Thomas Burns in PLANSPONSOR

Thomas gets a Twofer this month... first as the Student Spotlight lightee, and now as the student whose work was published in Plansponsor Magazine.

As some of you recall, last year's ILLU Arts Forum featured John Hendrix, Chris Buzelli and SooJin Buzelli. SooJin is the Creative Director at Asset International, which publishes PLANSPONSOR, PLANADVISOR, and PLANSPONSOR EUROPE. Before SooJin took the creative helm at AI, the magazines were as dry as week old toast, driven by clipart and stock photography like all other financial publications. But SooJin had a vision of a publication with imagery driven by creative thinking and beautiful illustration, and has transformed the magazines into showcases of the best in contemporary illustration. It's something of a coup to have one's work featured in the magazines now. While SooJin was here on her visit to SCAD, she hinted that she is always looking for bright new talent, and that we were welcome to submit work for consideration in future issues.

Last summer, Prof. Rick Lovell's Illustration for Publication and Getting Published classes created illustrations to fit three different areas of the magazines that introduce articles each month with a consistent, running theme. These three areas address the ideas of "Tools of the Trade", "Bells and Whistles" and "Hot off the Presses". So the class created works that are loose interpretations of these three ideas.

Illustration MFA candidate Thomas Burns' piece for "Bells and Whistles" is appearing in the January 2012 issue. Looks awesome... congrats, Thomas!

Student Spotlight: Thomas Burns

A recurring blog entry highlighting outstanding current students and their work.

1. Where are you from (hometown, country, etc.)

Lawrenceville, GA

 
2. Where have you been to school (and if grad student what kind of degree did you receive)?

Undergraduate: University of Florida BFA - Graphic Design 1992

Graduate: Michigan State University MBA - Supply Chain Management 1997

Graduate: Michigan State University MA - Advertising 1998

Graduate: Savannah College of Art and Design pursuing MFA – Illustration

3. What attracted you to Illustration? 

The steady pay, low overtime and great medical benefits. Oh, and the 401k plan.

4. Who are your biggest influences?

Some of my earlier influences in the 1980s and 90s were Jon J Muth , Kent Williams, François Schuiten, Bernie Wrightson. When I found my way back to design and illustration I started to notice people like Ragnar, Jon Lund, Paul Rogers, Adam Gustavson, Josh Agle. A lot of these more recent influences have big design backgrounds and tend to be more graphic and digital in nature.

5. If you weren’t studying illustration at SCAD, what would you likely be doing?

Working for the phone company filling out purchase orders for fiber optic cable and data switches.  More than likely my cubicle would be located near the janitors closet with no access to windows. Or sunlight. True story.

6. What do you like to do in your spare time? 

I like to spend a lot of time with my wife and five year old daughter.
I also enjoy cage fighting.

7. What is something that most people don’t know about you?

I don’t have any cavities. Really.

8. What would your dream job/client be and why?

My dream job is to have my own studio and work on posters and a continuing series of children’s books.

9. What’s your typical process for creating your artwork (technique, media, etc)?

I typically do a lot of traditional thumbnails and comps with pencil or ink or Prismas, then complete an illustration digitally with Illustrator or Photoshop. I’m trying to get a lot more textures and organic elements into the digital work so it doesn’t look so.. digital.

10. Sum up your personal philosophy in 25 words or less.
The value of simplicity – of driving the important details of your life and not letting the unimportant ones drive you. Or eat desert first. I can’t really decide.

Thanks, Thomas!

2011 "Illustration West 50"winners

Congratulations to all the winners of the Society of Illustrators Illustration Competition:

Asa Ayers, Kari Brooks, Thomas Burns, DoSung Hwang, Yina Hyder, Solongo Monkhooroi, Caleb Morris, Bekir Orhan and Denise Plauche