Charles Hively serves as both publisher and design director of 3x3 magazine. Wearing more than one hat is nothing new for Charles. He's a designer, ex-advertising agency head, creative director, art director, copywriter and photographer. And sometimes all of the above, all at once.

His background began in illustration. "I was always drawing something as a kid. My favorites were always heads and trees. That led my parents to enroll me in the Famous Artists correspondence school. I have to admit I never finished the course but they were pleased enough of my work to show my work in a number of their in-house magazine issues which lead to a number of freelance assignments.

"I got this job selling art supplies right out of high school, it was a great opportunity to meet art directors and designers and eventually led to a full-time job in a television station's art department. Of course, I didn't get to do illustration at first, just loads of cutting mats, photo processing, and handsetting type for camera cards. But before I headed off to college I got an opportunity to do the front cover of the local paper's CBS Fall Preview section which was quite the coup."

Influenced by the work of Alan Cober, Bernie Fuchs, Franklin McMahon, and Mark English, Hively continued to experiment with different mediums. "I've tried every medium there is including airbrush, which lasted about a day, but I always come back to pen and ink." Thinking he would continue working at a television station when he arrived at college, he approached one but found no openings, fortunately across the street was an ad agency that was looking for a production artist. Again, no illustration for the first couple of years until the need for a spot illustration came up and Hively jumped at the chance. Suffering from a cold he was convinced his odd drawing would never see the light of day, but as it happened it was a success which led to many more assignments including numerous covers for the local business magazine, advertising, brochures, and posters.

He enjoyed the professional life of an illustrator while still going to school. After school he formed his first advertising agency, "I wanted to combine my love for illustration with concept and design and we became noted for our stylish advertising. Our clients were all about our same age so they appreciated our thinking." Awards came to the agency and a chance to work in a larger market prompted Hively to move and join a larger agency where he continued to promote the use of illustration, even contributing his own work to projects. He also got to work with some of the best illustrators in the country including Seymour Chwast, Ed Sorel, Charles Saxon, the New Yorker cartoonists, Lou Myers and Jean Michel Folon. "I could ape the style of almost every artist for the comp phase and would sometimes have trouble convincing clients to use the "real thing," but in most situations I was successful and thorughly enjoyed working with illustrators."

Hively still draws for his personal enjoyment but after owning another agency and working for Graphis as a co-publisher Hively enjoys this new avenue. "At 3x3 I get to look at illustrators from all over the world and invite them to be a part of something new, it's truly exciting and I don't even consider it work."


These following individuals will be contributing their time and talents to increasing the awareness of 3x3 within their sphere of influence as well as being the eyes and ears in the illustration community. We will look to them for insight into industry trends, emerging artists, educational issues and events that might be of interest to our readers.

Cathie Bleck
cb@cathiebleck.com
Marc Burckhardt
marc@marcart.net
Sandra Garcia, AD
sandra.a.garcia@aexp.com
Sterling Hundlley
sterling404@earthlink.net
Richard May
rich@richard-may.com
Ward Schumaker
warddraw@best.com
Darlene Smidian, AD
dsimidian@amlaw.com
Gary Taxali
gary@garytaxali.com
Kolea Baker, artist rep
kolea@kolea.com
Laetitia Wolff, editor
lwolff@surfacemag.com

Artist: Chris Buzelli