Please join us at Town Hall on February 1 for our 21st annual membership party to celebrate how far we've come and where we're going! Register here.

More than just a party, this is a golden opportunity to reunite with your very cleverest colleagues, and hear Bill Grant, president of AIGA national board, comment on what's happening in design coast-to-coast. Additionally, we'll be presenting an esteemed professional with an AIGA Fellow Award and serving hors d'oeuvres and cocktails like there's no tomorrow.

The lovely image provided by AIGA Seattle and the great Scott Scheff!

Town Hall Seattle 1119 Eighth Avenue (at Seneca Street) Seattle, WA 98101 Phone (206) 652-4255

By Mark Kaufman
Here's a new item I cranked out. What does it all mean? I don't rightly know. 

By Mark Kaufman
I get to do a lot of illustration that accompanies news stories on national and global issues. So I get to draw George Bush and Dick Cheney, comment on issues of the day like Iraq, the economy and so on. But I also get to comment on local issues and characters. Here’s an example of that. The Stranger asked me to do a  caricature of Washington State Senator Margarita Prentice. Otherwise known as Senator Moneytree for her connection to the payday loan company. She is also known as a shill for the Seattle Sonics and their attempts to coerce the public into forking over millions so that they can build a new arena. That idea is getting surprising resistance from the public. We’ll see how that plays out.

By Mark Kaufman
Well January is almost over and I forgot to mention this. Here is a detail from a totally, purposely useless calendar that we designed for our clients, friends and family. Why send a seemingly useless calendar? Because it’s the thought that counts. A new year brings endless possibilities and a sincere wish for a fantastic 2007. If you'd like one of these beauties to hang on your wall, please drop me a line.

By Mark Kaufman
I was in Florence last year and I remembered the name of an artist I had seen. No it wasn’t Botticelli or Brunelleschi or Giotto. It was Mateo Rivano, whose work I saw on display in a store window. So yesterday I looked him up and found his myspace page. The reason why I love the internets so much is because through his site I found my way to a bunch of other artists including Ian Stevenson. As much as I like wandering around aimlessly in a city like Florence with something mind blowingly beautiful around every corner, the next best thing is to wander about the web in order to find great work like this. Ciao!

By Mark Kaufman
A new piece just publshed for Madison Magazine in Madison WI. You may remember that I posted some rejected ideas for this recently. Scroll down a bit and you'll find the rejected roughs. See it ain't all polemics and fighting the man! Sometimes  a taco is just a taco.

By Mark Kaufman
Humorist Art Buchwald passed away today at the age of 81. The Pulitzer Prize winning columnist and satirist wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but I first became aware of him as a television personality in the mid to late 1960's. He was certainly funny to a kid in New Jersey with a black and white television. He was a cigar chomping, funny looking guy with thick black glasses and something of a speech impediment. As I remember it he was certainly good panel on chat shows and game shows. I do remember picking up a couple of his books in my teen years, and either it was over my head at the time or like I’ve said just not my cup of tea. For some reason I seem to always associate him with the late great Herblock. Because they both toiled for the Washington Post I guess. I’ll take a second look at some of Art’s books, only sorry that it hadn't occurred to me until now.

By Mark Kaufman
New piece, hot off the presses created for a direct mail piece for The Stranger’s Food Fight issue. When you’re a courgette you’re a courgette all the way . . .

By Mark Kaufman
Mark those calendars! On April 20-27, 2007 AIGA Seattle will be presenting Into the Woods, a three day conference featuring designers, illustrators, artists and filmmakers from around the globe.The roster of featured speakers is taking shape, so far the heavy hitters that will be gracing our lecterns are the designers Angela Adams from Portland, Maine, Mick Hodgson of ph.D in Los Angeles, LUST from the Netherlands and Chicago based illustrator Jay Ryan. Unfortunately Jeff Soto had to back out, and we are diligently working to add another speaking slot to this stellar line-up. The three day conference is jam packed with many events and workshops including Letterpress Lounge / Amy Redmond, Presentation Primer / Steve Mason, Crosscut: Talking Story/ Terry Marks, Cut & Paste/ Christine Castro Hughes, Ready, Set, Blog!/ Christine Castro Hughes, How to Tame an Angry Portrait/ Rama Hughes, Comic Strip Journaling/ Rama Hughes, and Into the Music/ Jacob Trollbäck. Jacob absolutely wowed those in attendance as a featured speaker at the last AIGA Seattle Design Camp which I co-chaired. This time out I am helping to organize Into the Woods, but most of the heavy lifting is being done by a great team headed by Jen Lemmer and Michael Curato. I'm going to be there and you should be too, it is a great event, lot's of fun and very inspirational, so check it out and register today. I'll keep you posted on ITW news including additional speakers, events and workshops.

By Mark Kaufman
As I’ve written recently I have been very busy. Putting pedal to the metal on a number of illustration projects. Although I am itching to post some of these, I feel it's only right to wait until they are published. So once again we are going back into the archives, here’s a piece that we did for the Seattle chapter of the Graphic Artists Guild a couple of years back. This was a collaboration between Jacqueline McCarthy and myself, we developed the concept together, designed it together and we each drew one of the elements.
It is one of my favorite all-time pieces for many reasons.
Isn’t that a lovely story?

By Mark Kaufman
Here’s another in the series of year end illustrations I did for The Stranger. A portrait of the author and filmmaker Charles Mudede. You can find the original article here. You’ll have to scroll down a bit to find it. I don't actually consider it a specialty of mine but when looking back on my work over the last year I have been asked to do a lot of caricature and portraits. It's nice that people see something in my work that allows me to stretch a bit. And getting more and more assignments forces me to hone skills I didn't even know I had. Thanks everybody!

By Mark Kaufman
The passing of Iwao Takamoto reminds me of how much I hated Scooby Doo. It’s unfortunate, but read any obituary of Mr. Takamoto and first and foremost the highly overrated (yet popular) Scooby Doo heads the list of achievements. I prefer to remember the man for directing the animated version of Charlotte's Web, and as the creator of many other wonderful characters such as Secret Squirrel, Atom Ant, Penelope Pitstop, and Dastardly and Mutley. I am sure that Mr. Takamoto was very proud of Scooby Doo and it is hard to sum up the accomplishments of a long career, but read a bit deeper and you'll find an interesting life and some wonderful work. Thank you.

A great interview provided by Cartoon Brew here. 

By Mark Kaufman
Here are some thumbs from a fresh job for a magazine article on taquuerias. Unfortunately these ideas were all rejected. Which proves that even with the power of Lucha Libre/Frida Kahlo/Day of Dead imagery you can't win them all. The end product came out well, but just without the stereotypically myopic small mindedness I am know for. I'll post that image when it hits newsstands.

“History is an account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers, mostly knaves, and soldiers, mostly fools.”
--  Ambrose Gwinett Bierce

By Mark Kaufman
My latest contribution is a piece on the Death of Gerald Ford on the cover of this week’s Stranger. See it here. And read the article by Paul Consant here. Most people’s lives, save for Saddam Hussein are looked upon with admiration after their deaths, and the 38th President of the United States has been treated no differently. He has been eulogized extensively and fittingly as a man and President, but there is always two sides to history. this opinion piece is one of them. I don't remember drawing Gerry Ford when he was President during my teen years, but I do remember being outraged when he pardoned Richard Nixon. The first political figure I can remember drawing was Jimmy Carter. If he can forgive Gerry Ford, maybe we all can