Speakeasy West: Love for Illustration's Unsung Heroes

Just a few weeks back we met up with our West Coast folks for a night of creative inspiration, fantastic Mexican food and, of course, a few cocktails. Thanks to the brilliant coordination of Charlie Hess, Carol Leflufy and Lisa Thackaberry and our friends at Smashbox West Hollywood, we welcomed David Armario, Lou Beach, Jim Heimann, Brian Rea and InJu Sturgeon and their choices for the Unsung Heroes of Illustration working in the LA area. Meet these Unsung Heroes, see pictures from our the night and videos of the heroes' work after the jump...

artwork above: Brent Couchman




Brian Rea introduced us to Esther Pearl Watson. Set to Little Wings' "Look At What the Light Did Now." Snag it here from Amazon.



InJu Sturgeon introduced us to Stefan Bucher. Check out some of Stefan's Monster work here.



Lou Beach introduced us to Jeffrey Decoster. That perfectly-set music? "Intro " by The XX.



David Armario introduced us to Jeffrey Smith.



and Jim Heimann, after thinking long and hard about all the unsung greatness that is around us but goes unnoticed, chose his hero as Los Angeles itself, and gave us a tour through the city no one knows at all.


In addition to the videos above, check out the event photos taken by Christie Hemm at our Flickr set for Unsung Heroes of Illustration here.

Huge thanks go out to all our friends who braved the LA rain to make it (our biggest crowd yet!), to our new heroes and the presenters who worked to bring them out and to our attention, and the team at Smashbox for hosting us, once again, with such love. And most of all to Lisa, Carol and Charlie for making it happen every time.