COP - Investigating Quotes Study Session

'Where is the content? Where is the comment? It's all about the materials, rather than the message. It's all about the quantity rather than the quality. It's all about design doing rather than design thinking. It's all style over content, function following form. Illustration has withdrawn from the big debates of our society to focus on the chit-chat and tittle-tattle of inner-sanctum nothingness' - Lawrence Zeegan.

This quote by Zeegan was written in the Creative Review and is a call to arms to the 'graphics arts' industry. He directs calls out the illustration and graphic design of today, criticising it's motives and substance, holding it accountable for not only it's suggested lack of purpose but also it's supposedly limited reach. He states that the creatives behind the work are more focussed on aesthetics rather than communicating a message, saying that the industry is more concerned with making pretty pictures for itself, than reaching a wider audience and making bold statements about the 'big debates of our society'. It is clear that to him, illustration and graphic design have a duty to have substance and meaning and purpose, to portray a message in a thoughtful and conscious way, but he feels that in this day they do not live up to this. And to some extent, I agree. I believe that the word illustration is commonly used very loosely and is thrown around more than it perhaps should be. There is a lot of work out there that holds the title illustration, yet fails to uphold the content of what that means. But this may be more due to the challenges of defining illustration, than the industry straying from it's core purpose. To me and many others, illustration is comprised of art work created primarily through the process and exercise of drawing, that exists with a purpose to convey a message, make clear an opinion or statement, or draw attention to something whether that physical, ideological or otherwise. It is a thoughtful practice that needs a function behind it, and the portrayal of this function through the work is of importance, even if it is communicated in a very subtle way. I feel that Zeegan would agree for the most part on my views. With that said, even if there is a lot of diluted, meaningless work being sold as illustration, it is unfair, ignorant and just not true to say that it is a representation of the industry as a whole. There are still many illustrators producing quality work which ticks all the boxes of what illustration should be, which conveys a message and has substance and a purpose beyond the idea itself, in order to change peoples opinions in some cases, or make the audience think. Because that is perhaps another core value that illustration must contain, that is the ability to question it's audience, to challenge them in some way or merely just make them consider something that would not have previously considered.

Illustrate 

verb

1. to clarify or explain by use of examples, analogy, etc

To illustrate something is to make clear, to communicate and inform, to translate and interpret in order to enlighten, in this case in a visual way through the creation of images.

Pat Perry is one such artist who's work encapsulates what illustration should be. His work is often very figurative, with a narrative element to the majority. He commonly works out of sketchbooks, documenting his highly nomadic lifestyle, the places he goes, people he meets and the experiences he has. Although this may not usually be described as traditional illustration, I would argue that documentation of daily life and experiences can still be classed as such; it's purpose is to be a record, and within this it can ask questions and highlight and portray a message as well as any piece of certified illustration can, all of which Pat Perry's work does.

Take this poster for example. Simply in it's idea and subtle in it's communication, it illustrates to an audience an opposition to a pipeline. It exists to make people aware of an environmental problem and to fight against a possible ecological disaster, in a way that Zeegan perhaps failed to recognise in his article. I believe that the aesthetics of illustration, although they mean nothing without a purpose or substance, are still of importance in the work and to make the given message more effectively read. As shown true of Pat's poster, the quality of the artwork is a crucial tool in grabbing people's attentions, luring them in through an incredible skilled and beautiful drawing, before spinning their heads as to the meaning and function behind it. The ambiguous three word title of 'no straits pipeline' sparks instant curiosity in a viewer, demanding them to research and learn what exactly it is all about. By remaining subtle and limited in information about the topic he is drawing attention to, he has no doubt spread the message wider than if the poster highlighted every detail about the campaign, immediately allowing no curiosity or further reading from an audience and thus getting tossed aside with every other campaign poster. Instead the theme is hinted at, through the imagery used and basic title, but not spoon fed. It is interesting then to think what Zeegan would make of this piece of work. I feel like to the ignorant, it would be easy to cast it aside as another empty drawing claiming to be illustration, an image with no back-bone but a mere aesthetic purpose, to look nice and say nothing. But this couldn't be further from Pat's work, which often asks questions and is made through a strong process of thinking, consciousness, meaning and purpose.

As much as I agree and disagree with Zeegan's article in equal measures, it has spurred me on and forced me to think about my practice as an 'illustrator' and whether my work does justice to the soul of what illustration is. Reading it has given me motivation to think more about the substance of my work, to work more consciously in order to communicate meaning, ask more questions and comment on issue and debates that are important to me or to an audience. I feel it a duty to try and work with this in mind and push my work in a direction that fulfils this ideal more effectively, to make illustration an industry with purpose and reason.