Since 1993 when he graduated from the School of Visual Arts in NYC, Scott Bakal has been creating art for print and exhibition. He received a Masters of Art from Syracuse University and also received a Master of Fine Arts from the Illustration program at the University of Hartford. At the University of Hartford, he received the Hartford Art School Regent’s Honor Award for Graduate Students, the highest honor given to master’s students throughout the University.
Bakal has won awards from the Society of Illustrators (Silver Medal), SILA, 3×3, The AltWeekly Awards, Association of Education Publishers, HOW International Design Competition, Spectrum, American Illustration, Creative Quarterly (Gold and Silver Medals) and Communication Arts and receiving the honor of being published as one of the 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide by Luerzer’s Archive.
In 2010, he received the Dean Cornwell Achievement Award from the Society of Illustrators for “conceiving and implementing a customized website portal for the Society, changing the method in which all competitions are judged.”
Some of his clients have included the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Vancouver Opera, Yoga Journal, Businessweek, PlanSponsor, Discover Magazine, The New Republic, Runner’s World, Best Life, Natural Solutions and Penthouse Magazine to only name a few.
Bakal is on the Board of Directors at the Society of Illustrators in New York City and chaired the Student Scholarship Competition from 2006-2012 but still remains on the committee as well as chairs the Zankel Scholarship which are the largest illustration student competitions in the world. In 2009, he was also elected to the Sanford B.D. Low Illustration Collection as a Committee Member at the New Britain Museum of American Art where he in 2012 curated the museum show ‘Pixelated: The Art of Digital Illustration’.