This is a book filled with creativity, imagination, and exploration. It is a book about trying something new. It is about opening up to a new idea and gaining respect for it. It’s a book of visual creations by people from around the world that have come together through the exploration of new things to create something beautiful.

In life, you don’t always know what is going to happen next. You have to work with what your dealt. You learn to try something new and make compromises. And when you try something new you can learn from your experience. And that is what this book is about.

How It Works
Artists from around the world have been invited to contribute to the book. Each of them will receive a creative task picked at random the Grab Bag. It could be a photo digitally manipulated photo from their youth. Or it could be an illustrated editorial about anything. They might have to design a building or illustrate what they had for breakfast. The only rule is that your creative task can’t be from your field of work or your area of expertise because the book is about learning to do new things with your creativity and exploring new ways of expressing yourself. Furthermore, each artist will have the option to also contribute a piece of their work that comes from the area of expertise. It could be something already created or something made specifically for the book.

There is a physical grab bag that will be used to choose the creative tasks for each person. This will be conducted by Ethan and the creative task will be emailed to the artist. The only rule is that your creative task can’t be from your field of work or your area of expertise because the book is about learnig to do new things with your creativity and exploring new ways of expressing yourself. If your creative task breaks this rule it will be put back in the Grab Bag and a new one will be hand picked. Once we have gone through all the tasks they will all be put back in and we will start over.

Publishing
Founded in the early 1900s, F+W is a publisher of special interest magazines and books in a broad variety of consumer enthusiast categories. The Company also operates book clubs, conferences, trade shows, Web sites and education programs, all focused on the same consumer hobbies and enthusiast subject areas where the magazines and book publishing programs specialize.

HOW Books (Graphic Design division of F+W Publications) offers a range of instructional and inspirational books for graphic designers of all experience levels. The HOW Design Conference is the single-largest gathering of graphic designers in the U.S. They publish HOW, Print, and ID, three of the top magazines in the industry.

The Grab Bag List
Building Design / Bumper Stickers / Pins and Buttons / Vinyl Record / T-Shirt Design / Skateboard Deck / Poster / Album Cover / Frisbee / Magazine Cover / Cereal Box / Pair of Shoes / Character Design / An Illustration / Draw three things you Bought / Draw What you ate Today / Create a Comic Strip / Draw What you did Today / Short Video / Short Animation / Short Documentary / Collage / Painting / Watercolor / Sculpture / Portrait / Ceramic Pot / Drawing / Digitally Manipulated Photo from Childhood / Several Photos that Tell a Story / Photos of Strangers / Wallpaper Pattern / Take a Picture of Yourself for a Week / Draw like or with a Child / Handwritten Typefaces / Represent Your Senses Visually / Design a Piece of Clothing

More Details
The book will feature 100 artists, be around 200 pages long, and will come out in Spring 2009. Each artists will have two images in the book (one of the creative task and one from there current field of work), a biography, and a short paragraph detailing their experience with the creative task.

Updates
August 30th, 2008
The completed manuscript for Creative Grab Bag, was sent off to my wonderful editor, Melissa over at HOW Books at the end of August. I have received initial feedback on everything and they are very pleased with the outcome of the book and the direction we are moving forward with it. The book is scheduled to be published sometime later this year in the Spring of 2009. Thank you to everyone who has made the book what it is and to all of the contributing artists. It is a wonderful thing to create a book and I look forward to sharing it with you.

August 7th, 2008
Just wanted to take a moment and provide an update on the book that I have been working on for over a year. The first announcement is that the book will be entitled Creative Grab Bag which is a name that I am very pleased with. This was approved a while ago and I have been trying to get around to telling you all. Before we go any farther here is some background on the book.
At this point in time I am waiting for the final round of work to come in from the amazing people that have agreed to take part in the book, the final count will be one hundred artists.

December 12th, 2007
I am very pleased to announce that F+W Publication’s HOW Books will be publishing Grab Bag Book. They are responsible for bringing us HOW, Print, and I.D. Magazine along with the HOW Design Conference and a range of other wonderful books and magazines. I started this project last spring when I came up with the idea to have a collaborative visual book that challenged artists to explore their creativity.

About the Author
Ethan Bodnar is a graphic designer, blogger, and student who lives and works in the United States. He attends the Hartford Art School where he is working toward a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design. As an Eagle Scout, Ethan values the community, leadership and values that go into his work and life.

Since the year 2006, The Blog has been the online space of Ethan Bodnar. It is a publication on the topics of design, technology, and life. It serves as a place to share with others and to document ideas, stories, and thoughts. Through this location there are opportunities to start a conversation about what is published and to follow the education of an artist in the years to come.

Ethan has been creating graphic design work for the past couples years. He is currently studying and practicing design at the Hartford Art School. He wishes to use creative thinking and design to have a positive impact on the world and looks forward to advancing his work.