"As our visual language evolves, the playing field is levelling. Graphic designers, sculptors, painters, creative developers, and even musicians amorphously meander across different parts of our creative industries. As a consequence, I often wonder what the term 'Illustration' now means. Maybe as a medium it might need to do more than vocationalise aesthetics and cultivate a border palate of profundity for its own survival."
Written by-Michael Salu
Artist Director of Granta Magazine
2012 Varoom
Could and should illustrators do more to push the boundaries of the discipline?
I think if there were no pushing of boundaries in anything, there would be no development and change in the world.
Illustration has been around for a long, long time and has been changing and developing as it goes, it is and has been the key to our understanding of the world and everything in it. And it is what links us to our history, which has enabled us to continue to change and improve the quality of our lives, to full-fill our every needs.
Through illustration Children learn about themselves, from what they fear, to what they aspire to be and how they fit into the world. And when we leave education, get a job and find a routine in life, it gets forgotten that its just as important to continue to learn new things everyday. But with technology enhancing all the time and becoming more and more popular, it gives everyone a chance to share what they do and what they know etc. And what technology has done is open up new doors and paths for illustrators and designers, photographers, artists, filmmakers etc to collaborate with one another and share their ideas to intrigue, delight, and inspire, in lots of new ways.
How do you see your own work broadening in terms of scope (content) and media and how could this be best supported at college?
I am currently involved in making my own little gif for my self directed project as with technology becoming more popular, I think it only makes sense to try and learn how to make my work digital/digitalised. As well as create illustrations with paint, pen and pencils, I do use photoshop to combine work and to also give it a professional finish. I also like to use my photography, which I usually use when I have made 3d work. Getting the best possible picture of anything that you make I think is important to do, because it shows not only the skill you have in making but a skill in being able to photograph work to high standard. But whether it is just be a photograph of your work and put on the computer or a moving image etc, doing that will open up more doors in the long run. I think it's important to make yourself as versatile as possible, and collage really drum that into us, and give advice for when we leave. I just want to give myself the best possible chance of getting somewhere in the industry, because I don't know what it is I could end up doing.
Is Salu's suggestions of a name change for illustration necessary or mere semantics?
Quite a hard question to answer really because Illustration for me, isn't just a sketch or a cartoon, its a piece of music, a dance, an action, a film...it's something that opens up our minds and brings us closer to something.
So it's hard to pin point exactly what it is that I do because I make 3d work aswell as photoraph and animate. But if I was to call myself for instance a creative maker rather than saying I'm an illustrator, I still don't think people would understand what it is I do and why. I think what ever I say, whether it be an illustartor/creative maker/animator etc, will all probably need to be explained further anyway just so people get a better understanding. Aslong as you have a website which shows what you do, they will be able to see and understand for themselves.
