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Illustration?
Reveal.
 TheUglyDollsstory.
David Horveth and Sun Min-Kim were
boyfriend and girlfriend They were both
illustrators [here at Parsons]. At one
point Sun went back to Korea, and they
would write “mash notes” to each other.
David would draw these little doodles
of these weird characters at the bottom
of his notes, and at one point Sun sent
him back a sewn version of one of
these. Eric Nakamora at Giant Robot, a
gallery and shop in LA that publishes a
magazine as well, saw the doll and said
that he wanted to carry them in his store.
They put it in the magazine, and Ugly
Dolls became ubiquitous to the extent
that they were all over the news when
the Obama kids went to their first day of
school. They had Ugly Doll backpacks.
People recognize that so they always
talk about it at admissions things, but
you know there probably wasn’t even a
toy design class when they did it. They
just did it. Through your projects if you
just keep steering toward something and
keep driving at it, you’ll have success.
 “ I h a v e a l w ay s
t h o u g h t o f Fi n e
Ar t a s b e i n g a
c o n v e r s at i o n
with yourself
t h at y o u h av e b y
m a k i n g i m a g e r y,
a n d I l l u s t r at i o n
i s a c o n v e r s at i o n
y o u h av e w i t h a n
audience.”
Steven Guarnaccia
Work by Parsons
Illustration Adjunct Faculty
Jeff Quinn
Advice.
from Advisor,
Paul Nicholson
There is no way an
Illustrator who is freelancing
and trying to get gigs could not
have a web presence. Literally
everything has a web site. My
backyard has a web site, and I
can’t understand someone who
is a senior who does not already
have one. Even if it’s “ghetto”.
Also, people who sometimes
don’t like computers
exposed to one certain program
[and love it]. And they realize
that everyone else is new in the
opposite page: work by Paul
Nicholson
class. No one knows Maya on
the first day and then takes
the Maya class. They play
with it, and they may find
they love it. Everyone should
be able to scan in their work
and touch it up in Photoshop,
then use some sort of page
layout software. You are an
Illustrator so you’ve got to
are have the know-how. That
stuff is super important.
-Paul Nicholson, Illustration and
Fine Arts Advisor
 work by Steven Guarnaccia
Know.
Steven Guarnaccia speaks.
 “Illustration is about
telling stories through
pictures.
I have been illustrating professionally
since 1977 and I taught at Parsons between
80’ and 90’. I have been chair for the last
five years and my goal has been to align
the department with what I think the field
[of illustration] is about. Most illustration in
the past was illustrating books, magazines
and newspapers. It was illustrating verbally
expressed ideas or stories. And an illustrator
at their best didn’t just reiterate the story, but
they told their own take on that story so the
combination of picture and words made
this completely new thing. It was almost
entirely a commissioned field. In other words
you waited for the phone to ring. Then you
responded.
Print media’s role in the culture has
This page: work by Parsons
Alum, AJ Fosik
Opposite page: work by Parsons
Faculty, Caty Bartholomew
changed a lot. Among the outcomes of that You could not say you were an illustrator
change was that commissioned illustration unless you had clients. You could not just sit
to accompany text diminished considerably. at home and make illustrations. You could
I used to tell my students in the 80’s that, say you were a painter, but being an illustrator
“if every one of you in my class went out used to be responsive. What started to
into the field today, there would be more happen was that when the commissioned
illustration work than you could actually get.” work started to diminish, illustrators were still
That is actually not true anymore.
As early as 15 years ago, most book
jackets and magazine covers were illustrated.
That is not the case now. There was a
general feeling in the field that illustration was
dying. In fact that was not true because
what was equally obvious was that the
visual of the culture was on the ascendant.
Certainly screens were a big part of it, from
cell phone screens, to computer screens, being educated to illustrate, and there were
to TV and movie screens, to all the other people who made stuff who didn’t want to
screens in between. And now we can have make big oil paintings for gallery walls. They
screens on the side of buildings! Really wanted to make stuff to be distributed in
interesting. mass quantities within the culture. It is
not just, “Oh, I want to be a
painter except I want to make
a living.” It is also, “I want my
stuff to be in everybody’s
hands. I don’t want people to
have to come to one spot and
look at the original. I want to
tell stories.” They continued to create,
but the originals used to be so unconsidered
that the magazines would regularly throw out
tons of original art work. The illustrators did not
complain because to them, the value was in
the printed piece. There was a small core of
people who thought that it was really cool to
own the original of something they had seen
in print but most people saw that as devaluing
the work.
Leonardo DiCaprio and
Whoopie Goldberg were two of
the first people to buy original illustrations and
not think there was anything wrong with it.
 Illustration imagery is extremely accessible. It
tends to want to communicate. The galleries
that tried to sell illustration in New York did not
really do that well, but there are a couple of
really significant galleries out in LA that were
very successful. A whole industry of illustrators
making work for the wall, one of a kind images,
grew.
It seemed strange to say that the illustration
culture was dead when some of the very top
grossing movies were animated. They began

work by Laura Corradi with drawings. This was all stuff that was not
really acknowledged when I came into the
“Okay,
department [at Parsons]. I said,
illustration isn’t dead. There
is just a whole new range of
ways in which illustrators are
expressing themselves.” And we
have actually been at the forefront of this stuff
without even knowing it.
We still also have a curriculum that is
work by Parsons faculty, Guy Billout
grounded in drawing and painting, and still has believe that for survival everyone has to be
some vestiges of print culture. Beyond able to tell their own stories. They should not
Editorial is one of our signature classes, just be waiting for a text and then making an
and likely is our most popular. All the kids got image that sums up someone else’s idea. I
to customize a batch of Adidas sneakers last am very excited about Illustration. I think it is
year. We also got a big bunch of skateboards, very vibrant and vital, and one of my goals has
and the kids got to design on those as well. We been to convince everyone that Illustration is
have classes that are about type. Animation absolutely alive and necessary.”
is shared between CDT (Communication
Design and Technology) and Illustration. We
started a co-lab last year where we had a
live jazz group, live programmers who moved
images around, and some previously created
illustration for backdrop. Some performances
were very conventional, and some were very
experimental motion/image/sound pieces.
The idea was that none of them fit any
particular commercial model.
No matter what our department is doing,
we are always telling stories. Illustration does
not exist in a vacuum. We work in all areas. I
work by Edward del Rosario
Emphasis.
This course gives the illustrator/designer hands-
on opportunities to learn basic principles of
graphic design and utilizing typography. The
illustrator/designer must know how to marry
type to image just as the graphic designer
must marry image to type. Typography and
illustration/design are not ends in themselves,
but a means of communication that can impart

opposite page: work by Lauren Redniss

meaning. This course encourages innovative
solutions using typography design as the
foundation.
Type.
ography.
Painting &
Drawing.

work by Tara McPherson

This painting/drawing course
encourages students to take charge
of their careers before they graduate.
Each student plans their semester
and evaluates it at the end. Students
choose their own media and set
individual challenges while working
towards finding their own voices.
Students work on their own with the
instructor as a facilitator. This class in
particular welcomes students from all
departments.
Beyond
Editorial.
This class will explore the ever
expanding territory where illustration
meets design. The hybrid designer-
illustrator is head and shoulders above
the pack. With drawing skills, a keen
sense of color, typography, layout and
an interest to do it all, today's new
breed is poised for a long and varied
career. Guest speakers who exemplify
these virtues will present case studies,
slide show lectures will provide
inspiration, and practical assignments
will afford students opportunities to
pull it all together. Assignments will be
a range of packaging, objects, logos,
animation boards and advertising, all
using multi-disciplinary approach. The
result will be to inspire students that
drawing skills have wide and varied
applications.
Materials
&
Methods.
The purpose of this course is to
introduce students to the methods of
using a variety of media. Techniques
will be taught in black and white as
well as color. During the course,
twelve to fourteen projects will be
produced to give students a thorough
understanding of a range of versatile
materials.
This class is devoted to the
development of individual senior
portfolios. Here, students will
combine their most successful
work from previous semesters
along with new works to create
professional portfolios. Each class
has a corresponding section in
which students expand their work
into a digital portfolio. Students learn
to organize their work, promote
themselves and send work to clients
digitally. There will be a focus on
scanning portfolio work, web site
design, use and upkeep, and PDF
workflow.
Portfolio &
Professional
Practices.
Nicole Pimentel
Discuss.
On challenges:
There will be many times where
either personal situations or
issues at school will affect your
work and how you manage your
time but I feel most of the help
comes from the teachers I’ve
gotten to know. I’ve had teachers
that told me to “deal with it” but
there are others who really listen.
There are also some teachers
that do similar work that I am
really interested in, and they are
really great resources.
On major change:
I wanted to be in the fine arts
department. I loved the space
everyone had and the freedom
to do whatever they wanted. But
at the same time, there seemed
to be no connection between the
teachers and the students. The
teachers would basically tell the
students to do what they wanted
and have a critique at the end of
the semester. I then joined the
illustration department and was
lucky to become friends with
teachers that were involved wit
both Illustration and Fine arts.
Anastasia Mouyis
 “Being self-driven is the
most important thing to
remember while being a
student in Illustration at
Parsons.”
Pursue.
Anastasia Mouyis, a senior in
Illustration says there are some
teachers you just cannot pass up.
Here is a short list, so look them
up!

Jillian Tamaki
Sergio Ruzzer
Jordin Isip
Noel Claro

Check out more of Anastasia’s work on line at http://anamouyis.com

Thank you.
This book would not have been possible without the graciousness of
certain busy individuals who offered up a chunk of their day to help
me gather information about the Illustration department at Parsons.
On behalf of myself as well as anyone else who may benefit in the
future from the information they gave me, I would like to sincerely
thank Steven Guarnaccia, Paul Nicholson, Nicole Pimentel, Anastasia
Mouyis, and Nora Krug. Also, any individuals mentioned in this book
through their artwork, thank you for allowing me to use your piece
to represent the Illustration department to new and perspective
students.
Sincerely,
Ciara Gay

Certain images and text used in this publication were pulled from the
following sources:

Parsons the New School For Design. Parsons Illustration

Blog: Words&Pictures. http://www2.parsons.edu/illustration

Ugly Dolls. Big Toe. http://www.shopatron.com/product/part_

number=10171/322.0.43023.0.0.0.0

Ugly Dolls. Suntan Target. http://www.shopatron.com/product/

part_ number=10291/322.0.19427.0.0.0.0