ALLEN CRAWFORD
Allen and Susan Crawford founded Plankton Art Company in 1996.
As an illustrator, artist, designer, and writer, Allen has worked on a wide array of creative projects: advertising campaigns, editorial illustrations, animations, videos, copywriting, packaging, product design, logos, identity systems, typefaces, and books.
Allen and Susan's most notable joint project to date is their set of identification key illustrations for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Their 400 illustrations of corals, invertebrates, crustaceans, fish, and mammals have been on permanent display in the famous Milstein Hall of Ocean Life for over twenty years.
BOOKS: Allen wrote, illustrated, and designed The Affected Provincial's Companion (Bloomsbury 2006), which was optioned for film four times by Johnny Depp's production company, Infinitum Nihil.
His second book, Whitman Illuminated: Song of Myself (Tin House 2014), is an illustrated edition of Walt Whitman's epic poem. The entire 256-page book was written by hand. It won numerous awards, including a Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, and "Best of Show" in 3x3's International Show No.12.
His most recent book, A Wild Promise (Tin House 2023) is an illustrated celebration of the Endangered Species Act.
VIDEOS: Allen wrote, directed, edited, and performed in an eight-part series of short promotional videos for Hendrick's Gin, in which he praises the hidden virtues of the Seven Deadly Sins (envy, wrath, greed, pride, gluttony, sloth, and lust).
AWARDS: Society of Illustrators (gold medal); 3x3 (best in show); American Illustration; Communication Arts; Print; Type Directors Club; Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum.
CLIENTS: Comedy Central, Random House, TBWA Chiat-Day, Knopf, The Lincoln Center Theater, The Rosenbach Museum and Library, American Museum of Natural History, Tin House, QCM, Phish, Le Grand Magistery, The Wagner Free Institute, The Coney Island Museum, and The National Constitution Center.