Who: Dan Ibarra and Michael Byzewski
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Website: Aesthetic Apparatus

If you’ve ever seen a book collection of rock posters, you’ve seen work by Aesthetic Apparatus. If you’ve ever opened up one of the design annuals and flipped through the Midwest or poster sections, you’re aware of how amazing their work is. And if you’ve gotten a paper crown at your local Burger King in the past few years, you’re wearing Aesthetic Apparatus. (Bonus: if you’ve ever wanted to learn to screenprint, see this.) These guys are everywhere, they are amazing, and they are well-decorated for it – Dan even got nominated for a Grammy, and though it was for a CD package design rather than his awesome drumming, it’s still nice to be nominated (or so I hear.)

I had the great fortune of working with Michael and Dan for a couple years at Planet Propaganda, back before they took their vow of poverty and started their own design shop. Funny and dedicated, passionate and hard-working, these guys have earned everything good that comes their way. It has been beyond amazing to watch their shop grow over the past 10 11 years, and I’m always proud to say “I know those guys!”

Who: Katie Kirk and Nathan Strandberg
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Website: Eight Hour Day

Katie and Nathan are a husband-and-wife team who tackle any design problem that heads their way, from packaging to identity to websites and more. Katie even has a children’s book on the way. If their names and faces seem familiar, it’s because they were the cover models for the June 2010 issue of HOW magazine. EHD turned just five this year, but their work displays much more maturity. Old souls, them.

After I finished grad school and moved to the Twin Cities, I started introducing myself to every small design shop in the area. I met a ton of great people, and at Katie and Nathan’s studio I also got to meet Eli, their wonderful dog who is featured in Katie’s aforementioned children’s book. Warm and generous, these two (three) are an inspiration not just for their amazing, award-winning design work, but also for their spirit and outlook. I never saw a project of theirs I didn’t like!

Who: Nick Butcher and Nadine Nakanishi
Location: Chicago, IL
Website: Sonnenzimmer

Trying to introduce the work of Sonnenzimmer is something of a tricky assignment, so I’m going to let others do it for me. Though their work defies definition, Dan Ibarra of Aesthetic Apparatus made good inroads in the January 2009 issue of Step Magazine:

In the design community there seems to be a recent rebirth of borderline-orthodox modernism, and on the opposite end, an upsurge of chaotic abstraction. One embraces strict conceptual, formal thinking, the other embraces dada-esque unconscious proformal process… Sonnenzimmer is creating completely original work that really breathes new life into what is mostly a polarized design philosophy of concept vs. chaos.

Well-said, Dan! Also, like their prints, this fantastic video portrait of Sonnenzimmer says a lot without having to lay it all out.

Even though I was only recently introduced to the work of Nick and Nadine, I am instantly enamored. My own career dances around on the increasingly-smudged shared border between graphic design, illustration, capitol-A Art in academia, and pretty much any other excuse to put pencil to paper, and the work coming out of Sonnenzimmer’s studio seems to tie all of that together beautifully in each print they create. Decidedly handmade, with an ethereal color palette and a celebration of mark-making, design, and typography, these images are so different from everything else out there right now! Each image feels like a discovery after a successful experiment.

Who: Becky Dreistadt and Frank Gibson
Location: Auckland, New Zealand
Website: Tiny Kitten Teeth

So much in the world these days is about the quickest way to crank out the next item, so we can move onto the next biggerbetterfastermore thing. Becky and Frank are no Luddites with their fantastic Tiny Kitten Teeth web comic, but they may be the only people out there painstakingly hand-painting each installment in gouache (as opposed to the more common digitally-scrawled-stick-figures-with-snarky-captions.) These paintings are gorgeous! And it’s no accident that they remind me of the old Little Golden Books we’ve been collecting for my daughter, with art by Gustaf Tenggren, Alice and Martin Provensen, and Mary Blair.

I had the great fortune of meeting Becky and Frank at the Toronto Comic Arts Festival this year. Despite falling ill due to their ridiculous comic tour schedule to promote their web comic and their fantastic Tigerbuttah book (printed and bound by the same folks who make the Little Golden Books – surprise!), they were out celebrating into the wee hours with the rest of us. Great people making great art! I can’t wait to see them again at the next conference I go to… I’m pretty sure they will be at all of them.

Who: Tyler Lang and Elsa Chaves
Location: Portland, OR
Website: Always with Honor

Always with Honor makes work that just works. You see their illustrations, and you just “get it.” That level of simplicity and immediate communication of the idea is one of the most difficult goals to achieve, but Tyler and Elsa seem to hit the mark every time. It seems they can take any complicated problem and distill it down to a potent graphic. If they were making moonshine, it would probably be strong enough to blind you.

Splash in a sense of wonder and a sense of humor, and that is how I was introduced to Always With Honor’s pithy pictures. I first saw the t-shirts in their shop linked from another blog, and I knew I liked these people. As I continued scrolling and clicking, I kept smiling to myself like the idiot I am, and I knew I had to meet them! I haven’t reached that goal yet, but fortunately, like a lot of my art crushes, they just live on the other side of the mountains from me, and I will make that drive very soon!

Who: JW and Melissa Buchanan
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Website: The Little Friends of Printmaking

JW and Melissa are amazing artists who are masters of their craft, from design to drawing to brilliant tricks of transparent ink and layering in their screenprints. There is always a hidden gem or two or three that you don’t notice until you’ve stared at the print for a while, scooped your jaw up off the floor, taken a break to finish your beer and recover, then go back again for another viewing. The work is like the offspring of Richard Scarry, Charley Harper, Little Golden Books, Mad Magazine, and heaps of magic. They’ve been featured in design annuals, magazines like Juxtapoz, and blogs from here to next century, with clients big, clients small, and clients always a little bit awesomer after they’ve worked with the Little Friends.

I knew about JW and Melissa and their screenprints through Michael and Dan over at Aesthetic Apparatus, but it wasn’t until JW sat in on some projects at Planet Propaganda that I got to know them in-person. Sarcasm seems downright jolly after chatting with this hilarious pair for a while. Dark and ridiculous and passionate and caring, they pour themselves into their work, and it shows. I just wish I had more rooms in my house to hang their work.

Who: Ghostshrimp | Pendleton Ward
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Websites: Ghostshrimp | Pendleton Ward | Adventure Time | Adventure Time Blog

Ghostshrimp (a.k.a. Dan James) is one of those illustrators where once you see his work, it is burned into your retinas so severely that you’ll never miss one of his drawings again. Calling his drawing style unique is an understatement – nobody draws like Ghostshrimp, which should keep him employed and unfireable forever. This stuff is amazing and awesome and all the other superlatives you can think of. Untouchable greatness, my friends. Untouchable.

Pendleton Ward, as if you don’t already know, is the creator of Cartoon Network’s algebraic! new show, Adventure Time. The pilot he made with Frederator Studios is hilarious and weird and amazing, and there’s nothing else like it. Lumping great, people. The show is nothing but enhanced by Pen’s wise decision to hire Ghostshrimp to help design backgrounds for the cartoon.

I stumbled onto Ghostshrimp’s fantastic The Octopi and the Ocean comic on my way out of the Giant Robot store in San Francisco several years ago, and it made me miss my bus. If I could, I would move into the backgrounds he draws for Pen’s Adventure Time. Instead I’ve bought everything he’s made with Tiny Showcase, and I’m thinking about wallpapering a closet with it all, so I can pretend I’m there anyway. (Bonus: if you are a fan of LOST and/or Ghostshrimp, you have to see this commission he drew for Dustin Harbin.)

Though I haven’t known about him for as long as I have Ghostshrimp, I got to meet Pen Ward at SPX in the fall of 2009. He was walking the floor, quietly and humbly, just looking at the art. I didn’t realize who he was when he stopped at my table and chuckled at a few of my offerings, so I was spared the awkward star-struck-ness. That came later when my tablemate told me who he was, and I gushed loudly across the crowded floor about how much I loved the show. And then again when some friends and I were drinking and drawing after the end of TCAF this spring, and someone sent Pen a drawing I’d done on top of some infographics, and it turned out my lewd scrawlings kind of looked like Pen’s comic character of himself. Oops.

Who: Ryan Meis and Sarah Labieniec
Location: San Francisco, CA
Website: Lab Partners

It’s rare and amazing to me when looking at an illustration that I think of as “colorful” to realize that it was made with a limited palette of just two or three colors. Looking through the portfolio of Lab Partners, it happens with each new piece! And if anyone tries to tell you that it is not possible to give digitally-drawn art a sense of character and life, I suggest you point them to this amazing accumulation of work that soundly defeats such notions. Bright and alive and, yes, colorful even with a limited color palette – LP is making distinctive, amazing art and illustration.

I’ve been a fan of Ryan and Sarah’s ever since I saw this great print (letterpress!) on another website. I hunted down more of their work, and I’ve been an enthusiastic fan ever since! And I can’t wait to see what they’re up to next!

Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Website: Scott K. MacDonald

Scott MacDonald is a character designer, animator, and illustrator with awesome clients like JibJab, and award-winning music videos like this one for Wintersleep.

I first fell in love with Scott’s character drawings on his Flickr (check out These Dudes!) Then I was two-timing with his animations. I made it a love triangle when I saw the images from his Mike Tyson book (I still want one of those, Scott!) I’m sure the relationship needs counseling at this point, but I also know it won’t end here. Do yourself a favor and make a pass at some of Scott’s work.

Location: Chicago, IL
Website: Singing Bones
Flickr: Featherbed

Laura Park makes her authentically inky drawings for such great places like the late, great, The Drama magazine, Asthmatic Kitty Records, Chicago Reader, Willamette Weekly, Tiny Showcase, and the fantastic new project Picture Book Report (started by Cloudy Collection alum, Meg Hunt.)

I first learned of Laura’s awesome drawings when I saw her contribution to Julia Wertz‘s I Saw You comic collection inspired by craigslist missed connections posts. Since then I’ve been keeping a close eye on her Flickr stream, gushing over gems like her commissioned paintings, her Covered show painting, and OMG her lettering! Maybe I can convince her to hand-write me a letter?