illustration hot tub

illoz.com was launched on January 3rd of this year, with two simple ideas in mind. Illustrators should be able to show as many images online as they want to and only the top talent should have access.

The "unlimited images" idea might sound a bit mundane. In the world of online portfolios, that's a radical notion, believe it or not.

How illoz is doing so far...

At launch time, there were 23 illustrators at illoz. At this writing, 93 illustrators are helping the project, with about three times that number of art directors creating accounts for themselves.

illoz attempts to provide a solution to the over-crowded online portfolio world. Part of the illoz solution is giving the members themselves control over who displays work at the site. Portfolios at illoz are available by invitation only and only existing members can make those invitations available to others.

An official press release thing (pdf)

Visit illoz

Randall Enos' illustrations have graced the pages of the nation's leading magazines and newspapers for many years.

Largely self taught, Enos has worked for such diverse publications as Playboy, Holiday, Boy's Life, US News, Forbes, Tennis, Reader's Digest, Rolling Stone and many others along with hundreds of children's trade and text books.

In the mid-1960's, Randy developed the linocut style for which he has become known.

He created comic strips for Playboy and the National Lampoon and animation design for Columbia Pictures, NBC, CBS and many corporate clients such as Olivetti, Singer, Xerox and others. His off-beat animation for a John Hancock commercial was never aired, but won a prestigious Cannes TV Film award in 1964.

Randall Enos at illoz

Bob Staake is an illustrator, designer and author based in Chatham, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

His clients include The New Yorker, The Washington Post, MAD, TIME, Cartoon Network, Random House, Hallmark Cards, American Express, McDonald's, HarperCollins, The Walt Disney Company, Mattel Toys, Scholastic Books, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, McDonald's, AOL/Time Warner, Children's Television Workshop, The Wall Street Journal, MTV/Nickelodeon, Viking Books, TIME Inc, Little Golden Books, United Airlines, Ralston Purina, Simon + Schuster and countless others.

Staake lectures around the country and has spoken before The Graphic Artists Guild, The National Cartoonists Society, The University of Southern California, The American Association of Editorial Cartoonists, Massachusetts College of Art, The Saint Louis Art Museum, The Journalism Education Association and other venues.

When he's not illustrating, he spends his time collecting mid-century modern furnishings, reading, traveling, cooking and building stone walls. He has yet to engineer a stone wall so poorly that it has totally collapsed (though some have come close).

Bob Staake at illoz

Marc Burckhardt lives in Austin, Texas - the Live Music Capitol of the World - and his paintings have been commissioned by Rolling Stone, TIME, Fortune, SONY Records, the New York Times, National Geographic, Target, Comcast and Major League Baseball. His work has received multiple awards from CA, American Illustration, PRINT, Graphis, and the Society of Illustrators of New York and Los Angeles, and has been profiled in 3x3, Communication Arts, and Juxtapoz. His paintings have been exhibited at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and the Experience Music Project in Seattle, are featured in the book "The Greatest Album Covers That Never Were", and can be found in the private collections of Oprah Winfrey, Ralph Lauren, Jann Wenner and the late Johnny Cash.

Marc Burckhardt at illoz

Gary Taxali was born in Chandigarh, India in 1968. A year later, he and his family emigrated to Toronto, Canada. The encouragement of his parents led Gary to take art classes as a child which eventually led him to pursue an art education. In 1991, he graduated from the Ontario College of Art and immediately began working as a professional illustrator.

A few years later, he began showing in various exhibitions and galleries throughout North America including the Luz de Jesus Gallery in Los Angeles. In 2005, he launched his first vinyl toy, The Toy Monkey, which includes a special edition specifically created for The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City. Gary was also asked by the Whitney Museum to donate a limited edition print to be given to top donors at their annual fundraising Art Party. Aside from his gallery shows and illustration work, Gary also devotes a portion of his time traveling through lecturing and teaching at various arts organizations and schools such as The Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, Canada. He is a Founding Member of IPA (The Illustrators' Partnership of America).

Gary Taxali at illoz

Edel Rodriguez was born in 1971 in Havana, Cuba. He received a B.F.A. in Painting from Pratt Institute in 1994 and an M.F.A. from Hunter College in 1998. Using a variety of materials, his work ranges from conceptual to portraiture and landscape.

His work has been featured in Print's 1998 New Visual Artists Annual and on the cover of the 2004 Communication Arts Illustration Annual. It has also been regularly selected to appear in the pages of Communication Arts, American Illustration, Society of Publication Designers, and The Society of Illustrators Annuals. He is also the recipient of both a Gold and a Silver Medal for editorial illustration from the Society of Illustrators. He has illustrated three children's books, "Mama does the Mambo", "Oye Celia", a biopic about Celia Cruz, and "Float Like a Butterfly", a story about Cassius Clay. A stamp he created for the United States Postal Service was released in the Summer of 2005.

Edel Rodriguez at illoz

Her works are in the permanent collections at the Library of Congress, the Canadian Archives in Ottawa, the Musee Militaire de France in Paris, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, and a number of her Time Magazine cover paintings are in the permanent collection at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington DC. In 1987 she showed a collection of her works at Canada House in Trafalgar Square London. In 1997 she had a one woman show at the Foreign Press office in New York City, in 1998 she had a solo show at the Creation Gallery in Tokyo, and the Society of Illustrators Museum of American Illustration mounted a mid-career retrospective of her work in the fall of 2000. In the fall of 2003 she was the first woman and the first Canadian to have a solo show at the Library of Congress in Washington DC.

In 1997 she received the Les Usherwood Lifetime Achievement Award from the Advertising and Design Club of Canada.

Anita was recently named one of the fifty most influential women in Canada by the National Post newspaper.

She is currently preparing for a one woman show to be held in Turin Italy next year.

Anita Kunz at illoz