EFII 3.0 – The Future of Escape from Illustration Island

For over a year now, Escape from Illustration Island has been constantly growing and evolving as a resource and a community.  As time goes on, there continue to be new opportunities to share resources and collaborate with artists and other industry professionals on increasingly exciting projects.

As Escape from Illustration Island begins to enter its next new phase, here’s a brief look back at the path behind us and a sneak peek into the FUTURE, FUTURE, FUTURE .  .  .

EFII 1.0 (Beta)

In it’s first days, Escape from Illustration Island was nothing more than a list of about 50 links to online resources for Illustrators. Its design was treated more like a control panel than a website, with the idea that an Illustrator might use it as their home page or portal site to get to all the Illustration-related stuff online. However, it became apparent that there was a great need for more types of information and media on the topic of freelance Illustration, so two new article series called Featured Resources and Tutorial of the Week were added to EFII to enhance the site with regularly-updated content.

Click here to turn back the clock and watch the original EFII tour video.

EFII 2.0 (The Relaunch)

Due to the early rapid growth in readership of Escape from Illustration Island, the decision was made to make a long-term commitment to the website, in order to explore the many ways that EFII could have a positive impact on the Illustration community.

For starters, the Escape from Illustration Island Podcast was launched, with an initial focus on the people behind the many online websites, communities, and resources. The weekly show was another element to quickly evolve beyond its original scope, with the addition of interviews and discussions on the Illustration industry with artists, art directors, artist representatives, and other creative professionals.

Next, the Escape from Illustration Island website was completely redesigned to accommodate more features and to move away from the dark color scheme to a lighter, cleaner theme. The list of resources, which had grown to over 200 links, was moved from the sidebar to a navigable Resource Library, and even more resources were added via the new EFII Bookstore.

The next expansion of Escape from Illustration Island involved the addition of regular articles on business, creativity, and inspiration.  One of the best parts about this new feature was that it invited Illustrators to comment on and discuss the many topics being explored. This participation and interaction became the foundation of the EFII Community, in which artists and friends of EFII connect with each other to share resources and inspiration. The community then spread to EFII’s new social networking branches on Facebook and LinkedIn.

In this same spirit of community, the Visual Artist Podcast Network was formed between the EFII Podcast and 5 other audio podcast by artists, for artists. Since then, 2 more great shows have joined the group, bringing the number to 8 awesome podcasts.  The VAPN was the first in a new line of “big ideas” that EFII has taken on, in an effort to continue to build upon the growth of the community and be a positive force in the Illustration industry.

EFII 3.0 (Big Ideas)

The present and future of Escape from Illustration is all about taking things to the next level by seeking out and executing “big ideas”. Rest assured, everything you know and love (or hate) about EFII is here to stay, and there will continue to be a constant stream of useful content to be found here.

In addition, however, Escape from Illustration Island will feature more involved projects like the release of the new eBook, 15 Steps to Freelance Illustration, as well as upcoming audio and video coverage of this year’s ICON6 Illustration Conference and distributing up to 1500 copies of EFII’s Resource Guide for Illustrators. In the coming months, EFII will also be working closely with some notable art schools to encourage and support a stronger focus on business education.

All of this is an effort to make the most of the opportunities that have been made available through the growth of EFII, and to do everything possible to be a positive force in the Illustration world.

Stay tuned for more updates on all of these exciting developments in the days and weeks ahead, and to find out how you can continue to be a part of it all.

Thanks again to everyone who has helped to make Escape from Illustration Island what it is today, and what it can be in the FUTURE, FUTURE, FUTURE .  .  .

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