The planning for the ICON8 stage set and mural began last summer during our full board meeting in Portland. Brian Rea was slated to teach a tape mural workshop and we asked him to extend the workshop into an actual mural to be created and displayed on site.

Jason Holley started dreaming and planning the elaborate stage set during our extensive site check at the Portland Art Museum. In the months leading up to the conference we all coordinated with our stage manager, Thyra Hartshorn, to work out the logistics of it all.

Jason started with pencil sketches and a small model built to scale to design a stage where the narrative would be evolving over the course of two days.

The figures of a man and woman framed the stage and set the scene for multiple changes of heads and objects along with an ever -evolving landscape.

Left: Jason Holly shipped 300 lbs of drawings from LA to Portland and then assembled the stage sets together in Portland. Right: Jason and his mighty crew of: Cassie Zhang, AJ Dungo, Vance McDermott, Sarah Kindler, Jason Holley, Harrison Freeman and Leonardo Santamaria.

Jason and his crew of volunteers decked out in white jumpsuits made the changes during breaks as a piece of performance art. Brian communicated with the workshop attendees in advance of the conference and used the theme “Above and Below” as the source of inspiration. They met as a group at PNCA on Wednesday to form a composite of their sketches, which was the basis for the mural which was created on Thursday over the course of a few hours.

The Grand Kridel Ballroom at Portland Art Museum has a very classic beauty and with the unique creations of the free standing entry way mural and the majestic stage sets, we were able to make the space uniquely our own.

Participants in creating the stage set include: Jason Holley, ICON8 Board, John Cody Clark, AJDungo, Harrison Freeman, Martin Locante, Leo Santamaria, Jess Zhang, with support from Aaron Smith and Anne Field, Art Center College of Design.

Participants in the tape mural project include: Brian Rea, workshop instructor

Cristina Arnal, Lauren Simkin Berke, Orin Brecht, Hector Casanova, Gitte Skov Christensen, Andrea Dezso, Mette Ehlers, Joel Heath, Agnes Lee, Jeremy Leung, Moira Swiatkowski, Hilde Thomsen.

In addition, Moira Birch Swiatowksi created a movie of the mural creation, which you can see here.

ICON: The Illustration Conference is committed to providing a forum for an ongoing dialogue that serves the illustration, design, publishing, advertising, and academic communities. Its purpose is to provide a platform for the most influential illustrators and industry leaders to address, in a timely manner, the most pervasive issues facing the profession. Illustration Conference (ICON) is a 501 C-6 nonprofit organization of illustrators and is an entity in itself. ICON remains the only national conference specifically for illustrators and the graphic arts community providing an unprecedented forum for the creativity, inspiration and drive that captivates the profession. Ellen Weinstein is the President of ICON8