Charles Hively

During my visit to New York, I was also invited along to Charles Hively's house in Brooklyn. Hively is the design director and publisher of the 3x3 magazine which he describes as "the first magazine devoted entirely to the art of contemporary illustration. Published in the United States and distributed worldwide, we are interested in what’s shaping international illustration." - Hively. 

The 3x3 magazine studio was part of a living room full of books, and 2 girls remained busy at their desks working, as he sat and spoke to my group.


Hively was focused on illustration as a business and told us that we are entrepreneurs the moment we graduate. He said that illustration students are rarely aware of how to be successful after graduating or how to make a business, and that as people, they are usually timid and shy.

If we want to be hired, then we need to be CONFIDENT and PROMOTE ourselves endlessly.



He also made an interesting comparison between illustrators and photographers, in terms of how much money each makes. Photographers know what price to charge when approached by a client and so the amount stated has to be agreed upon because there is no real variation amongst the different photographers. This does not happen within the illustration industry and many will take a job for a lot less money than they should; and why?

'Because they love what they do and they want others to like it too.'

We can't just do anything for any price and definitely not for the companies who have tons of money. Don't just give it away.



I have taken some great advice from Charles Hively and many of the points he makes are a cruel reality, although I did find his view on websites and promotion a little narrow. Perhaps this could be a difference in culture or job role as he is of course a design director. He said that a website should only contain final images and no information about yourself or the work, and so I asked, "Are you solely interested by the look of an image rather than the reason behind it?".  I wanted to know whether he hired any illustrators because of the way that the think or perhaps because their personal interests reflect the job he needs them for. He was very quick to respond by telling me that he is not concerned with why or how you have done something and that he just picks whatever he likes the look of.


It was hard for me to come to terms with this statement because I am writing my journal surrounding the argument of illustrators lacking content in their work. Yet it seems as though this is really not important to some art directors whatsoever.

I have always spoken about my belief that an illustrator can be recognised and hired because of how their mind works and the unique voice that they use, and Andre Da Loba was the essence of this notion.



"Illustration is more about the way you think than the way that you do things"- Andre Da loba