Jim Cohen
Jim Cohen has been an illustrator for twenty-eight years. While an undergraduate at Northwestern University, Jim was greatly influenced by the thought-provoking work of professor/artist Ed Paschke. After a two-year stint as editorial illustrator/cartoonist/art editor for The Daily Northwestern, Jim launched his freelance career in 1979.
Working primarily for Chicago's advertising community, Jim spent the next two years creating representational illustrations as well as cartoons. In 1981, he began a two-year program at The American Academy of Art in Chicago, studying both illustration and design. Upon graduation in 1983, Jim took a position as art director at Grant Jacoby, Inc. Hungering for more illustration work, he left a year later to pursue his freelance career again. In 1987, he had an opportunity to return to the American Academy of Art as an illustration instructor, while he continued to create images for ad agencies, corporations and publishers. His style went from representational to poster-style imagery. During this period, his clients included Abbot Laboratories, Bank One, Discover Card, Northwestern Hospital, Weber, Caterpillar, Monsanto, Sears, McDonald's, ADP, Quaker Oats, Santa Fe Railway, Shedd Aquarium, WTTW and the Chicago Tribune. He remained at the American Academy of Art until 1993.
That same year, the time-intensive technique necessary to create his poster-style caused Jim to make a leap-of-faith to the digital realm. Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop replaced most of his traditional tools. Jim spent the next three years perfecting both programs before he hit on his present conceptual technique in 1996. This style combined his love of symbols and pictographs with texture, realism and whimsy.
Jim's digital work also led him into the world of interactivity. In 1998, he began to teach multimedia and web design classes at the Illinois Institute of Art - eventually becoming department coordinator and then Academic Director. During the six years at the school, he also managed to earn his MA in illustration from Syracuse University under the critical eye of Murray Tinkelman, who quickly became a mentor to Jim. In 2007, Jim earned his MFA in Illustration at The University of Hartford - also under Murray Tinkelman.
Jim's work has been featured in annual shows sponsored by the Society of Illustrators (NY), the Society of Illustrators - Los Angeles, American Illustration, Print, Step-By-Step Graphics, Graphis and 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide.
Jim works out of his home-based studio in Hawthorn Woods, IL. He is married to Mary, principal of Cohen Design. They have a 13 year-old daughter Emma and a 5 year-old son Sam - both budding artists.
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Jim Cohen client list includes:
Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg, Optical Engineering, Money Magazine, Little, Brown and Co., Major League Baseball, National Civil Rights Museum, National Education Association, PBS, CIO Magazine, Pillsbury, Quaker Oats Co., Readers Digest, Santa Fe, Wall Street Journal, Veterinary Economics, U.S. Army Reserves, Visa, Reprise Records, Wilson Sporting Goods, Philadelphia Zoo, AOL Time Warner, Penguin Group, Ballantine Books, WTTW Chicago, Boston Globe, HarperCollins Publishing, F & W Publications, SBC, LA Times, Land's End, Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Field Museum
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