View from the Zoo

That’s right! Now you can buy over 80 products with my animal characters on the Ginza, Tokyo’s fashionable shopping district. Since last September I have been very busy working with MacStyle on a large collection of small items, ranging from chocolates to keychains, from cards to charms, from pens to pencil cases and much more. Some of the more unusual items are golf markers inlaid with Swarovski crystals (top) and cute boxes of amino acid powder (a hangover remedy) by Ajinomoto (below). Personally, I’ll take the chocolates (above). All these items are available at the YrStyle Ginza shop,  4-4-13 Ginza Chuo-ku Tokyo.

3×3 has just announced their winners for this year’s edition of the Children’s Show, a juried collection of illustrations and books for children. Just to get in, the majority of the eight judges have to vote for the piece. I’m very happy to announce that three of my entries were selected – one for a newspaper illustration about relaxing activities for kids during Spring Break, a second for a poster showing the handmade Bambino sled and, the third, for the ADzif line of blackboard wall decals «Memo». Congratulations to La Presse, goslide.ca and ADzif! 

All the winners will be published in the upcoming annual No.7. 3×3 is a magazine of international contemporary illustration, published in New York. In addition to the magazine, 3×3 organizes three juried shows each year and publishes an invitation-only directory.

I don’t smoke but I do like cigar boxes, labels and Ritzenhoff ashtrays. The challenge for me was to come up with an animal character that expressed masculinity, elegance and not be too cute. The black bear is native to our Canadian forests (I tried a fox as well) and dressing him up in a tuxedo gives him that classy look.  The golden cigar (yup, it is printed in gold) makes the image rich and luxurious. This is a second ashtray design that I did that has been produced by Ritzenhoff, the first one being a Churchill-like smoking bulldog. You don’t smoke either? Well, this makes a great tray for pocket change and keys.

The graphic design at the lower right was another idea that I had submitted at the same time as the bear.

I just received my copy of the 2010 3×3 Illustration Directory and there is my Christmas tree on page 246 at the head of the whimsical section. With over 300 illustrations, this directory is special. It is curated like a show by the one and only Charles Hively, publisher of the wonderful 3×3 magazine of contemporary illustration and is by invitation only. Each illustration is carefully displayed to create a harmonious continuity throughout the book. There are lots of animals, too. Great work, Charles!