Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Illustration Friday: Winter



My submission for this weeks Illustration Friday topic - Winter.

This piece was created for part of my holiday greeting card this year titled "Merry Christmas. Happy New Year." It's also now available as a limited edition print too.

Happy Holidays :)

materials used: pen and ink, textures, and adobe photoshop.


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view my illustration portfolio at http://www.rawtoastdesign.com/

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Creative Quarterly 22: Winners Announced



Stoked that another illustration will be in the next Creative Quarterly. Uni-cube was done for the ADC Cube Project and will be featured in CQ 22.

Congrats to all the other CQ winners as well! Here's the full list and post from CQ's website

Creative Quarterly is pleased to announce the winners of CFE 22. All winners will be exhibited in the next issue of Creative Quarterly, on the newsstand Spring 2011. The winners and runner-ups work will be posted on our Online Gallery in Spring 2011.
*Denote multiple winners

Winner
Illustration: Professional

Scott Anderson
Carlos Araujo
Scott Bakal
Andres Guzman*
Steven Hughes, Primary Hughes Illustration
Robin Hursthouse
Bee Johnson
Jesse Kuhn
Chris B Murray
James Ng
Inga Poslitur
Nick Ramos
Rick Sealock
Mark Smith
Oliver Weiss*
Daniel Zitka

Illustration: Student

Tuesday Bassen, Minneapolis College of Art & Design
JungYeon Roh, School of Visual Arts


Fine Art: Professional


Pamela Dewey
Brad Gray
Andres Guzman
Joyce Ho
LaBounty + Johl
Johann Wessels

Fine Art: Student

Martin Arnold, University of Mississippi
Janie Askew, University of Georgia
Brandon Cramm, University of Wisconsin- Stout

Graphic Design: Professional


Mark Oliver, Inc.*
Chuck Nivens
Mervin Pakaste
Ji Yong Park
Jessica Ring, The Garden

Graphic Design: Student


Brian Banton*, York University
Tisha Boonyawatana, California State University, Long Beach
Jeremy Honea*, Texas State University, San Marcos
Bruce Mai, California State University, Sacramento
Yumi Nakamura*, School of Visual Arts
Ngoc Ngo, Academy of Art University
Jose Rivera, California State University Sacramento

Photography: Professional

Navid Baraty
Leland Bobbé
Amy Fichter
Jenn Grossman, Jenn Grossman Photography
Frank Hamrick*
LaBounty + Johl
Rachel Nemecek

Photography: Student


Robby Cavanaugh, Cal Poly Pomona
Ashlee Larsen
Amanda Longoria, Texas State University
Megan Rath*

Runner-up
Fine Art: Professional


Kevin Bernstein
Jessica Kale
Peter Kraemer
Robyn Lee
Carmen Li
Josue Romero
Tamara Staser-Meltzer
Christine Style
Marc Yannarelli

Fine Art: Student

Seguli Cho, RIT
Soyun Choi, Kookmin University
James Louks, Black Hills State University
Rachel Sard, Washington University in St. Louis

Graphic Design: Professional

Mario Estioko
Dawn McCusker
Ji Yong Park*
Jamie Runnells, Jamie Runnells Design
Danny Warner

Graphic Design: Student

Kristine Campbell, Truman State University
Meghan Dunaway, Mississippi College
Robert Gaszak, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Darshita Mistry
Yumi Nakamura*, School of Visual Arts
Tomoko Ogino*, Art Center College of Design
JunYong Sim, Art Center College of Design

Illustration: Professional

Wesley Bedrosian
Graham Franciose
Mark Hammermeister
Keiko Murayama
Chiami Sekine
Keiko Tokushima
Oliver Weiss
Kyle White

Illustration: Student


Courtney Billadeau, Minneapolis College of Art & Design
Will Cardona, OCAD
Mark Ingram, Art Center College of Design
Michelle Schwartzbauer, Minneapolis College of Art & Design

Photography: Professional

Darryl Baird
Michael Barlas
Philomena Carroll*
Leni Johnston*
Abigail Wellman
Daniel Zitka
Gary Zuercher

Photography: Student

Robby Cavanaugh, Cal Poly Pomona
Caleb Clark, Louisiana Tech University
Jordyn Hill, Utah State University
Emily Hoffman, Converse College
Christine Lenzen, University of Notre Dame
Ashley Matthews*, Louisiana Tech University
Rachel Woolf, Severna Park Senior High School


Here's a little video from the ADC Cube Project opening too...



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view my illustration portfolio at http://www.rawtoastdesign.com/

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Utne Reader Illustrated Blog Series



One of my favorite commissioners of editorial illustration, Stephanie Glaros of Utne Reader, has recently started an ongoing Utne Reader Illustrated blog series. Making herself that much cooler now in the illustration world, and giving the readers some insight about the editorial illustration process that goes on behind the scenes. She just featured a recent illustration that her and I worked on together about retirement. You can check out the article here: Utne Reader Illustrated: Jesse Kuhn.

Utne Reader has really been influential in my career as an illustrator so far. I’ve had the opportunity to work on many articles with Stephanie over the past couple years. It’s where good ol’ Greetings From Mr. Bird got his birth certificate, which went on to win awards in AI 29 and CQ 17, and has also been cloned and hung on the walls of many homes now throughout the world as limited edition illustration art prints.

So many other illustrators that I admire have contributed work to the magazine over the years; several of whom are mentioned on Utne’s website. Since its inception in 1984, Utne Reader has relied on talented artists to create original images for stories that express powerful emotions, brilliant new ideas, and humorous storytelling. Browsing through back issues of Utne Reader is like a tour of “Who’s Who” in the illustration world. Artists like Gary Baseman, Brad Holland, Anita Kunz, Bill Plympton, and Seymour Chwast have graced our pages over the years, to name just a few.

My life as an illustrator is still in it’s infancy and I’m really grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given by people like Stephanie. It was only three years ago that I left an unfulfilling design-monkey desk job in the midwest with dreams of New York City and a desire to do something different. I had always really wanted to be a full-time illustrator. To get to wake up everyday and draw. No more clocking in and clocking out. No more Monday morning status meetings. Someone who actually gets paid to think—and draw—for a living... what a concept :)

Thanks again for supporting my dreams Stephanie, and for supporting so many other freelance illustrators in our community!



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view my editorial illustration portfolio at http://www.rawtoastdesign.com/

Thursday, December 16, 2010

thepostercauseproject.com - Greetings From Mr. Bird



I recently teamed up with the Poster Cause Project. It is an online effort to sell and promote artwork by artists in a very limited form all while donating 50% of ALL profits to charities and organizations in need. The infamous GREETINGS FROM MR. BIRD was donated to use for their cause, which can be found here > thepostercauseproject.com

materials used: pen and ink, textures, and adobe photoshop. Buy photoshop here.


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view my illustration portfolio at http://www.rawtoastdesign.com/

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Did Kohl’s Ever Really Care?



It has been well over three months since the Kohl’s Cares Facebook competition ended. It was the competition where I teamed up with a very deserving neighborhood school, East Side Community High, to help raise awareness about their participation. School started shortly after the competition ended for ESCHS and things in my life went back to business as usual. Many of you who generously supported these kids continue to inquire about the final results, and unfortunately, there still are not any (that myself or ESCHS are aware of). Kohl’s has stayed very quiet and little is currently known as to what they are even doing. Many wonder if the whole competition was just some publicity scam for Kohl’s. One school has even gone as far as suing Kohl’s - Florida school suing over Kohl’s Cares contest. I can’t say I blame them for being a little upset. Many people devoted a lot of time, energy, and resources helping kids all over the United States participate in a contest with some pretty large promises made by Kohl’s. All of that has now vanished. Even the original contest page has been deleted by Kohl’s - http://apps.facebook.com/KohlsCares. Weird right? Funny too that part of that page forced you to “LIKE” the Kohl’s Facebook page in order to vote for a school; gaining Kohl’s millions of dollars worth of publicity when the voting ended. Then they quickly shut their doors with a smile, and have left all of the kids out in the cold; still dreaming about their chances of winning. Nice. Real nice.

There is some other news though (that I’m glad to share). I recently received an email from ESCHS and it looks like all of this has inspired them to march forward with or without the empty promises of Kohl’s. Here’s the letter I received from Mark Federman, the principle of East Side Community High School.


Dear Students, Families, Staff, Alumni, Neighbors and Friends of East Side:

Many of you supported East Side during the Kohl’s Cares contest and have been asking, What happened? Please continue reading to find out and to learn what East Side has decided to do about it and how you can help.

It is great to see the country finally talking about education, thanks to the new movie Waiting for Superman. In a country where public schools are often failing our most “at-risk” kids and families, East Side has been a beacon of light, demonstrating to the city and the country that public schools, if done right, can work for our students. Unfortunately, in these tough economic times it is becoming more and more difficult for East Side to provide our students with the much needed access to resources and experiences that broaden their interests, develop their talents and increase their cultural capital - things that many of their peers in wealthier districts or private schools often take for granted.

We hoped winning the Kohl’s Cares Facebook Contest would help us with these much-needed resources. (East Villager Article). It’s been 3 months since the Kohl’s contest ended and to our knowledge no formal winners have been announced, however several have been disqualified. East Side took great pride in making it to #26 and receiving more votes and support than any other urban public school in the entire country.

We may not have won the money, but we once again came together as a community to show the city, the country and the world what a special place East Side is. We are a community made up of incredible young people, exceptional families, extraordinary educators, loyal alumni and dear friends, old and new.

Many of you have been emailing, calling and asking, "What’s next?" and, "How can we help? We put our heads together and realized we came very close to winning the $500,000 and imagined the amazing and transformational possibilities $500,000 would do for the students of East Side: update our technology, maintain our arts and music programs, bring back our drama program, build a gym and expand our college readiness program. We decided WE MUST GET THE $500K ANYWAY!!!!!!

Therefore, East Side Community High School is launching our $500K Anyway campaign. We are committed to raise the half million dollars for our students by the end of the next school year (June 2012). We did not become one of the most successful urban schools in the country by waiting for Superman (or Kohl’s), we did it through incredible teachers and teaching, collaboration, innovation, hard and smart work, a belief in our kids and their families and most importantly, community.

Therefore, we ask you, our friends and community members, to join us and support our students by going to Friends of East Side - Support East Side Students to learn how you can help in your own little or big way. WE ARE NOT WAITING FOR SUPERMAN!

Sincerely,

Mark

Mark Federman
Principal East Side Community High School



I definitely recommend checking out the ways to donate over at ESCHS, and if you have any other ideas definitely get in touch with them too. I also recommend heading over to Facebook and doing a quick dis-LIKE and letting Kohl’s know that it's not cool to mess with kids. Then if you feel even more compelled to hit the keyboard a little more with those human phalanges, give a few of these folks a shout and tell them how you feel...


Kevin Mansell - Chairman, President and CEO: Kevin.mansell@kohls.com
Donald A. Brennan – Senior Executive VP: Donald.a.brennan@kohls.com
John B. Worthington – Senior Executive VP: john.b.worthington@kohls.com
Julie Gardner – EVP and Chief Marketing Officer: Julie.gardner@kohls.com
Vicki Shamion – Vice President, Public Relations: (262) 703-1464 investor.relations@kohls.com
Steven Burd – Kohl's Board of Directors: directors@kohls.com
Brian F. Miller – Senior VP - Corporate Governance (262)703-1723: brian.f.miller@kohls.com
Media Relations - (262) 703-1335
Community Relations - (262) 703-7000
Wes McDonald - Chief Financial Officer (262) 703-1893



Thanks again to all of you who showed support to these kids back in August. I hope some of you can continue to show that through ESCHS’s new 500K Anyway Challenge too.

Happy Holidays to all!

Best,

Jesse

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Editorial Illustration for 417 Magazine - Top Ten


Talk of the Town illustration editorial illustration for 417 Magazine. It went with a quick article on how Branson had been named a top ten vacation city by Fodors.

materials used: pen and ink, textures, and adobe photoshop.



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view my illustration portfolio at http://www.rawtoastdesign.com/

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Directory of Illustration Copies Available



Since I have a page in this years Directory of Illustration #27, I'm able to get a copy of the book sent out to you for free if you want one. You just need to be some type of creative director, art director, editor, art buyer, etc. in the U.S. that commissions illustrators at your company. I will need to provide them with your work mailing info and job title. Send me your work addy quick though so I can submit it to them by the 3rd. I have a few extras left over after sending to clients so it's first-come first-served.

Drop your coordinates at any of the locations below...or just leave it in the comments, I'll delete it after I've received it.

email: rawtoastdesign at gmail dot com
facebook: http://dld.bz/bFc8
twitter: http://twitter.com/rawtoastdesign


Best,


Jesse

Editorial Illustration for St. Louis Magazine - Best Docs Issue



These editorial illustrations were done for a couple of articles in the Best Docs issue of St. Louis Magazine. The top one was for an article on how to stay healthy as you get older; titled: Don’t Stop! How to keep doing everything you love—even when your joints are creaking and your back aches. The one below was for an article outlining how to keep tabs of your child's growth; titled: Baby Steps: A parent’s guide to tracking their children’s development—from birth through middle school.



materials used: pen and ink, textures, and adobe photoshop.



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view my illustration portfolio at http://www.rawtoastdesign.com/