HOW Conference June 10-14

I was fortunate enough to be one of the 3400 attendees at the annual HOW Conference held in Chicago this past week. Though I had to work that conference as staff help, it was able to get in on a few memorable sessions. The HOW conference is organized each year by HOW magazine owned by F+W Publication. The F+W are the same folks that produce the CBWI Market books. The conference is primarily focused on design issues and allowing designers to meet, network and learn. My fav sessions were w/Jim Krause (Author of design Index books), David Fletcher of The Mechanism LLC (interactive web design firm), and Marshall Arisman (Prof. of Illustration at SVA). I enjoyed hearing about the process of how this creatives thought and developed ideas from web, photography and illustration.


Marshall Arisman discussed his first children's book "The Wolf Who Loved Music" published in 2003. He was candid about his reasoning for accepting the book work. He was mainly interested in illustrating the wolves in the story, and was honest about the fact that drawing children was not a strong suit for him. He drived much of the inspiration from the images from his own personal experience. He explained that was the easiest way to make the connect between words and bring images together. Though his images are often creepy and reminicient of Francis Bacon I found them to be quite striking. With humor he mentioned an unfavorable review of his book on Amazon.com by a concerned librarian. It is nice to hear that even the most accomplished illustrators don't take themselves to seriously.

I do wish that I could have taken advantage of the Adobe Seminars that were available during the early mornings, and more time to step into some of the other sessions that intigued me. Plus I wish I had collected more paper samples from the Resources Center. A number of paper companies had booths and samples galore. A paper fanatics dream come true. I had wanted to see the Every Picture Tells a Story Exhibit in Chicago, but I was so busy working at the event that there was little time during the day time hours to slip away from the conference. If you happen to be in Chicago it is at the Spertus Museum Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, 618 S. Michigan. Original art from some 40 books, through Sun 9/11. Fri 10 AM-3 PM, Sun-Wed 10 AM-5 PM, Thu 10 AM-7 PM. $5; $3 children, students, seniors; $10 max per family. Fridays free; Thursdays 5-8 PM free. 312-322-1747


Otherwise, I didn't get to see much of the city except for the nice view outside of my hotel room at the Hyatt Regency. This wasn't my first visit to Chicago. Seems like everytime I am in the city I hardly get a chance to see the sites, shop, or eat. I hope to go back and make a trip just for that occassion.


If you are interested in attending the next HOW conference it will be held at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Saw the brochure super nice resort, and sure to draw a crowd for the next conference. It was nice to get away and spend time with other creatives, but I am glad to be home.