into shape.

Photo by schoschie. CC BY.

Keynote Speaker Dan Hunter sketched on an iPad using the 53 Paper App (http://www.fiftythree.com/)

The Keynote was given by writer/humorist Dan Hunter who spoke on How to Navigate the Creative Economy.

Helena Fruschio, the Massachusetts Creative Economy Industry Director, gave a very lively and informative talk about the Massachusetts creative economy and how to tap into it to boost or supplement your business.

Our event description:

Ready, Set, Freelance
Get ready for a crash introduction into the wild and woolly world of freelancing. Creative Relay co-founders and long-time freelancers, Ed Shems and Justin Perricone, will provide guidance on how to navigate the potential pitfalls and rewards of working as a freelance creative professional. They’ll cover everything from the first conversations with clients to completing successful projects that keep them happy and can lead to more work. You’ll learn tips and suggestions on conducting first meetings with clients, developing contracts, handling project revisions, invoicing, and how to deal with difficult clients. You’ll begin to treat your freelance work like a business and become more confident in your ability to work with clients, while enjoying more success.

Admittedly, a crash-course in freelancing should take more than an hour to present but that’s all the time allotted so Justin and I hit the ground running with the following sections:

1. Starting Your Business
2. Finding Work
3. The Meeting
4. The Proposal
5. Time to Work
6. Approval & Delivery

We started simple: What’s your (business) name? Who is your audience? How will clients find you? We covered the topic of thinking like a consumer when it comes time for customer service, and then we talked about how important it is to have a contract (so you both know what to expect) and a sign-off (so anything that goes to print ultimately is the client’s responsibility).

Some other items that came up:

1. We love Twitter
2. FAB.com’s thank you (for your order) cards are really nice
3. Contracts and Terms in The Graphic Artists Guild’s Pricing and Ethical Guidelines Handbook
4. Get an Employee Identification Number (EIN)
5. Print portfolios: Blurb and iPhoto (among others) offer cheap leave-behind books
6. Behance Portfolios
7. Learn how to sell yourself (we did a recent blog post about this called Rock the Interview)
8. Swingers, the movie
9. Freelance Switch’s Hourly Rate Calculator
10. Good ideas need to simmer
11. Track your time and work smart
12. Have good communication with your client
13. Good service matters
14. Specialize. Get to know people who do things you don’t so you can offer more to your client without getting in over your head

And somehow we finished with 4 minutes to spare.

Check out the Harvard Business School’s Elevator Pitch Builder. It’s a little too high-brow but sort of fun. Google “Elevator Pitch” and a great number of resources will pop up.

Two weeks ago I received a call from the owner of a new restaurant who needed a logo. He had also put in a call to one other designer and he was going to compare our estimates. I had a long conversation with him during which I asked all of my usual questions (type of restaurant, location, preferences and more) and then I told him what I could do for him. I talked about the types of files I would provide him and that I would even include a logo file for Facebook (something he didn’t have on his radar yet but knew it would come in very handy). When I described to him how I would (legitimately) solve all of his logo problems so he could concentrate on opening his restaurant, he gave me the job right then and there.

Some tips to stay ahead of the next guy/gal:

By phone:

• Answer with authority so they know they called the right place.
• Allow the caller to talk while you actively listen.
• Take notes. You’ll need them later.
• Ask questions that show you grasp the problem that needs solving.
• Explain how you can solve this person’s problem and exceed their expectations.

By email:

• Spell-check and re-read your reply before you send it.
• Recognize that you are being hired to solve a problem for your client and communicate what you will do for him/her.
• Respond to email inquiries within a reasonable amount of time.
• Ask questions. The questions you ask will tell your potential client whether you understand the problem.

In an elevator, café, store, bar, restroom, party, marathon…

• Get your elevator pitch just right and marvel at the irony if you actually get to deliver it in an elevator.

Whether you’re a photographer, illustrator, designer, copywriter, caterer or dog-walker, figure out how to rock the interview. It’ll put you ahead of your competition.

Image © 2012 edfredned

They’re YOUR client! Provide them with the services AND materials they want. How? It’s simple:

1. Start a relationship with a trade printer

Sometimes they’re called wholesale printers. They’re large printing companies that do high quality printing at low prices. How? Because they don’t have a sales team, they have you. You bring them the jobs and they run them for you at a price you can mark up. If you look hard enough, you can find 1000 full-color business cards for $20 shipped. If your client was looking to spend $100+ anyway, let them order through you and for $80 they’ve got a deal, no hassle because they’ve worked with you and you just pocketed $60 for work you were probably going to end up doing anyway. Google “trade printer” or “wholesale printer” to find one you like or ask your peers on Twitter or Facebook.

2. Mark up your work when you deal with vendors

It seems strange that a lot of designers don’t think to do this. It doesn’t have to be exorbitant, but a flat fee on top of the design helps defray the time you spend searching around for the best prices for the gross of floppy frisbees your client needs for a tradeshow. Time is money.

3. Make connections with local vendors

Google local promo companies and printers and ask for catalogs and samples. This will put you directly in contact with someone there. So next time you have a client that needs something, you don’t have to pack up their files and wish them luck. You can say, “Actually, I have a contact at Acme in Springfield and they make great coasters.” Right there you’ve become an asset to your client and can not only continue your business relationship, but can make some money off of it, too.

It may feel kind of shady to ask your client if they need services like these, but think about it from their perspective: You just designed them the perfect logo and business card and they want it printed right! What’s the sense in turning them away when you know what needs to get done and the best people for the job? Besides, think of the hell of finding out your client wants you to send files to their new favorite vendor… VISTAPRINT! (Not our favorite place.)

Caveat: There is one thing we should note: When you’re in charge of getting the printing done, it’s on you. Be sure to read the printer’s Art Submission Guidelines and ask questions if you don’t understand something. Make sure your file is prepped correctly, the colors are specified, the quantity is correct, the paper is right and the job is on-schedule. If the printer makes a mistake, they should reprint the job at no additional cost. If you make a mistake, it’s all up to you to make good. So cross those “t”s and dot your “i”s. Oh, and make sure your client has signed off on the job.