CURRENT ISSUE

This marks the beginning of a series of special issues, this one is focused on the picture book market.

Note: If you're having trouble finding 3x3 in your area please tell us. As you probably know the publishing industry is in a state of flux at the moment with shrinking audiences and venues, make sure you are supporting your favorite magazines and bookstores. And if you're not in a major metropolitan area please consider subscribing.

We are now also offering digital subscriptions for your desktop and laptop and very soon our own app for your tablet. Single copy and back issues are also available in digital format.

And now on to our current issue which is our special issue on children's book illustration:

Michael Slack
INTERVIEWED BY grady mcferrin

Michael Slack, is a California native who is relatively new to the field but one who has been creating dummies of children's books since he was eighteen years old. His first authored book, Monkey Truck was published in 2011. An artist, author, illustrator and character designer his character-driven humorous art has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles, Applied Arts, Pictoplasma, Computer Arts and Communication Arts to name a few. His Scruffy Kitty app was the top pick in The Sunday Times Best Ever 500 app list in 2011. His client list includes Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Bloomsbury, Chronicle Books, Gallison/Mudpuppy, The New York Times, Boston Globe, Disney Television and London Nickelodeon. slackart@comcast.net

Christiane Beauregard
INTERVIEWED BY sophie casson

Canadian illustrator Christiane Beauregard began her career in the design department of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, enraptured by the beginning of the computer age she gradually moved into illustration. Today she divides her time between corporate clients and children's illustration working for such clients as Crédit Agricole de France, Elle Canada, Harvard Business Review, Evian, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Today's Parents and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Her work has garnered recognition from the Society of Illustrators—both New York and Los Angeles, Applied Arts, 3x3 and Communication Arts. c.beauregard@videotron.ca

Jaime Zollars
INTERVIEWED BY John hendrix

When you think you're too busy, you need to check out what Jaime Zollars is up to now. As her friend John Hendrix tells us she's not only a talented illustrator but also a craftsperson, a paper-arts enthusiast, professor, board member, wife and mother. Jaime's work appears in children's books, magazines, newspapers and ad campaigns for clients United Airlines, Random House, The American Red Cross, Scholastic, Clarion Books, and L.A. Weekly. She exhibits regularly at Copro Nason, Gallery Nucleus and Giant Robot. And has been honored by American Illustration, Communication Arts, The Society of Illustrators, 3x3, Spectrum, BBC's Culture Shock, Small Magazine, Creative Quarterly, the SI-LA and the SCBWI. She's currently vice president of ICON and teaches at MICA. Whew! jaime@jaimezollars.com

ICON17: Eric Carle

Eric Carle was born in America but moved with his parents to Germany when he was six years old; he was educated there and graduated from the Akademie der bildenden Künste, in Stuttgart. Returning to America in 1952, with forty dollars in his pocket, he soon found a job as a graphic designer in the promotion department of The New York Times. Later, he was a advertising agency art director for many years until an image he did for an ad caught the eye of a children's book author—the rest is history. Seventy children's book to date with over 110 million copies sold...and counting. www.eric-carle.com

survey says: Illustrator Confidence

This new feature in 3x3 was initiated because we couldn't find any sources for this information. For this survey we're interested in how illustrators are viewing 2012 versus 2011, what is their outlook for the present and the future. The results are surprising and encouraging but while the overall confidence level is not as high as it was in 2011 when we last did our survey it is still high. It is interesting to view what the gender difference is concerning the future and with a career in illustration.

PROFILE: David Saylor

Raised in southern California, he was editor of his high school newspaper, majored in history at Pomona College and two weeks after graduation David Saylor moved to New York. Today he's known as the art director of the Harry Potter book series but also as the creative director who launched a graphic novel imprint and has helped Scholastic win numerous awards including their first Caldecott award. dsaylor@scholastic.com

CAREERTALK: Pitching the Picture Book Market

Approaching the children's book market is unique and requires a particular skill set and presentation approach. Vicki Morgan and Gail Gaynin queried industry art directors and editors who generously shared their thoughts with them, and us.

Op-Art: Worldwide Rights

Our second in a series, this OpArt by Guy Billout looks at worldwide rights. guy@guybillout.com

THE GALLERY

This special gallery brings together a host of international children's illustrators which include Jim Paillot, Pieter Van Eenoge, Lisa Cinar, Sara Gillingham, Doris Freigofas, Bob Daly, Sara Woolley, Peter Francis, Dan Bob Thompson, Shaw Nielsen, Bill Mayer, Gloria Pizzilli, Bellebrute, Carolina Farias, Sonia Kretschmar, YoungJu Kim, Steve Simpson, Isabella Kung, Jannie Ho and Constanze von Kitzing.

EDITORIAL from Issue 18

A Brighter Future

As I sit down to write I'm conscious of just how much has changed since I began my career as an illustrator that led to a career as a graphic designer and eventual ad agency creative director and business owner.

I'm going to sound really old right now but this was the time before computers and even fax machines. We made appointments by phone. We carried large portfolios that also served as delivery envelopes. Work was presented directly to the client—both the roughs and the finish. The art was prepared on a surface—hot or cold watercolor paper, vellum, paperboard, canvas—that would then be photographed by a large camera prior to assembly at the printer or publisher's facility. Handwork was the modus operandi of the day from the artist to the printer. Type was handset. And then hand-sliced, sometimes word for word, line by line, to get the best kerning and rag. We used wall-mounted Artographs and stats to size both type and imagery for comps and reproduction. Film was hand-stripped.

Back then designers were more commonly called commercial artists, which also encompassed those graphic artists working directly for printers and publishers. Walking away from the term commercial artist was the first major step in establishing graphic design as a more specialized part of the graphic arts.

As a designer there were primo jobs to be had, news-letters, annual reports, corporate brochures, album covers, posters, book covers. Budgets were good, i.e. you could actually make a living designing newsletters. These were not your everyday corporate communications tools, these were conceptual and colorful and expensive to produce. That all changed. Enter Pagemaker and the CEO could have his secretary "produce" the newsletter. Those projects disappeared. As did annual reports. Album covers became CD covers and are now reduced to postage stamp- size images on iTunes. Social media takes the place of many branding projects. YouTube is now an advertising media for new products. The projects are dwindling for everyone.

As we head further into a totally digital world I contend design will take a backseat, but illustration won't. Where once I thought being a designer had many more advantages with not only the type of projects but also the budgets, my feeling today is that design will continue to shrink, illustration will expand. Why the optimism?

The market will crave images and those that will be doing the craving will be without a resource. Except for hiring illustrators. Look no further than the area of game design, 3-D movies, apps and information graphics, which are totally illustrated. Think somebody's secretary can do that? Art trumps design in all these areas. And if designers can't draw they're missing out on tomorrow's opportunities; illustrators aren't.

The bottom line is that the future of illustration is brighter than any time in the past. We will be able to charge more for what we do because we've combined the essence of design and illustration into a new art form. We'll stop referring to what we do by traditional classifications; we're now visual communicators.

Charles Hively
Publisher

Be sure to visit our blog for up-to-the-minute happenings at 3x3.

LINKS TO ADVERTISERS

Morgan-Gaynin www.morgangaynin.com

ICON7 www.theillustrationconference.org

3x3 Magazine www.3x3mag.com

Creative Quarterly www.CQjournal.com

OUR NEXT ISSUE: Issue 19

In our next issue we'll devote the entire issue to whimsical illustration. At the moment we have lined up Aaron Meshon, USA and Luc Melanson, Canada—we will be selecting our third artist soon. In addition our entire Showcase and Gallery will focus on humorous illustration. If you're interested in participating, let us know.