Mirko Ilić

Mirko Ilić (born 1 January 1956 in Bijeljina, SR Bosnia and Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia) is Croatian and Bosnian graphic designer and comics artist based in New York.

Yugoslavian period

Ilić was born in Bijeljina, and has finished the School of Applied Arts in Zagreb. He published his first works in 1973, and has since been publishing comics and illustrations in magazines, such as Omladinski tjednik, Lasta, Tina, Pitanja, and has become the art and comics editor of the students' magazine Polet in 1976. That's when he organized an informal organization of the comic book creators Novi kvadrat (The New Square), that has been widely connected to the Novi val musical movement in Zagreb. That connection also made Ilić design album covers of some of the most prominent Yugoslav bands of the time, such as Bijelo dugme, U škripcu, Prljavo kazalište, BOA, Parlament, and many others. He also wrote the song Čovjek za sutra on the first album of Prljavo kazalište, but he was not given the credits for the authorship. Ilić appears in Sretno dijete, Igor Mirković's documentary about the Novi val (New Wave) movement in Zagreb, as one of the most prominent figures of the movement.

International career

In 1977, Ilić started publishing his works in the established comics magazines outside Yugoslavia, such as Alter Alter, Métal Hurlant, Heavy Metal and Marvel's Epic Illustrated. In 1980, Novi kvadrat ceased to exist and Ilić entirely stopped working on the comics, and focused upon illustration and graphic design. In 1982, he started working for the Italian magazine Panorama, as well as for the main Croatian political magazine Danas.

American period

He stopped working for the magazines in 1985, and in March 1986 he left Yugoslavia and went to New York "with $1,500 in the pocket and no idea what to do upon getting there". Yet, he soon started publishing his illustrations in Time, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and many other prominent and influential newspapers and magazines. In 1991, he becomes an art director of Time International, and the following year he becomes art director of the op-eds in the New York Times.

In 1993, Ilić became one of the co-founders of Oko & Mano Inc. graphic design studio, and in 1995 he founded Mirko Ilić Corp., a graphic design and 3-D computer graphics and motion picture title studio. In 1998, he created the title sequence for the romantic comedy You've Got Mail.

Personal life

Ilić is married to Nicky Lindeman, with whom he has two children, one of whom is named Ivo. He was previously married to Croatian writer Slavenka Drakulić.

Books about graphic design

Ilić is a co-author of several notable books about graphic design.

Co-authored with Steven Heller:

• Genius Moves: 100 Icons of Graphic Design
• Handwritten - expressive lettering in digital age
• Anatomy of design

Co-authored with Milton Glaser.

• Design of Dissent

See also

• Yugoslav rock
• New Wave in Yugoslavia
• Punk in Yugoslavia

External links

• Mirko Ilić Corp. official site
• (Croatian) Mirko Ilić's biography
• (Serbian) Ex - yu hitovi Mirka Ilića, MTS Mondo, April 13, 2008

Persondata
Name	Ilic, Mirko
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Date of birth	1 January 1956
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