Apr 23, 2014

Illustrator Slips Out of the Sunday Times into the Bedroom

Phil Marden got his first drawing published in The New York Times thirty years ago and has been speaking to a sophisticated urban audience through his illustrations in the NY Times, The Atlantic,Entertainment Weekly and dozens of other newspapers and magazines ever since. Now, he’s taking the plunge into licensing.

At this year’s Licensing Expo in Las Vegas (Booth #E14), he’ll be introducing around thirty new design collections inspired by the Mid-Century illustration and design that he grew up with and still collects and studies. Several of his designs have already been picked up by Keka for their phone cases and he has been tapped for the second year in a row to design Australian swimwear for Tom & Teddy. Marden has design collections created specifically for bedding, kitchen textiles, fabric, tabletop and stationery.

Marden, best known for his humorous conceptual illustrations, has also done character design for TV and films. His new designs are populated by a lot of playful-looking people and animals. He builds on his traditional illustration style to achieve a more graphic look by focusing on simple shapes, bold, flat colors and repeating patterns. Marden’s work is an amalgam of the geometric and pared-down style of classic illustrators like Otto Soglow and William Steig, the minimalism and restrained good-humor of Danish Modernism and some of the kookiness of Atomic Age graphics. Among his designs are Bug, a very geometric group of insects, Cowboy Pete, a cheerful cowboy-and-horse pattern and Metro Kids, a cityscape full of favorite hangouts for a city kid. Marden’s designs are well-situated to coincide with the current revival of Mid-Century Design.

“At first, I was nervous about leaving the confines of the text and the 3″ x 3″ box on the page and being overwhelmed by the freedom,” says Marden. But, he soon learned that the greatest constraint on a designer is the need to identify and design for an audience. He produced some products on his own, which he sold at craft fairs and online, where he got invaluable consumer feedback. “I always had an Art Director between me and the audience, so I didn’t think too much about them, but I’ve learned that you can’t expect the audience to come to you. You have to go to them and try to maintain your integrity at the same time. There’s nothing more gratifying than seeing someone want to take something of yours home with them.”

About Phil Marden:

Phil Marden arrived in NYC in 1983 with a degree in Animal Behavior and soon began working as a layout artist and Graphic Designer. He got his very first editorial illustration job in 1984 from Steve Heller, Art Director ofThe New York Times Book Review. Within a few years, he was having illustrations published in dozens of publications including Newsweek,Forbes, Fortune and Entertainment Weekly, as well as Sports Illustrated for Kids, Family Fun and Disney Adventures. He has illustrated regular columns in Spy Magazine, The Boston Globe, New Woman, Radar and currently, The NY Times. He has also done Character Design for animated spots for MTV, CBS, CNBC, the remake of “The Stepford Wives” and PBS’s “Between the Lions.” One of his PSA’s was featured in MOMA’s retrospective of The Ink Tank, the animation studio started by R. O. Blechman. In the past few years, Phil has broadened his reach to include product design, surface design and pattern design. Additional information is available at www.philmardendesign.com and to interact with the brand, see the social links on Facebook and Twitter.