What’s SpongeBob Really Like?

SpongeBob© Copyright 1999 Viacom International Inc.

“He is much more multidimensional than I expected!”

Amanda Geisinger knows SpongeBob better than most of us. She designs the Official SpongeBob website.

Amanda’s job title is “Web Designer” at Nickelodeon’s “Nick.com.” She stopped by the Communication Design Dept. last week on a rainy Friday. Originally from Stowe, PA, she graduated from KU in 2008 and gave one of the most memorable commencement addresses ever. During her speech she spoke about being a stellar art student in high school. Her art teachers and guidance counselors advised her against KU, saying, “You’re so good! Why aren’t you applying to a real art school? (Alas, some high schools are biased against state universities.)

Today Amanda has her dream job. She has a Manhattan skyscraper office on the 33rd floor with a Hudson River view. Her high school teachers were right about one thing; she is good. (So is KU’s Communication Design program.)

from Amanda Makes Things © 2010 Amanda Geisinger

Amanda’s Mom always asks her what she does, so she created a blog called Amanda Makes Things. It is filled with quirky personal cartoons, sketches and photos of New York City. Amanda likes WordPress, the same blogging tool we use here. Though she does websites for a living, she likes the simplicity of WordPress during her leisure time.

Originally Amanda got to Nickelodeon via an internship she found herself. When she first got the internship, she knew nobody in New York City. Illustrator Brian Selznick was visiting KU just before she moved to the city. Amanda asked him for housing advice and he actually hooked her up with a sublet in hip Williamsburg. After the internship, she got hired by Nickelodeon Magazine. When that magazine shut down, she says it was traumatic, but she landed on her feet at the website, Nick.com.

At Nickelodeon magazine she was the “Comics Designer,” and worked with famous artists including Jeff Kinney, creator of the Wimpy Kid. She has worked with many famous cartoon characters. I asked her, “What is SpongeBob Squarepants really like?”

SpongeBob© Copyright 1999 Viacom International Inc.

“He is much more multidimensional than I expected. One of my jobs at Nick.com was to watch every SpongeBob episode from the last ten years to select screen grabs for the website. So, I’ve seen a lot of different sides of SpongeBob. He’s great to work with.” She recently designed the SpongeBob Mystery page in two days.

Only a select group of approved illustrators are permitted to draw SpongeBob, but Amanda is allowed to design using their approved artwork. An example being this SpongBob button:

Advice for students? Amanda: “Figure out exactly where you want to go. Go for your dream internship. It worked for me! It can happen, because they don’t have to pay you. Try to work for free after you graduate and they will think you’re crazy.”

I asked Amanda for three pieces of advice for illustrators. Number one: “You absolutely need a web site. It doesn’t have to be fancy. At the magazine we never looked at an illustrator without a website, and for each job we looked at hundreds of illustrators. Sites need to be simple to navigate.” Amanda says it is best to avoid using Flash, the Adobe software which doesn’t allow “grabbable” images. Amanda explains she often needed to grab files to share with an art director.

Number two piece of advice: “Don’t underestimate old-fashioned forms of contact. Good postcards, for example, are keepers. Just make sure to have a web address on the postcard.”

Number three: “Location doesn’t matter as much as it used to, however, it is good to be in the same time zone as the client.” She has worked with illustrators from Europe and Asia, but illustrators in the same time zone have one small advantage, – art directors know when they should be awake. So, wake up, illustrators!

UPDATE: Since SpongeBob gets so much interest, I contacted Robert Dress, a freelance illustrator for several SpongeBob books. Read more here.

Directions to Prints Gone Wild, Secret Project Robot

Some of us from Kutztown U are heading for Prints Gone Wild 2010 at Secret Project Robot, 210 Kent, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The directions are hard to find, and according to Secret Project Robot’s website the Google directions are wrong! So I’ve cut and pasted the subway instructions here: Directions: L train to Bedford Avenue; walk towards Metropolitan Ave. On Metropolitan turn and walk towards the water. Located on the corner of River and Metropolitan. River St. is one street below Kent. The entrance to Secret Project Robot is through the arch doors on the Loading Dock.

Limited Edition Letterpress Print © Yee-Haw Industries

Cannonball Press hosts Prints Gone Wild,  a show and sale of new prints priced within reason! 50 bucks or less. Yee-Haw Industries will be there. A sample of their letterpress work appears above.  Sean Starwars, see below, will be in attendance, with James Chase assisting. Tom Huck’s Evil Prints (Huck, Lovell and Julia Curran) and Evil Bootcamp alumni will be there, and, I think, Pittsburgh’s TugBoat Printshop and JustSeeds, too. Too much excitement!

Shut Up America © Sean Starwars

PRINTS GONE WILD: Fri. Nov. 5th, 6pm-12am, Opening reception. Sat., Nov. 6th 12-6pm, Print Fair.

Ancient Chinese Illustration Show in Buffalo

Click Here for Info on “The Lively Art in Picture Books” at KU’s Sharadin Gallery, Oct 21-Nov 21.

Folk art illustration of Henan Warrior, courtesy Buffalo State College

Richard Ross taught illustration at Kutztown during the 90’s.  He moved on to Buffalo State College where he is now the Communication Design Program Coordinator. He has been traveling across China in recent years, most recently with another Buffalo State Professor, Lin Xia Jiang. Their travels took them into the ancient markets of Lhasa in the Himalayas, villages and towns in Henan, earthquake refugee camps in Sichuan, and Uzbek yurts in Xinjiang.

They collected hundreds of illustrated Chinese New Year’s poster prints (some made from original woodblocks dating back to the late Qing dynasty) as well as Tibetan Thangka paintings and wood carvings, and tapestries from the Tajik people in Xinjiang. Much of the work will be on display in Buffalo for an exhibition entitled Chasing Chines Folk Art. In addition to these unique cultural artifacts, the exhibition features photos, music, and videos of indigenous people and landscapes that provide context for understanding and appreciating these vanishing artistic traditions.

Show runs 11/2-11/12 at Buffalo State College’s Czurles-Nelson Gallery, Upton Hall. More info 716-878-5252.

Sutter & Cornell, The SUPEREST

Click Here for Info on “The Lively Art in Picture Books” at KU’s Sharadin Gallery, Oct 21-Nov 21.

New Books by Successful KU Artists:

The Superest is a book based on a drawing game of dueling superheroes by KU grads Kevin Cornell and Matthew Sutter. The rules of Superest are : a) Player 1 draws a character with a super power. b) Player 2 then draws a character whose power cancels the power of the first character. c) Repeat. Now you can do it, too.

Kevin Cornell and Sutter (he goes by his last name, like Usher) played the game so long that they got this slapstick book out of it, available at Amazon.

Sutter began publishing a comic called Bean in the Keystone; then he collected Bean’s greatest hits into funky Xerox zines. One early Bean zine came with a pack of matches glued to the cover; try getting that on a plane. His output has been steady, and his production values have improved. Picnic Mountain was a handsome collection with a silk-screened cover on kraft paper. His latest anthology, published by LULU, is Return to Picnic Mountain.

Martin Lemelman told me I’d be impressed by Kevin Cornell’s graphic novel version of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. One reviewer called his illustrations “gorgeous” and I agree. Kevin did an outstanding job. He was good enough to share some of his preliminary sketches here on his award-winning website.

I didn’t know the original story of Benjamin Button was written by the great American writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book has that story adapted for the graphic novel format by writers Nunzio DeFillippis and Christina Weir.  The afterward by Prof. Donald Sheehy, Ph.D, Edinboro U. of PA. adds fascinating insights into the creation of Fitzgerald’s original short story. I read a fair number of graphic novels and this is one of the finest examples of a literary adaptation I’ve ever seen.

Every Picture Tells a Story -The Dornish Collection

From "What's the Big Idea, Molly?" ©2010 Valeri Gorbachev

Kutztown University Sharadin Gallery

Opening Thurs, Oct. 21, 4–6 p.m.

Rare treats await visitors to Kutztown University’s Sharadin Gallery this fall. The exhibition features over 75 original works of art created to illustrate children’s books. This is an opportunity to view a wide variety of artistic media, oil, mixed media, watercolor, and a remarkable diversity of styles from some of the world’s best-known illustrators. Included are works by Wendell Minor, Tedd Arnold, Robert Sabuda, Brett Helquist, Gennady Spirin, Valeri Gorbachev, Tomie dePaola, and Caldecott winners Uri Shulevitz, Gerald McDermott, Jerry Pinkney, and Leo and Diane Dillon.

"Hana" from the Dornish Collection © Bagram Ibatoulline

Dr. Robert Dornish, Kutztown University Professor Emeritus, taught for over 28 years in the Elementary Education Dept, beginning in 1969. He fondly recalls the point in his career when a last-minute change of schedule found him teaching children’s literature. While he and his wife Alice often read classic literature aloud to their own children, for his new course he sought out the best in current children’s books. At conferences and bookshops, he struck up friendships with many of the nation’s leading illustrators. He began collecting signed first editions, many now housed in Kutztown’s Rohrbach Library.

Dr. Robert Dornish

After the book collection came the collection of original art. It began with a single painting, when Alice gave him a large oil landscape by illustrator Thomas Locker as a gift. The collection has since grown to nearly 180 pieces. Portions of the collection have been exhibited at the Reading Museum and the Kemerer Museum of Decorative Arts, Bethlehem. Individual pieces have been exhibited in museums nationwide, including the Allentown Art Museum, the Brandywine Museum, and the Orlando Museum of Art. The Kutztown selection is the largest number ever exhibited.

Highlights of this show include a 3-D pop-up model of Robert Sabuda’s 2003 version of Alice in Wonderland and works by a number of Pennsylvania artists. Two Kutztown alumni are included: Erick Ingraham and Tom Warburton. Ingraham has illustrated over a dozen award-winning books; his contribution is a painting from Faye Gibbon’s Night in the Barn. Warburton, a Communication Design grad, the creator of the animated series CodeName: Kids Next Door, is now writing and illustrating books. Art from Warburton’s 2009 book, 1000 Times No is one of the most recent additions to the collection and the exhibition.

Dates: October 21 – November 21, 2010.  Opening Reception: Thursday, October 21, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m Sharadin Gallery, Kutztown University. Dr. Dornish will be at the reception (which happens to be his 73rd birthday) and he will lead an informal gallery talk on Sat. Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. Gallery and events are free and open to the public.

Art from "Parts" © 1997 Tedd Arnold, used with permission of the artist

Lancaster PA First Friday

Shanni, Griffin, current students with Jenna, KU alum, at Infantree

There was amazing creative energy on the streets of Lancaster’s “First Friday.”  Prof. Karen Kresge and a bunch of KU AIGA students carpooled the 60 miles from Kutztown to Lancaster. There were drum circles on Prince St., open air parking lot aerobics, men in full tuxedos, cops on horseback, buskers of every stripe. The Monty Python Musical “Spamalot” played to a packed house at the beautifully-lit Fulton Opera House. On a side street a disabled artist painted a landscape on canvas by holding his brush in his teeth.

Ryan Martin, KU CD alum, Partner at Infantree, Lancaster, PA

Our reason for the trip was to see the Heads of State at Infantree. Turns out the Heads of State had done a VIP talk the night before. It was little disappointing to learn we didn’t make the VIP list, but the public opening we attended was exciting. The work was strong, mostly hand silk-screened poster-sized prints.

I separated from the group and visited a number of galleries. Found most of the artwork was locally made, which is encouraging. Subject matter varied from the abstract to local Pennsylvania landscapes. Most paintings had a familiar feel, the sort of artwork you might expect in a model home or a young doctor’s office. There was some exceptional and experimental work, too. I couldn’t tell which sort was selling.

Tiegre: East of Warmageddon, Penciled and inked by Dominic Vivona

I didn’t expect to find illustration and comics on a gallery walk. By chance I wandered into the a post-production video studio called “POSTAGE” at 45 N. Market Street, Suite 1002 in Central Market Mall. I met POSTAGE’s Alex Clements and Joe Krzemienski, who make their own films under the studio name, “The Fictory.” They gave me a poster for their upcoming animated film, Atomic Robo: Last Stop. I found a YouTube trailer for it here. Alex and Joe invited their comic artist friends to set up a mini-comics convention in the hall outside their studio. I met Dominic Vivona who pencils and inks the web comic, Tiegre: East of Warmageddon. The Kraken above demonstrates Dominic remarkable drawing skills. Lancaster, which I had thought of as a pretty old-fashioned city, has clearly got one foot in the future.    -K.Mc

New students visit Philly’s Mural Arts Program

Dean Mowder and Freshmen at the Passion Flower Mural.

Bill Mowder, Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts (CVPA) chartered Bieber buses to bring new students in our college to Philadelphia last Saturday. Communication Design Profs Kate Clair and Kevin McCloskey joined the students’ trip which included a guided tour of some of Philadelphia’s famed murals.

KU students at the Alex's Lemonade Mural, Lancaster Ave, Philadelphia

Last year, Jane Golden, the director of Philadelphia’s Mural Arts Program, or MAP, spoke at Kutztown University. We learned that the largest employer of artists in the Commonwealth of PA isn’t a publishing house, a university, museum, or a greeting card company. It’s the Mural Arts Program, founded in Philadelphia in 1984 and still going strong. In fact, this program is among the largest arts programs in the nation. In recent years the program has employed roughly 300 artists and art educators and paid them a combined total of over 2.2 million dollars per year.

Hahnemann University Hospital, Center City, Philadelphia

The 2010 “First Year Text” for the incoming students in the CVPA was the book, More Philadelphia Murals and the Stories they Tell, by Jane Golden and others. The Dean’s office contacted the Mural Arts Program and arranged for guides to get on each of the charter buses and take us on a tour. Some of these areas were impoverished, but were rich with pride in their murals. Many of the murals reflected the ethnic identity of a particular neighborhood. We saw Irish-American, German-American, Italian-American and African-American themes.

German-American Heritage Mural, Philadelphia

Anyone can wander around Philadelphia and find these murals on their own. However, the Mural Arts Program supports its projects and the local community through guided tours. They have guided walking tours, trolley tours, and Septa train tours. They even have bicycle tours May through November. Schedules and more info are available at their website, www.muralarts.org. If you like a bargain, sign up for the weekly newsletter, FunSavers, at the Philly Fun Guide site; they sometimes offer half-price deals on official mural tours, and other arts events in Philly.

Negro Baseball League Mural, 44th & Parkside Ave, Philadelphia

Heads of State: You Are Invited!

Heads of State in Lancaster at Infantree

Ryan Smoker (KU CD alum) of Infantree invites everyone to Lancaster’s First Friday:  “We are excited to be hosting The Heads of State this coming First Friday, October 1st. The Gallery will be open from 5-10. Heads of State is a Philadelphia based, award-winning design and illustration studio consisting of Jason Kernevich and Dustin Summers. Together, they produce work for a wide range of clients. We are really looking forward to this show and are excited to see what these guys come up with to fill the gallery walls.”

NYT Magazine cover by Heads of State

Infantree 21 N. Prince St. Lancaster, 4th floor, 5-10pm, Friday, Oct.1. There will be other open studios in the neighborhood for the Lancaster First Friday event.

The Infantree is a full-service graphic design studio, whose work has been recognized by  the most prestigious organizations in the industry, including AIGA, Graphis, Print Magazine, HOW Magazine, Rockport Publishers and The Ad Club of Central PA.

The Stretch Limo Amish Buggy poster above is a great example of the graphic wit of Heads of State. Here are a few more examples:

Oil Poster, for Gulf of Mexico benefit. © Heads of State 2010
Editorial Illustration, NY Times, © Heads of State
Adam © Heads of State

To see more visit the Heads of State online store, or visit the site of their artist’s rep, Frank Sturges. Limited edition prints will be on sale at Infantree, Lancaster.

When Skateboards Will be Free, book cover, © Heads of State

Hand Drawn Maps

From Here to There, from The Princeton Architectural Press, is the first book from the The Hand Drawn Map Association. Philadelphia-based artist Kris Harzinski has been collecting hand drawn maps for years. He finds maps dropped in laundromats. He sets up a table at indy lit events like the upcoming Philadelphia Zine fest and begs strangers to draw maps. Of course, he put out an open call on the internet. He has accumulated hundreds of maps; the variety is quite astounding. In 2008 he founded the Hand Drawn Map Association, or HDMA.

Maps vary, but most have a very specific purpose, and it is not always a matter of getting from point A to point B. Take the map of the best places to skateboard in Dallas, Pennsylvania. I found it charming, even though I am not likely to use that information. Cartoonist Dash Shaw’s map of Boney Borough, loosely based on the original plans for Epcot, serves as reader’s guide to his Body World comics. Another remarkable entry was by Marilyn Murphy, a young lady suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, who drew a body map of her medical injections.

Boney Borough Map © Dash Shaw

There are maps by Stefan Sagmeister, Daniel McCloskey and Shakes. Full disclosure, I know  some of these guys. I got to know Stefan Sagmeister when I drove him home to Manhattan during a blizzard after his talk at Kutztown. Shakes, I’ve met him, too. He is a well-known busker, a street musician, in Pittsburgh’s Strip district. I know Daniel McCloskey best of all, my son, the founder of Pittsburgh’s legendary Cyberpunk Apocalypse Writer’s Cooperative.

Post-PGH (Pittsburgh) © Shakes and Daniel McCloskey

If you do draw maps, the HDMA is still looking for quirky work. From Here to There begins with this note: We would love to add your work to the collection. Please consider submitting your maps or diagrams to us at: handmaps.org

NYC MAP Show:

Map Fans will not want to miss an upcoming exhibition with HMDA maps plus such astounding wonders as Liz Hickok’s Jello-like map of Manhattan, a “Scratch and Sniff” map of New York by Nicola Twilley, and a subway map in Urdu by Pakistani artist Asma Ahmed Shikoh.

You Are Here → Mapping the Psychogeography of New York City
Sept. 24 – Nov 6, at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery

Making it as an Illustrator by Denise Bosler

Illustration © Denise Bosler, drawn on an IPAD w/ Sketchbook Pro

Making it as an Illustrator by Denise Bosler

Being an illustrator in today’s market is not easy. While the market opportunities may be quite large, and although illustrative work is needed for everything from editorial content, children’s books and licensed products to custom blog headers and backgrounds, cell phone wallpapers and apps, if you don’t have the right skills and motivation you may become one of the hoards of starving artists.

Talent – So You Think You Can Illustrate?

This should be a no-brainer. Of course you have talent. The real question is, do you have the right kind of talent. The industry is saturated with highly skilled and highly talented illustrators. The top schools churn them out right and left and seasoned professionals are around every corner. To add to the difficulty in finding jobs, gone are the days when design firms and advertising agencies have in-house illustrators on staff. Illustration is easily accessible as stock art, hundreds of portfolio websites are available on the web and sites like Flickr, Facebook and Twitter are great free advertising for illustrative services. To put it simply, you are not alone and you are on your own.

This begs the question, how are you going to stand out? Your work may be good, but is it different from anyone else’s? Does your work blend in with the masses? Your work needs to be ownable and distinctive. Look around at other illustrators and focus on what makes your work unique. Look at your technique, style, medium, perspective, subject matter and point of view. What is your niche marketability? Until you are able to answer this question, your work will be lost in a sea of talented but unexceptional illustrators.

Attitude – Illustration is not for the Weak

You work by yourself so you need to market yourself and you need to find work for yourself. Sitting back and assuming the work will come to you will end in you being penniless, hungry and working an unrelated job. If you do no advertising, promotional work or schmoozing, art directors will never know you’re out there. Simply having a web site alone is not enough.

You are your own boss and therefore need to pick up on some boss-like qualities. You need to be confident in yourself and your skills. You need to become a go-getter. You need to be aggressive in your promotional abilities. Meekly passing out business cards to your relatives is not enough. The more contacts you have, the better chance you will have in succeeding. Join illustrator-based organizations such as the Association of Illustrators, the Society of Illustrators or the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI). Pay to participate in web-based initiatives like workbook.com and theispot.com or participate on free sites such as IllustrationFriday.com and threadless.com. Start your own blog or Flickr gallery and make sure you post at least once a week. Be sure to leave constructive and intelligent comments on other people’s artwork as well. Consider exhibiting at trade shows or taking part in portfolio reviews. You never know who you’ll meet and where that meeting may lead.

Be Savvy – Do You Need an MBA?

Illustrating is the easy part. Being a business person is not. Your first step in creating a sustainable business is developing a business plan. A business plan helps keep you on track, helps you understand how to market your talent, gives you confidence in your future and improves the chances of you being successful. A good business plan includes but is not limited to:

• Current Situation including financial needs

• Mission

• Vision

•Target Market – general and specific clients, market segment

• Competitive analysis – other illustrators, successful promotions

• Strategy – marketing goals, artwork goals, marketing and promotion strategy including web presence

• Execution Plan – timetable

In addition to a business plan, you must also behave like a business professional. You need to know how to do simple things such as balance a checkbook, properly keep paperwork for taxes and put together professional sounding emails. You need to speak clearly, speak confidently and follow through on deadlines and budget. You need to learn how to put together a proposal and discuss a contract. You may need to hire a contract lawyer to help with a more complicated job. You need to keep abreast of competitive rates. Consider purchasing Graphic Artist’s Guild Handbook of Pricing and Ethical Guidelines to help with your rates. If any of these tasks are issues for you consider taking classes such as accounting, marketing or speech. You are a professional so act like one.

Imagination – Draw, Draw, Draw and Draw Some More

Illustration constantly evolves. Resting on your laurels is not an option if you want to remain competitive in the market. All work can be made better, all portfolios can improve and all illustrators grow over time. Continue to challenge yourself to create new work even if you have no jobs in sight. Consider creating your own assignments. If you think you need to revise old work, do it. If you are not sure what to revise, take advantage of a portfolio review or ask a trusted illustrator friend to review your work.

Keep a sketchbook and draw in it everyday. Don’t be afraid to experiment with a new style or technique as you never know where something may lead. If you are short on time, at least create a fresh new promotional piece once a month. Contrary to popular belief you can get rusty over time so sketch a lot and sketch often. This will help you stay on top of your game so you can get the work you want.