ABOUT

Austin Kleon

More photos…

Third-person bio:

Austin Kleon is a writer who draws. A collection of his Newspaper Blackout Poems is forthcoming from HarperCollins in February 2010. He’s drawn for clients such as Austin City Limits and South by Southwest. He works a day job designing websites, and lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife Meghan and their dog Milo. You can see his work online at: www.austinkleon.com.

Drawing MAKE EM LAUGH

More about me and this site:

My blog is where I post my creative work and explore the art of communicating with pictures and words, together.

I also keep a tumblelog, which is like a digital scrapbook of stuff I’m looking at on the net.

Here’s a mind-map of a few of my interests:

mindmap of comics and information design

For a more lengthy resume, visit my LinkedIn profile.

If you want to get in touch with me, you can drop me an e-mail. You can also follow me on Twitter or check out my Flickr photos.

For press inquiries about the Newspaper Blackout Poems book, please contact my publicist Audrey Harris at audrey.harris@harpercollins.com.

For technical questions about the blog, ads, link exchanges, and image use, please see the fine print.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Dude, what’s your story?

I was born in 1983 outside of Circleville, Ohio—a small-town known for its pumpkins. Spent the first two decades of my life living in southern Ohio. Studied art, literature, and writing at Miami University’s now-defunct School of Interdisciplinary Studies (aka Western College Program), a wonderful place, where I met my wife. Studied overseas in Florence, Italy and Cambridge, England. Wrote my thesis on using drawing and visual thinking techniques to build worlds for prose fiction. Moved to Cleveland, got a job as a reference librarian. Started a blog. Wrote and drew a lot. Got married. Moved to Texas. Got a job as a web designer. Got a book deal. Still working a 9-5.

Dig also: my life in tumblr tags and The Battle Between Pictures and Words

How do you pronounce your name?
Austin, like the city, Kleon, rhymes with neon.

Aw-stin Klee-on.

Are you named after the city?
No, it’s a family name, going back several generations.

Can I post some of your work on my blog?
Yes. All of the work on this blog is licensed under Creative Commons. Which means you can share it, post it to your blog, send it to your friends…just don’t mess with it or try to make money off it, and always be sure to provide a link back to www.austinkleon.com.

Creative Commons License

And use common sense and courtesy when posting: there’s a special place reserved in hell for people who cut and paste entire blog posts, as there is for folks who hotlink images and steal bandwidth!

(I also recommend reading up on fair use.)

Can I buy some of your stuff?
Soon! My wife and I are hoping to have some prints and posters here on the blog, and the book will be out in February 2010.

Can I hire you to do ______?
I work a 9-5, so I’m not actively seeking any freelance work.

That said, I’ve been known to pick up some extra gigs here and there, so if you think your project is really, really interesting (who doesn’t?) and you think I’d really dig it, shoot me an e-mail.

Do you accept advertising on the site?
Nope. Don’t ask. Please.

How did you make this site? Did you design it yourself?
Yes. I’ve been keeping a personal website since 2001, and my day job is as a web designer. This current incarnation of the site runs on the Wordpress engine, with a heavily, heavily customized Kubrick theme. Some of the icons are from the PICOL icon library.

Can we exchange links? Will you link to my site?
I definitely don’t accept link exchanges. If you like this blog, link to it. If I like your blog, I’ll link to it. Simple.

Any other questions will be happily answered via e-mail!