Is Illustration Still Relevant? Part Three

Across the river however, Shrigley has created something to appeal to a broad range of people, not just illustration geeks like me. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I loved 'Brain Activity' and left the gallery smiling. The point being so did everyone else, everyone that wasn't associated with the illustration industry. The gallery was filled with a broad range of people all enjoying the artwork. These people may not have cared for the works aesthetic quality as much as I did (I really like Shrigley's style but am aware that it is one that can divide people) but they still enjoyed themselves. They enjoyed the exhibition because they enjoyed the message. Because Shrigley had something to say and that something was smart and witty.

The question now is how do we, those illustrators in training, keep the discipline that we love relevant in today's world. How do we stop the work we create only being appreciated by those within our circle? In my opinion the best answer is to follow Shrigley's advice and 'Fight the Nothingness!” We make sure that our work has ideas behind it; we make sure that we use the skills we have been honing during our training to communicate a message to a specific audience, one that doesn't end within the illustration circle.

For example, for my 'Final Major Project' I've been working on a children's book.  The message of my book is all about the father son relationship, and it s intended to be one that farther and their children will read through together, perhaps a bedtime story. The book is aimed at children. I do of course hope that my friends, colleges and tutors like it, and it would give me no greater pleasure for those in the illustration industry to think that it is of merit. But when I created the book I created it specifically for children to read, in the hope that they identify with the characters and enjoy the story.

To conclude what has become a lengthier point than planned: "Is Illustration Still Relevant?" Yes, but we can't take that for granted. We need to ensure that our work has an idea behind it, regardless of its aesthetic qualities and we need to ensure that the idea is one that those outside of the 'Illustration Circle' can appreciate. I'm aware that Zeegan's recent writing may have upset some of those within the circle, but the intentions behind the text are those worth taking notice of. It is only because he loves illustration that he worries for it so, and why he was inspired to write such a piece. It is up to us now, the illustrators in training about to put what we have learned into practice and heed Zeegan's warning. We must remember the message. We must remember the audience. We must fight the nothingness!

Is Illustration Still Relevant? Part Two

This article was written in September 2007, at the time all was well in the world of illustration and the future looked bright. What a difference five years can make. In February of this year, Laurence Zeegan, he who had written about the discipline with such enthusiasm and optimism some five years previously, wrote an article for Creative Review, entitled: 'Where is thecontent? Where is the comment?', about how in his opinion, the illustration industry has lost its spark and is in danger of becoming irrelevant. According to Zeegan:

"Illustration has become entrenched in navel-gazing and self-authorship."

Zeegan goes on to write of how illustrators have nothing to say anymore, they still create work that is aesthetically pleasing, but it is all merely an exercise in image making. Illustrators, according to the text, are no longer speaking to the public but to other illustrators and illustration students. This same culture of creating ones own opportunities as opposed to waiting for commissions, has lead to an industry that values means over message, where illustrators produce empty, shallow, if beautiful work, whose target market is others within the discipline.

As an example of this, Zeegan cites 'Pick Me Up', a graphic arts fair that ran at Somerset House in London. He wonders if the event, where illustrators display their work and sell prints and related ephemera, will appeal to anyone outside of the industry. When commenting on the work itself he writes:

"...what is there to be discovered? Are we offered much more than contemporary eye candy? Are we offered much more than mere nothingness?"

 This reasserts Zeegan's opinion that the illustrators of today have nothing say, and regardless of the merits by which they say it, they are still saying nothing. Hence his assertion that the discipline could be in danger of sliding towards irrelevance.

He then writes of 'Brain Activity' the David Shrigley exhibition, which he puts forward as an alternative to 'Pick Me Up': here is an illustrator with something to say. Shrigley's 'Fight the Nothingness' poster, displayed outside the Hayward Gallery would appear the encapsulate everything that Zeegan sees as being wrong with the industry.

As someone who visited both 'Pick Me Up' and 'Brain Activity' I can understand this point of view. Don't get me wrong, I loved 'Pick Me Up', I really loved it, I will definitely be going again next year and dream that one day my work might even be displayed there. I thought the work was fantastic, and many is the time that I've looked through the collection of postcards that I bought as a souvenir, and marvelled at just how beautiful the work really is. That's why I can't wait to return next year as I found the collection of work to be an endless source of inspiration.

However, some would argue that of course I would say that: I'm an illustration student, so it would come as no surprise that I found 'Pick Me Up' to be such a joy because the event was targeted at people like me. But what of people outside of the industry? What's in it for them? 

Is Illustration Still Relevant? Part One

It seems like only yesterday that illustration was going through a resurgence of interest. It had all of a sudden become cool to be an illustrator and the industry was one that was vibrant, exciting and ready to take on the world. Contemporary illustrators were taking the discipline in all kinds of interesting new directions, and were the subjects of big glossy coffee table books full of contemporary illustration, that couldn't hit the shelves fast enough. Lawrence Zeegan, Illustrator, Educator, Writer and all round authority on the subject; documented the disciplines sudden rise in popularity in his 2007 article for Computer Arts magazine, entitled 'Illustration Renaissance'. In this piece, Zeegan writes of how after years of struggling, illustration was all of a sudden in vogue:

"After a decade climbing the ranks following a period as underdog, illustration now sits as top dog."

 Zeegan discusses the role played by the 'digital revolution' in this renaissance, a revolution that had once bought about the downfall of the illustration industry, now looked to be the discipline's saviour. The 'digital revolution' had come as a gift to graphic designers and photographers, who embraced this new technology and whose industries prospered as a result. But as the photographers and graphic designers raced towards their exciting digital futures, Illustration was left on the starting line unsure of its place in this new revolution.

Come the time of the 'Illustration Renaissance', however, this new and sophisticated technology that had for so long been out of the price range of the average illustrator was suddenly affordable and a new tech-savvy generation of illustrators were emerging to breath new life into the industry. They did so by creating work that was fresh, unique, exciting and which now seemed to art directors like a viable and interesting proposition, one that could compete with photographers and designers.

These illustrators were not only revolutionary in their work, but also in their approach: they didn't wait for commissions to coming, they created their own. Zeegan commented at the time on how illustrators were increasingly creating their own: "self-publishing fanzines and mags; launching own-label products, such as T-shirts, badges and stickers; and promoting self-initiated, self-directed one-off and/or limited edition artworks, through the organization of exhibitions and events as well as through online portfolios and stores."

Jill Calder Part Two

 

Next came the subject of portfolios, of course in this day and age a portfolio is contained within an illustrators website and allows people from all over the world to view their work. Jill began her career at a time when portfolio visits (much like the viewings I’ve recently had) were the norm, and the best way to get your work out there. Although times have changed, Jill still puts a lot of thought and attention into her physical portfolio.

Jill’s advice is to create a physical portfolio that will stand out from the crowd and will inspire people. She has her portfolios custom made by a professional bookbinder based in Fife, who she went to meet in person and together they collaborated on creating a series of unique portfolios that are works of art in their own right. 

However, alongside these handcrafted pieces Jill also uses an iPad as a portfolio. One of the benefits to this is the zoom feature, meaning that those viewing the portfolio can look closely to admire the intricacies of each design.

The second big lesson was: Draw. Jill made it clear that although she, like many other contemporary illustrators, uses Photoshop to compose illustrations; the elements used are all drawn by hand. Drawing is still very important to Jill, as are the materials she draws with. She made a point of saying how she draws with anything and everything. From the small pencils that are given out free in IKEA, to crayons that she bought years ago at a market in Mexico. And then of course there is ink, which can transform any household object into a drawing implement and produce a unique and distinct quality of line.

Then there is the question of what to draw; Jill talked of the time she likes to spend exploring the world with a sketchbook at hand to document her discoveries. She now has a large collection of sketchbooks documenting various people and places that she has encountered over the years, and all of which are now unique reference points that can be used in commissions.

She also mentioned what she referred to as ‘Google Drawing’; this is where you draw with reference to Google Images. To be honest I’ve been overly reliant on this process for a while now and could do with collecting more first hand sketchbook references like the kind mentioned previously.

Jill’s final lesson was to “Make mistakes and be silly”. She explained how illustration student are often guilty of taking themselves and their work too seriously, and that often when they start to get paid to illustrate they take their work even more seriously and forget to have fun. This means remembering to be playful in your work, to have a sense of humor about it and to have no fear about making mistakes. It is often when we are at our most playful that we are at our most creative and create our best work. If you have fun in creating a piece this will show in the piece itself.

I myself, now that I am faced with looming deadlines and responsibilities have been guilty of taking my work too seriously when I should always be remembering to be playful and enjoy the process. This important piece of advice came just at the right time for me, and I’m grateful that it did.

This was a fantastic talk, given by a passionate and confident speaker. Jill was as humorous and entertaining as she was informative and helpful. Thanks Jill!

Jill Calder Part One

I’ve been a big fan of Jill Calder for a while now and recently had the pleasure of attending a lecture, where she spoke of the lessons she has learned over her prolific and successful career. A career which began in 1993, with her first commission from ‘The Scotsman’ (a £65 editorial job) and has gone from strength to strength ever since.

She started by discussing the business side to illustration, and began with her first lesson: ‘Get Paid!’ It may sound like an obvious point but as Jill went on to explain, there are certain commissions where the job is the easy part but getting the client to pay you can be a long, arduous drawn out affair. To illustrate this point (no pun intended) she cited the following quote:

“The freelance writer is a man who is paid per piece or per word or perhaps.”

Robert Benchley

Although the quote was made in relation to writing, the words ring all too true when describing the world of freelance illustration; some clients will do anything to avoid paying and it can often be up to the illustrator to be insistent and persistent and chase up payment. 

Jill found this out the hard way and had her fair share of difficult clients. She is now however represented by the CIA (Central Illustration Agency) who handles that side of things, giving Jill more time to concentrate on her work.

Of course, the pros and cons to agency representation could be a whole blog post unto itself; Jill finds that the agency she is with is right for her, she has a good relationship with them and the arrangement is one that works well for her. She feels the same way about her American agent ‘Friend and Johnson’, she said that with both agencies she has received, interesting and exciting high profile and well paid commissions that she might not have had otherwise.

Portfolio Visit: Serpents Tail

"Serpent’s Tail is a consistently brave, exciting and almost deliriously diverse publisher."

Will Self

Whilst down in London, a few of us from the ‘Illustration’ Course went to visit ‘Serpents Tail’, an independent publisher that specializes in publishing books that represent the kind of independent thinking that is so often neglected by the mainstream. It is this philosophy towards representing unique and interesting ideas that gained them a reputation as a publisher of brave and exciting work.

When we arrived we met with Marketing Director Niamh Murray, who talked us through the process of commissioning book cover designs. What came as news to many of us was how many different people are involved in the cover design. Many people were under the impression, as I was, that it was down to the illustrator and the art director.

What we hadn’t realized was the number of marketing representatives who needed to approve the cover before it could go ahead. For example there would be a representative from ‘amazon’, who would asses a covers potential based on how well it works as a thumbnail; similarly a representative on behalf of supermarket chains would asses how well the cover would fit into their store, views which may contrast with that a book shop representative.

I then, met with Art Director Peter Dyer for a portfolio viewing. As most of my portfolio was made up of children’s illustration, there were a few pieces he didn’t feel he could comment on, which lead me to realize something I should have learned a while ago, which is that it is important to edit your portfolio before a viewing depending on who you are going to see.

The piece that Peter was most interested in was the ‘Heroes’ piece I developed for ‘Music’. He said that it is the kind of image he could see on a book relating to pop music. He liked the notion of the ‘reductionist portraits’; he said that this was an avenue worth exploring. However, he went on to say that Noma Bar is currently the ‘go to guy’ for this kind of illustration, and that if I wanted to pursue this ‘reductionist portrait’ area further that I would need to work on a way of separating my work from Noma Bar’s.

A big thanks to Niamh Murray and Peter Dyer for all their help and advice; and for giving us all a rare insight into the world of publishing.

Graphic Gurus

At the end of my first year on the illustration course, I can remember going to the 'then third years' end of year show and being really impressed by the work of Chris Madden. I found it really inspiring and hoped that I would have of such quality when I reached third year. This is why I was so pleased when I was told that he was to be my 'Graphic Guru' for this year, because I admired his work so much. 

The 'Graphic Guru' programme was set up as a way of linking students in the third year with past students of the course who have gone on to become successful, the idea being that we can ask them questions regarding our work and future careers.

The first time I met Chris he mentioned how he had got his first commissions while still at university doing editorial pieces. He mentioned that this was a good way to start out, and it made me realise that I need to get some editorial work into my portfolio, which at the moment seems centred more around children's illustration.

He also mentioned that there are various publications that are good for showcasing your work to potential clients. He mentioned a submission based magazine called 'Ammo' that he recently had his work featured in, and recommended that we do the same; submission based publications are a great way to get you work out there.

The second time I met him was at the 'Draw North West' event. This was the first meeting of what has now become a regular meet up for illustrators in the north west, a meet up which Chris helped to organise. At the event I met a range of interesting,talented people working in the industry, all of whom spoke highly of Chris and his work: it made me proud to have him as my 'Graphic Guru'. The event was a resounding success and taught me the importance of networking and meeting other illustrators. As Chris pointed out, Illustration can often be a solitary career and the chance to meet up with others in the same profession is always useful.

I showed him some of my work at the event and he offered some helpful and constructive feedback. In the new year I'd like to show him my portfolio, get some tips for improving my work overall and for breaking into the industry.

'But isn't that your job?" (Part Two)

For the next match, Music commissioned illustrator '3D Glasses' (Chris White) to produce a poster that would portray the speed with which player Shaun Wright-Phillips moves around the pitch.

 

 Here's an example of '3D Glasses':

Craig mentioned how another illustrator had tried out the brief but hadn't hit upon quite what they were looking for. Then '3D Glasses' came along and created this:

 

 When it was time for City to take on Liverpool, it was Craig Bellamy that 'Music' wanted immortalized. They wanted to represent two sides of the player: the often negative public view of him, and his passionate, ferocious side that the fans admire him for. To achieve this they turned to the man often described as the 'Picasso of Gig Posters': Todd Slater.

 

Slater understood the 'Jekyll and Hyde' duality that the agency wanted to portray and created another successful poster for the campaign:

Craig commented that he could understand how Todd Slater had earned such a reputation: he got what they were after straight away.

Finally, it came time for the big one: the 'Manchester Derby' and the central figure in this showdown was Carlos Tevez, he was the one who had left United, joined City and got City fans very excited. Craig wanted to represent him as an icon for hope, and so turned to the famous 'Hope' poster designed by Shepard Fairey.

Craig wanted to create a poster that would do for Tevez what 'Hope' had done for Obama, he wanted to create a homage that showed Tevez as an icon carrying with him the fans hopes and dreams. And so in collaboration with Shepard Fairey, this is what was created:

This campaign for 'Manchester City' is just one of the projects that Craig told us about in what proved to be a very interesting, informative and entertaining talk. With each project that he went through he took us on a journey from the initial idea to the final piece. We all left with a greater understanding of the industry and what actions we can take to work within it.

'But isn't that your job?" (Part One)

Meeting Craig Oldham recently reminded me that I still haven't written a blog post about the talk he gave at college a few weeks ago. It was called 'But isn't that your job?' and was essentially Craig talking to us about his experiences of working with illustrators. He did this by taking us through a series of projects from beginning to end and talking honestly and openly about how he had found working with illustrators on each of these projects.

For example 'The Big Four'. This was a series of posters that were created to publicize football matches commissioned by 'Manchester City'. The aim was to create a buzz around each match. Craig had the idea that the posters should be designed like gig posters. The thinking behind this is that football on the scale that City play has more in common with a music gig than a traditional lower league game. A City game is now a major event not to be missed, like going to see a band at an arena. 

So, as something different for this project Craig decided to commision illustrators assosiated with the 'gig poster style' to create gig- esque posters for the games. The first was a City vs Arsenal game and the agency commissioned illustrator Michael Gillette (famed for his 'Bond' Covers for Penguin) to create a poster, using his unique style of typography and form, that would make player Emmanuel Adebayor look like a rock star.

Here's what he was famous for:

 

And here's the finished piece:

Craig talked us through the process of commissioning the artist, discussing what was needed, discussing changes to be made to drafts, discussing money and even discussing how often they were allowed to reproduce the image.

Portfolio visit: 'The Chase'

Last week I had a portfolio visit at 'The Chase' with Associate Director Lise Brian. Lise had came to college last year to give a talk about creating and presenting a portfolio and how to go about contacting agencies. I based much of the construction of my portfolio around that talk, so when it came to organizing portfolio visits 'The Chase' seemed perfect.

I'd never been to 'The Chase' before so I was really nervous (I tracked the place down about an hour before I went in for fear of getting lost or being late) but once I got there the people were friendly and welcoming and after a bit I felt completely at ease. It's an amazing place too, I was particularly impressed when I saw that an entire wall was covered with a giant 'Mona Lisa' and another which presented a quote that neatly sums up their design philosophy:

"There was once an old Indian craftsman who carved elephants from blocks of timber. When asked how he did it, he would reply, ‘I just cut away the wood that doesn't look like an elephant.’"

So, then I started to show Lise my work and talk her through my portfolio; I didn't have much experience of this so was worried that I might find myself unable to talk about my work properly. I think I did OK though; Lise seemed to like my portfolio, once I'd finished she called over a colleague to have a look through it too, which was encouraging. They both seemed to like the idea behind the 'Why Are Girls Always Right?' project and the 'Heroes' piece that I did for 'Music'. They also seemed to appreciate the booklet I gave them (even if it is was somewhat rudimentary) when I explained that the whole notion behind it had been inspired by their talk.

I left 'The Chase' that day feeling far more confident and positive than I had that morning. It was a useful, positive experience and one that I really enjoyed. Thank you to Lise Brian and cheers to 'The Chase'.

Portfolio visit: 'Music'

Yesterday I went for a portfolio visit at 'Music'. It helped that I had already been there a couple of times and met some of the people that work there, it meant that I felt far more relaxed about it than I would normally. When I got there I met up with Craig and Ed, I talked them through my portfolio and then they gave me their feedback. They were both very generous with their time, really helpful with their feedback and I feel that the experience has made me more confident about approaching people in the future.

While showing them my work I mentioned that I now find that my favorite part of the design process is coming up with the ideas. While Craig said this was a good way of thinking he also said that sometimes it looks as though I have come up with the idea and then rushed the piece itself. For example when I presented them my 'heroes' installation concept a few months ago they felt that the idea was strong but that the images needed a lot of work, hence over the summer I'd send work back and forth to Ed until I'd got it as they wanted it.

The same was a true of a booklet that I had created, they liked the images but felt that the piece was let down by the text which looked to have been rushed, and so this diverted attention from the illustrations themselves.

I also got some advice on improving my portfolio, like sticking to either landscape or portrait throughout to make it easier to look through and bringing along some of the 3D pieces that are shown to give people a better idea of what they look like and how they are made.They gave me some tips for improvement in terms of the order and layout to make it clearer and to make it flow better.

Encouragingly they both seemed to think that I have a style, which came as good news as I've been worrying about 'finding my style' for a while now. They both agreed though that the 'Heroes' project seems to be the only piece without that style: whereas the rest of my work has a more textured feel about it (a lot of it being printed) this project stands out for being minimalist and digital.

Overall, they seemed to like the work and the feedback was really helpful. It was a really positive experience, I now feel like I know what I need to do in order to improve my work and portfolio and feel more confident as a result. Cheers guys!

Lord Whitney

Yesterday we were fortunate enough to have a visit from Lord Whitney, a collaboration between two talented and inventive visual artists: Amy Lord and Rebekah Whitney. 

They both studied visual arts at university in Leeds, were both studying different disciplines- but were both missing something: One was a photography student who was struggling to find her niche and was beginning to discover 'documentary photography' wasn't really her thing after all and that she preferred photographing unusual hand made objects. The other was an illustration student who was starting to work three dimensionally but was unsure of where to go next. And then they started working together and it all clicked into place: they had a shared love for hand made objects and sets; a shared sense of surreal humor and a shared love of 'The Mighty Boosh'. When they started working together it all made sense. 

Unfortunately by the time they discovered this their time at university was coming to an end. However, the pair remained undeterred and once they finished their courses they continued to create work together with the same passion that they had at university. Only now without the studio space or the money. 

What then followed was months and years of hard work:finding commissions wherever they could get them, with little space and no money they worked on these projects with a sense of playful enthusiasm that has since become synonymous with 'Lord Whitney'. During much of this time they were holding down full time jobs but they still found time to create work together, often completely self initiated, creating simply for the joy of creating. And now that 'Lord Whitney' is a full time studio based business, that sense of playful creativity still remains. 

We were told all of this during a talk that they gave to us yesterday, a talk that inspired us and motivated us to remember to have fun whilst designing (even if we are now in third year). At the end of the lecture during the 'any questions' section that followed, I asked if they had any advice for us for what to do when we finished university. The answer was to: 'just keep creating'. To keep creating work that we enjoy and that inspires us. Good advice indeed.

The Chase

 A few months ago we had a visit from a design agency called 'The Chase'. 'The Chase' are a design agency that formed in Manchester in 1986 and now has multiple offices, a staff of 46 and a turnover of 5.6 million. Needless to say, when it comes to the design industry, these guys really know their stuff.

The people from 'The Chase' gave a very interesting and informative talk to us all about the design industry. They also gave us some very useful tips on contacting agencies:

•  When contacting an agency via Email, find out the name of the person who will receive your Email and be sure to spell it correctly.
•  Be careful not to attach too many folders to the Email, only attach your strongest work.
• Follow up the Email with a phone call.
• When visiting an agency be sure to be nice to receptionists.
• Try not to get too nervous.
• Be sure to know something about the agency you are visiting.
• Be enthusiastic.
• If there are no jobs available ask if there is a brief that you can help with.

We were also given some top tips on creating and presenting a portfolio. Illustrators take note:

• Don't like it? Don't include it. Illustrators often include work in their portfolio that they are less than pleased with only to then dismiss it in front of a potential client. Which begs the question: if you don't like it, why include it?
• Have a good mix of work. A variety of briefs.
• Keep your folder clean and spotless.
• Layout is very, very important. A poor layout can overshadow even the best of work.
• Clients like to see an original piece, it gives them an idea of your technique.
• Don't put foam board in your portfolio, it is far too cumbersome and unwieldy.
• Find out how much time you have with the client so that you can use this time constructively.
• Don't take all criticism to heart. But do take notice.
• Practice talking about your work.
• Start and finish with your strongest work.
• Remember the importance of 'self promotion'. Clients like to be left with something tangible that they can keep (perhaps something self published), that will remind them of your work at a later date.

As you can see, we were given some very practical and helpful tips that will no doubt prove useful in the future. Thank you 'The Chase'!