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So, among many of the hats I wear in the illustration field, I’m the vice president of ICON6, which is the only creative conference in the US that focuses exclusively on ILLUSTRATION.

It’s been 2 years of a lot of work to plan an unforgettable event people leave with A LOT from, making it worth their money, energy and time.

Now, we’re almost there, merely 2 weeks away, and I can say with certainty that we, the board, have proudly achieved our goal: This is the best ICON ever, packed with art directors and art buyers, illustration stars, educators and a couple of networking events (full disclosure: I’m the events chair too) that will make sure you don’t remember what you did last night.

The conference rate is about to go up, so hurry! If you’re wondering if it’s worth it, I can assure you won’t regret it- and I’m supposed to be the queen of networking and self-promotion.

Speakers include The New York Times, creatives from the illustrated United ad campaign, Christoph Niemann, DreamWorks, Yuko Shimizu, Random House, Tim Biskup, Wired, Taschen and Bil Donovan among others.

ICON6 – LA July 14-17, 2010
www.theillustrationconference.org

See you there!

Fernanda Cohen
ICON6 Vice President & Events Chair

I’ll be moderating Sue Coe’s lecture at the SI this Wednesday. As I’m sure EVERYONE knows here, she’s a brilliant mind in our field and I can’t wait to meet her in person and hear what she has to say.
Hope you can make it!

http://societyillustrators.org/upcoming/coe.cms

Fernanda

About a month ago I got an email from Steve Brodner inviting me to a lecture he was organizing at SVA, where we both teach. He was asking me to participate by sending him images of alternative illustration jobs I’d done. I must confess I was a bit confused, although very flattered, because there was no mention of my actually being a speaker. Soon I found out, indeed I wasn’t a speaker, Steve had emailed me among many other established illustrators to put together a slide show that represented a strong reality of where illustration is going today. Moreover, this lecture, he explained, wasn’t going to be only about the speakers (painter and filmmaker James Blagen; comic artist and designer Mickey Duzyj; and illustrator Alex Juhasz), but also about having an active audience of both strong and new voices in the field.

A couple of days later I get an email from Heidi Younger at FIT inviting me to be a speaker on a panel with Yuko Shimizu, Marcos Chin, Zina Saunders and Fred Harper… the next day after Steve’s panel. Damn! I couldn’t turn down sharing a stage with Yuko and Marcos- I don’t know Zina and Fred- so I accepted. Our lecture is titled How I Got My First Job and focuses pretty much on exactly the same concept as Steve’s.

As excited as I was about going to Steve’s lecture, I’m not sure I can shorten my work hours at this huge restaurant project I just started in Long Island and make both lectures, though I certainly have to make mine, or course. What’s also slightly odd about it, for me at least, is that I have SVA written all over me ( I moved to NY to go to SVA, graduated from SVA, teach at SVA), so I almost feel obligated to be there. Oh well… I’m sure it will be packed anyway.

Steve Brodner’s Lecture: SVA, 209 East 23rd Street, 3rd FL, Amphitheater. Tuesday 3/23, 6.30-8 PM

https://www.artinfo.com/galleryguide/22184/8702/124419/school-of-visual-arts-sva-gallery/exhibition/illustration-next/

FIT: How I got My First Job, FIT, 27th St & 7th Ave, C Building, Robert Lagary Board Room, 9th FL.Wednesday 3/24, 6.30-8 PM. FLYER: http://www.fernandacohen.com/content/images/editorial_384.htm

- Fernanda

My step-mother tuned me into this lecture by the now-famous Carnegie Mellon professor, Randy Pausch. I was reminded of it again yesterday, when the Chronicle reported he is doing well.



Be warned, if you haven't yet watched it--there is not an single shred of self-sympathy in his presentation, but I still got choked up at times.

An earlier reporting from the Chronicle.

What does this have to do with libraries? It's inspiration, pure and simple.

Bookslut explains the founding of AS IF! (Authors Supporting Intellectual Freedom).

According to the post,

In May 2005, Cary McNair told the St. Andrew's Episcopal School in Austin, TX that if they did not remove Annie Proulx's short story "Brokeback Mountain" from its 12th grade reading list, he would pull a donation of $3 million to the school's rebuilding fund. St. Andrew's board of trustees opted to leave the story on the reading list and let McNair keep his money. Board member Bill Miller said, "St. Andrew's has a policy not to accept conditional gifts, whether it's $5 or $500,000."

The school's decision caught the attention of author Lisa Yee, who posted the story on a listserv for young adult fiction authors. Two other authors had the same immediate response. Jordan Sonnenblick said, "[Mark Williams] and I posted back at the same time, 'We need to all send books to that school to support them.'"

With that, AS IF! (Authors Supporting Intellectual Freedom) was born. Forty young adult fiction writers agreed to send signed copies of their books to the school to show their appreciation.