INSIDE STL DECEMBER 2017
John Hendrix Local St. Louis Artist & Illustrator
Tremendousness Downtown Design Firm
Fitz’s Restaraunt & soda company
Lafayette Square Historical Neighborhood
SIBA
Graphic Design Program in Downtown St. Louis
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FEATURED ARTIST: John Hendrix
An interview with the St. Louis based Illustrator.
DESIGN FIRM: Tremendousness Get some insight into their design process.
RESTAURANT: Fitz’s
A St. Louis Favorite since 1947.
NEIGHBORHOOD: Lafayette Square
Explore the archetecture and history.
FEATURED ARTIST: SIBA
Learn more about their exciting Graphic Design program.
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My name is Ellyn Cox. I am a Creative Professional with 3+ years of Graphic Design, promotional, and large format printing experience. I work my hardest to collaborate with clients to advance their project from conception to completion.
See samples of my work: WildCardGD.com or issuu.com/ellync
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n h o J x i r d Hen JOHN HENDRIX
loves to draw. In fact, he would much rather be drawing than writing this self-aggrandising bio. John’s work has appeared in numerous publications, such as Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times, and Time Magazine among many others. He has also drawn book jackets for the likes of Roaring Brook, Random House, Simon & Schuster, Harper Collins, Greenwillow Books, Knopf, Penguin, Abrams Books and St. Martin’s Press. His images also appeared in advertising campaigns for ESPN/ ABC, AT&T, and Travelocity. John’s drawings have won numerous awards, including the Society of Illustrator’s Silver Medal in 2006 and 2008, the 2009 3x3 Gold Medal in sequential illustration and the SILA Silver Best of Show Award. His images have also appeared in the annual award publications American Illustration, Society of Illustrators, Society for Publication Design, Communication Arts, AIGA 50 Books 50 Covers Show and Print’s Regional Design Annual. In addition to his illustration work, John is teaching illustration and typography in the Communication Design program at Washington University in St. Louis. John was elected President of ICON7- The Illustration Conference, a biennial
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global summit for the illustration community, in 2012. In that same year, John chaired The Society of Illustrators 55th Annual Show. His first picture book “Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek,” was named and ALA Notable book of 2008 and won the Comstock Award for read aloud books. John’s book, “John Brown: His Fight for Freedom” the first he has both written and illustrated, won the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Seal and was named one of the “Best Books of 2009” by Publisher’s Weekly. His 2012 book, “A Boy Called Dickens” was described as “touching and believable” by The New York Times. How long have you been a working artist? I have been drawing since I was very young, but my first commissioned illustration was in 2001, for the Village Voice. Soon after, I did my first illustration for the New York Times, probably the publication I’ve done the most for over the years. I ended up working in the building as an art director for three years while I was building my career. What media do you prefer? Generally, I think of myself as a drawer… so pen and ink is really what I love. Most of my colors are done in fluid acrylics and occasionally gouache.
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That is why learning how to use 2-D design skills like hierarchy, scale-shift, figure/field relationships are really helpful to learn about communication. We have to strive for not just interest but clarity.
x What is your educational background? What courses or training might be helpful in beginning a career in illustration? I studied illustration in my undergraduate experience, and though that is really great training- illustrators have often come into the field from unusual backgrounds. The program I studied in was called “Visual Communication” and that an important distinction. We must remember, as illustrators, that our primary goal is not expression, but communication.
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Did you go to art school? Do you have graduate degrees? My undergraduate degree is from The University of Kansas, in Visual Communications, but I took a two track major, graduating with both Design and Illustration degrees. I did my MFA in New York, at The School of Visual Arts, MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Program. When did you first become interested in art? Well, ‘art’ is a bit of a loaded word. My first interest in drawings was Garfield comics, and early “Looney Tunes” cartoons. I drew characters all the time and even made 3-D dioramas of Wile E. Coyote set. How do you show your work if you don’t have a gallery? I don’t have
a formal relationship with a gallery, and I only sell a handful of original works every year. If I do show my work, it is usually in a group show or a show that is oriented around a specific theme. When I hang illustrations, they are never advertised as ‘fine art,’ but an exhibition of illustrations. It is essential to understand that you have to acknowledge the purpose of what images were created for, whether for publication or personal viewing. Where do you get your ideas for your art? Do you research, sketch from life or take photographs? Many of my ideas are driven by a deadline. The act of coming up with an idea is much less of a mystical ceremony and more like a practiced craft. But I do work in a sketchbook very often, and many of my more personal images come from content that was first explored in my sketchbook. What percentage of your income do you make from art? I make about 70% of my income from
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my illustrations, selling rights and original works as well as prints. The rest comes from teaching, speaking fees and other work outside the studio, but still related to illustration. How do you decide how much to charge for your art? Most commercial budgets are determined by the publication. I can always ask for more or turn down work because their fees are not high enough, but generally, I enforce certain minimums so that I can make the best use of my time. Pricing of original art is much more difficult. Generally, illustrators price their work too high, because usage fees are much more that what an individual is willing to pay for a drawing.
make a living?” Put that out of your mind. What is important right now is to do the stuff that you love doing. If you follow your desire, (and desire trumps talent any day of the week) then making a living will come naturally. Push yourself to try new things and most importantly, KEEP A
attracted to artist who use graphic space in their work (Al Parker, Josh Cochran, for example). But, the building blocks of illustration are words and images. Without text, there is no such thing as illustration. So why not have them in the same space and interacting in the same language. Also, as an artist who is writing his own books, I feel like I have to offer something that a writer alone or illustrator alone can’t provide. So, the interaction with text inside the frame is a way to create a hybrid language in my work.
KEEP A SKETCHBOOK AND DRAW EVERY DAY!
Do you have any advice for someone in high school who is studying art? Remember that for the moment you don’t have to worry about the following question: “How will I
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SKETCHBOOK AND DRAW EVERY DAY! Don’t forget to have fun. Speaking of hand-drawn type, a lot of your work uses drawn text. What inspires you to work with typography? I love love love typography. I also studied and completed a degree in Graphic Design in undergrad and I’ve always been
How did you develop your current line art style and why did you let go of your old style? During my early college years I was working in a very tight painting style. It was something I had developed using dry-brush acrylic. When I got to graduate school, I began to look around my studio and realized the work I hung up in my space that I admired
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looked NOTHING like the stuff I made. Slowly I realized that I loved drawing way more than painting. My sketchbooks were key to unlocking the visual voice that is much more true to who I am. You have done work with Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, The New Yorker, Esquire, The New York Times, and Nickelodeon among many others. What drew you to children’s book illustration? How did your first book come to be published? Children’s books were the first illustration vehicles that I truly loved. It is the aspect of fantastical storytelling that drew me to visual stories. Of course, my editorial career took off and I love doing those images as well, but my heart has always leaned towards story in sequence. My first book I wrote, John Brown, ended up being my second book. As I was looking for a publisher for John Brown, I found
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several manuscripts that people wanted me to illustrate. Given my civil war interest, the story for “Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek” was a perfect fit. Who are your artistic influences? I love love love the following artists: Winsor McCay, Barry Blitt, Arthur Rackham, Jack Unruh, Kadir Nelson, NC Wyeth, Edward Hopper, Joseph Cornell, Dean Cornwell, Robert Lawson... on and on! Is there anything you have a hard time drawing? Horses. Their legs work in funny ways that I still haven’t totally figured out. What is your favorite thing to draw? I get this question all the time, and I have no good answer for it- other than old steel bridges, robots, vines/squids, under appreciated civil rights heroes from the 1850’s, watch gears, dimensional bar signage, people with beards, foxes and all kinds of hats.
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u
hello@tremendo.us | Main: +1 314 282 0676 | Sales: +1 202 680 9752 STLinsider.indd 8
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We make complex things
beautiful. engaging. understandable.
STL: Tremendousness 4660 Maryland Avenue, Suite 215 St. Louis, MO STLinsider.indd 9
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HOW WE DO IT Discovery First, we use visual thinking to identify, explore and distill content—sometimes in an online meeting, sometimes in person. Our unique methodology uses a consistently collaborative approach.
Design Then we use visual frameworks to create clarity and impact. Three basic visual architectures underlie all well-crafted visual stories: systems, comparisons, and processes.
Production Finally, we bring it all together into a compelling yet appropriate narrative structure, and use creative but on-brand visuals to inject emotion and make it memorable.
STL: Tremendousness 4660 Maryland Avenue, Suite 215 St. Louis, MO STLinsider.indd 10
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Ideation sessions
Infographics
Storyboarding
Animation Data visualization
Presentations
Infographics
Ideation sessions
Live sketching
hello@tremendo.us | Main: +1 314 282 0676 | Sales: +1 202 680 9752 STLinsider.indd 11
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A St. Louis Favorite
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Since 1947. “If it wasn’t better we wouldn’t bother.”
I
n 1993, Fitz’s opened in the Delmar Loop area of University City, a suburb of St. Louis. To assure authenticity, the call went out for a vintage bottling line. Incredibly, a 1940’s bottling line was found in an old barn in Shawano, Wisconsin. It was refurbished and installed at the restaurant, where it is visible from every table on the main floor. Fully operational, the bottling line can turn out a bottle every second….of root beer or other popular flavor, such as cream and orange. Fitz’s Original Restaurant The building that houses Fitz’s was built in 1928, for the West End Bank. It became the Delmar Bank in 1933, and was remodelled in 1944 when the attractive art deco façade was added. For a while, during the 1980’s, it was a
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Chinese restaurant known as The Lantern House. Today, Fitz’s sits in the heart of the Delmar Loop, a ten-block section of distinctive stores, shops and even a renovated movie theater dating back to the 1930’s. One of the highlights of this area is the St. Louis Walk of Fame. Inaugurated in 1988, the Walk of Fame honors more than 100 men and women with plaques in the sidewalk over a 6 block area. These are St. Louisans who have made contributions to our culture in many different areas of endeavor. The honorees include Kevin Kline, Chuck Berry, Tina Turner, Tennessee Williams, Charles Lindbergh and Stan Musial. Fitz’s Root Beer first appeared in St. Louis at a local drive-in
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restaurant back in 1947. Famous for its tasty draft root beer and hamburgers, Fitz’s quickly became a local tradition. After sadly disappearing for a number of years, Fitz’s Root Beer was revived in 1993 when Fitz’s Bottling Company, America’s original soda microbrewery opened in the historic and vibrant Delmar Loop. Please come watch us bottle Fitz’s Premium Sodas while sipping on a frosty mug of root beer and enjoying some good homemade food from our diverse American menu. Fitz’s Root Beer, our flagship soda, is made according to an original recipe developed in St. Louis in 1947. Our unique formula features fine ingredients including select natural roots, spices, barks and is exclusively sweetened with all natural pure cane sugar. Thanks to its robust and creamy flavor, Fitz’s Root Beer has been recognized as one of the best root beers in the United States. We keg Fitz’s Root Beer in 15 gallon barrels in our bottling room right inside our restaurant and serve it ice cold right out of the tap. Our mugs are ‘bottomless’ so come thirsty and enjoy
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Fitz’s Root Beer, and our other kegged traditional sodas, including Fitz’s Diet Root Beer, Cream Soda, Orange Pop and Black Cherry! Fitz’s is family friendly so families and large parties are always welcome! Besides plenty of draft sodas and fantastic floats, we also offer a wide selection of local craft beers and signature adult beverages. In warm weather, outside seating is available on our large patio right next to the newly constructed Chuck Berry Plaza!
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A reminder of Victorian St. Louis in its most flamboyant years, the last quarter of the 19th century.
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LAFAYETTE SQUARE contains perhaps the finest surviving Victorian architecture in the United States. This neighborhood, located south of downtown Saint Louis, Missouri, surrounds the 30-acre Lafayette Park. According to a history of the neighborhood: Since Saint Louis’s beginning as a French village in 1764, the land which is now Lafayette Square had been a common pasture for village livestock and had
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never been privately owned. These commons became encampments for bands of criminals who would attack and rob area travelers. In 1835, now under American rule, Mayor Darby gained permission from the state legislature to begin selling the commons to drive the criminals out. When the city began to sell the common pasture, the Board of Aldermen set aside about thirty acres for community recreation.
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The square park was bordered by a street on each side, with the southern street called Lafayette in honor of General Marie-Joseph-Paul-Roch-Yves-Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, who had visited Saint Louis a few years previous. In 1837 a real estate panic forced many who had bought land surrounding the Square to cease their payments causing the land to revert to the City. In the early 1850s, after courts had adjudicated the ownership of these properties, several prominent Saint Louisans bought most of the land bordering the southern end of the Park. These families built expensive homes along on Lafayette Avenue and secured state legislation preventing “any nuisance within a distance of 600 feet from the Park.” On November 12, 1851, the park was dedicated as “Lafayette Square” by City Ordinance 2741. By 1856, real estate developers had begun to sell lots on the western edge of the park—along Missouri
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Avenue—and by 1858 lots on the east side—Mississippi Avenue—were being sold. On Park Avenue—running along the north edge of the Square—the lots were developed by the 1870s. Natural disaster began this neighborhood’s period of decline:. On May 27, 1896, Lafayette Square was largely destroyed by a tornado. The tornado did millions of dollars worth of damage, and killed many. The tornado uprooted nearly all of the trees in the Park as well as the trees on Benton Place, damaged the fence, destroyed the bandstand, destroyed the Union Club and the Methodist church at Jefferson and Lafayette Avenues, crippled the Presbyterian and Methodist churches, tore the roof off the Unitarian church, and crippled or destroyed many homes on the Square. Although some residents gave up on the neighborhood and moved away, others began to rebuild and by 1904 the Square had improved enough “to earn special
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commendation from foreign landscape architects who were visiting the World’s Fair.” In 1923, the Missouri Supreme Court declared the 1918 residential zoning ordinance unconstitutional (see City of St. Louis v. Evraiff, 256 S.W. 489 (Mo. 1923)) and businesses began to purchase lots in the area. What the tornado of 1896 had begun, and the encroachment of gas stations and grocery stores continued, the Great Depression accelerated. By the end of World War II, the Square’s half-century of decline was complete. At this time, the neighborhood that was once the jewel of St. Louis had reached the low point in its history by becoming “a pocket ghetto of the unfortunate and poor,” known as “Slum D.” The fortunes of this area reversed in the late 1960s, when dedicated restorationists moved into the neighborhood. Less than a decade earlier, Victorian architecture was despised and vast numbers of buildings of that era were
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being destroyed on an scale unprecedented outside of warfare. These urban pioneers often relied on their own labor to restore the buildings, which were then in great disrepair and available at extremely low cost; they are now quite valuable.
Come visit us in Lafayette Square! We are home to delicious independent restaurants, unique boutiques, lush gardens, and a bucolic 150-year old park. Lafayette Park is our neighborhood’s back yard, with walking paths, a beautifully landscaped grotto, historic Park House, and a playground. History surrounds you wherever you are in the Square.
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Graphic Design
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one your artistic talents into an exciting career by learning to create effective visual concepts using color, type, illustration, photography, animation, and various print and layout techniques to communicate ideas that inspire, inform, and captivate consumers. Students in Siba’s graphic design program will use hand illustration, digital illustration, photoediting software, and layout software to create visual elements such as logos and original images, as well as develop layout for web pages, advertisements, promotional displays, packaging, signage, interactive media, brochures, magazines, and other publications.
Top Photo: Mac Lab, Photo on Left: Students having art reviews at Rodgers Townsend. Middle Photo: Siba student having portfolio review by PGAV, Right Photo: Siba student presenting project to design professionals at the Los Angeles ‘Workshop with the Pros’ trip.
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e love to watch students explore and celebrate their creativity at Stevens – The Institute of Business & Arts. In Siba’s Graphic Design program, that creativity fuels a wealth of opportunities and directions in which students can take their studies. One in-demand path right now is Illustration. But what is Illustration? Or better yet, what does an Illustrator do? It’s more than just drawing a pretty picture. Graphic Design Department Chair, Ed Engel, shares his insights Siba’s extensive catalog of electives in the Illustration concentration include Digital Illustration, Editorial Illustration, Picture Illustration, and SciFi
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and Fantasy Illustration, to name a few. The goal being to not only help students improve the density of work in their portfolio, but also to help them discover their interests and strengths. Character Design is another class in which students can hone their Illustration skills. Recently, Graphic Design students created character sketches with parameters from the instructor to develop a family concept. So what makes a good Illustrator? According to Engel, it’s a consistent and unique style; whether that style is editorial in publications, or conceptual. Part of the Siba student experience is to develop that style while they are still in school. As students develop
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their artistic focus, they are also building their portfolios and interacting with leaders in the Graphic Design industry. If Illustration is their ultimate professional goal, then by end the of their degree programs they will have plenty of work to show employers. To learn more about Siba’s Graphic Design program, Illustration, or to take a tour, contact one of our Admissions representatives today at siba.edu. Far Left: Student work on illustration for Black & White Illustration Class, Left Center: Painting class still life, Left Right: Black & White Illustration projects, Bottom Left: Students have their projects reviewed by Top Graphics. Canter Top: Student character design projects. Bottom Center: Students review each others portfolios, Top Right: Sketches for book cover for SciFi and Fantasy Illustration class. Middle Right: Project piece for book cover, Bottom Right: Final cover for SciFi and Fantasy Illustration.
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Take in the view while you take in a game.
mlb.com/cardinals
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