It’s been a decade since a group of illustrators (Brad Holland, David Lesh, Joel Nakamura, C.F. Payne), one editor (me) and some artist representa­tives (Kolea Baker, Kristin Dawson and Jo Ann Miller) formed The Il­lustration Conference as a 501-3(c) and presented the first conference in Santa Fe, N.M. In retrospect it’s a good thing none of us knew how much time and energy it takes to start such a thing! The industry was in a slump. Stock usage was a major threat, and many illustrators were dis­couraged, not sure what direction to take. Digital illustration programs and the internet were in their nascent stages. The relationship between the illustrator and the client had begun to shift. Art schools were churn­ing out students, but fees had stagnated.

JOHN HENDRIX portrays many of ICON5’s highlights in these drawings from his sketch­book. Along the way, he touches on Starbucks’ new illustration-friendly identity and the conference’s elaborate stage set, which featured a newsstand tricked out with illustrated covers of familiar publications.

Much planning went into shaping that first event, geared to inspire and bring together creative individuals and to introduce illustrators to the various service organizations devoted to their affairs. Over 500 people packed the ballroom of the El Dorado Hotel in Santa Fe and, I believe, left the conference with hope, new friends and maybe a piece of silver jewelry. Watching the groups that would form after a presentation, waiting in line for breakfast or lounging in the bar late at night, one got the sense that this would last.

And it has. Some positive things came out of the inaugural conference: The formation of the Illustrators’ Partnership of America, Picture Mechanics and Folioplanet—all proactive forces run by illustrators. Successive groups of dedicated illustrators have given their time, energy and money to continue that inspired start. The conference stayed in Santa Fe in 2001, moved to Philadelphia in 2003, then to San Francisco in 2005 (ironically, after I had moved to La Jolla, Calif.) and finally to the Big Apple, home of so many illustrators and artists.

FLASHING FORWARD
Unfortunately for the 2008 conference, many of them were out of town for the 4th of July holiday or otherwise absent. While the conference rate for the historic Roosevelt Hotel was low by New York standards ($179 a night, plus taxes), the holiday weekend offered no travel breaks; attendance was down a bit as a result.

Opening keynote speaker Stanley Hainsworth, former global creative director of Starbucks, presented the illustration-centric Starbucks creative identity. He seemed a bit unsure what to say about his own new venture called tether, a creative collective and full-service agency. The pace picked up on the 4th, though, with Mitch Nash, art director and co-owner of Blue Q, purveyor of Dirty Girl, Miso Pretty and Cat Butt magnets, among other ingenious product lines. Nash’s genuine love of illustration, respect and encouragement for artists and fine sense of humor (“We take some idea to its lunatic conclusion”) set the tone for a day of personalities and talent.

A SURPRISING CONVOCATION
“As a former president of ICON, I have to say that it is nothing short of a miracle when a group of illustrators get together and decide to pull off an event of the magnitude and complexity of a conference,” says illustrator Ann Field, chair of Illustration at Art Center College of Design.

MARK MONTGOMERY, a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design and first-time attendee, enjoyed the communal SketchCrawl that accompanied the conference. Slated for Central Park, the group ended up in Greenwich Village. Montgomery also recorded impressions of event speakers and fellow attendees.

Field offers impressions of this year’s event: “Impressive high­lights from ICON5 for me came in the form of three exceptional presentations, each in stark contrast to the other, that succeeded in demonstrating the breadth and future of our field. Gary Panter, the Hunter Thompson of illustrators, gave an utterly genius, funny and truthful presentation that thoroughly engaged the audience whilst taking you through his self-titled twin-volume monograph, which ultimately left you realizing, yes, there is only one of him, and in illustration a gifted genius can make it to MoMA, affect pop culture—Pee-Wee’s Playhouse—and influence a generation of young illustrators. His hilarity was offset by Luba Lukova—as flawless in her words as she was in her visuals—showing us the bravery of a modernist with a conscience, whose political posters with graphic power work for UNESCO and the Obama campaign. And, surprisingly, Ronnie del Carmen from Pixar, who spoke with heart about storytelling, demonstrating what we have all known for so long: that the illustrator is a visual thinker, the gatekeeper of stories and ideas and opportunity.”

EXTRA ATTRACTIONS
Each successive conference has added components that enrich the experience and the visual content. ICON5 was the most ambitious by far, with several preconference events such as studio visits, a sketch crawl and a trip to The Society of Illustrators. Several films, including a world tour of illustration by James Yang and Laurie Rosenwald interviewing the “real” art directors of The New Yorker, held the audience’s attention.

“The conference was intentionally ambitious, to serve the theme—The Big Picture—and the locale—NYC—the mother well of illustration activity and history,” explains ICON5 president Whitney Sherman. “ICON4 showed how we could connect to the special qualities of our host city … with ICON5, I felt we also needed to take advantage of art director-related opportunities and increase access to ICON by a larger international crowd. The pod-casts created for ICON5 and the use of high and low technology— video production and YouTube segments—took the conference to a new level. We were able to reach out to and get content from so many more people, even those who could not be there in person, [such as] Stephan Martiniere, via phone connection. The texture of the conference was enhanced as a result.”

“The beauty is that 11 years later, the original conference mission statement and focus has stayed the same,” says Jo Ann Miller, founder/cochair of the first Illustration Conference and market­ing representative, Directory of Illustration. Another constant through all five conferences has been association director Alyce Heath, who handles registration among other duties and keeps things going between events. Heath lent ICON some cowgirl soul; she always had a smile and an answer, despite her luggage not arriving until near the end of the event.

RECOLLECTING & COLLECTING
Many illustrators I ran into in New York reminisced about that final session at the first conference in Santa Fe when over 20 illustrators, men and women from around the country—and in Luba Lukova’s case, the larger world—spoke from the heart about what they would take away from the gathering. That moment was empowering and inclusive. But in its closing session, ICON5 missed the chance to truly relate to its audience. Instead we got a recycled presentation by Kevin O’Callaghan, chair of the 3D design program at The School of Visual Arts, on his much-lauded Yugo Next project of the late ’90s. The problem? He gave the same presentation in San Francisco at ICON4! This time he was dressed in a frock coat and a top hat; two students wheeled him into the Grand Ballroom amidst a balloon drop and confetti shower. Yes, his presentation was about creativity, and admittedly the work was clever, compelling and brilliantly executed. It just wasn’t fresh, and it wasn’t about what these people do.

Montgomery also recorded personal experiences from the conference in a series of comic strips.

But when everything clicked, ICON5 was wonderful. High­lights for me were Gary Panter’s gonzo presentation; Luba Lukova’s breakout session on social response, with former New York Times op/ed page art director Jerelle Kraus moderating; the Car­nival Carioca party with its playful exuberance, DJ, crowns, beads and noisemakers. I arrived home the next day with bits of glitter in my hair and a handful of business cards from new friends and contacts. Ultimately that’s the strength and the magic of an entity like ICON—it has created a community and given artists a collec­tive voice. And a face as well, for attendees were given postcards to send to representatives in Washington, D.C., to protest the Orphan Works Act; the postcard’s front was cleverly left blank to draw the sender’s face and thus show whose intellectual property will be diminished and endangered should such legislation pass.

Attendees took home valuable tools to help their businesses, too. The conference goody bag (great to take to the grocery store) yielded copies of the third edition of Tad Crawford’s Business and Legal Forms for Illustrators (Allworth Press and Graphic Artists Guild, publishers) and The Art of Der Spiegel: Pictures of an Exhibi­tion, published by Spiegel-Verlag. (Stefan Kiefer, art director of Der Spiegel’s cover department, has long been a supporter of ICON and appeared on a panel of art directors at ICON3 that I moderated). Crawford, publisher of Allworth Press and long-time Legal Affairs contributing editor to Communication Arts, spoke simply and eloquently about copyright law. There was also a pack of illustrated playing cards thanks to Xerox, a useful notebook and other good­ies, including a $10 Starbucks card I only discovered on my arrival home when I got to the bottom of the cool canvas bag with its Edel Rodriguez illustration. (Kudos to Rodriguez for his tongue-in­cheek ICON5 identity. See who you can pick out in the crowd.)

What would an illustrators conference be without a sketch wall? ICON5’s was more than just technically accomplished; artists commented on speakers, each others’ styles and contemporary events. The panels will be auctioned online; check the conference website (see below) for details. Photos by Anne Telford

The conference bookstore, begun in Philadelphia by Jack Tom and managed for ICON5 by Don Kilpatrick III, proved a great success. Book signings by illustrators, including Gary Panter and Luba Lukova, drew long lines of avid fans. “I really enjoyed running the bookstore,” Kilpatrick says. “I felt as if I had the ‘best seats’ to the conference because I had almost everyone in atten­dance pass through the store. I was able to meet those whose work I have admired for some time, and reconnect with those who I haven’t seen in a while. I met so many people and was able to put faces to the names of some of my fellow ‘drawgers’ [www.drawger.com—a community of illustrator blogs] out there. We had a great location for the bookstore that enabled those in attendance to lin­ger and take their time to browse before their chosen sessions.”

FELLOW-STRATORS
A feeling of camaraderie has grown through ICON. It’s most gratifying to see that things have changed in the last 10 years: This is a time of expansion for the industry. There are no boundaries to making art. The rules have been rewritten. You can make self promotions for next to nothing; print books on demand; quite a few companies want street-artist “cred” or to be associated with “culture”; art-based limited-edition toys and fine-art silkscreens add revenue streams. “It’s never been easier or better for artists to find ways for their art to be used,” said Ina Saltz in her presentation titled “Endless Possibilities.” That’s a good thought to hold onto until the next conference.

[TOP]: EDEL RODRIGUEZ’ original-art poster for 2008’s ICON5 event semi-surreptitiously incorporates portraits of his peers and parodies of their work. Many of the artists he included were in attendance in New York.