Each year, the Association of Fantastic Art presents the Illie Award, given to the single best traditionally created piece of the preceding year. (“Traditionally created” means painted, drawn, or sculpted with traditional media.)
The Illie is awarded in a three-step process. First, nominations are made by artists and members of the IlluXCon and Illustration Exchange websites. These nominations are whittled down by the AFA to the top 25, which are then posted on the IlluXCon website.
Website members vote on the 25 nominees, and the top 5 works become the finalists. These 5 pieces are posted, and website members vote again to determine the final winner of the Illie Award, which will be announced at IlluXCon 4 on November 5th, 2011.
The inaugural Illie was given in 2010 to Mark Zug for his piece “Helium.” Fitting with the AFA’s belief that art should be honored with art, that year’s trophy was an original one-off bronze sculpture by Vincent Villafranca. Keeping with that tradition, the 2011 Illie trophy will be an original, one-off sculpture by Tom Kuebler.
The Illie Award nominations are now open. Registered members of the IlluXCon/Illustration Exchange websites can submit a nomination for the work of their choice by emailing it to info@illuxcon.com. All works submitted must have been CREATED in 2010—publication is irrelevant.
The nominations will continue until AUGUST 31st, 2011, at which point the 25 top nominees will be posted and voting will commence.
So drop us a line and let us know what piece you think deserves the award!
