What I learned (and loved!) at ICON12
In 2018, when I first learned of ICON the Illustration Conference that only happens every 2 years, I thought wow this is it! This is where I’m going to meet my community! I signed up right away and then COVID happened. I was devastated that A: None of us could go anywhere and B: That the ICON conference was postponed. Fast forward to 2022 and I just had my baby girl, I wasn’t able to attend a big conference with the threat of COVID looming over my 6 month old. I told myself 2024 I am going to go!
Fast forward to July 9th, having no idea what to expect from ICON12 besides insightful talks and possibilities to connect with a community of illustrators. The ICON12 conference has honestly changed my perspective, enlightened me and has given me creative inspiration and education beyond what I imagined. So I’d love to share my insights, what I’ve learned and loved and how I’m going to carry that with me in the future.
Before we get started let’s dive into what my itinerary looked like:
Tuesday July 9th:
Flight from PA to MSP
Meet & Greet at AC Hotel Minneapolis Downtown
Wednesday July 10th:
Bus to MIA, sign in and forgot my phone…oopsie!
SEO Workshop with Nate & Salli
Lunch at MIA
Talks for the rest of the afternoon
Quick Dinner @ Pizza Luce
Motion Commotion at Lumber Exchange
Drinks @ Parlour
Thursday July 11th:
Bus to MIA
Talks for the First Half
Lunch at Centro with my clients that are local to Minneapolis!
Networking & Talks
Road Show Market at Lumber Exchange
Dinner @ Juche St Paul
Friday July 12th:
Uber to MIA
Talks for the First Half
Lunch at Quang
Talks for the Second Half
Gallery Show & Networking
Saturday July 13th:
Slept in and had Breakfast @ Hell’s Kitchen
Meandered about the city
Caught some of the morning talks
Lunch @ Pho Tau Bay
Talks for the Second Half
Dinner @ Matt’s Bar home of the famous Jucy Lucy
Closing Party @ First Avenue where Prince filmed his Purple Rain Music Video!
Insight #1: SEO is important, so are your passions!
Day 1 of the conference was filled with educator symposiums and workshops. Fortunately for me, I had the opportunity to sign up for a workshop called “SEO: The Secret Sauce For Illustrators”. I was excited to learn more about SEO to drive traffic and art directors to my website. What I didn’t realize was that this workshop set the scene of what I kept asking myself the whole week, “What is my passion?”. Obviously my passion is design & illustration but Nate & Salli who taught the class, asked to take it a little further.
Nate created 3 circles that intersected to create a sweet spot and asked:
• What’s your passion? (These can be an object, a cause, a way of living)
• What are your skills? (These are technical skills, techniques or services)
• What’s the demand? (This is the market demand)
So I started to fill these out and I got stuck, what is my passion? Products like gifts, stationery and homegoods? There has to be more. So I started to dig in and question myself through out the entire 4 days. I had a revelation when I saw an animation illustrated by Emory Allen about being a first time parent. It reminded me that in the midst of my mother having cancer and my daughter only being around 4 months old, I started to really cherish this evolution of motherhood to now daughterhood. How it comes full circle once you’ve had your own daughter and truly understand when your mom says “You have no idea how much I love you”.
Through out my mother’s time with cancer, I started drawing coloring pages for her with strong inspirational women and on mothers day I created a card for her (seen below) that shows myself and my daughter cuddling up so tight and it read “Dear Mom, I get it now.” This is something at the time that felt so meaningful and exciting to explore. Until I was told “That art doesn’t sell” and I completely moved on from it. This conference reminded me of the importance of illustration as an art. That it’s important to tell our stories that our fulled by our passions in life & craft, sometimes without the incentive of being marketable.
Insight #2: The child in you will always find itself in your work.
As I continued to question what my passions were, I started to see a theme come up in all of the talks. One talk notably by Tim O’Brien, revisited a smattering of famous illustrator’s childhood artwork from around the ages 7-9 including himself. The craft and skill was vastly different but the themes and thought processes were the same. I was truly touched by another illustrator Laura James who wrote and illustrated a children’s book called My Mother Was A Nanny where she shared her stories of growing up and reflecting on all the hard work her mother did for her job as a nanny and to care for her children. All of that reflection from childhood really showed up in a lot of speaker’s talks during ICON.
I started to reflect even more on what my childhood was like, my experience as a daughter & mother and how all of those experiences define who I am today. I’ve thought a lot about how I’m a child of a multiracial family and how that has defined so much of who I am and how I show up for my business. I identified what specifically as a kid I was drawn to that is showing up in my work now. For instance texture, I’ve always loved crumpling up paper and flattening it out so it had this really cool wrinkle texture after I drew a picture. I also really loved these Wheat Thins Ads from 2002 with cut paper collage looking illustrations (seen below) from Suzanne Darabaris. It’s been an interesting insight to have that I can’t wait to explore more.
Art by Suzanne Darabaris
Insight #3: Community is key to empowerment and enrichment
The first day at ICON12, a meet and greet happened at the hotel where most attendees were staying. I almost skipped it because I was exhausted from traveling and nervous to put myself out there. But as soon as I walked down to the hotel lobby and bar I was greeted with kindness and likeness all around. Everyone felt the same, nervous to meet new people and put themselves out there. I knew I wasn’t alone. I immediately started chatting about what specific niche of illustration people were in, what part of the country or some instances what part of the world they were in. It felt like I’ve really met my people, the people who just get what it means to be an illustrator. As the days continued the connections grew stronger. I met award winning children’s book illustrators, editorial illustrators, motion graphic illustrators and even other surface designers.
I learned so much from everyone else’s disciplines, interests and backgrounds. I’m truly grateful to have met so many talented illustrators. There is such a comradery among this community and appreciation for different styles and interests. Yes I was exhausted with a hoarse voice and a completely depleted social battery, but it truly was worth it to put myself out there and say “Hi” and introduce myself or just simply compliment the people who’ve inspired me. I’m thankful for instagram in this moment because now we’re all buddies and can cheer each other’s work on via the interwebs!
Insight #4: I’m so thankful I made the choice to go to ICON12
The inspiration, insights and connection alone have been invaluable to me. I will carry the insightful talks, friendships and experiences I made with me forever. I knew going in, this would be great for my business. But I wasn’t aware of how deeply I would be thinking during the past 4 days. I’m excited to keep exploring these questions I have for myself and my art. And I can’t wait to continue these conversations of self reflection in my art and business.
If you’d like to see a quick recap of my time at ICON you can view it on my instagram!
