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ICON5 (Part 1)
BY
Andrea Innocent
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page
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ICON 5 – The Big Picture NYC July 2nd to 6th, 2008
(Part One)
by Andrea Innocent
My posse, Beck Wheeler, Oslo Davis and I, left Melbourne on the last day of June, boarding planes for New York via Tokyo. It took around 27 hours, including transfers or as I like to put it 12 movies, 4 plane meals and 4 chats to strangers sitting next to us later, we arrived in New York.
Top L - R: Roosevelt Hotel Room, Beck Wheeler & Oslo Davis
After a taxi ride in which I hummed George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ we finally arrived at the Roosevelt Hotel excited and exhausted, we welcomed the clean linen and giant American sized beds and promptly fell asleep.
Day one of the conference, Wednesday 2nd, we all headed down to register for ICON 5 and receive our official shoulder bags of illustration goodness.
Due to my inclusion in the Roadshow: Icon 5 Portfolio Salon, along with Beck, that night I decided against attending the Sketchcrawl organized by my ‘idol’ the talented ‘Enrico Casarosa, I did manage to get his autograph and be stupidly star struck by him some days later however, but more about that later. So we both headed upstairs to count postcards and rearrange our portfolios for our gig later that night.
Enrico Casarosa
Sketchcrawl is a worldwide drawing marathon created by Pixar artist, Enrico Casarosa.
This trip was designed to get Icon 5 participants and illustrators in general a chance to get to sketch around NYC while networking prior to the conference itself.
We did manage to head down later in the afternoon to “Drawing Strength: A Symposium on the Benefits of Illustration Organizations” and am so glad we did.
Andrew Coningsby, Rod Hunt, Anders Suneson and Terry Brown fronted the panel, which happily ended up being more of an intimate chat than a formal talk due to the smaller audience. We discussed all things illustration organizations and their relevance in an increasingly global network. It was a great way to start the conference as it gave us an introduction to the other ‘foreign’ attendees, it also led to heated debate on the selection processes these organizations have in regards to their members.
It seemed there were similar problems over the globe with member participation and funding as well as justification of fees to members. I had really had no idea just how integral some of these organizations had been in creating and standing up for the rights of illustrators, especially long standing organizations like the AOI in the UK, and ‘The Society of Illustrators” in the US. Coming from Australia, I would like to see more illustration organizations from all over the world working together in order to increase dialogue on all levels as well as giving illustrators a chance to make comparisons and the share important information. There is power in numbers.
Roadshow: The ICON5 portfolio salon
Jet lag + nervous tension + having forked out considerate amounts of $$ to get there + shy illustrator + 2 large glasses of wine = Net working fiend.
Setting up at the Roadshow was a surreal experience, standing in the Grand Ballroom and surrounded by fellow illustrators and an open bar in the corner, everyone expectant and more than a little excited, or intoxicated, it really was hard to tell, mostly because I was intoxicated. Apart from when I had to run outside at 6.00pm to make sure I had my ICON 5 poster signed by Edel Rodriquez before he packed up, the two and a half hours sped by in a frenzy of business card and print promo exchange and questions and compliments. It was a blur and I am pretty sure I was smiling maniacally throughout it, that didn’t seem to scare people off however, another illustrator even commented on how we seemed to be the most popular table, I humbly put that down to our awesome table positioning however. I was able scramble a look at most of the other tables at the end and there was a lovely chaotic exchange of paper goods in the dying minutes as we all wanted to off load any unused promotional material to each other, only to find that on packing up you had accumulated more than you had handed out. (I had to buy a second suitcase just for books and flyers alone).
In regards to the experience itself, I heard mixed reviews from the other attendees, it would seem that the success of these networking ventures are hard to judge and it would seem it is also dependent on your opinion of success.
Those whose work I highly recommend you look out for are : Benjamin Marra, Huan Tran, Sabine Gebhart, Matt Hebermehl, Sara Antoinette Martin, and Zaara of Kittenchops.
Thursday July 3
Jet lag hits me hard, I power down the street in search of caffeine. Although there are some truly amazing tours taking place in the morning, such as NYC Studio and Art Department Tour, Children’s Book Tour and the Society of Illustrators and Illustration House Tour, I opt for a wander around Central Park, sorry… I couldn’t resist. The sun was shining, the nannies were out and the grass was so enticingly green and the trees so big, the carousal so speedy, it was just so picture book lovely. It took all my strength to get up and get the subway back to the Roosevelt.
I hadn’t managed to get a ticket to the James Jean Digital colouring workshop, but did manage to sneak a peak at ‘The power of personalized promotion’ talk by Jeff Moores.
Later that afternoon we had the Opening Ceremony and President’s Welcome followed by the opening keynote by Stanley Hainsworth; there is not much this guy hasn’t done from Global Creative director of Nike, Lego and Starbucks to his own creative company, Tether. This guy knew his stuff, and no demographic is safe from his marketing genius.
After a brief message from Steven Heller, Gregory Nemec and James Yang then treated us to an interesting video. They brought together the stories of seven illustrators who have uprooted themselves from their hometowns and headed abroad to experience creative life far a field. It was so good to hear that other creatives had had the proverbial itchy feet and found that inspiration can truly come from anywhere. Michael Bartalos definitely caught my eye as he too had taken the trip to the land of the rising sun to satisfy his thirst for all things Japanese.
We had time for a brief costume change and then yet another trip down the clunky lift to the opening night reception with music from The Half-Tones, a band made up of illustrators, it was a relatively frigid crowd to begin with but an hour in there were some brave souls on the dance floor, illustrators are not really known for their dancing skills, however I did feel that some managed to dispel this myth somewhat.
From here we headed over to the New York Times Gallery 7 opening of poster art by the German illustrator Berning Wagenbreth. I can’t tell you the high we were on as we flashed our ID’s in the foyer and were whisked upstairs to the offices of the New York Times Art Department, I sculled three plastic cups of wine and pursued small talk with lots of other illustrators all google eyed at the work and their location in space and time at that very moment. It was well capped off by a sweaty and way too visually stimulating walk down Broadway landing us in Times Square where a giant replica of Eddy Murphy’s head was being photographed by crowds of people, apparently part of some kind of movie promotion. I didn’t go inside Eddy’s head but I couldn’t resist being photographed in front of it.
Friday, July 4th
I blame the plethora of channels on American TV, soft beds and the excellence of the light blocking curtains in the room, as we managed to sleep in a little longer than the morning before, but quickly got our duds on when the prospect of free breakfast was mentioned by one of us.
We were downstairs in time to grab coffee and pastries and head in to the ‘Daily news with Nona; Things you need to know’
Nona is a character created by the cartoonist Victoria Roberts, reminiscent of a Barry Humphries style character performance, Nona was a delightfully rude, but well meaning, ironic, but more often sarcastic, women with a grating Australian accent. It was fun to wait for the delayed audience reaction on her performance and joke telling and it made me feel at home for a brief moment in time.
Next up was Mitch Nash, who is the creative director of Blu Q, the company that has brought you such classics such as the cat butt magnet, and bath products such as Miso Pretty and dirty girl. Blu Q’s extensive use of illustration on it’s products was inspiring to see, very often the concepts have been driven by the illustrators style and imagery and it was good to see such collaborations in the gift industry where sometimes minimalist design and photography are the norm. I found Mitch’s sense of humour, which can be found in his products, showed throughout in his talk and was thus was captivated to the very end.
After lunch the breakout sessions began, I grabbed a seat in the Grand Ballroom again to listen to animators Enrico Casarosa and Ronnie Del Carmen’s talk on ‘Tall tales and Simple Stories: Great Storytelling’. Enrico spoke of the inertia of drawing and of how he brought Sketchcrawl to life through personal experience, too often on trips or in daily life our sketchbook gets left in our bag and ideas and potential illustrations can be lost forever if not acted upon.
Great technique can really only be achieved with relentless practice and the practice of ‘thinking through drawing’ can create some truly original and wonderful ideas. Both gave an insight into the fantastical day job that is working for Pixar. The audience was asked to tell each other stories of when they were lost and we were able to see just how cinematic and descriptive you can become when asked to entertain others. I was also reminded of just how important it is to observe the world around you, something Pixar imitates with such accuracy that you can often forget that Nemo was in fact a fish!
After the talk I lined up with my copy of ‘Three Trees Make a Forest’ to get it signed by Enrico, I was so star struck and flustered once I got there I managed to drop my bag of books on the floor and hurriedly pick them up like a shy schoolgirl right in front of him. I also managed to get an Enrico tattoo done for my mascot Arare chan (see pic). Go Arare!
I also highly recommend that you add this one to your RSS feed: this is the blog of the Totoro Forest Project, which is a project Enrico is working on, it is a fund raising exhibition/auction to support the national trust Totoro Forest Foundation that Oscar winning film maker Hayao Miyazaki has been helping over the years, featuring original art created by internationally acclaimed artists in the fields of animation, comic books, and illustration. There are some truly inspirational pieces being uploaded daily and proceeds of the auction go to an extremely worthy cause, protecting Totoro’s forest!
Later that afternoon I dropped into the talk, ‘Come Together; Networking pioneers’ with Robert Zimmerman and my personal favourite Keri Smith. Keri gave great insights into the benefits of collaborations with other illustrators and how they can lead to wonderful new projects and can often take on a life of their own, leading you down paths you would never have expected them to have taken you.
Across the Pond: The British Perspective
Louisa Saint Pierre, Stephen Bliss and Andrew Coningsby gave a rundown of the style of work currently being created in the UK. They also gave advice on markets beyond the US and the UK and how to tap into these. I was very interested to hear that Stephen had worked for Hysteric Glamour, a wonderful fashion label from Japan known for its dynamic and clever print work. They also showed a slideshow of work from VAROOM magazine, now being produced by members of AOI. The future of illustration and new markets opening up where also discussed, illustration as a commodity is valued by larger corporations, whilst one man bands like Tristan Eaton are making and creating their own products and networks for audiences, who have gone unrecognised by others with less of an ‘ear to the ground’ in regards to market predictions. It was also very interesting to hear the difference in pay rates across the world, which reminded me of why I got on the plane in the first place, Australia rates much lower than both the UK and the US. I also rediscovered the differences between American culture and UK culture (of course much closer to my own) and the pros and cons of both. I also came to covet the job title of ‘taste maker’, just for the name really.
Tune in to Andrea's final conclusion for ICON5 here!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICON5
New York City
2 - 6 July 2008
Photos and text courtesy of Andrea Innocent
TAXI Design Network is honored to have been in New York City on 2-6 July 2008 to partake in this exciting event.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2003-2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
(Part One)
by Andrea Innocent
My posse, Beck Wheeler, Oslo Davis and I, left Melbourne on the last day of June, boarding planes for New York via Tokyo. It took around 27 hours, including transfers or as I like to put it 12 movies, 4 plane meals and 4 chats to strangers sitting next to us later, we arrived in New York.
Top L - R: Roosevelt Hotel Room, Beck Wheeler & Oslo Davis
After a taxi ride in which I hummed George Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’ we finally arrived at the Roosevelt Hotel excited and exhausted, we welcomed the clean linen and giant American sized beds and promptly fell asleep.
Day one of the conference, Wednesday 2nd, we all headed down to register for ICON 5 and receive our official shoulder bags of illustration goodness.
Due to my inclusion in the Roadshow: Icon 5 Portfolio Salon, along with Beck, that night I decided against attending the Sketchcrawl organized by my ‘idol’ the talented ‘Enrico Casarosa, I did manage to get his autograph and be stupidly star struck by him some days later however, but more about that later. So we both headed upstairs to count postcards and rearrange our portfolios for our gig later that night.
Enrico Casarosa
Sketchcrawl is a worldwide drawing marathon created by Pixar artist, Enrico Casarosa.
This trip was designed to get Icon 5 participants and illustrators in general a chance to get to sketch around NYC while networking prior to the conference itself.
We did manage to head down later in the afternoon to “Drawing Strength: A Symposium on the Benefits of Illustration Organizations” and am so glad we did.
Andrew Coningsby, Rod Hunt, Anders Suneson and Terry Brown fronted the panel, which happily ended up being more of an intimate chat than a formal talk due to the smaller audience. We discussed all things illustration organizations and their relevance in an increasingly global network. It was a great way to start the conference as it gave us an introduction to the other ‘foreign’ attendees, it also led to heated debate on the selection processes these organizations have in regards to their members.
It seemed there were similar problems over the globe with member participation and funding as well as justification of fees to members. I had really had no idea just how integral some of these organizations had been in creating and standing up for the rights of illustrators, especially long standing organizations like the AOI in the UK, and ‘The Society of Illustrators” in the US. Coming from Australia, I would like to see more illustration organizations from all over the world working together in order to increase dialogue on all levels as well as giving illustrators a chance to make comparisons and the share important information. There is power in numbers.
Roadshow: The ICON5 portfolio salon
Jet lag + nervous tension + having forked out considerate amounts of $$ to get there + shy illustrator + 2 large glasses of wine = Net working fiend.
Setting up at the Roadshow was a surreal experience, standing in the Grand Ballroom and surrounded by fellow illustrators and an open bar in the corner, everyone expectant and more than a little excited, or intoxicated, it really was hard to tell, mostly because I was intoxicated. Apart from when I had to run outside at 6.00pm to make sure I had my ICON 5 poster signed by Edel Rodriquez before he packed up, the two and a half hours sped by in a frenzy of business card and print promo exchange and questions and compliments. It was a blur and I am pretty sure I was smiling maniacally throughout it, that didn’t seem to scare people off however, another illustrator even commented on how we seemed to be the most popular table, I humbly put that down to our awesome table positioning however. I was able scramble a look at most of the other tables at the end and there was a lovely chaotic exchange of paper goods in the dying minutes as we all wanted to off load any unused promotional material to each other, only to find that on packing up you had accumulated more than you had handed out. (I had to buy a second suitcase just for books and flyers alone).
In regards to the experience itself, I heard mixed reviews from the other attendees, it would seem that the success of these networking ventures are hard to judge and it would seem it is also dependent on your opinion of success.
Those whose work I highly recommend you look out for are : Benjamin Marra, Huan Tran, Sabine Gebhart, Matt Hebermehl, Sara Antoinette Martin, and Zaara of Kittenchops.
Thursday July 3
Jet lag hits me hard, I power down the street in search of caffeine. Although there are some truly amazing tours taking place in the morning, such as NYC Studio and Art Department Tour, Children’s Book Tour and the Society of Illustrators and Illustration House Tour, I opt for a wander around Central Park, sorry… I couldn’t resist. The sun was shining, the nannies were out and the grass was so enticingly green and the trees so big, the carousal so speedy, it was just so picture book lovely. It took all my strength to get up and get the subway back to the Roosevelt.
I hadn’t managed to get a ticket to the James Jean Digital colouring workshop, but did manage to sneak a peak at ‘The power of personalized promotion’ talk by Jeff Moores.
Later that afternoon we had the Opening Ceremony and President’s Welcome followed by the opening keynote by Stanley Hainsworth; there is not much this guy hasn’t done from Global Creative director of Nike, Lego and Starbucks to his own creative company, Tether. This guy knew his stuff, and no demographic is safe from his marketing genius.
After a brief message from Steven Heller, Gregory Nemec and James Yang then treated us to an interesting video. They brought together the stories of seven illustrators who have uprooted themselves from their hometowns and headed abroad to experience creative life far a field. It was so good to hear that other creatives had had the proverbial itchy feet and found that inspiration can truly come from anywhere. Michael Bartalos definitely caught my eye as he too had taken the trip to the land of the rising sun to satisfy his thirst for all things Japanese.
We had time for a brief costume change and then yet another trip down the clunky lift to the opening night reception with music from The Half-Tones, a band made up of illustrators, it was a relatively frigid crowd to begin with but an hour in there were some brave souls on the dance floor, illustrators are not really known for their dancing skills, however I did feel that some managed to dispel this myth somewhat.
From here we headed over to the New York Times Gallery 7 opening of poster art by the German illustrator Berning Wagenbreth. I can’t tell you the high we were on as we flashed our ID’s in the foyer and were whisked upstairs to the offices of the New York Times Art Department, I sculled three plastic cups of wine and pursued small talk with lots of other illustrators all google eyed at the work and their location in space and time at that very moment. It was well capped off by a sweaty and way too visually stimulating walk down Broadway landing us in Times Square where a giant replica of Eddy Murphy’s head was being photographed by crowds of people, apparently part of some kind of movie promotion. I didn’t go inside Eddy’s head but I couldn’t resist being photographed in front of it.
Friday, July 4th
I blame the plethora of channels on American TV, soft beds and the excellence of the light blocking curtains in the room, as we managed to sleep in a little longer than the morning before, but quickly got our duds on when the prospect of free breakfast was mentioned by one of us.
We were downstairs in time to grab coffee and pastries and head in to the ‘Daily news with Nona; Things you need to know’
Nona is a character created by the cartoonist Victoria Roberts, reminiscent of a Barry Humphries style character performance, Nona was a delightfully rude, but well meaning, ironic, but more often sarcastic, women with a grating Australian accent. It was fun to wait for the delayed audience reaction on her performance and joke telling and it made me feel at home for a brief moment in time.
Next up was Mitch Nash, who is the creative director of Blu Q, the company that has brought you such classics such as the cat butt magnet, and bath products such as Miso Pretty and dirty girl. Blu Q’s extensive use of illustration on it’s products was inspiring to see, very often the concepts have been driven by the illustrators style and imagery and it was good to see such collaborations in the gift industry where sometimes minimalist design and photography are the norm. I found Mitch’s sense of humour, which can be found in his products, showed throughout in his talk and was thus was captivated to the very end.
After lunch the breakout sessions began, I grabbed a seat in the Grand Ballroom again to listen to animators Enrico Casarosa and Ronnie Del Carmen’s talk on ‘Tall tales and Simple Stories: Great Storytelling’. Enrico spoke of the inertia of drawing and of how he brought Sketchcrawl to life through personal experience, too often on trips or in daily life our sketchbook gets left in our bag and ideas and potential illustrations can be lost forever if not acted upon.
Great technique can really only be achieved with relentless practice and the practice of ‘thinking through drawing’ can create some truly original and wonderful ideas. Both gave an insight into the fantastical day job that is working for Pixar. The audience was asked to tell each other stories of when they were lost and we were able to see just how cinematic and descriptive you can become when asked to entertain others. I was also reminded of just how important it is to observe the world around you, something Pixar imitates with such accuracy that you can often forget that Nemo was in fact a fish!
After the talk I lined up with my copy of ‘Three Trees Make a Forest’ to get it signed by Enrico, I was so star struck and flustered once I got there I managed to drop my bag of books on the floor and hurriedly pick them up like a shy schoolgirl right in front of him. I also managed to get an Enrico tattoo done for my mascot Arare chan (see pic). Go Arare!
I also highly recommend that you add this one to your RSS feed: this is the blog of the Totoro Forest Project, which is a project Enrico is working on, it is a fund raising exhibition/auction to support the national trust Totoro Forest Foundation that Oscar winning film maker Hayao Miyazaki has been helping over the years, featuring original art created by internationally acclaimed artists in the fields of animation, comic books, and illustration. There are some truly inspirational pieces being uploaded daily and proceeds of the auction go to an extremely worthy cause, protecting Totoro’s forest!
Later that afternoon I dropped into the talk, ‘Come Together; Networking pioneers’ with Robert Zimmerman and my personal favourite Keri Smith. Keri gave great insights into the benefits of collaborations with other illustrators and how they can lead to wonderful new projects and can often take on a life of their own, leading you down paths you would never have expected them to have taken you.
Across the Pond: The British Perspective
Louisa Saint Pierre, Stephen Bliss and Andrew Coningsby gave a rundown of the style of work currently being created in the UK. They also gave advice on markets beyond the US and the UK and how to tap into these. I was very interested to hear that Stephen had worked for Hysteric Glamour, a wonderful fashion label from Japan known for its dynamic and clever print work. They also showed a slideshow of work from VAROOM magazine, now being produced by members of AOI. The future of illustration and new markets opening up where also discussed, illustration as a commodity is valued by larger corporations, whilst one man bands like Tristan Eaton are making and creating their own products and networks for audiences, who have gone unrecognised by others with less of an ‘ear to the ground’ in regards to market predictions. It was also very interesting to hear the difference in pay rates across the world, which reminded me of why I got on the plane in the first place, Australia rates much lower than both the UK and the US. I also rediscovered the differences between American culture and UK culture (of course much closer to my own) and the pros and cons of both. I also came to covet the job title of ‘taste maker’, just for the name really.
Tune in to Andrea's final conclusion for ICON5 here!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ICON5
New York City
2 - 6 July 2008
Photos and text courtesy of Andrea Innocent
 | A self-confessed nipponophile, themes in Andrea's work range from investigations into the cult of otaku to traditional Japanese folk tales and Japanese textiles and their meanings. Her inspirations can come from Japanese television and advertising, books, music, and her dreams. She currently resides in Melbourne with her PA 'Sienna' the cat. She like apples, EngRish, napping in strange places, wandering art shops fondling stationary and is a compulsive note taker and journal maker. Andrea says :Let:s keep making Happy Pictures! http://www.otoshimono.org/ |
TAXI Design Network is honored to have been in New York City on 2-6 July 2008 to partake in this exciting event.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
© 2003-2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.