Illustrators' Day Wrap-Up

This was our first year to combine our SCBWI Southern Breeze Illustrators' Day with our annual Springmingle conference and I have to admit, it was a complete success! The Century Marriott is lovely, a definite notch up on the woosie scale. Our speakers were fantastic: Chad Beckerman, Abrams Creative Director; Dianne Hess, Scholastic Executive Editor; Mark Braught, Illustrator Mentor; and Will Terry, who wowed everybody's socks off with his insightful presentation!

     Chad definitely sold me on Instagram. Apparently he finds artists there sometimes. How's that for a new and innovative way to search for talent?

     Will gave us a quick history of how the business has changed over the last decade or so, and where he believes it's going. Truly - he is an entertaining and great speaker. I wish I could fly to Utah and take his class. His talk was one of the best I've ever heard.
     Dianne went over illustration advertising postcards and websites, giving us a peek into what jumps out to a publisher - invaluable! As was the portfolio reviews session.
     At only 2 minutes per portfolio, it goes quickly, but everybody's work gets seen, and the commentary is a learning experience for everybody.

     The results of Mark's mentoring project were also outstanding! The 12 folks who signed up early enough to work with Mark definitely ended up with some new portfolio pieces! (Click the photo to see it larger.)
     I have to say, the quality level of the portfolios shown during Illustrators' Day gets better and better every year. Along with our Scholarship Winner, Denise Plauché, we had Lori Nichols who has won two runner-ups at the SCBWI National conference portfolio shows, and Heather Lund, the SCAD student who provided our wonderful signage (above).
     The Cocktail Party (sign by Brian Prince) was a hit as well. As I expected, the visitor list was small for our first year, but I have a feeling word is going to spread about this one. (I kept getting emails from folks saying "I want to come!") It was such a great opportunity to mingle and talk shop. All while admiring attendee portfolios and the example portfolios Stuart Shapiro brought from Binders Art Supply to show attendees the sort of options they have.
     Thanks again to Binders for generously hosting the Cocktail Party. I think it was definitely worth their time, as well as ours. I look forward to this becoming an Atlanta industry event! (CLICK HERE to put yourself on the invite list for next year!)
     Be looking for announcements about next year's Illustrators' Day in November or December of this year. This has become an event you don't want to miss!