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Illustrator Profile - Daniel Hertzberg: "I'm lucky to be making pictures for a living"

By Robert Newman   Thursday April 21, 2016

Daniel Hertzberg is an illustrator and graphic designer based in Morristown, New Jersey, outside of New York City. He uses a mix of illustration and photo illustration to create bright, graphic editorial imagery for The New Yorker, Scientific American, The Wall Street Journal and many more publications. Hertzberg has a background as a graphic designer, and it shows in his poster-like illustrations that pop off the page (and screen) with almost electric (and sometimes psychedelic) power. Hertzberg often takes his own photographs to use as the basis for his illustrations—even using himself and his family as models—although recently he has been “consciously pushing colors, shapes and patterns” to develop new stylistic directions. He has a smart, conceptual approach to his illustration, combined with a self-described “blue-collar” work ethic. “I illustrated as if my life depended on it,” says Hertzberg, “...because it does.”

MY LIFE:
I was born and raised in Bellmore, New York—a middle class town along the south shore of Long Island. Nearly everyone in my family is a teacher. My father was a social studies teacher for 25 years before he became an assistant principal, and my mother was an elementary school art teacher for nearly 20 years as well. My older sister teaches at Brooklyn College, supervising a theater costume workshop, and one of my younger sisters teaches art in a middle school. I teach Editorial Illustration and Final Project classes at Montclair State University. So, as you can tell, education and art were the hallmarks of our upbringing—nearly everyone in the family is an art teacher!

I live and work from my home in Morristown, NJ (about an hour train ride from Manhattan). The house was built in 1900, so it has lots of character but more problems than I anticipated. In July my wife and I welcomed home our newborn sons, Lincoln and Isaac. They're identical twins and have quickly become the joys (and little terrors) or our lives. There’s nothing that could have prepared me for twins. Everyone jokes that the first year is just about survival… there’s some real truth to that.

I have been an illustrator since 2009. Actually, I shouldn't say that—I started right after graduation in 2003 from the Rhode Island School of Design. But my work was not very strong and I was spending more time on promotion than on my work.

I've always had a blue-collar mentality towards being an artist and illustrator. I had a full-time job from the very first day after I graduated from RISD until 2010. It was partly because I just was not comfortable going straight to freelancing… being a freelancer with lots of downtime seems like a nightmare. Steady paychecks, health insurance and feeling secure about my place in the work-a-day world were big reasons to have a job. I was a full-time intern at The New Yorker magazine, a part-time intern at Sports Illustrated (working on Sundays), a part-time intern for the Society of Publication Designers, a production artist at Workman Publishing, a 3D Foundation Studies technician at Parsons School of Design and a junior graphic designer at the JCC Association. For several years during that time I had given up on my illustration career but continued to look through magazines just to see the illustrations in them. Rolling Stone’s table of contents and record reviews, The New Yorker’s GOAT (Goings On About Town) section, Spin, Vibe, Esquire, The Atlantic… those were the dream clients.

Over the past seven years it’s been a thrill to have worked with some of those dream clients! But the dream clients always change, and I think my own personal mission statement is always changing as well. My blue-collar attitude has me self-promoting for new assignments all the time but my artistic side is begging me to step back and experiment with new personal work. As a full-time freelancer now, I illustrate as if my life depended on it, because… it does.

MY WORKSPACE:
I work in the cathedral-ceilinged attic in my home. It’s been in a constant transitional state since we moved in and I’m still unpacking and rearranging things. The creaky, original wood floors, exposed brick chimney and windows on all sides make it a pretty inspiring space. There’s enough room for me to photograph references from all angles and lighting scenarios.

HOW I MAKE MY ILLUSTRATIONS:
I work digitally but always begin with pencil and paper. I tend to print the article I’m illustrating and while reading it over I’ll sketch and doodle all over the print outs, front and back. The ideas matter most to me, not the drawings—so the sketches are always sloppy. Once I have a few that could work, I collage together photos and textures until the idea comes to life. Because I work digitally, I try changing opacities or rotating elements just for fun and oftentimes send art directors several variations of an idea. When a sketch is approved, I immediately start gathering my own references and photographing them. For example, if the illustration requires a military tank I’ll photograph the figurine set I own and try lighting the toy tank accordingly. To make the tank feel more authentic I’ll draw in my own details using Adobe Illustrator, until it starts to feel like a real tank. Or if it’s a riot police officer I need to create, I’ll use my hockey equipment and helmet and add details later. I often use myself and my wife as reference. To do that, I use my iPhone to record video of myself in hundreds of different poses and angles and lighting scenarios. I screen grab the poses that work best. The work is finished in Adobe Illustrator.

MY FIRST BIG BREAK:
While I was working full-time as a graphic designer, I got a phone call from Steve Charny at Rolling Stone. When he introduced himself I said “hello” and tried to act as normal and professional as possible, but I could hardly breathe. My lifelong dream to do a record review illustration for Rolling Stone was playing out in front of me; I was on Cloud 9,000. I was moving to New Jersey that week and already had two other jobs due, on top of working full-time but said “yes” to the job immediately. The piece didn’t come together all that well but about a week after it published I received a call from an illustration representative at Gerald & Cullen Rapp. They have been representing me almost since the day of that phone call.

MY INFLUENCES:
There are many but to single out a few: Frank Stella’s shaped canvas color paintings and protractor series, the Stenberg Brothers film posters, futurism, Richard Prince collages, Julie Mehretu’s paintings, Edward Hopper’s use of color. I was heavily influenced by minimalism years ago but my work feels like it’s taken a maximalistic turn recently.

I'm also still influenced by a small zine class I took at RISD my junior year. Seniors Matt Leines, Julia Rothman and Caitlin Keegan were in that class and I got to see these artists produce stickers, trading cards, zines, illustrations, books and even 3D pieces that all had this polished illustrated brand—they were so ahead of everyone else in terms of vocabulary and style. It’s my goal as a teacher to get my illustration students to that consistent, professional level those three were at.

MY MOST ADMIRED CREATIVE PERSON:
Without question, Kyle T. Webster—and for a plethora of reasons. He is a fabulous illustrator in his own right, with outstanding illustration skills; his draftsmanship is second to none. But he is also an entrepreneur and a marketing genius. His Photoshop brushes (Kyle Brushes) seamlessly mimic hundreds of different physical materials and they sell incredibly well. He gives video demonstrations of each, he’s the customer service representative, he’s the biggest promoter of the product and his client list is through the roof. He teaches college, frequently guest lectures, has a strong graphic design and animation portfolio, owns several properties and (somehow) has two children as well. Kyle has several income streams in case one of those streams goes dry. It’s a brilliant business model for a freelancer and over the years I’ve tried to diversify my income streams as well. I sincerely hope to be an artist and illustrator my entire career and I strongly believe it’s best to have a second or third act ready, just in case.

THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE OF WORKING ALONE:
In an office you have co-workers that are all assigned tasks based on their strengths. There are departments, directors, assistants… a whole system in place to handle the business. Being alone means wearing ALL the different hats of your business, for better or worse. You create your own business system, from scratch. My system is flawed (and I’m certain everyone else’s are too) and it’s a constant challenge for me to make it work perfectly.

Luckily I’m close friends with many other illustrators in a Facebook group called IlloConfidential, where we talk about our work and our business, daily. If we ever have questions about a contract, taxes, promotions, or “how much should I pitch for this job?” or “Is this piece really working?” we discuss it. They are practically co-workers for me and it’s been very beneficial for everyone in the group.

MY CREATIVE INSPIRATION:
I have a massive inspiration folder on my computer with thousands of paintings, clippings, drawings, doodles, etc. I could look at a Jackson Pollock painting and see how that kind of abstraction could be used for an illustration about big data. I also have a folder with rejected sketches from old assignments that I’ll look through, if I’m ever in a conceptual funk. But more than anything, I’ll look at the work I’ve done recently and see where I need to take it next… where to keep pushing, where to steer away. I’m spending less time trying to be conceptual with my illustrations and more time trying to be expressive, loose, and rely less on photography.

A MEMORABLE ASSIGNMENT FROM THE PAST YEAR:
I worked on a spread for Scientific American recently, for an article on the future of medicine, about doctors boosting immune systems to fight cancer. Between cancer cells, blood vessels, immune systems and defense, there was a plethora of imagery to work with and a variety of ways it could have been interpreted. I experimented quite a bit personally, with color and expressiveness (for example: I overlapped and stretched dead tree silhouettes to create a wispy bloodstream-like background) and the art director, Jason Mischka, was open to all of my ideas and layout options. He was such a pleasure to work with. There was some real personal growth for me with this assignment.

DREAM ASSIGNMENT:
There are so many! The Soulpepper Theater poster series feels like a landmark illustration assignment. I couldn’t imagine how much fun I would have coming up with sketches for those plays. What a wonderful series of canvases to experiment with and take risks. Posters for feature films or Broadway shows, illustrating books for the Folio Society, a cover for Time or The New Yorker are among the other dream jobs.

MY FAVORITE ART DIRECTOR:
Chris Curry at The New Yorker is the most passionate and energetic person to work for. The jobs are often very quick deadlines, but she consistently picks the most interesting sketches and pushes me beyond my comfort zone. The content is always exciting and I'm humbled to be included in any issue of the magazine. She gave me a dream job last year—illustrating a fiction story, written by Tom Hanks no less. Being given the opportunity to illustrate a full-page is at once thrilling and intimidating, but she's believed in me and has even fought for me in visuals meetings. I cannot thank her enough for all she has done for me…and the entire illustration community. Anyone that gets an assignment from her should be honored.

SOME OF MY FAVORITE ILLUSTRATORS:
I am inspired by illustrators like Keith Negley, Daniel Zender and Dadu Shin, who push boundaries into abstraction, and I’m intimidated by conceptual illustrators like Chris Gash, Pete Ryan, Brian Stauffer, Brian Cronin, Alex Nabaum, and Jon Krause. Gerard DuBois blows me away with every piece: startlingly beautiful work that's rooted in the past; even his ideas feel like they're from the 1940s, which is incredible.

HOW I STAY CURRENT:
I cannot help but notice how many photo-based illustrators there are; even conceptual illustrators seem to be everywhere now! It’s a very crowded field and it’s important for your work to stand out on its own. I’ve been consciously pushing colors, shapes and patterns lately—not just to push the work in a new direction but to excite myself with the image-making process again. Even my concepts are becoming shape-and-pattern-based. The images are becoming more exciting visually. As a result, I’m getting more jobs about future technologies, communications, medicine and sciences.

HOW I PROMOTE MYSELF:
A do little bit of everything. I have a Facebook page, a Twitter handle, an Instagram account, a Tumblr blog, an account on theispot.com, my rep's page, sourcebook websites and maybe other pages I don’t even know about. Twitter has been outstanding for self-promotion… it’s a spectacular (and free!) tool to introduce yourself to and keep in touch with other art directors and designers. My reps at Gerald & Cullen Rapp do promotion for me—one postcard and one mass email each year. They fully endorse the sourcebooks as well: Workbook, Directory of Illustration. (Admittedly, I was hesitant about sourcebooks but I’ve gotten work through them each time). I try to email only once or twice a year. Email promotion feels very tricky. I'm confident art directors get bombarded with email daily, especially with mass emails. If you overly email someone I'm sure they'll just block you, or worse.

ADVICE FOR SOMEONE STARTING OUT:
A teacher of mine at RISD, David Lord Porter, said during one of my last classes with him: “There’s always a bigger or faster gun.” It’s a humbling quote and a very accurate one. You won’t keep up with the fastest and you won’t be the most talented there is. All you can be is the best you—individually—can be.

As a teacher I remind my students to stay humble and be very grateful. There are thousands of artists and illustrators out there who would kill for the assignments you may get. Be kind and be thankful to those who hire you; it goes a long way. And realize how lucky you are to be making pictures for a living!

See more Daniel Hertzberg illustrations, new work, and updates:
Daniel Hertzberg website
Instagram: @danielhertzberg
Twitter: @danielhertzberg
Facebook
Gerald & Cullen Rapp (rep)
Blog




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