childrens book recc and kid drawings

I love good childrens book recommendations. And these are from an illustrator (who has kids).

Also, he has a wonderful site of his own childrens' drawings. love it!

WPA Posters

Highlights from the Library of Congress's WPA Posters.

Inspiring Designer Links

this afternoon I wrote...

Dear Luz, Can you send me some links to some inspiring designers for me AP students?

And this is what I got...incredible stuff here.

Christopher Ryan (graphic designer. his daily postings are really amazing.): http://cdryan.com/
Julien Valleé (paper artist): http://www.jvallee.com/
Theo Jansen (kinetic sculptures): http://www.strandbeest.com/
Erik Spiekermann (typographer) : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Spiekermann (some good links at bottom)
Mattias Adolfsson (illustrator): http://mattiasa.blogspot.com/
Jason Santa Maria (designer): http://jasonsantamaria.com/portfolio/
Keri Smith (illustrator): http://www.kerismith.com/
Camilla Engman (illustrator and artist): http://www.camillaengman.com/misc/index.htm
Alvin Lustig (mid-century modern graphic designer): http://www.alvinlustig.org/index.asp
Jonathan Ive (industrial designer for Apple): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Ive
Steven Heller (art director and author of many books on design): http://www.hellerbooks.com/
Chip Kidd (book cover designer): http://goodisdead.com/
Charles + Ray Eames (architects, industrial designers, cinematographers): http://www.eamesgallery.com/
Scott Hansen (graphic designer): http://blog.iso50.com/
Jim Denevan (large-scale environmental artist): http://www.jimdenevan.com/images.htm
Nick Veasey (x-ray photographer): http://www.nickveasey.com/x-ray.html
James White (graphic designer): http://www.signalnoise.com/
Marian Bantjes (typographer and graphic designer): http://www.bantjes.com/
Veerle Pieters (web designer): http://veerle.duoh.com/
Carlos Lascano (stop motion animator): http://ideas.veer.com/skinny/post/2595
Jennifer Maestre (pencil sculptor): http://www.jennifermaestre.com/portfolio.php
Alejandro Paul (typographer): http://www.estudiopaul.com.ar/

Some recommendations from Tina Roth Eisenberg: http://swissmiss.typepad.com/weblog/designers_i_like/

These are the big-guns of graphic design: http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalists

Thanks again, my friend!

link love

heres some great self portraits by an artist named Mithi.

Hat Tip: Portrait Party.

fresh illo.

New (to me) fresh illustration. Jen Corace. i like the dense patterned ones under fine art.

Career Investigation

Graphic Design

• Collegeboard: Graphic Design Career
• Collegeboard: Graphic Design Major
  

• What is graphic design? - short video/article
• Who becomes a designer?
  
• What goes on in design school?
• What designers need to know
• Examples of Graphic Design. Choose some of the categories and it narrows it down for you.
• Check out the design "label" on the side here for more design goods. look for career stuff especially.

Illustration

• College board: Illustration Career
• choose the label on the right called illustration and click through some of the sites linked. these are mostly portfolio websites. be sure to look into the bio sections to learns about the education and background of the artists, so that you can learn about their careers a bit.
  

illustrator Irina Troitskaya

An illustrator named Irina Troitskaya. i love finding new and fresh compositions. like this diver. her flickr is super too. check out this marker usage. sweet. check out this pink sketchbook...

Fresh Inspiration

I love finding a new to me interesting artist through Drawn and then looking through his links and network of relationships to find other great artists.

• Like this guy, Matthew Leake, who uses scratchboard digitally for his illustration.
• lead me to this artist, Stephanie Dotson, who layers intricate papercut outs into her collages.

(from Nov 05)

illustrators i'm admiring

rama hughes - one of the best draw-ers i knew in college. i'm still a fan.

Daniel krall
Okan art super marks and lines!!
Paul pope

Brian rea see an illustrator's design

Gina triplett

business of illustration

This article called Can You Make a Living as an Illustrator by Paul Mirocha talks about the business plan and gives a sample budget. informative.

link snack

A report that surveyed the demographics of Art Critics...hmmm, i wonder how many Christians in that pool? my guess slash opinion is "not enough".

The "making of" the daily comic strip For Better or For Worse. Nicely documented. (HT: drawn)

couple goodies

• julia, have you heard of this guy? Mis-printed type sounds right up your alley.
• Illustrator Joe Ciardiello. hmmm, lots of implied-dotted-dashed lines. lovely. (oh, an the water color colors are lovely too!)

Rednosed

oh my. art is good. please check out this incredible 3D illustration, the Red Nose Studio.

His rep's site has additional info including a great sketchbook and more images.

recent inspiration

design firm: the New Year more music posters, plus

illustration (via Drawn) Tim Marrs, a guy from the UK. very messy, lots of silk screen layers. urbansubjects with rich textures, patterns, visual puns, ... wow!

Cut it Out, Martin O'Neil. Collage with subtly strong composition. another wow.

Design Observer - very professional site. i like the small text and concise descriptions, seemingly made by/for professionals. scroll til you find a post entitles "Observed (with roman numeral)" these are chocked full of goodies. I've added them to my perma-list here on the right side.

This site sells handmade crafts and has the coolest way to shop...by color! Puma used to do this too, though less specific colors. which was helpful. because theres something special about green shoes.