A little more from ICON7, and a little from the home front.

Another week has slipped away. Although I am more than back to normal home life I am still savouring my time away in Providence at ICON7. I am going to continue sharing bits from the event until there is just nothing left to share, but I'm going to do it along side home life too. 

I'm going to start with a little conference talk, more specifically the ICON7 Rhode Show, which I was fortunate enough to be a part of. The concept of the show is pretty simple. Display your beautiful work for the illustration world to see, and sell a little (if you want). Though there were a few Rhode Island sales tax heart attacks for this Canadian girl, I was able to sell my tea towels as well as show my portfolio. Thank goodness for that, because they sold like hot cakes! I never posted the new designs, did I? Well, here they are!

 You might say it made me a bit happy that everyone liked my work so much.

Photo courtesy of Angie Alonza

All of the folks that came around to check out my stuff and have a quick chat with me were lovely. I particularly enjoyed speaking with recent grads and looking at their work. They are a refreshing bunch. I can't believe it's been eight years since I graduated. Seeing them reminded me that I can't just sit on the couch and watch Master Chef (though I love it). Doors must be knocked and art must be made! I also had a few personal super stars pick up an absorbent Claire Manning original. One of the first people to drop by was Susie Ghahremani of Boy Girl Party fame. Yeah, that's her website on the list of things that I love. What do you do when a total inspiration buys a piece of my work? I was a total nerd, and way too excited to see her and Julia Rothman, who was browsing the show with her. I've really got to work on acting cool. One day I hope that I can license my art as successfully as they have. My major moment of the night was when a woman came by and asked if I could set aside 3 sets of my tea towels while she went and got her cheque book. No prob, I thought. Well, "cha-ching!" is what I really thought, but when she came back and I read the name on her cheque I realized it was Lynda Weinman.

As in THIS Lynda.

She even looks like the logo a bit! Upon this discovery I threw all three sets of towels in the air and lost the ability to count and organize. It took me fifteen minutes to take the cheque and get the towels in her bag. I believe that Ronaldo taught himself After Effects with the tutorials at lynda.com. She is a legend. I was also visited by Dan Santat and Adam Rex, amazing children's book illustrators and authors. I am embarrassed to admit that I had not heard of them before the conference, but I am now a super fan of both of their work. 


Another important visitor to my set up was Amy from Craftland, an absolutely amazing craft/art/awesomeness store and gallery space owned by the one and only Jen Corace. Amy suggested that I drop by the store and consider submitting a vendor proposal because she thought my towels would fit well in amongst the rest of the awesomeness. So, on my final day in Providence, and my only free day to explore the city I found Craftland.

It was as cute on the outside as on the inside and I loved it.

I have since applied and am awaiting a reply!

Craftland was the highlight of that day. I was pretty hung over from the conference closing party which didn't help. That wasn't the main reason I was a little bummed with Providence. It was the number of bums in Providence that bummed me out. The town seemed empty except for clumps of drifter type folks hanging out everywhere. I assume that in the school year with everyone around it's not as odd. I felt, firstly, that I likely looked like I belonged in their crowd, and secondly, a little unsafe, even in broad daylight. Every street was pretty much void of people. I ran into a particularly vocal homeless woman down one of these streets. She was yelling at a homeless dude that was walking away from her. She got louder the further he got from her. I stopped to look in a window just so I could listen to her insane rant. It was amazing. So much so that the first thing I drew in my sketchbook when I got back to the T Dot was her rant, just so that I could get it in writing. I didn't get a good look at the scene because I didn't want to draw attention to me so I replaced the homeless folks with cats, of course. 

I put my sketchbook on my studio floor to take a few pictures and, like clockwork, my super model cat came around for the photo shoot.

I just went with it. Work it, Ramona!

That homeless woman really was crazy, eh?

A very happy fourth of July to all you fantastic Americans out there!

ICON7: Part one.

I have been home from my Rhode Island adventure for one week now. Frankly, I needed a week to decompress and digest all that I learned. It truly was a jammed packed three days. Here are a few quickie shots of some of the things I experienced.

First, I flew to Providence in a small plane. The smallest I've ever seen at an airport that is not featured in a beloved 90's sitcom called Wings. That's the pilot out front. She was one of two crew members on the flight. The other was the co-pilot. No complimentary drinks on this little fella.

The view from the inside is a bit scary, no? It actually wasn't as bad as it looks. A definite first for me. I can now say with confidence and knowledge that I prefer a bigger plane.

This is a photo from the Thursday night key note presentation. The three folks on the couch were mega players at kickstarter.com, etsy.com, and behance.com. They had some pretty great stuff to say about their own company, as well as online community and presence. I'm up and running on Esty, but I will be starting accounts other social media sites soon, including Behance. At least that is what I told Matias Corea, the Behance speaker. Better stick to it.

An illustrator that I was inspired by but, quite embarrassingly, was not familiar with was Bob Staake. He spoke about his career in editorial and children's book illustration and his growth as an artist. His work was totally up my alley, and after I looked him up I realized that I had seen his stuff before. I guess I have a new illustrator to look up to. 

Another speaker that I adored was Christopher Silas Neal.

I came to the conference a ready made fan, and was intrigued with his presentation on a collaboration project he did for Kate Spade. An animation based on the colour navy. With synchronized swimmers. And a whale. How could I NOT love it? Ronaldo has been telling me for years that he would help me make an animation of my characters and Chris made me excited to actually go for it.

Chris was not the only speaker I was pumped up to see. I have been a HUGE fan of Jessica Hische's work ever since I saw her flow chart of when you should do work for free. Look to your right and you will see her website link in my favourites list. She did not disappoint. She was dispelling a terrible talk from ICON6 in L.A. that basically said that the static image is dead and if you don't animate your career will be too. She swears like a sailor, but it was kind of the coolest thing ever. If you go see the Wes Anderson movie Moonrise Kingdom (which I did, and it's awesome, and I'm writing a post about it soon) you will see her typography and lettering throughout it. And it's beee-a-uitful. 

I could write a book about this conference. It was expensive, but worth it. My tea towels were a total hit, which made me feel pretty good about my own work amongst such amazing talent. I'm going to put up little tidbits I learned over my future posts, rather than give you a novel right now. Before I head to bed I will leave you with a quote from the final key note presentation of the conference. Brian Rea (who's illustration work is all over the T Dot right now for the Soulpepper Theatre) and Paul Sahre re-imagined author Malcolm Gladwell's first three books into a stunning, fully illustrated, packaged set. They put up one of Malcolm's quotes that really rang true to me.

 I figure if I do what I love that I will never be a fool.

Two months in photos.

Yes, yes. I have been away from the spotlight for a while now. Don't think that I have been twiddling my thumbs. My life's a busy and fun one! I am about to head to the beautiful city of providence in Rhode Island for this year's illustration conference, ICON7. I'm hoping that I come home with plenty of new stories and exciting things lined up for the future! Here's a little montage of the significant events that I've been up to since April.

I've been working on presents that are owing. This is a veggie piece that I'm working on for my sister.

I said goodbye to an old friend. The Green Lantern was adopted by a lovely new family. He will be a happier turtle with kids to lay with him, but it wasn't easy to let him go.

 I made LOADS more tea towels. I am fully stocked with my root veggie and piggie screens.

I took a trip to the ever wonderful New York City with my day job. My first time to shop for inspiration around the city and it was fantastic.

 I've taken Linus on a few spins around Toronto. I take him pretty much everywhere I go.

 I also take this guy everywhere I can too. Biking fun!

 I took some beautiful photos of my tea towels, with the help of my friends Derek Matthew, and Julie Tamaki's fabulous kitchen. I then took those photos and used them to promote my tea towels on my Etsy page. Yes, that's right. Go to my etsy site and buy a towel now! Only if you want to, of course. You should want to. They're pretty great.

  I took a three hour learn to ride a motorcycle class. It was intense. I must say it was fun, exhilarating, and heart racing experience, but don't be looking for me on the road with one of these any time soon. I'm going to stick to the smooth ride I get on Linus.

 I hung out with one of my two sisters. She's passionate about animals in clothes. Ramona was given this cute little Scottish hat by her. You can tell from their expressions how it went over for each party involved.

 I saw the Dave Matthews Band. Again.

 I ate yogurt with Morgan.

 Chobani yogurt to be exact. It's a brand that's new to Canada. So far it's only available in Toronto at Loblaws stores. It's yummy greek style. I was invited to attend a little shindig they threw in the city last week. They had this lovely little make your own yogurt bar.

 I tried to make mine pretty, but as the story of my life goes, it got messy. I tried to compensate by adding a little flower. Anyway, the yogurt is delicious and I totally recommend trying it if you are in Toronto or the U S of A.

 I had so much fun making the first two tea towel designs that I decided to do a couple more! I will be debuting them at the conference this week. These will be available on my etsy site soon too, as well as a couple store front locations I will share once they're available.

You may think I'm focusing in my rings, but alas, this photo is about the brace. I have given myself tendinitis through my silk screening escapades. A great fear of mine has been realized. My right hand is injured. I will be fine, and the brace will always be there for support, but I will never take for granted the limits of my hand and what I can and can't do. 

I will be at ICON7 from June 14th through June 17th, in providence, Rhode Island. If you are attending I would love to meet you. I will be back to write all about it soon!

 

Printsource of inspiration.

I guess what I meant to say was Thursday. Thursday I would write about the Printsource show.

I hope you've had a good week! I have to say that I feel like my old self again. My OLD old self again. No time for anything once again. This isn't a good thing at all and not a good way to start my year. It is, after all, the year that I start my journey to becoming a freelancer. I have to say I'm not off to a very good start. I have a feeling things will take a turn for the better in the next month. I have some news, but it's a bit premature to mention just yet but I will tell you about it as soon as I can. 

Now, the Printsource show!

I have been in the textile graphic design business for over six years now, and this is the first time I had been invited to attend the show. I didn't know what to expect. What I saw was a whole new side of the business. Though I was not permitted to take any photos, if I could it would show a room full of colourful booths of companies and individuals selling the graphics, prints and patterns I create everyday. Most sold their art for around $550 per graphic with all it's rights. As I observed (and participated in) people were buying. Retailers like Gymboree, Joe Fresh, and The Gap, all come to this show. And buy lots. There were mainly companies that came from Europe and from New York. Not much of a Canadian showing. I am hoping to change this in the future. In my day to day work I am usually drawing inspiration from other retailers already existing clothing lines due to time and money restraints. The people at this show offer original work based on trend forecasting. In a strange way I think that my boss brought me along on this trip to open my eyes to an opportunity I could take advantage of in my future business and I am grateful to her for doing so. Of course, at the moment I have obligations and a contract that will not allow me to start this nature of a side business just yet. I will look into creating a textile company of my own over the next few years though. If you are reading this and think it sounds like something you'd like to check out or exhibit your work at Printsource has a wonderful, information filled website to help you out. In the meantime, here are a few shining stars of the show that really impressed me:

Lemon Ribbon
http://www.lemonribbon.com

Image from Lemon Ribbon

I found out about these guys before I went to the show on the Print and Pattern blog. The work they do is bright, fun, cute, and trendy too. Lemon Ribbon is run by a lovely couple, Melanie and Edward, who gather artwork from a variety of artists to create a diverse range. They are based just outside of London and have a great European flare to their work. They're a new company (less than two years old) and are already very successful. I hope to contact them to talk shop in the near future.

Peagreen
http://peagreen.bigcartel.com

Image from Peagreen

Though I did not get a chance to get to talk to the folks here as much as at Lemon Ribbon, their work was SO GREAT! Also based in the UK, their design is whimsical, they use amazing colours, they had it all! Graphically, I felt they were one of the strongest booths at the show. After looking at their website it looks like they do paper printing as well. I would gladly hang their work on my wall or wear it on a t-shirt!

Lylove Studio
http://www.lylovestudio.com
 

Image from Lylove studios

 The booth that Lylove had set up caught my eye the minute I walked in the show. The bright unique colours, the beautiful florals, the cool travel themed prints- they had me at hello. I lyloved them. They are based in New York. I sat and watched as two women hmm-ed and haa-ed over two prints that we wanted to purchase from these guys. Eventually they bought and we were out of luck. We didn't leave empty handed though- three fabulous prints came home with us! I look forward to their upcoming website!


Wow! The night has flown! Tomorrow Ronaldo's band is playing a gig AND I have book club. Busy busy! Time to paint my nails and go to bed. 


Nighty night!