Having worked with several independent authors of late I am struck by the opportunities and difficulties in the arena of book publishing today. With on demand printing it has become possible for anyone to self publish a book with no cost up front. You create the artwork, set the inside of the book and save it as a PDF, and your book shows on Amazon and Kindle in a matter of days. Read more
Shahn was a brilliant artist and illustrator, who to be blunt could draw his ass off. Simple lines captured both the human form and emotion in a way you rarely see. He was born in Lithuania in 1898 into a family of Jewish craftsmen. His father’s anti-czarist activities forced the family to immigrate to the United States in 1906. Shahn grew up in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn. He became an apprentice in a Manhattan lithographic firm, finishing high school at night and later taking classes at New York University, City College of New York, and the National Academy of Design. Shahn saw his art as a means to combat injustice and raise social awareness. Throughout his career Shahn’s style retained the linear bias of a draughtsman, which proved to be effective in his satirical depictions of social types. He had his first solo exhibition at the Downtown Gallery in 1930, and his series of paintings of the trial and execution of the anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti established his reputation and led to further explorations of trials with political implications. Google him, check out his work, you’ll be glad you did.
NYC Art Director, Tony Iatridis
I’ve put up a new website for my cartoon and illustration work, specifically focusing on my niche in that market, humorous illustrations. It a custom WordPress theme I created, simple, clean, ad responsive, tied into a Facebook Page, Tumblr and Twitter.
Been helping Paul Yandoli get a up a new site featuring his amazing photography. Check out paulyandoliphoto.com
Boston-Maine-20051 by Paul Yandoli
Betsy was a dear friend who’s artwork should be remembered and shown more on the internet. This excerpt is from inxart.com:
Betsy Scheld was an energetic young illustrator who worked in New York and contributed to INX until January 1996, when at the age of 32 she died from spinal meningitis.
She received a BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY. In 1990, she was awarded a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Art Institute of Chicago, Her work appeared in a variety of popular publications such as The Village Voice and The Sacramento Bee, as well as The New York Times and Newsday, In addition, she illustrated two children’s books, several CD covers, billboards, and numerous book jackets, one of which received the prestigious Tiffany Award,
Betsy Scheld’s artwork is a vivid reminder of her personality, She was known for her laughter, her sense of originality, and her love of art. Her use of bright colors and frenzied lines express the energetic pace at which she went about her work and life. She expressed the humor she saw in the problems of everyday life by using disproportionate figures and skewed perspectives. She had a spirited defiance of what most people considered normal. Her taste in fashion and view of social expectations usually went against mainstream norms. These themes are reflected in her artwork, as she often drew humans with three eyeballs or green skin and kangaroos sporting red shoes. Read more
Pascale Victor is a social worker in the boro of Queens in New York City. I had the pleasure of helping her with her book, both in print and kindle form, and her new WordPress website, pascalevictor.com. Her book is an intriguing look into the dedication and heartbreak that go hand in hand with her very difficult, yet rewarding occupation. Please have a look at her site where you can read excerpts from her wonderful new book, Field Work With An Open Heart.
The use of mobile devices to access the Internet is becoming the medium of choice, with more than two-thirds (69 percent) of all Internet users surveyed doing so daily, according to Mobile Web Watch 2012, a study of consumers in Europe, Latin America and South Africa conducted by Accenture (NYSE: ACN). In addition, consumers are using multiple devices to connect to the web, including smartphones (61 percent), netbooks (37 percent), and tablets (22 percent).
With statistics like this it’s time think about your demographic and the design of your site and make a decision as to whether or not you need your site to be responsive (adapts automatically to the size of the screen/device it is being viewed on). True a standard site can be viewed on an iphone for instance, but is the user experience enhanced when the site adapts to that device? The answer is most often, though not always… yes.
NYC Art Director, Tony Iatridis
I have a wonderful new client, ubmfuturecities.com. A website branded as the Global Community for 21st Century City Decision Makers. Articles, blogs and interactivity with the readership, please check it out it’s phenomenonal. Link to a Tony Iatridis Cartoon on UBM.
NYC Art Director, Tony Iatridis
Another installment for the UBM future cities website. I thought it was interesting to use this visual for a story that was in favor of an urban composting initiative. Curious how something which would be a negative aspect in the real world, can be kind of cute in a cartoon… isn’t it?
My friend Carol has self-published a book of her clever humor column, ‘Smirk’. You can read some sample chapters on the site as well. Have a look at her new website:
Smirk – A compilation of humor columns & cartoons by Carol Nelson Falcone
Smirk by Carol Nelson
Falcone