Hire an illustrator was created by the ever industrious Darren Di Lieto, former freelance illustrator and current editor of the illustration news portal – LCSV4. (as well as many other great things such as mail me art, shack29.)

If you go here you can avail of some special rates…be warned though the offer runs out on 15th Oct!

The aim of the Hire an illustrator website is to provide art directors and commissioners with an easy to use point of contact for job seeking or available freelancers, along with an easy to use interface for the freelancers to issue immediate updates and edits to their profiles. (more…)

The Creative Review Blog has an interesting post on the new Sony Bravia rabbits commercial. Seems the concept is remarkably similar to work by LA illustrators Kozyndan, who seem to have a bit of a thing for rabbits.

Currently frightening the nation’s children are these new billboards for Today FM illustrated by IGI Member Steve Doogan, that distill the essential character of two of their DJs in a comic superhero style.
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The Economist’s new Illustration lead campaign is featured here on Creative Review, with some interesting quotes from the client “We put the lines out to the illustrators and left them to interpret them. We weren’t prescriptive. At no point did we say to them ‘can you draw us a…’ Advertising is sometimes a bit scared of working in this way but allowing the illustrators to think around a theme seemed a better way to use them. It feels more honest rather than being overly contrived.” Great example of a client trusting in their creatives. More of this please!

London Transport Museum puts over 5,000 posters online. To say its comprehensive would be an understatement but of course this means it might take you a while to trawl through the average ones. But it helps that you can browse by: theme, decade, artist.

I’m never really surprised anymore when I see a badly designed advert especially with poor use of illustration but I think this might take the biscuit. This campaign trys to attract people to use a ferry to leave Ireland (rather than fly I presume), as this is how Ireland’s literary giants left.

According to the Dublin Port’s website, portraits of each writer were commissioned and executed “in a unique Irish ‘Pop Art’ style.” I’m not sure what they mean by “unique Irish ‘Pop Art’ style” unless they mean it’s poorly executed, insipidly coloured and just plain UGLY! (more…)

IGI member Steve Simpson gives us a step by step look at a recent project he illustrated for the Dublin Transport Office that is currently up around the city….

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A blog from IGI member and all round genius illustrator Steve Doogan! Mostly concentrating on his advertising work but with nice little diversions and great links to his other sites. Seriously why is he not a world star? Took me ages to pick an image but they are all good. Go on do yourself a favour and get lost in his world, there are far worse ways to spend a life. (in case you don’t get it I’m a really big fan!)

An exciting new exhibition featuring a selection of 20th century travel and tourism posters will open on 26 June (Tuesday) at the National Museum of Ireland – Country Life, Turlough Park, Castlebar, Co. Mayo. The exhibition is entitled ‘Come Back to Erin’ and will run from 26 June to 14 October 2007.

These strikingly colourful posters feature the work of world famous artists like Paul Henry and the distinctive images will be a trip down memory lane for many people. (more…)

The ICAD 50 Commemorative Stamp Design Competition launches. Plans are well under way for ICAD’s 50th celebrations and Ireland’s National Post Office, An Post, have agreed to commemorate this milestone with a stamp. ICAD and An Post are running an open competition to design the ICAD 50 commemorative stamp. This is open to all ICAD members from the advertising and design industries in Ireland and is an unprecedented way for a stamp to be commissioned in this country. It is hoped that the winning design will achieve new levels of creative excellence within an old form.

download brief here