Happy Spring!

Here in Western Washington we’ve been shivering. It’s official April was the coldest on record here. We got almost twice the average rain for April, not to mention hail and snow. Brrr. But May 1st was beautiful, a chance to get outside and take notice that Spring IS here. Nature keeps plugging away, singing birds, new emerging leaves and buzzing bees. Happy Spring finally.

ICON 6 Experience

Wowwee! ICON 6 was a blast. ICON (the Illustration Conference) is held every two years or so, this time in Pasadena. It was joyous, energetic mix of inspiration and education. I met lots of nice folks and am inspired to push my illustration self harder. The emcees, the amazing Brian Rea and Paul Rogers were charming, so relaxed and funny. See their ICON translator above. Yes, there were references to the horrific economy and the world going to hell, but a positive thread held everything together. All in all, the tone was hopeful for the future of illustration and for illustrators to thrive in a world with new possibilities.

See some of the illustration superstars pictured (with red eyes) on the perky Fernanda Cohen’s Drawger blog post. Including the mysterious Jason Holley who created hilarious videos that were shown between sections of the program. Hopefully they'll be posted somewhere soon —they are surely to be YouTube blockbusters (amongst illustrators, A.D.s and designers anyway). I'm so glad I went and am very thankful to all the volunteers and staff that produced the conference. It was a jolt of positive energy for many isolated illustrators, or should I say designer/illustrators and illustrator/educators and students. (Maybe 2% were solely illustrators.)

For myself, highlights were talks by fashion “lifestyle” illustrators Bil Donovan and John Jay Cabuay. It was a treat to hear the amazing, illustrator and NY Times blogger Christoph Niemann share his inspirations (including maps) and his design driven process. Almost every attendee I spoke to said Wayne White’s talk was their favorite (or their new imaginary boyfriend @designjunket). I can’t describe it only to say this man is a genius. Authentic, charming and well, you just had to be there (sorry). Or, buy the book, Maybe Now I'll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve a monograph of his 30-year career, edited by multi-talented Todd Oldham (also a fascinating ICON presenter). Yes, I think Mr. White deserves lots of respect (and many laughs too). See UK illustrator and ICON presenter Rod Hunt’s photos of ICON 6, including Wayne White shown with some of his word paintings.

Ahh, there was so much more to ICON 6, but I'll never eat dinner if I keep going on and on. Hmmm, I wonder where ICON 7 will be.

(Addendum: First of Jason Holley’s ICON funny (yet a bit sad) videos posted on vimeo. The voices and timing are “fabulous”. Also, for more ICON 6 links and conversation ICON info search Twitter for #ICON6)

Color Gesture Drawing!

Today I got my hands dirty looking through the pile of 150 or so drawings I made at an inspiring two-day Barbara Fugate art workshop in January. Most drawings were 30 seconds, I don't recall if the longest was two minutes or five, maybe one was five minutes. There's no hesitation, just start making marks. Not random marks, intuitively consider space, thrust, discovering how the model exists in space. And what wonderful models we had the honor to draw. This time there was color work with, lots of it. Raw, direct, bold marks. Ink wash, pastel, and charcoal. What a blast!
See a slideshow of drawings and photos from the workshop.

Writing for Visual Thinkers

Writing for visual thinkers? That was the illustration assignment for the current SPGA Chapter of the Graphic Artists Guild meeting promotion. The meeting is Wednesday, I'll be there and look forward to Amy Posner's presentation on how to write for social media and personal promotion. I was happy with the illustration, but the printed postcard is much more vivid and more red than it should have been. Ahh, the joys of digital printing without a press check.

My Oh My big changes happening at CafePress

On Earth Day CafePress sent an email out to shopkeepers explaining drastic changes to their business model. They didn't call it that, but that's what it is. I won't go into all the details but the nut of it is this, they will be dictating prices as of June 1. All products sold through their Marketplace will net the creators 10% of the retail price. Up to now they've always allowed creators to set the markup, set their own price. Many creators have built successful businesses making a decent profit from every sale, inspiring them to grow and promote their own ecommerce "shop" and brand. Generally by default all products created are for sale in their Marketplace. CP says their new pricing won't affect products in shopkeepers "shops" only in the CP Marketplace. Well, when same product selling in the CP Marketplace for sells for $12.99 and the designer has it in their shop for $18.99, who will make the sale? The creator makes $1.30 vs $6, My spouse calls it the "WallMartization of CafePress".

CP is abandoning their model of empowering creators to build their own brand and control their content to one where they control the market. They say it's to improve the customer experience.

Most of my sales come through the Marketplace, so I will be affected. CP is mostly a fun sideline for me, but this action by CP sours my enthusiasm. I really feel for those with highly successful shops, like one of my favorites "Obey the Purebreed". Maybe CP will be cutting side deals for select creators to stay, who really knows. If not many will be cutting out the Marketplace entirely and/or moving to the big competitor Zazzle.

It's a cold, cruel world. CP has made a pure business decision to change their fundamental model. They may regret it.

Zazzle here we come. Now if only I had snagged "matissimo" as my user name way back in 2004 when I first signed up. Someone else has it, but they've posted no products. Zazzle "matissimo" who are you?

P.S. CP also announced it changed the Marketplace search platform to bring the best designs to the front and reduce redundant designs. I welcome this change because in the past you had to wade through a lot of junk to find quality. Just too bad this change comes along with the price fixing. Maybe CP will back track.

This lucky illustrator creates HP “Work In 3G” campaign images

Last summer I was fortunate to have the opportunity to create some fun and unique illustrations for the current HP “Work In 3G” campaign. I collaborated with the talented creatives at McCann San Francisco, art director David Swope and art producer Evelyn Chan. They produced great Flash animation of the key illustration, a pop-up style world of transportation. The big thrill came when one of the ads appeared in the end of the year Time and Newsweek magazines. Imagine my work in the Time magazine person of the year issue with Shepard Fairey’s graphic illustration of Barack Obama on the cover, very cool!

Here’s the set of four ads, these appeared in commuter train cars. Click to see it larger.

Give Bees a Chance design featured on CP Ungiftables

CafePress has a cool Flash site called the Ungiftables. It's a fun way to browse for gifts for the ungiftable characters in your life. I was happy to learn they chose my Give Bees a Chance t-shirt as a potential gift for the "nosy neighbor". They also have products for "conspiracy uncle" "emo nephew" and "vege-liberal activist". Very clever, certainly there's something for everyone at cafepress. Visit my shop, Matissimo Online Boutique, it's a fun sideline for me.

Change has come to America

Oh happy day! Elation, relief and most important HOPE. History was made and I'm so proud of America today. 'nuff said by me. Love and Peace.

Same big driftwood at La Push on the Washington Coast

I stood before this huge driftwood log two years ago, it hasn't budged. The wild north Washington coast is the land of big driftwood beaches. We've gone out here every February for about 4 years, and somehow we luck out with the weather. Sure it's cold, but clear and sunny? That's not normal, it's a treat. The afternoon we arrived I asked the woman manning the front desk of the Ocean Park Resort if she had seen any sunshine that day. She laughed like I was a crazy person. But sure enough the sun came out for our visit. We visited the beach at Oil City (not really a city at all, but reportedly the beach with the most driftwood in the world.) It's a ten mile drive from the highway, then a 1 mile walk to the beach, which is at the mouth of the Hoh river. Part of Olympic National Park, Oil City is a starting point for hiking the Olympic Coast up to Third Beach which is near La Push. That would be a rugged challenge, bring your tide chart for sure. Instead of roughing it with a backpack, we stayed comfortably in deluxe cabins and drove south to Ruby Beach, pictured below, to enjoy the sunshine and search for the perfectly shaped rock.

Keep on keeping on... life drawing

I'm so lucky. A group of drawing buddies get together to do some figure drawing. We share the model fee, our fearless leader books all the best models. How great is it that they are willing to bare all for artists practicing their craft/art or whatever you want to call it? Practice is the best word for me, I don't have many expectations. It's the experience of looking and putting marks on paper. Stop thinking about keyboard shortcuts and undos and start making my own hand create a mark that is unique and expresses the live form that is before me. Feel the gesture, follow the contour, see the shadow shapes, angles and relationships of shape to shape. Line, wash, smears, scrubs, thick, thin, heavy, light, fast, slow... OMG so many possibilities, don't think too much just practice and try something different on the next one. It is exhilarating. Stack the papers up, don't judge too carefully, just remember the experience. Definitely show up in two weeks to do it again. Keep it up, fill the recycle barrel over and over.

In March our fearless leader will be holding a workshop "Mixed Media Figure Drawing" here in Seattle, I can't wait.

Drawing at the zoo

Tuesday I completed a six session class, "Drawing outside the studio" taught by Barbara Fugate. The focus was expanding our mark making vocabulary, making marks that move, touch and feel. What an inspiring way to spend Tuesday afternoons, it was a treat to get away from the computer and get my hands dirty with conte crayon filling up a 9 x 12 sketchbook.

We drew at three locations, the Conservatory at Volunteer Park, the Seattle Asian Art Museum and my favorite, the Woodland Park Zoo. It's been years since I visited the zoo, the diversity of the animals at Woodland Park is amazing. Emus, ocelots and elephants, oh my! Above is a barred owl, who slowly moved his head around checking out the other raptors and people watching him.

Trick or Treat in the Junction

I can't believe it's almost time for Halloween! Where did summer go? The West Seattle Junction Association is using my Trick or Treat poster to promote their very popular trick or treat event. They really don't need to advertise it, somehow kids and parents just know and they turn out in droves. But the poster I designed last year was popular so we're using it again. I really like my hairy green spider, so I decided to add this design to my CafePress shop. My order of mini buttons and magnets arrived today and they're a lot of fun. Of course, if you're so inclined, thongs and mousepads are also available.

Apple iPhone — I couldn't wait

OK, I really did not plan to get one of these things. I was concerned... could this device live up the intense hype? will Apple stock plumet after this thing debuts? I'm not a early adopter type. I could wait 'til gen 2. Well, after I saw the husband's Saturday morning, I realized this is a must have. Why wait? I ran out and got one. Since we had an AT&T family plan and I'm a full-time Mac user it was an easy decision. Wow, we had fun playing with them all weekend. It was a little surreal, I felt like we had jumped a few years in to the future. The demos on the Apple site show it off, but when you hold yours in your hand with your calendar, your address book, music and photos in it you realize the possiblities. Now if AT&T can handle all the extra demand, we'll be just fine.

By the way the photo shows the iPhone in a nice protective cover made by incase without it it's a bit slippery. Geez, I don't want to drop this thing!

Hooray for Cooper Black!

I finally had the opportunity to use Cooper Black, a classic retro font, that I used to hate, but now have a strange fondness for.

This is the 2007 West Seattle Community Summer Festivities Calendar. You gotta know when the HiYu Kiddie parade is and the Rotary Raspberry sale is not to be missed. My spouse makes killer jam every year with those raspberries, mmm. Curious for more details here's the West Seattle Summer Festivities Calendar in pdf format (248k).

Now where else can I make use of Cooper Black?

Expressive figure painting workshop

In June I had another opportunity to participate in a weekend workshop with Barbara Fugate. It was intense two days filled with instruction and inspiration. We studied approach of the Bay Area Figure Painters, except we painted from the live model. We did four paintings in the two days. All 24 x 36 inch or larger. Needless to say there was no fussing allowed. I'm looking forward to this weekend's Fugate workshop, three days of "Figure in the Landscape" on Guemes Island. I've got my wide brimmed hat and the weather is looking fine!

Spring in the West Seattle Junction

My studio is located in West Seattle, specifically in “The Junction”. It really is the Heart of West Seattle, I love being part of the neighborhood. There's great shopping and lots of good places to eat, it's very lively these day. I can walk out my door, cross the street and find great desserts at “Coffee to a Tea with Sugar”, yummy sandwiches at Capers and Husky Deli, hmmm where should I get lunch today? Easystreet Records has great coffee (and breakfast — hi Lydia), and funky-graphic-overload decor, amazingly the CD I want is always on sale, YES! There's too many great small businesses to list, you get the idea.

Recently I had the opportunity to create a Spring direct mail promotion for the Junction Association. It was their first big mailing, it promoted the start of the popular West Seattle Farmers Market and Spring sales and events coordinated by merchants. The back of the postcard had 20 coupons from Junction establishments. They let me go loose with a fun and colorful illustration, you certainly couldn’t miss it in the stack of mail. I think it brought the Junction’s visibility up a notch — with style!

Sweet Pea dismissed

I'm late in posting this, I was just plain tired of talking about it. April 3rd we heard that the case was voluntarily dismissed by the plaintiff. In fact, the few settlement fees that were paid to the plaintiff's attorney early on have been returned to those defendants. Hard to believe, but apparently true as reported in the Miami Herald by Jim Wyss. Also it appears the attorney Alexander E Barthet no longer has Sweet Pea Ltd. as a client. I feel so sad for him. For the many Sweet Pea defendants that settled recently at no cost, though details can't be revealed, we can definitely say that it was done in our favor and that it particularly addresses our key creative and legal issues. The whole sorted story is at sourpeas.org. For those of us that settled the case is dismissed "with predjudice" meaning they can can't sue us again for the same claims. Now on to happier pursuits...

Oh yes, this Sour Pea believes in IP rights

Today I had an email from a stranger, they said "You are considering this tradition [of intellectual property rights] to be meaningless and worthless." He questioned the purpose of the sourpeas.org site. Of course I had to respond to this anonymous emailer. Here's what I wrote...
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I definitely believe organizations have the right to defend their trademark. I'm quoted in the Miami Herald saying so.

I'm a professional graphic designer and illustrator, with 20 years experience. I make my living based on my own copyrights. In fact I had registered my copyright for my version of Sweet Pea. I'm a member of the Graphic Artists Guild which is a advocate of artist's rights and copyrights.

I never had heard of Sweet Pea Ltd. although I was aware many companies were using "Sweet Pea" as a graphic on clothing. I assumed it was a term of endearment in the public domain. When you compare the defendants alleged infringing marks they in no way resemble their logo, but this is about the words "Sweet Pea". Although I don't have time to respond fully to you about the specific merits, all the IP attorneys we spoke to agreed with our position. It would have been for the courts to decide. Unfortunately we don't have the resources to take it to that level.

What this was about is litigation extortion. No cease and desists were sent to the defendants, we were just faced with a 2 inch thick stack of papers claiming trademark counterfeiting among other things. The suit is for 16 million dollars. When my friend/attorney called the plaintiff's attorney (Barthet) and offered to abide by an injunction Barthet said sure, plus $5000. To me that's not a reasonable way to go about protecting your trademark. It's about intimidation and extortion.

I believe if a company has a trademark they should start with the basics, like using a TM along with that trademark, and sending a cease and desist if they feel a infringement is occurring. http://www.gosweetpea.com

I believe in IP rights and the value of IP to business but I do feel the trademarking of common words may be getting out of hand, and is beginning to limit free speech and even business speech. The term for this is trademark abuse. There's a very interesting article about this issue at marketingmag.ca

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Today the long awaited Seattle Times article came out, this may be the article my anonymous emailer had read. It left out the "extortion" angle of the story, and focused on how the sourpeas organized, so the reader really doesn't get the whole picture. Unfortunately in the photo I look like a scary chick, what can I say?

Boy this thing is exhausting, I'm looking forward to a day when I don't have to think about it and can just do my work. I'm very happy and relieved a reasonable settlement is in the works.

When sweet peas go sour

Yes, I'm a very sour pea. I'm named as a defendant in a trademark infringement lawsuit. My copyrighted cutesy "Sweet Pea" graphic design is the issue. I'm not alone, I'm one of 52 defendants listed in a intellectual property lawsuit seeking $16M from each person for using the term "Sweet Pea." 44 are CafePress shopkeepers, and all are micro businesses — some haven't ever sold anything! Short story is that this is an up and coming trend, using the internet to find small targets, filing suit then asking for a settlement to make the suit go away. In my case, my attorney/friend's call to the plaintiff's attorney, Alexander E Barthet of Miami, brought about a demand of a $5,000 fee, plus and injunction from using the image in the future.

Sweet Pea Limited is the plaintiff, note they don't even us a "TM" anywhere on their site. Their products are always referred to as "Sweet Pea by Stacy Frati". Their clothes are feminine, trendy tops sold at Nordstrom. The defendants believe, "Sweet Pea" is a generic term of affection and vegetable, not worthy of protected trademark status, and that applying our designs graphically to a generic t-shirt or baby bib is not a violation of their trademark.

The defendants have worked very hard to organize themselves and went to the press this week, please read our press release at www.sourpeas.org all the sour details are there, including the "Them/us" sweet pea "comparo", see the designs and compare for yourself. The lawsuit and other references are also on the site. Look for us in the news (and wish me luck ; )

Really big drift wood at La Push Washington

That's me standing in front of the driftwood log. The weather was spectacular for the 3 days we were there, not what you expect in February, or anytime of the year actually. Including a ferry ride, La Push is about a 4-5 hour drive from Seattle. The Ocean Park Resort is the place to stay, owned and operated by the Quileute Tribe, they offer lots of cabins on a beautiful beach. Go for the deluxe modern cabins, they're wonderful. No TV, internet or cell phone access, this is a place to get away from technology and connect with nature. Olympic National Park is nearby with more spectacular beaches and the Hoh rain forest. I'm looking forward to our next ocean getaway.