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Books make the best gifts! And they are even better when bundled with toys.

"The Who, the What, and the When" is a new book by Jenny Volvovski, Julia Rothman and Matt Lamothe that celebrates the "secret sidekicks of history" who helped famous people achieve their goals.

Cartoon Brew just launched its first major redesign in five years. We’ve reworked a lot of the site’s elements, but one thing that we didn’t dare touch was our distinctive logo, which was created in 2007 by the fantastic design firm ALSO. They dropped me a line earlier today about their latest project—The Where, the Why and the How: 75 Artists Illustrate Wondrous Mysteries of Science. The book, just released by Chronicle Books, combines science and art in a novel way:

A science book like no other, The Where, the Why, and the How turns loose 75 of today’s hottest artists onto life’s vast questions, from how we got here to where we are going. Inside these pages some of the biggest (and smallest) mysteries of the natural world are explained in essays by real working scientists, which are then illustrated by artists given free rein to be as literal or as imaginative as they like. The result is a celebration of the wonder that inspires every new discovery. Featuring work by such contemporary luminaries as Lisa Congdon, Jen Corace, Neil Farber, Susie Ghahremani, Jeremyville, and many more, this is a work of scientific and artistic exploration to pique the interest of both the intellectually and imaginatively curious.

Our friends at ALSO—Jenny Volvovski, Julia Rothman, and Matt Lamothe—even created this fancy animated trailer to support the book launch:

The ICON 7 Illustration Conference was held right here in RI this year, sponsored in part by good ol’ RISD. That was good news for Eric and I…we had our tickets reserved months ago, and it was finally held this week.

The weather was perfect, the city was looking’ good for the hundreds of illustrators that came to town. We didn’t manage to get to any of the workshops that occurred on previous days, beyond going to the RISD Icons art show opening at the Woods-Gerry Gallery (the show is up until June 24th, so you can still catch it).

Our first full day of stuff was Friday the 15th, and it started early. The darkly chipper Masters of Ceremonies were Jennifer Daniel and Nicholas Blechman.

Gregory DiBisceglie, creative manager for Campaign Planning and Special Projects at Macy’s, showed how he tries to raise the bar of creative experiences that Macy’s offers. Why, there’s one of his special projects now… art created by Chris Buzelli for Macy’s Flower Show.

Here’s the art powerhouse Bob Staake, with a page from one of his children’s books. He started off working in a well-regarded cartoony style, but has since morphed into more graphic looks. He says that since art is always subservient to something else, he likes to shake up his style depending on the need. He also like to surprise an art director with unique takes.

My favorite point he made was that art directors come to you because you’re a thinker. So true. Style and execution is less important than concept, so long as the art gets your point across effectively. I find this very true in product design, as well.

Christopher S. Neal, Josh Cochran, and Sam Weber came to talk about the importance of community and collaboration, as learned in the Pencil Factory studio space in Brooklyn. They not only collaborate with each other, but with lots of varied clients.

The importance of collaboration was a theme that kept popping up throughout the conference. Apparently sequestering oneself up in a studio all alone with no input is not the best way to achieve good art, or to get anything to happen with your art. Huh… go figure!

Here are the folks from the Children’s Book panel: Cecily Kaiser (Abrams), Chad Beckerman (Abrams), and Elizabeth Parisi (Scholastic), with Rachael Cole (Schwartz & Wade/Random House) as

It’s that time again: the newest Cloudy Collection letterpress print set is now available! The seven variations on the idea of a repeating pattern in Repeat/Repeat are created by artists Will Bryant, Dustin “UPSO” Hostetler, Mike Perry, Heather Ross, Julia Rothman, Bob Staake, and me, David Huyck.

The other big news from the Cloudy Collection is subscriptions for Volume II! In addition to all the fantastic prints you know and love, you’ll also get an exclusive, subscriber-only t-shirt designed by me and Drawn! pal Elio, plus a few other bonuses, discounts, and benefits. A maximum of 50 subscriptions are available!

Finally, Volume I, Edition 3, print sets are $5 off from now until New Year’s! See more about all of this stuff over on the Cloudy Collection website.

Previously: Edition 1, Edition 2, Edition 3

Posted by David Huyck on Drawn! The Illustration and Cartooning Blog | Permalink | No comments
Tags: bob staake, Cloudy Collection, David Huyck, Elio, Heather Ross, Julia Rothman, Mike Perry, UPSO, Will Bryant