 |
illoz mousepads shipping out
Posted by Robert Zimmerman at 4:38 pm on May 29th |
|
The official illoz mousepads designed by Mr. Gary Taxali are on the docks and ready for first shipment tomorrow! These have been a long time coming, but I assure you they are worth the wait!
These fine and highly collectible items are available only to art directors with registered accounts at illoz. So, if you are reading this and suddenly look down and realize, "Hey I'm an art director without an account at illoz"... then what the heck are you waiting for? Get an account right here and get a mousepad. There are plenty to go around!
As an added bonus, art directors also get the Official Art Director Owner's Manual, which is a handy booklet, capable of guiding any art director through the best use of the illoz system. As you may know, illoz is a lot more than a pretty portfolio site, folks. Indeed, it's filled with lots of handy tools for getting jobs done and this invaluable illoz Owner's Manual will make all these fancy gizmos easy to understand and start using right away.
|
Hey what is this place? A mail room? Envelopes are everywhere! Get this stuff outta here!
|
| See more: Props |
| Comments (3) |
|
MAGS Talk
Posted by Robert Zimmerman at 9:01 pm on May 6th |
The illoz and Drawger crews got lots of well-deserved props in my talk to the Magazine Association of the Southeast today, which centered around using illustration to start conversations and boost circulation. A great association, these MAGS people are and a terrific design block set up by board member, Lisa Sparer. I really enjoyed these people - they run a tight ship, which in the conference racket is a tough thing to pull off well. They did it flawlessly.
Lisa brought in myself to talk about illustration. Luke Hayman was there to talk about his current work over at Pentagram and past work at ID Magazine as well as New York Magazine. Mitch Shostak did a really cool presentation on all his current projects and showed a huge amount of illustration work he's commissioned, to boot. And lastly but not leastly, D.W. Pine was there as well to talk about his past ten years at Time.
This talk I did was an hour and a half. That's a long time to talk about something! It would not have been possible without a lot of help from others. Edel provided me with some great information from his years at Time. Brian Stauffer was a big help as well when I needed some extra insider details. Eddie Guy, Brad Holland, Anita Kunz, Ross MacDonald all also sent in stories and antidotes that were a huge help to me as well. And, I also have to thank Drawger itself, as I lifted several success and horror stories straight from these pages, including from Harry Campbell and Tim O'Brien to share with the conference.
The bonus dinner with Mitch, Luke and editor Bruce Anderson last night was a real treat for me. I got insider details on the secret Smooze Society, it's untimely demise and Shostak's covert plans for it's revival. I hope to be lucky enough to be included...
|
| See more: Props |
| Comments (6) |
|
Marc Art Mine
Posted by Robert Zimmerman at 10:05 am on April 19th |
Yesterday by FedEx - a reMarcable treat arrived.
A signed and numbered print by Marc Burckhardt, of Robert Johnson - all for me!
It's impossible to explain how fine this print is. The brilliant colors, the luxurious paper, the exceptional quality of the print itself are all simply breath-taking. This is one truly exquisite work. The man is a master, done deal, game over.
Luckily for everyone, Marc has the same quality of prints for sale at his illogator shop, which just opened for business this week.
|
Check it out! Marc has his own tape!
How cool is that?
I mean, how many people have their own tape? Gimmi a break!
|
Off to the framer! I have the best in town!
|
| See more: At Drawger, Props |
| Comments (6) |
|
Anywhere USA
Posted by Robert Zimmerman at 10:56 am on January 17th |
A couple of years back, my daughter Lila got the idea that she needed to take a semester out of high school to work on the pre-production of an independent film, being shot in our little town. She convinced me to also get involved by naming and designing some bogus products to be used by the cast. Being that is was my daughter asking, it was an easy decision to make.
The film made a remarkable journey after Lila went back to high school. From very humble beginnings, with no budget to speak of, a complete cast of non-actors and guided by the single-minded and brilliant vision of director Chusy, Anywhere USA has landed itself in the dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival.
|
My small contribution was branding and designing products to be used by the cast. They needed a beer for starters. Since the film had a South of the Mason Dixon Line tilt, I wanted a name that would sound good in the unique drawl of a Southerner. I decided on Kegger. I wanted the beer to look cheap, but distinguished at the same time. Something that looked like ordinary folks would buy, feeling they were getting high quality at a very low price.
Here's what I ended up with, accompanied by a cast shot with the actual phony product. Here's a better look.
|
The next product they needed was a soft drink. The requirements here were that it had to look and sound like a low-level bargain brand. In other words, it had to look cheap and it had to sound cheap. Again, I wanted the name to sound good rolling off the southern tongue. I settled on BUB cola.
I really enjoyed the challenge of branding something that looks and sounds like complete crap, but that you could believe would be popular at the same time. It was actually a lot harder to pull off than I thought it would be.
|
Finally they needed a fake dating website that was geared towards plus-sized singles. Once again, it had to look and sound cheap, but believable. I settled on RealBigLove.com. Incorporating some advertising for BUB cola and Kegger into the site just seemed like a natural thing to do. Director Chusy also wanted part of the site to feature a dramatic close up of a penis, which I am not going to be subjecting anyone to here, but I will say that sitting with the director and retouching that photo was a uniquely unsettling and hilarious experience. I may never live that down...
|
|
Fortunately for me, my cameo appearance in the film as Manudo, the bitchy and dreadful fashion designer ended up on the cutting room floor. With any luck at all, it will stay there.
16 films will be shown in the dramatic competition at Sundance, culled from 1,068 entries. It's a remarkable achievement for everyone who was involved. A lot of heart and a lot of guts went into this and it was an honor to be involved.
|
| See more: Props, Whatever |
| Comments (19) |
|
Vintage Commercials
Posted by Robert Zimmerman at 9:06 pm on December 21st |
Citgo Commercial |
I had a job sweeping the floors at WSOC TV in Charlotte, NC in 1972. One day a guy handed me a huge box of commercials on 16mm tape that were on their way to the trash-bin. He gave them to me because I was "an art guy" (at age 13), and would somehow "know what to do with them one day" or, so he insisted at the time.
I carried around that box of commercials for almost 40 years storing them in hot attics and damp basements along the way. Last year, I found somebody to digitize them.
|
Talking Crissy |
Even though these vintage commercials have faded and sadly lost a lot of color with the passing of time, I've decided to share them with everyone, regardless. Some of them are simply gems.
The whole project is here at YouTube.
|
Some of my personal favorites
The Car Man - Citgo Commercial
This one is just a pure classic from start to finish. I wonder who that girl is. There is another in the same series here.
Talking Crissy Doll
This commercial might be one of the creepiest things I've ever seen. One of the girls who starred in this actually wrote to me and said she thought it was creepy too.
M&M's - Go Fish
This one is just great television. I kinda wish there were more commercials like this.
GumBall Banks
"Thanks for the GumBall!"
Country Club Malt Liquor
They could never make a commercial like this today. Features a room full of drunks drinking a lot of beer. I love it.
Del Monte Gel Cup
This commercial is perfect. The timing, the kid, everything.
Belly Button Baby
This means something and I'm not sure I want to know what it is. If you figure it out, keep it to yourself.
Close N'Play by Kenner
I can watch this over and over again.
--------
|
| See more: Seen |
| Comments (10) |
|
illogator
Posted by Robert Zimmerman at 2:20 pm on December 11th |
I'm very pleased and proud to release illogator.com for the perusal and pleasure of the illustration collecting public.
The illogator is designed specifically for illustrators who are selling original works, whether they be original paintings, prints, objects of desire for the home, or unique apparel items. Online shops at illogator are available to illustrators by invitation only.
My personal hope is that illogator's primary contribution will be to give art collectors a place to purchase original works that they have seen on book covers, magazines and other print mediums. The art from the cover of Time Magazine, the art from the cover of a latest best seller, the art on the annual report from IBM - these are arguably more influential to our culture than any works that hang in our museums on any given day. I'm pleased to be able to trumpet that notion and to provide a website where those original works can be made available for purchase.
The world of illustration has changed dramatically over the past decade. More and more, illustrators offer their own lines of unique merchandise and illogator.com provides professionals with a place to sell and promote those lines as well.
The site launches today, with a small group of remarkable people who have helped me test out the site and make this idea come to life. I'm very grateful for all their efforts on behalf of this project and hope it serves them well for very many years to come.
go there
|
| See more: At Drawger, Props |
| Comments (11) |
|
Drawger Annual
Posted by Robert Zimmerman at 8:23 am on November 19th |
Very pleased indeed to let loose the 2nd Drawger Annual. The first one in 2006 was so much fun, it was clear that Drawger should give it another go. 52 Drawgers made it happen for 2007.
You learn a few things putting together a show like this. One is that illustrators can't do anything without a deadline. When I sent word that the show was being planned, I gave Drawgers a somewhat generous deadline for entries of about a month and a half. With almost no exceptions, every single piece arrived on the last day. So rule number one when dealing with illustrators: Deadlines rule.
Another thing. By and large illustrators have weird names. I defy anyone to spell Burckhardt the same way twice or Vasconcelos, Witschonke or Ciardello. I have unresolved spelling issues, and putting this together required cut-and-paste skills like I've never employed them before. For some reason, I had Brian Stauffer's name spelled three different ways on the same page at one point. He was kind enough to help me through that. New admiration goes out for all those art directors setting illustrator names in 4 point type for the margins of magazines. I've never seen one spelled incorrectly.
Third and lastly, illustrators are an amazingly generous lot. If you ask them nicely and have even a measure of sincerity, they will bend over three ways to Sunday to make good things happen. The 2007 Drawger Annual is testimony to that.
The show was a real pleasure to have all to myself for a while. It was like sitting alone with an unreleased classic. I've looked at each individual entry dozens of times - some of the works were much larger, with much higher resolution than I can display at Drawger, so I had the benefit of zooming in, for what I must admit to as many hours spent marveling at the skills and dedication to the art form these great people have in bewildering abundance.
I hope everyone enjoys the show! If we can keep good ship Drawger afloat, we'll do it all again in 2008.
|
| See more: At Drawger |
| Comments (30) |
|
Server Tsunami
Posted by Robert Zimmerman at 10:53 am on October 11th |
The Drawger server suffered a big-thumb catastrophe last night at around 11pm. Five days of data was deleted in less than five seconds. The data can not be recovered - meaning that a slice of Drawger history is lost forever to the digital beyond.
I am humbled, embarrassed, and terribly sorry. In the eight years I've dedicated to developing internet technologies, I've never experienced anything like this. It's a server tsunami.
Here's part of the disaster back-story: I've been scrambling lately to cope with unexpected popularity at Drawger. Over the last 30 days, we've been visited by over 65,000 people who have eagerly gobbled up over 366,000 pages of content. Since Drawger was originally built as a small social club, we simply didn't have enough capacity to accommodate all the guests. If Drawger was a bar, the fire marshall would have closed the joint down a long time ago. Not enough chairs, not enough bathrooms, not enough emergency exits for the gregarious crowd. So - last week we packed up and moved to what appeared to be a bigger, better ventilated box. What we didn't realize was that the sprinkler system didn't work and all the emergency exits emptied out into oncoming traffic. What looked like a good move turned into a disaster waiting to happen - and it did.
Hopefully, the members and guests will forgive me. I am taking steps to insure this can never happen again, at least not on such a massive and disastrous scale. Right now, we have temporary lodging in the server-equivalent of a bunch of FEMA trailers. By this weekend, we will be high, dry and living the good life - I promise.
|
| See more: At Drawger |
| Comments (18) |
|
illo to web VER. 1.0
Posted by Robert Zimmerman at 4:54 pm on July 28th |
If Business Week is right and the days of the print edition of the San Francisco Chronicle are numbered, it probably means that a lot of other major regional dailies will fall right behind them.
If it's an inevitable truth that the daily news we read will soon only be found behind the smudged screens of our iphones and laptops, it might be time to start wondering how illustration follows along.
So far, no one seems to have figured this out, at least not in a way that makes much sense.
Here's an example of The Chronicle using a Joseph Fielder illustration, taken from print and brutalized with extreme prejudice for the web edition. If you miss it, don't feel bad. It's only 64 pixels wide. You can get a bigger view by clicking on the little fellow. I wonder how many people bother?
The segway from print to web isn't going so well for illustration and if you deal with web code at all, you will have a fairly good idea why this is so. It's just a hard design nut to crack, if it is crackable at all.
Some news outfits do make an effort. The New YorkTimes makes the case for illustration here with a John Hersey spot, handled as well as probably can be done. ( You may have to SIGN UP to view it )
What this sort of thing means to the art directors at the Times is that the days of designing around illustration, which the Times always handled to great effect, are over. The web likes rectangles. Wrapping type can be done on the web, but it's tedious and rarely worth the effort. Design looses out to the grim realities of HTML. Perhaps illustration does as well.
|
| See more: Seen |
| Comments (14) |
|
|
|
|
