Illustrations

An illustration starts with a brief and a briefing. It is less about personal expression to communicate something across. It is more about satisfying a service, e.g. communicating a key message for a particular campaign to target audience. It is a direct form of visual communication.

Usually an agency who has to do a lot of illustrations , for example, a publisher, has its own illustrator. If it doesn't, it would usually hire a freelance illustrator when needed. Illustrators typically work with designers, art directors.

Illustrations are typically created for:

• print, e.g. print ads,
• screen, e.g. LCD screens,
• galleries, e.g. ambience, and;
• architectural spaces.

They appear on:

• book covers, e.g. caricarture,
• mags,
• CD sleeves,
• posters,
• websites,
• clothes,
• skateboard decks,
• etc.

An illustrator's job is to  educate, to inform, to entertain, to persuade, to give an opinion, to make a comment and to tell a story.

When an illustrator illustrates, his work must have:

1. Clarity. It must not be vague.
2. Vision. The illustrator should be able to visualise. All of us can visualise, it's just that we see things differently.
3. Style, such that his work doesn't look like someone else's work. He should inject his own style. Sometimes an illustrator is hired because clients like his style.
4. Personal standpoint. If he is required to make a comment/give an opinion, that's when he needs to give his take, injecting his own standpoint.

Good illustrations surprise their audience and are understood. They stay true to the idea that illustrations are anything but straightforward. Sometimes simplicity works, other times, a little complication works.

"Successful illustrators must marry excellence in practical skills with imagination (visualising skills) and intellectual rigor." - Lawrence Zeegen