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by Greg Pizzoli

{published 2013, by Disney Hyperion}

I’ve been looking forward to this book for a long time, mostly because that cover is SPECTAZZLING. But also cause I follow Greg Pizzoli on Twitter, where he is clever and quippy and shares things like THE ENDPAPERS. And then this is what the publisher teased us with, so I was pretty much in love with this book right away:

With perfect comic pacing, Greg Pizzoli introduces us to one funny crocodile who has one big fear: swallowing a watermelon seed. What will he do when his greatest fear is realized? Will vines sprout out his ears? Will his skin turn pink? This crocodile has a wild imagination that kids will love.

Yeah. SO INTO THAT. The Watermelon Seed hits stores TOMORROW, May 14th, so you might want to go ahead and get in line. After you meet Greg, of course.

So I’ve also been looking forward to this post for almost as long. I’m thrilled to have Greg Pizzoli in for a visit. Welcome, Greg!

I call him “Kroc”. Sometimes my editor calls him “K-Roc” or “The Krocster”. Boy, does he hate that.My background is in printmaking, and I built a silkscreen shop in my studio, which is how I generate a lot of my work. I think my preference towards limited and deliberate colors comes from the printmaking. It could be laziness, but I’m going to say printmaking.

Basically you make a drawing in black and use that to make a stencil on a screen. Doesn’t matter how you make that drawing – by hand on tracing paper, with construction paper, in Photoshop – whatever you can use to get a drawing in black. Your screen, which is a frame of aluminum with a fine mesh stretched across it, is covered in photographic emulsion, and you expose the screen to light. Wherever the light hits the emulsion, it hardens and becomes water resistant.

BUT if you put your black drawing between the screen and the light source, the emulsion that is blocked by your drawing (which remember, is black, thus very light blocking-y), that emulsion stays soft. And you can wash it out with water. So everything that wasn’t blocked by your drawing is water resistant, and your drawing washes out of the screen, making a water resistant stencil in the shape of your drawing. You make one of those for each layer, or usually, color. WATERMELON was offset printed obviously, but I did a lot of screenprinting textures, etc to make it feel very printy. The spot colors definitely help there, too.

I’ve been teaching screenprinting for about 4 years at The University of the Arts in Philly. It’s where I met Brian Biggs. He took a continuing ed class I was teaching in 2009. He introduced me to my agent. I dedicated a book to him, but it hasn’t come out yet. I still owe him big time. I still teach! I love it.

Humor usually keeps me interested in whatever I’m doing.

I like to work with texture for sure, too. And shapes. Shapes, yeah, shapes are good. I know this is great interview material here. Breaking news, Greg Pizzoli “like shapes”. Today on Buzzfeed, 23 shapes Greg Pizzoli likes most.

Anyway . . . I was really into shapes and texture with THE WATERMELON SEED, and the next book I’m doing with Hyperion (NUMBER ONE SAM, Summer 2014) comes from a similar place. We’re doing spot colors for that one, too. But four this time, which opens up a lot of possibilities in terms of overlapping layers and colors.

Like most people, I like lots of stuff. I never get tired of looking at Eduardo Munoz Bachs posters. He obviously had a lot of fun making his work. A lot of people you’d suspect probably, Sendak, Ed Emberly, Tove Jansson, Charles Schultz, etc.

I’m really lucky to have so many talented buddies in the Philly area, too. I host occasional drink ‘n’ draws at my studio and Zach Ohora, Matt Phelan, Bob Shea, Tim Gough, Amy Ignatow, Brian Biggs, Lee Harper, Gene Baretta, Eric Wight, and several others have come by. It’s a good time. Sometimes we do this thing where we each draw for five minutes and then pass the paper to the right and draw on top of that drawing for five minutes, until we get all the way around the circle or run out of beer. You can imagine just how bad these things look. Joe Strummer, Iggy Pop, David Bowie. They’re my heroes.

No way! I love coffee. I think I quit for a while last year and it just floated around my online profile for a bit. I did stop drinking as much. I am down to like 2-3 cups a day which feels great for me. I was drinking like 8-10. Oh yeah. I’m nicer now.

Greg Pizzoli, people. Is he awesome or what?

So yeah. That’s pretty much my favorite thing on the internet right now. Did you catch the part where the period at the end of the sentence becomes a spotlight for good old K-Roc?! I love that detail.

The Watermelon Seed! Greg Pizzoli! Thanks for hanging out here! We love your book. And you are top notch, too.

by Joydeb Chitakrar and Gita Wolf

{published 2013, by Tara Books}

Get ready. You may never have seen anything like this before. Have you ever read something that you feel like should be in a museum and not in your hands? And then you realize that’s the whole point of the perfection and portability of picture books, but still your mouth hangs open in awe?

This is one of those books.

The Enduring Ark is a retelling of the flood story from Genesis, and this line from the first page enveloped me in its storytelling.

You may have heard this story before, but great tales deserve to be repeated – and so let me tell it here again, in my way.

And so it goes, this age old story with a breath of new words. Spare text, stunning imagery. The strong lines hold bold saturated color. And I’m dearly smitten with the two crabs!

They found all forms of creatures: large and small, fierce and tame, with feet, and fins, wearing fur, scales and feathers. 

The book itself can be read page by page, left to right, as you are quite familiar with. But it also extends out like an accordion, the story literally unfolding before you.

Tara Books, of Chennai, South India, calls themselves a ‘collective of dedicated writers, designers and artists who strive for a union of fine form with rich content.’ This accordion-style scroll painting is the Bengali Patua style, which historically has been used to visualize mythological stories and aid the narration of a storyteller. What a sublime medium for their mission to unite fine form with rich content, right?

Also interesting? On the cover, the artist is named before the writer. Perhaps it’s because the words are a retelling? Or because the design of the book is what makes it extra special? I’m not sure, but I found that really lovely.

The Enduring Ark releases on May 14, 2013. If you are a fan of book design, fantastic story, and clever engineering, don’t miss this innovative book!

Big thank to the publisher, Tara Books, for providing a copy of this book for review. Why not connect with them on Twitter or Facebook if you think their work is magical, too?!

Erick Montes is an illustrator and designer living in Austin, TX. I like his style a lot; it’s a nice mix of textural, hand-drawn elements with clean lines and great color palettes.

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I had some time to kill last weekend after the SCBWI Western Washington conference was over. Seattle was gorgeous, the mountain was out (is that what you say? It was remarkable.) and I had already seen a fish or two flung at Pike Place Market.

So I went to the library.

This is the 10th floor, looking out and down. According to the elevator, it was the highest lookout point, so it was my first stop. But oh, the elevator:

You pick your floor by Dewey classification. YOU PICK YOUR FLOOR BY DEWEY CLASSIFICATION. Blew my mind. I tweeted about it, and am still thinking about it.

And how beautiful is this? This is looking down on the teen librarians and the coffee shop, which I stopped at, obviously.

And this! Kudos to the librarian who watched me geek out over this art installation and then gave me a high five. These screens showcase four different visualizations by George Legrady, an artist and professor of interactive media at UCSB. The one in particular below is called “Keyword Map Attack” and it shows keywords of checked-out titles that are mapped back to their Dewey classification. It constantly changes and updates, because it is directly linked to the library’s catalog. So cool.

(And to whoever was searching for spinjitzu, you made me curious, so I looked it up. It’s a martial art in a LEGO universe! Art. At the library. That taught me something. MINDBLOWN.)

How about these floors? Another librarian I spoke to said they sold the leftover strips for a dollar an inch, and that she had a bunch hanging on the walls of her living room. I was in complete envy and shock and awe and wow.

And then I went to the children’s section.

The security man looked at me funny when I took this picture, and I think I mumbled something about the letters, and the circles making up the letters, and I love your library and happy Monday. Really.

A Paul Thurlby poster! Remember him? (Spoiler alert: his new book is brilliant and you’ll love it.)

But now. You have to see this. Of all the books they had, this one caught my eye first.

Shapes Book, by Sofia (to share with people at the library)

Sofia is my kind of girl.

I took her book and tried to be gentle with it and flipped through the pages. She wrote about shape! And lines! And ones that wiggle. (She might like this one?)

After I put Sofia’s masterpiece back on the shelf, I noticed what was displayed next to it:

I loved that. Maybe Sofia’s book was there because she is making math amazing, like the sign says. But also? That infographic is really lovely graphic design: clear, dynamic, and driven by color and shape. Sofia’s investigation of shapes is something I’m sure that graphic designer has given consideration to. Something was really magical about this duo, and I was just tickled.

If you get a chance to peek into the Seattle Public Library, please do! I mean, it’ll probably be raining anyway, right?

Loose Leaf is a project by Manual, located here in sunny San Francisco. Caught somewhere in between art publication and curated print series, the format of the project is part of what makes it so enticing. Each edition comes as a series of leaves, hole-punched and ready to install. This allows the user to continually rotate and swap out images.

They’ve also picked some fabulous artists and designers with which to work: Mark Giglio, Jon Boam, Chris Dent. Oh, yeah, NASA contributed an image, as well.

See more here. Check out Manual, too.

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Copyright Tonia Allen Gould, All Rights Reserved

 What’s an idea? The mere concept of an idea is difficult, maybe even impossible to perfectly define. Even notable philosophers couldn’t seem to agree on what an idea truly means. The Free Dictionary Online indicates that according to the philosophy of Plato, the definition of an idea “is an archetype of which a corresponding being in phenomenal reality is an imperfect replica.” The web source goes on to say that according to the philosophy of Kant, “an idea is a concept of reason that is transcendent but nonempiral.” But, even Hagel said it differently. He claimed that an idea means “absolute truth; the complete and ultimate product of reason.” In the dictionary, the definition of an idea reads “something, such as a thought or conception that potentially or actually exists in the mind as a product of mental activity.”

To me, an idea is something that begins as a glimmer; a mere flicker in the mind that can suddenly grab hold, and unfold through any period of time, like the single root of the ivy plant that grounds itself deeply into the soil before it grows upwards, clinging to a wall with its tiny tentacles, reaching out and hanging on, until it forms its own shape and dimension. The ivy grows and grows, like no other ivy plant in existence, and reaches for the sun in a way that suits itself in order to flourish. Like an idea, the ivy didn’t plant itself. Someone had to place it there. The gardener of the ivy had to have foresight to buy or rent the house, invest in the fertilizer and the soil and the tools; he had to invest in the plant and spend his time digging the hole and planting it in the hopes that it would grow.

Like the gardener; creative professionals must make an investment in time, be committed to the outcome, and diligently work to understand and meet the project objectives.  That’s a lot of footwork and fancy dancing already.  But, what about the ideas you generate…those tiny seedlings of thought, that grew and took shape and added a dimension to the project that were unlike every other idea before it…those absolute truths…those nonempiral transcendent concepts of reason…those imperfect replicas…what about those? Those ideas, my friends, have value and they are your greatest asset. Sometimes, we forget that and give them away too freely, as if they have no value.  So if you’re questioning your creative worth, maybe you should start looking first at your assets.  #yourideashaveworth

In 2012, I signed a contract as a designer with Things Remembered in Cleveland, OH.  I thought it might be fun to show you how a concept changes and evolves until it becomes a finished product that you see in stores, on their website and in their catalogue.

There is so much involved in designing.  One must be up on the trends for color and pattern and more. I always have my eyes open to finding things I love to look at!

Here are the Pantone color trends for 2013.

http://www.pantone.com/pages/fcr.aspx?pg=21005&ca=4

I had to take a close look at them. . . some of them bore me unless they are paired with an “eye-catching” color.  Color is so amazing!  It can make your day!  It can bring a smile to your face, and warm your heart.  It can also bring you down. Why else do people get depressed when they experience too many gray rainy days?  All that because of color? Yes!  Think of the feeling you get when you take a walk and come upon a beautiful scene.  Do you ever “OOOOoooh and Aaaaaahhhh?”  Do colors grab you?

Colors can calm the soul.  One of my favorite movies is Miss Potter.  I like her spunk, I LOVE that she talks to her cartoons,  and I also love the scenes of her beautiful English countryside.  The colors speak peace and tranquility.

One might want calm and peaceful and serene colors for the baby nursery.  So why did I decorate my first child’s nursery in bright sunshine yellow with brown and Kelly Green accents?  ha!  Because I crave bold colors!  All I could think of was that my baby would wake up and want to be inspired by what she saw.  The room had to be warm and happy and that is was!!

As the room progressed to fit two more daughters into it, we moved to pinks and browns. I loved it, but the girls were not really drawn to it.  Interesting.  In my house, you will find that colors change often.  If I could, I would paint my house every year!  My husband jokes about our bathroom being smaller because of the many times I have painted it!  I am thinking of a new color as I type!!!  I am leaning towards a beautiful blue with just the right amount of purple in it!  Baby blue is okay, but I always want something with a little PUNCH in it! I like to walk into a room and hear my heart sing! La la!  Wall colors can be muted but if that is the case, in my house, the paintings must sing!  Oh how I love a noisy house filled with color.

So what am I to do?  Follow the trends?  Or start my own trends?  Am I brave?  These are the questions every designer must face.  I always lean towards being a renegade trend setter!  ha!

Fun skateboard branding from Grain Edit friend, Sasha Barr. This whole collection is bright and playful and has a ton of personality; I love the chips and salsa board, and the beer theme. Check out the Amigos shop for all of your beer and food-themed skateboard needs.

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Barrett Fry is a designer and a Texan. Or, at least, he is currently residing in Austin, Texas. He’s working at Pentagram under DJ Stout. His work is bold and colorful, which a strong emphasis on design for the food industry. Of all his projects, those were my favorites.

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Jefferson Cheng is a San Francisco based designer and illustrator with a clear, thoughtful, and playful aesthetic. He uses simple forms and limited colors to create striking images, and his latest zine, Houses, depicts just that in its images related to various domestic activities.

In addition to illustrating, Jefferson also works as a designer, notably working as part of the Art Dept. at Google. To see more of his work, be sure to visit his website and twitter. Also check out his blog, where he explores various amazing visual exercises.

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creaturesgame, a photo by dain on Flickr.

I'm making games dawg! These are some of the creatures (i.e. sprites) that I will be using in my games. Check them out. Theyre totally WEIRD. Just like me. 8)

Some time last year, Erica Wagner, Publisher at Allen and Unwin, is reported as having said that there was a lot to be gained by having a text already illustrated [not that Allen & Unwin published picture books]. This is seemingly a change in direction.

Some writers/illustrators I know have recently signed contracts for ‘print ready’ books.  This is not self-publishing, but submission to a royalty paying publisher of a book that is ‘ready to go’ in publishing terms.

What constitutes a ‘print ready’ book?  It is a book that has been -

• professionally edited,
• proofread, has been
• designed to industry standards,
• professionally designed cover and,
• if illustrated, has all images appropriately set.

This is a great way to go for authors who are able to pay illustrators and book designers up front. Most authors are not able to do this.  This then means all creators involved in a book project agreeing to royalty share and working between paid projects to collaborate on their book.

What have I gleaned about such ‘print ready’ deals? One company, smaller and reasonably new, offered a small advance and a good contract, by industry standards, with higher than regular royalty share for creators. An offer of help with promotion was also part of the deal. Another company, medium sized and established, offered no advance but better than average royalty shares for creators and help with promotion and marketing of the book.

How does this stack up against what is generally on offer now?

• Small and middle range publishers, in general, do not offer advances.
• Larger publishers offer advances depending on the book, depending on the author, and depending on the agent involved.
• Smaller and middle range publishers often [there are exceptions] expect the author to do it all in relation to promotion, even requiring the submission of a marketing plan.
• Larger publishers vary greatly as to how much promotion they will give a book.
• Generally, publishers will submit copies of their publishing output for major awards, such as the CBCA, and to a selection of leading review outlets.

What’s the down side for author, illustrator, book designer, [often the illustrator], to go down the  ‘print ready’ publishing path?

• It IS a lot of extra work for all creators involved to ensure the book is ‘professional’ standard even before it is submitted.
• There is no money upfront.

Are the rewards worth the effort?

• If you love collaborative work, it is a big plus.
• Creators have much more project control to create the book they have collaboratively envisaged.
• A quality product, ‘print ready’,  is a major bargaining point for creators/agents. ‘Print ready’ saves the publisher heaps!

The first company mentioned does small print runs, sells out their print runs, reprints and even sells out reprints and so it seems to be gradually snowballing.

It is too early to know in the second instance.  [I’ll keep you posted!]

My feeling is that, if Erica Wagner was sensing a ‘trend’ and if these companies make a success of it, we will see more such deals.  It’s something to think about!

To be launched end of June – “Toofs!” a collaboration between J.R. and Estelle A.Poulter an illustrators Monica Rondino and Andrea Pucci. More to come on what was a ‘print ready’ deal.

TOOFS by J.R.Poulter & Estelle A. Poulter, illustrated by Monica Rondino & Andrea Pucci

We printed up these cheerleader tops for a local production of Grease! the Musical.

And just in case you forgot it, here’s the Rydell High fight song:

Hit ‘em Rydell Ringtails
Tear ‘em apart , green and brown
Bash their brains out
Stomp ‘em on the floor 
For the glory of Rydell ever more

Fight team fight
Chew ‘em up spit ‘em out
Fight team.. Fight…!

You’re welcome.

If you’re in the area, you should definitely check out this production. In the interest of full disclosure, both our teens are in it. Shameless? Sure. I can’t help it, but we’re really proud of them and the whole cast. It’s put on by a great group of people doing great work, Topanga Youth Services.

Here’s the lowdown:

Topanga Community House

1440 N Topanga Canyon Blvd, Topanga, CA

March 8th and 9th at 7pm

March 10th at 2 pm

The suggested donation for tickets is $12.

In the words of one of my son (Danny Zuko), “We have an excellent cast, and I’d be surprised if you didn’t get chills and they didn’t multiply.”

Word.

One of the newest and most interesting typographic duos that has emerged lately, Pagan and Sharp—run by Carlos Pagan and Lucas Sharp—has released a new typeface called Sharp Sans. Based on the wonderfully simple vision of geometric styling, and a touch of humanism type theory, Sharp Sans does well in so many modern treatment situations that call for a bit of fun.

Along with Sharp Sans, they have produced Malleable Grotesque and the beautiful serif face, Hera Big. Pagan & Sharp are the creatives behind such notable work as the the latest Print 20 under 30 branding, Pinterest Logo, and recent New York Lottery campaign (Carlos’ work at DDB). With such lovely projects, they are well on their way to making a big splash in the typeface design world. Keep up with their latest news by following their twitter and keep an eye out for hopefully many more typefaces to come!

Pagan and Sharp typefaces are available at Myfonts.com

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Also worth viewing:
Jesse Ragan
Typography Sketchbooks by Steven Heller and Lita Talarico
Element One

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I hesitated posting this photo of me from the 80s. I had some concerns that you would feel inadequate in the presence of male beauty at this level. Don’t worry, dudes. I’ll post a list of my personal care tips later.

Ladies, please resist the urge to lick your screen.

But check out that t-shirt. Hawt! This was back in the days of iron-on transfer t-shirt shops. Remember those?

Jenni and I grew up in Phoenix and spent a lot of time at Metrocenter mall. I used to drag my parents to this t-shirt shop in “The Alley” where they made t-shirts to order while you waited. I love the smell of heated plastic in the morning. Smells like victory.

I’m still drooling over this memory.

They had rows and rows of record-like racks where you sifted through designs. When you found one you wanted, you’d take it to the counter, choose a t-shirt color, and they pressed it for you right there. Simple concept, magical to a geek like me.

I think this Elvis shirt was likely one of the more “normal” designs I chose. During one very special visit I picked out my design and handed it to my mom, who got an unmistakably uncomfortable look on her face. “Are you sure you want this one? Do you even know what it means?”

I assured her that yes, I knew what I wanted. By some miracle, she eventually steered me towards something else (the alternative would have been to scream “FIRE!” and run us all out of there). The shirt I originally chose read:

BLONDES HAVE MORE FUN

I stand behind my choice to this day. These days, I could make that shirt for myself anytime I want. Hmm. I smell an experiment coming on.

I still think that kind of t-shirt shop needs to resurface. Heck, maybe we’ll open it up. And I’ll be watching out for the weird kid with the questionable taste in design. I’ll hand him an application.

So, here's the deal.

I do a lot of covers for a lot of people these days. Sometimes when I whip up something for a client it doesn't exactly work for their book and I have to give it a second go. It's all part of the process. It happens.

Unfortunately, this means that I'm left with a pretty decent cover that doesn't have a home.

Covers are just like people, right? Every cover wants to be loved and every cover deserves a home.

Also, I'd like to at least get my money back for the stock images. That's a part of it too.

With that in mind I've decided to implement the First Annual Pre-Made Cover Extravaganza! (You know it's important because it's in caps.)

Here's how it works: Have a look at the covers below. If you think one of them might work for something you've written all you have to do is drop me a line at novakillustration@gmail.com (or leave a comment in the comments section) and it can be yours.

I'll remove the novakillustration.com watermark, plunk in your title and your author name, and even putz around with the fonts a bit if you think you'd like to try something different. If you like most of the concept but want to make some changes I'm sure we can work out a price that'll make every happy.

I'll do all of that for a measly $40. (Payable through Paypal) 

Come on, that's a serious deal. Final images will be sent to you in printable 300dpi quality, as well as three sizes for all of your online needs.

Deal city, people. Deal city.  

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Steven



COVER 1 - AVAILABLE


COVER 2 - AVAILABLE


COVER 3 - AVAILABLE


COVER 4 - AVAILABLE


COVER 5 - AVAILABLE


COVER 6 - AVAILABLE


COVER 7 - AVAILABLE


COVER 8 - AVAILABLE


COVER 9 - AVAILABLE


COVER 10 - AVAILABLE


COVER 11 - AVAILABLE


COVER 12 - AVAILABLE


COVER 13 - AVAILABLE


COVER 14 - AVAILABLE


COVER 15 - AVAILABLE


COVER 16 - AVAILABLE


COVER 17 - AVAILABLE

Founded is a Newcastle-based studio specializing in branding, packaging and environmental projects among other things. To me, their strong suit are their branding and identity projects. They do a great job of making subtle references and effectively using restrained typography while still managing to be witty — all within a very clean, minimal style.

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Also worth viewing:
Albert + Marie
Graphical House
Design Books

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Lovely work from Shed Labs, the Greenville, SC-based design and screenprinting studio. Their aesthetic is bold and textural, and their work is very lively. The wit and sense of humor found in the work functions nicely with their colorful, playful style.

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