Basics Illustration 03: Text and Image

Mark 'Wigan' Williams

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781350113213
• eBook ISBN:
  9781350034853
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Design
• Subtopic: Graphic Design

Basics Illustration 03: Text and Image explores the basic function of illustration: the interpretation of words into pictures and the interplay of text and image as two forms of visual representation. The basic principles of graphic communication are introduced through case studies and examples in which the relationships between illustration and text are analysed and explored. The book features a wide range of work demonstrating diverse visual languages, ideas, techniques and skills. It also examines the production of artefacts, for example, artists' books, graphic novels, posters and handmade typography, stencils, graffiti, and fonts designed by illustrators

A Myriad of Platforms

Over two thousand years old and still going strong, illustration is a constantly evolving and expanding art and craft. It is everywhere, an incredibly diverse and dynamic activity that is impossible to pigeonhole and engages with a myriad of complex channels of visual communication, delivery platforms and cultural contexts.

Practitioners nowadays are working within established constraints but continually challenge and transcend conventions and preconceptions of the subject. The illustrators featured in this chapter are at the forefront of the discipline’s evolution by exploring and integrating traditional and new media, collaborating and working independently.

Practising in a wide range of contexts (for print, screen, set design, motion and interactivity), these illustrators are solving visual problems by communicating coherently, effectively and appropriately with unique personal working methodologies, visual languages and vocabularies. Combining practical skills, technical adroitness and draughtsmanship with intellectual engagement and critical thinking, they are making images to accompany, elucidate, illuminate and extend ideas, messages and texts with any media and technique.

Their approach is multifaceted. These illustrators are specialists, authors, critics, problem solvers, journalists, entrepreneurs, community artists, initiators and commentators who are all adhering to deadlines and making a living from their art. These artists are engaging with new technological possibilities and are critically and imaginatively aware of ethical and professional responsibilities, content context and their work’s users and audiences.

This chapter will:

explore diverse individual and collaborative working methodologies in a range of contexts,

introduce a number of media and genres including posters, magazines, book jackets, installation and moving text and image,

review a range of historical and contemporary visual solutions,

provide critical insights and commentary from leading practitioners and introductory visual impact illustration projects and exercises.

Computer Arts magazine

This cover design illustration was created for Computer Arts magazine by Lawrence Zeegen. The magazine reviews the latest computer hardware and software and features tips, tricks and tutorials for web design, typography, 3D animation, motion graphics and illustration.

Title

Computer Arts magazine

Illustrator

Lawrence Zeegen

Description

Cover illustration

Poster design

Posterists are innovators in the creative integration of text and image. From the papyrus posters of ancient Egypt to those commonly seen today, the role of the poster has always been to grab attention with its words and pictures and communicate directly with the viewer.

Posters inform, educate, appeal, protest and persuade with visual impact. Since the time of ancient Rome, a significant function of illustrated posters has been to encourage the consumption of products. Advertising is now a pervasive commercial activity; each year billions are spent on it worldwide. Illustrators are employed to create engaging and branded forms of entertainment. Their artwork is commissioned to align with brand personalities and values and to persuade consumers to buy products. But posters can transcend this function to capture the spirit of their time and echo social concerns and economic, technological, cultural and political changes.

Historically, the design of posters has been informed by advances in technology and influenced by the modern art forms of the time. Contemporary poster design is indebted to the pioneer of the medium, Jules Chéret (1836–1933), and his colour lithographic posters for the Parisian cabarets, music halls and theatres of the 1860s. Since then, posters have become a highly popular and collectable form of public art and have also influenced an array of other art forms. From La Belle Epoque, to communist regime political posters; those for Bauhaus and De Stijl, to Hollywood movie posters, circus posters and London Underground posters; and from Polish posters and psychedelic posters to the contemporary limited edition rock posters of Urban Inks, the genre is huge.

Posters have come to be recognised as powerful and influential examples of commissioned art. See here for a survey of innovative and influential posters.

Title

Walthamstow Festival

Illustrator

Adam Graff

Description

Promotional posters

Title

Lipton Ice Tea

Illustrator

Spencer Wilson

Description

Promotional poster

Title

Promotional posters for Beth Orton (top left), Wild Tigers (bottom), and St Etienne (top right)

Illustrator

Michael Gillette

Title

Murri poster

Illustrator

Stephen Fowler

Description

Urban Folk events poster (circa 2001–2005)

Title

The Illustrated Ape covers

Illustrators

Various

Description

A selection of classic issues (2001–2006)

Magazines

From chapbooks to broadsides; the dissident press of the 1860s and 1960s to glossy fashion periodicals; from Sunday supplements, football fanzines and comics, art school journals to 1970s cut ‘n’ paste punk fanzines; from technical manuals, wildlife, auto, sport, travel, design, computer or music monthlies to microzines with handpainted covers, all magazines utilise their own distinctive integration of words and images. A magazine’s unique brand identity is created through the orchestration of typefaces, colour, format, layout, grids and mastheads.

Magazines frequently utilise decorative, narrative and conceptual images supplied by illustrators and photographers. The names of major figures from the history of art and design are intrinsically linked to the magazines that published their work. Exemplars include: Honoré Daumier ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Table of contents
• Introduction
• How to get the most out of this book
• The Elucidators
• Interpretation
• Text, Images, Ideas and Messages
• A Myriad of Platforms
• Illustrative Text
• Graphic Art Zeitgeist
• Conclusion
• Glossary
• Illustration Dialogues
• Reference Material
• Influential Posters and Record Sleeves
• Contacts
• Acknowledgements and Picture Credits
• eCopyright