Call For Entries

UPDATE: DEADLINE EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 20th.

Just a few weeks left to enter the Society of Illustrators’ annual!
(Cool poster art by Jonathan Weiner.)

I’ll be on the Sequential jury this year. I'm very much looking forward to it. I’ve never judged this category before...I imagine it will be both inspiring and exhausting. (Judging a few thousand single images is exhausting.) I am also really looking forward to spending some time with the other jurors. They are all amazing talents.

Bill Frake • Tony DiTerlizzi • John Hendrix • James Jean • Michael Kaluta • M.K. Perker • George Pratt • Mark Alan Stamaty

For a full list of categories, juries, and submission guidelines, click here.

The judging process is a simple pass/fail for most of the day. You sit with each piece and make your own judgments. It’s an anonymous check-mark on the back to vote Yay. If you’re like me, you spend the entire day second-guessing yourself. “Was I too tough on that set? Maybe I’m being too lenient?...Sure this is good, but is it good enough?” Then I remind myself that that's why we have 9 judges, and I follow my gut.

Then the staff clears everything away and does some quick addition while we have lunch. After lunch, all of the work with with near unanimous votes are debated on for medal-winners. Sometimes it gets heated but, oddly, II’ve only seen real tension in judging the student exhibit. (Perhaps because you are judging potential as much as the actual work in the student show.)

The Spectrum annual works similarly, except that Spectrum has a power vote, which is something I wish the Society would adopt. One juror can tag a piece for possible medal consideration. That piece may never make it into the show, if it only has that one vote, but it does mean that work that falls outside of the “common dominator” gets a second look.

I’ve been a juror for the Society, Spectrum, and Communication Arts. There are only minor differences in their processes. While there is no perfect system, they each manage to create a great resource. When the annuals come out and all that exciting work is displayed, it’s almost enough to make me wished we published more books...almost.