CURRENT ISSUE

This marks the beginning of our sixth volume of 3x3 and to celebrate that occasion we selected three stellar female artists with diverse backgrounds and cultures.

Note: If you're having trouble finding 3x3 in your area please tell us. As you probably know the publishing industry is in a state of flux at the moment with shrinking audiences and venues, make sure you are supporting your favorite magazines and bookstores. And if you're not in a major metropolitan area please consider subscribing. We'll be offering digital versions of our back issues soon and all back issues are available as pdfs which you can order under Back Issues.

If you're not familiar with 3x3 then take a look at our past issues, we'll soon be adding a complete sample issue on our Subscribe page.

And now on to our current issue which is our International Issue:

Alessandro Gottardo
INTERVIEWED BY guido scarabottolo

Italian artist Alessandro Gottardo provides us with a clever minimalist approach by eliminating the unnecessary and distilling ideas to their bare essence. A low-key palette provides a subtle backdrop to his heady solutions. Starting in a far different style he chose the pseudonym, Shout, to distinguish his new work; he hasn't stopped since with work featured in major publications in the States and abroad. His clients include The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Esquire, Newsweek, Condé Nast Traveler, The Atlantic Monthly,
Forbes, Wired, Random House, Penguin Books, Viking, DDB UK, Young & Rubicam UK, BBH UK, Fallon US, and TWBA. His work has been gathered in three tomes and this year he journeyed to Los Angeles for a major retrospective of his work. Couple that with awards from the Society of Illustrators—including gold and silver medals, Society of Publication Designers, American Illustration, Communication Arts and 3x3, Alessandro continues to amaze and enthrall. conceptualillustration@gmail.com

A. Richard Allen
INTERVIEWED BY steve wacksman

When you're looking for cast-of-thousand crowd scenes there's no one better than, A. Richard Allen. Though he's grown weary of repeating himself, he still enjoys putting together the odd Where's Waldo piece. You'll see how he's moved past that. Richard's palette runs the gamut from cyans to chartreuses; lines are used with economy, color and texture separate planes and fields. His work has appeared in Plansponsor, New York Times, Washington Post, Utne, The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, Esquire, Reader's Digest, BBC Worldwide, Nokia, Siemens and books for Folio Society. And he's been recognized by the Association of Illustrators, Society of Illustrators—both New York and Los Angeles, Communication Arts and 3x3. info@arichardallen.com

Stephanie Wunderlich
INTERVIEWED BY nora krug

Paper. Rock. Scissors. Artist Stephanie Wunderlich uses paper and scissors, the results rock! Originally an art director in Vienna she decided to leave advertising, move to Hamburg and pursue illustration full-time. Her work appears in magazines, advertising, books, textiles and newspapers. Clients include Stern, Cosmopolitan, New York Magazine, Das Magazin, The Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Manager, Bertelsmann Verlag and Reader's Digest to name a few. Her work has been honored by Lürzer's Archive, 3x3 and the Art Directors Club Germany. wunderlich-illustration@gmx.de

ICON15: Kinuko Y. Craft

Kinuko Y. Craft arrived stateside in the early 60s; by 1970 she had embarked on a solo career as a highly sought after illustrator. Whether morphing herself into a Renaissance painter or exploring highly-detailed fantasy illustrations, Kinuko's work has well stood the test of time. She must first feel the flavor of a story before she can interpret it in paint. Her paintings take months to complete—from reading, research, the idea, the watercolor underpainting to the layers of glazes, she is obsessed with her paintings. While Ms. Craft devotes most of her time to paintings for Fantasy books and private commissions her clients have included Time, Newsweek, Forbes, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, US News and World Report, Playboy, Morrow Junior Books, Sea Star Books, Platt & Munk, Follett Publishing, the Dallas Opera and AT&T. kinuko@kycraft.com

survey says: Illustrator Income

A new feature in 3x3: Over six-hundred illustrators responded to our first-ever annual income survey. Since we couldn't find any sources for this information we set out to find out what illustrator income was like country-by-country, region-by-region, city-by-city and are pleased with the response we received. All data reflects 2010 gross income from a variety of sources including commissioned illustration, education, graphic design, sales of prints, books and licensing. All data was provided by each individual and we rely on their accurate reporting. We will be releasing our complete country-by-country summary later this Fall.

PROFILE: Jason Treat

He didn't start out to be a magazine art director but since taking over the reins at The Atlantic, our art director profile Jason Treat has seen two redesigns and numerous awards for both design and his use of illustration. jtreat@theatlantic.com

CAREERTALK: Building Your List

CareerTalk takes on the controversial issue of stock. The pros and cons, who benefits and when. You get to decide if it's something for you.

Op-Art: The Future of Print

We're re-introducing our OpArt feature in this issue. Artist Istvan Banyai gives us his take on what may be the future of printed matter. ibanyai@sbcglobal.net

THE SHOWCASE

This issue features the diverse work of Hugh D'Andrade, Taylor Callery and Matthew Hollister all of the United States and Noemi Schipfer, France; Hitoha Odakura, Japan and Tibor Kárpáti, of Hungary.

THE GALLERY

This is the first look at our new Gallery, a mix of young and experienced illustrators, over half were selected from our recent submissions announcement. They include Ashley Holt, Vlad Alvarez, Jon Reinfurt, Bruno Mallart, Ryan O'Rourke, John Dykes and Sue Todd. Other Gallery exhibitors include Klaas Verplancke, Ai Tatebayashi, Dale Stephanos and Stanley Chow.

EDITORIAL from Issue 17

Great Beginnings

As I sit writing this editorial we are starting our ninth year, eight years of putting together magazines, annuals and directories. While you'll notice some tweaks and additions in this issue the basic design hasn't changed that much. It's times like these to look back to see just how far we've come.

It all started in a rooming house in Astoria, Queens; while I have to admit it was not a happy time—a separation and divorce, unemployment and minimal income from an adjunct teaching gig at Parsons—my joy came in conceiving and designing 3x3. Since I taught nights my days were filled with generating ideas, layouts and selling spots in our gallery and showcase sections all the while accompanied by an affectionate ginger cat named Paws—the landlady's cat. The hard part was figuring out how to pay for the issue and how to get it distributed. This was before print-on-demand so an actual issue had to be produced before we could gain any distributors. And then there was printing, affordable printing is typically available in China and Korea but we selected a printer in France—the cost was the same but they were closer to New York so shipping would be less.

I was pleased and thankful for the illustrators who supported our first issue with no firm idea on whether it would be published and responding to someone they didn't even know. Without their support the issue and subsequent issues would never have gotten off the ground.

Our distribution has never warranted full-scale advertisers, we're considered a niche publication. Most publications in our category rely on their non-profit status to raise support for their publication, or they charge handsomely for each issue, publications like Visionaire come to mind. Magazines like Juxtapoz which are one-third our cover price, have beaucoup advertisers so they can afford to almost give away their product, also think Vogue. So it has not been an easy path and given a deep recession, the advent of digital media, the shrinking shelf space in bookstores, the bankruptcy of Borders—first in the United Kingdom and now in the U.S.—makes it difficult for all publications. Plus today there are so many choices, most of them free. As we look forward we are being forced to change with the times. While I treasure the smell of ink on paper there will be a lower-priced digital version of this magazine sooner rather than later which will by its nature would give us the potential to add more pages, extend articles, add features making it a boon to our digital readers. Our hope is that the printed version can remain, the vast majority of our readers prefer it, many view our magazine as a collectible, so we're not giving in quite yet.

The good news is that we've seen a continued resurgence in illustration, we've seen illustrators start to promote themselves more vigorously, we've seen the interest in illustration grow not only on the academic level where programs are expanding but in the areas of motion graphics, film and books. And while editorial has diminished niche publications offer some of the better illustration assignments. Yet our job has only just begun, art directors will continue turning towards illustration as long as you and I continue to plug away at what we love doing. We trust in your continued support for another nine or so years.

Charles Hively
Publisher

Be sure to visit our blog for up-to-the-minute happenings at 3x3.

LINKS TO ADVERTISERS

Morgan-Gaynin www.morgangaynin.com

3x3 Gallery www.3x3Gallery.com

Folio Planet www.folioplanet.com

Creative Quarterly www.CQjournal.com

OUR NEXT ISSUE: Issue 18

Stay tuned for an update on our March 2012 issue.