Informative, Beautiful, and Very Human: It’s Time to Promote the Underappreciated Art of Illustration | Art and design

SSince the beginning of our species, humans have tried to make sense of chaos, ourselves, and each other – at least until a social media divide. We have always relied on communications to do this. Thousands of years before written language, and perhaps even before complex spoken language, we used pictures.

This makes sense: As children, we learn to read facial expressions, body language, and images long before we learn to read words. We all grow up with an instinctive desire to make visual marks and tell stories. If the constellations are humanity’s first attempt to understand the universe, they are also our first comic books. Humans have always been story-driven creatures, and we tell these stories in countless ways.

So what is it story Of clarification?

Before we answer that, we first need to define what clarification is. As someone who has worked for decades as an illustrator, artist, storyteller – and many other titles, I might be in a reasonable position to try to answer.

For many people, an illustration is simply a group of images that accompany or illustrate text or an idea. But this mindset ignores the speed, agility, drawing finesse, and tactile intelligence required to create an illustration a job. It also ignores its effectiveness as a communication tool.

Anyone who has ever pointed to a security card on an airplane, traveled in an unfamiliar city using a subway map, or followed a visual guide to assembling flat-pack furniture knows the power of images to communicate quickly and clearly.

And this is before we even discuss the emotional weight and beauty of this art. Whoever coined the phrase “Don’t judge a book by its cover” clearly doesn’t have much involvement in society – as we all judge by its cover every day. Width is important.

As the art of illustration has advanced over the past several generations—often drawing closer to its closest companion, the fine arts—and as technology and the rise of artificial intelligence cast an uncertain fog over its future, perhaps now is a good time to reconsider the role of illustration in modern culture and what distinguishes “art” from “illustration.”

In illustration, the goal is usually to solve other people’s problems visually, whereas in art you invent your own problems and rarely solve them. For example, financial compensation is generally agreed upon before marking begins and someone gives you consent – ​​a thumbs up, so to speak; In art, you are always mired in existential self-doubt. You do the work and then figure out how (or if) you’ll get paid.

Where do they do no The difference is in the visual success they achieve in making us feel something. Whether that something is simple understanding, love, horror, deliberate confusion, disgust, or joy is secondary to reality—they are generally signs made by people and meant for others to view and interpret.

The idea of ​​“art” as we know it today has also evolved significantly over generations. Much of what we now classify as art was, in practical terms, closer to illustration when it was created. Think of Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel, or many Renaissance works, and how easily they fit into the above distinctions. The concept of individual label-making as a financially rewarding and celebrated expression of one person is relatively new; The idea of ​​art as an industry is only a century or two old.

In the end, perhaps one traditional distinction remains useful: art is often created to be encountered as a unique original, while illustrations are often designed with reproduction in mind.

We have countless centers supporting art around the world – museums and galleries, as they are more commonly known – and it is long overdue for the UK to have a dedicated center supporting illustration, how it has helped shape our idea of ​​our world, and the role it will play in an uncertain future. As a board member of the soon-to-open Quentin Blake Center for Illustration, I’m proud to say that’s exactly what’s happening. On National Illustration Day in the UK, we should pause to think about the role illustration plays in our culture, and why it is more important now than ever.

For many, the “illustrations” conjure nostalgia for children’s books. And yes, these are vital; They are often a child’s first encounter with their cultural world, the physical archive of the strong parent-child bond. But illustration extends beyond childhood. They shaped the world we know: wartime propaganda, the 1950s branding boom, political satire, fashion, and advertising. A lecturer once told me that you can learn more about a decade from its ads than from its articles. Illustration has always been the visual record of how we live, and what we hope to convey.

Modern illustration was born out of the Industrial Revolution and reached its full power in the era of mass production. As the industry changes, the role of the illustrator also changes. Artificial intelligence now threatens to make creativity accessible to the wealthy while putting wealth beyond the reach of creators. But is this really the future that awaits us? I don’t quite think so. I certainly hope not.

While the invention of the automobile largely eliminated the need for horseshoe makers, it also created a host of new jobs for mechanics. Painters will certainly need to adapt, but photography has not replaced drawing. The video didn’t kill the radio star. The art of illustration will not be replaced by machines.

Just as the NFT bubble burst when people realized they didn’t necessarily feel a human connection to something like…well…digital, we’re already starting to see a small but steady return to handmade products. Yes, AI means that a significant portion of editorial and advertising visuals will be taken away from humans – temporarily anyway – and given to machines (creating huge opportunities for creative writers, but the result is as good as the claim in AI). But we as a species will always need visual illustration, communication, and communication on a human level. Children’s books, art albums, theater posters, protest signs, and the visual languages ​​we construct together all ultimately exist closer to the center of human experience than machine experience.

Maya Angelou was right: People rarely remember what you said, but they remember how you made them feel.

This, ultimately, is the power of illustration. That’s why I’m excited about the beginning of a national foundation dedicated to visual literacy—particularly in the age of misinformation—and about a permanent home where every aspect of illustration can be explored, celebrated, and understood. Sir Quentin Blake, the father of modern British illustration, envisioned the Illustration Center recognizing the art form as a vital part of British heritage and education. The time couldn’t be more appropriate.