Location: Chatham, MA
Website: Bob Staake Studio

You’ve probably seen his children’s books. Maybe you’ve seen his cartoons. And I’m sure you’ve see Bob Staake’s New Yorker covers. Bob is notorious for insisting on using one of the earliest versions of Photoshop, and his feats of hardware maintenance must be epic to be able to run a Mac old enough to handle the program. But the art doesn’t lie! Photoshop, pencils, ink: all just tools. And in the hands of this master of illustration, who cares what he’s using to make his amazing work?

His clients certainly don’t care. While his website claims the list of those clients is too long to post, you can piece it together (or I have anyway…): American Express, Anheuser Busch, AOL Time Warner, AT&T, Barron’s, Blockbuster Video, Bloomsbury, Boston Globe, Cartoon Network, Chicago Tribune, Children’s Television Workshop, Christian Science Monitor, Coca-Cola, Coors, Disney, Fantagraphics, Foote Cone Belding, Forbes, General Mills, Hallmark Cards, HarperCollins, Hershey’s, Holiday Inn, Hostess, Kenner Toys, Klutz Press, Little Golden Books, Little, Brown, MAD Magazine, Mattel, McDonald’s, Miami Herald, MTV & Nickelodeon, National Football League, Nintendo, Parents, Penguin Putnam, Playboy, Ralston Purina, Random House, Scholastic, Simon + Schuster, Smart Money, Sony Music, Sports Illustrated For Kids, Sunkist, Target Stores, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, TIME, U.S. News + World Report, Viacom, Viking Children’s Books, Warner Books, and probably a lot more. Um, okay, that is a bit long to post.

I’ve been a fan of Bob’s work since I stumbled onto his website almost ten years ago. I always catch myself doing a giddy little double-take when I recognize another one of his books or illustrations. Not that I needed an excuse before, but now that I have a young daughter I don’t feel so guilty buying up a bunch of children’s books. My latest acquisition was a Little Golden Book Bob illustrated of the good old ABCs. While my my daughter’s library will certainly swell along with his “Bobliography”, I’m especially excited to grow my collection of prints with a 4″x6″ letterpressed Bob Staake to hang on the wall.