P2 Conference Program

Rebecca Blake

rebeccaevablake

optimumdc.com/our-team

Rebecca has worked as a professional graphic designer since 1990. As Design Director at Optimum Design & Consulting, she coordinates the creation of original graphic design, such as logos and identity systems, brochures and print collateral, publications, direct mail, and advertising.

Since September 2016, Rebecca has served as Advocacy Liaison for the Graphic Artists Guild, where she monitors upcoming legislation on copyrights and issues relevant to visual artists, and writes articles on design and illustration for the Guild’s news blog.

As Guild representative to ico-D, the International Council of Design, Rebecca leads a workgroup on National Design Policy for their Professional Platform. She also serves on ico-D’s Audit Committee.

RudyGuiterrez

rudy_gutierrez_art

altpick.com/rudygutierrez

Rudy Gutierrez is an award-winning American illustrator and educator born in the Bronx, NY, of Puerto Rican heritage. A professor of illustration at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, where he has taught since 1990, he has created artworks for films and performances, U.S. Postage stamps, posters, picture books, and LP / CD covers.

His artwork for Santana’s “Shaman” was used as a set design at the 2002 Super Bowl half-time show, and his paintings were commissioned for the film “Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary.” Featured in many public and private collections, his art is included in those of musical icons Carlos Santana, Clive Davis, and Wayne Shorter.

Gutierrez’s work is on view in Imprinted: Illustrating Race, and he and D.K. Dyson are the creators of the exhibition’s soundtrack.

VashiHarrison

vashtiharrison

vashtiharrison.com

Vashti Harrison is the #1 New York Times bestselling creator of Little Leaders, Little Dreamers, and Little Legends and the illustrator of Andrea Beaty’s I Love You Like Yellow, Matthew Cherry’s Hair Love, and Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic’s Hello, Star, among others. She received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor for Lupita Nyong’o’s Sulwe and is also a two-time recipient of the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work for Children.

Vashti received her BA from the University of Virginia and her MFA in Film and Video from Calarts. Her Experimental films and videos focus on her Caribbean Heritage and folklore. They have shown around the world at film festivals and venues including the New York Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival and Edinburgh International Film Festival.

LeeyaJackson

leeyamakesnoise

leeyaroseart.com

Leeya Rose Jackson is a Painter, Creative Director, Filmmaker, Illustrator, and Graphic Designer from Detroit, Mi, and living in Minneapolis, MN. She runs an illustration shop under her moniker, LeeyaMakesNoise, and is the Creative Founder of Noisemakers Design Shop. Her work explores the intersections of identity, specifically Blackness, femininity, and queerness, with the added motifs of celestial/universal surrealism.

She earned her BFA in Fine Art from Illinois Wesleyan University. Leeya is a recipient of a 2023/24 MCAD–Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Early Career Artists, administered by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and funded by the Jerome Foundation. Her illustration and graphic design have been commissioned by Afropunk Music Festival, American Public Media, The Coven Mpls, Adobe x Billie Eilish, Sony Music, Giphy, Metro Transit, Outside Lands Festival, Heinz, The Prince Estate, Voyageurs National Park, and NPCA.

RobynPendleton

phillipspentleton

rphillipspendleton.com

Robyn Phillips-Pendleton is a visual storyteller, educator, designer, co-curator, and author, and her work is showcased in national and international exhibitions. Her focus on deconstructing race, identity, history, and societal issues through illustrations, drawings, and paintings demonstrates a commitment to addressing important and complex themes. She lectures globally about the history of illustration and race and is dedicated to education and fostering awareness in these areas.

Robyn Phillips-Pendleton’s background, from earning a BFA in Communication Arts from Virginia Commonwealth University to obtaining a MFA in Illustration from Syracuse University, reflects a foundation in communication arts and the specialized field of illustration. Overall, her multifaceted roles and accomplishments highlight her as a prominent figure in the intersection of illustration, education, and social consciousness, contributing to the ongoing discourse on race, perception, and responsibility in illustration.

db_dowd

Dowd teaches illustration, design, and cultural history at Washington University in St. Louis. He works with students in the MFA in Illustration and Visual Culture (MFA-IVC). Dowd also teaches undergraduates in the Communication Design program in the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts.

Dowd serves as the faculty director of the Modern Graphic History Library at Wash U, which was renamed in his honor in 2016. They collect the work and papers of illustrators and cartoonists, and are especially strong in American periodical illustration of the 20th century. They are devoted stewards of this material.

He has also enjoyed a long association with the Norman Rockwell Museum, where he served as a project leader for the Society of Fellows from 20172019. That project culminated in Illustration Across Media: Nineteenth Century to Now, at Washington University on March 21-23, 2019.

Mireille Fauchon Ryan Smith

rhartleysmith

mireillefauchon.com ryhartley.com

Mireille Fauchon, is an illustrator and educator of mixed Indian and British heritage. Her interpretation of the Holloway Prison diary of Croydon Suffragette Katie Gliddon forms part of a practice-based PhD at Kingston University, London. The research explores the use of visual storytelling to describe socio-cultural narratives, both historical and contemporary, with emphasis on experiences that might otherwise be difficult to engage with or access. She also lectures at the Royal College of Art, London and is commissioning illustration editor of Ambit Magazine.

Ryan Hartley Smith is an illustrator and author based in New York City. He makes visual stories of civic engagement, community building, and self discovery- with a specific focus on queer narratives. He is a recipient of a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators and a Norman Rockwell Center for American Visual Studies Fellowship.

Ryan is currently an Associate Professor in the MFA Illustration program at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

mireillefauchon

Alison Nowak Andrew Selby

alisonnowakillustration andrewcselby alisonnowak.com andrewcselby.com

Alison is an illustrator, graphic designer, and writer. Much of her design, communications, and illustration work focuses on promoting sexual and reproductive health.

She has received awards from the Society of Illustrators of Los Angeles and 3x3 Magazine and has been featured in 3x3 Magazine’s New Talent Gallery. Alison received her MFA in Visual Studies with a concentration in illustration from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, where she now teaches illustration and other topics.

Andrew Selby has created illustrations for major editorial publications, publishing houses, advertising and design agencies, and animation outlets in the UK, Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Andrew’s diverse illustration work is made from his studio in Rutland, England. His thoughtprovoking conceptual illustrations are renowned for their wit and satirical visual humor. His work is regularly selected for American Illustration, 3x3 Illustration Show and the Society of Illustrators’ juried exhibitions and annuals.

- 11:00PM

Main Stage Presentations Attendee Gallery Show

State Theatre Chambers Gallery

Main Stage Closing Keynote Closing Night Party

Minneapolis Institute of Art

Notes: 2400 3rd Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55404

State Theatre First Avenue

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Mission

The national Illustration Conference, ICON, is committed to providing a forum for an ongoing dialogue that serves the illustration, design, publishing, advertising, and academic communities. Its purpose is to provide a platform for the most influential illustrators and industry leaders to address, in a timely manner, the most pervasive issues facing the profession. Illustration Conference (ICON) is a 501 C-6 nonprofit organization of illustrators and is an entity in itself. ICON remains the only national conference specifically for illustrators and the graphic arts community providing an unprecedented forum for the creativity, inspiration and drive that captivates the profession.

History

Since 1999, we have produced conferences in Santa Fe, Philadelphia, San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Portland, and Providence. These conferences have continued to probe and discuss the issues relevant to the field of illustration and design. They have examined specific topics such as copyright, product development, children’s books, promotion and contracts. The conferences have maintained the standard of convening the industry’s best and brightest talent to present and talk about their work, their business, their lives and their passion for illustration. They have also grown to include inspiring, informative and topical main stage sessions and pre-conference tours and workshops.

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