My Favourite Illustrated Books: Study Task 4

Fiction

• I was drawn to this book because of it’s hand made quality. I love of the scanned in textures that the artist has used as well how they have been assembled so that the pages are interesting and look tactile yet simple. I also love the pop up element of the book. It really lifts the illustrations by bringing them into the viewer’s space. Each time I turned the page, I was excited to see what was going to pop out. 
• The use use of pop out, colourful, simplistic illustrations also works really well to aid its function. This is because it is attractive to children. In addition to this the use of colour and friendly monsters to represent different emotions (referenced in the text) works well. This is because it gives children something literal to associate abstract feeling with, aiding their understanding of them. It is not only a beautiful fiction book but it also teaches children a valuable life lesson.

Zine

• I was drawn to this zine because of the messy hand made quality that the front cover and the pages had to them. I love the fact that some of the pages even had pencil smudges on them. It feels very hand made and personal, like pages of a sketchbook. It was strange singing something so unrefined, which is reproduced. 
• I also love the how weird and twisted the story was. It was really unexpected and it amused me. It is not something which you would find in your everyday picture book (but something which might appeal late teen/ young adult audience you might find at a gene fare).
• In this zine, each step of the simple story is illustrated fully. The text just exists simply to make the intensions of the characters clear. 

Picture Book

• I was surprised by how much I enjoyed flicking through this book as I am usually drawn weirder more quirky illustrations. The traditional landscape watercolours just have a strange eerie quality to them. They are so simple yet so well crafted and intimate. 
• The illustrations here don’t exist to communicate a message but their beauty is their function. This allows them to work presented alone, unsupported by text. This is something which is so difficult to achieve and that I have not seen a lot of it int the past.
• This is a picture book for adults , something which you son't often come across. The simplistic beauty of these images also means that they can be appreciated by a wide audience. 

Non-fiction

• My love of documentary illustration drew me to this book last year and it is where I discovered the work of Olivier Kugler, one of my favourite illustrators. It is put together so well and it was really interesting to read about the journey of each of the illustrators to creating a finished documentary drawing. It is a book which is not only interesting and informative but beautifully put together. I loved looking at the artist's sketchbooks as I personally have a tendency to be drawn to quite unfinished looking work.
• This books audience is people of all ages who have an interest in documentary illustration. It is a useful research source to them because it not only reflects different ways of image making but different ways of thinking. It takes the viewer inside the illustrator's head. 
• This book is about 50/50 text and image. The text explores the different illustrators' different practices and how they like to work practically in addition to providing stories of past experiences. Image then works to give a visual example of the illustrator's working methods and process. 

Rob Hodgson Bigheads

Rob Hodgson has a part time job while also being a free lance illustrator. He says that he likes the balance between the two because it allows him to surround himself in different projects. This is because he finds different themes and techniques which interconnect. He says that just because a project is finished doesn't mean that the theme is resolved. This is something which resonates with me because I have found that as I have started to progress through the course I have found a couple of themes that I would like to revisit in future projects.

When crating an image he uses a sketchbook as a very personal place. They are where his illustration and life meet. They contain drawings, ideas, annotations and even shopping lists. He also collects imagery that mainly consists of shapes, which he uses as a starting point. He tends to do compositionally accurate roughs, with low levels of detail and colour. He then scans in the roughs along with different interesting shapes and attempts to organise them digitally. I think that this is a really interesting way of working. It shows the coming together of something quite abstract with with a very structured idea.

Hodgson's practice also shows a swing between commercial work and work simply for himself. He appears very interested in how product design and Illustration sit together. His work seems very driven by materials and the process of making, the commercial side coming secondary. He makes lots of hand crafted objects himself, which he then designs the packaging for and personally sends off .

Another thing that Hodgson said at the end of the lecture, which I found really useful was that he didn't leave university with a portfolio of work or a style. What he left with was a set of ideas questions and things he wanted to do. I think that this is a really interesting point because creating a portfolio and developing a style are things that are already always at the back of my mind, even though they don't need to be.

My Favourite Applied Illustrations: Study Task 3

The Dad Dancing Birthday Card

• The way in which the Illustrator has shaped the text around imagery is really interesting. It gives both text and image an equal importance, which works well on a birthday card. It also means that the design fills the whole surface of product.
• The repetition of the same figure in different poses also works really well visually.
• I can never find birthday cards like this in a card shops. They always tend to be tacky. The simplicity and hand made quality of this design makes it not look tacky, in addition to the fact that the surface of the card is matted rather than shiny.
• The concept of the illustration is also interesting and amusing - the dad dance! This is something that everyone experiences on at at least one of their birthdays meaning that it is a good birthday card for anyone of pretty much any age giving it a large market.
• The design also works well because it reflects a broadly relatable idea while staying away from general symbols used to represent a birthday (i.e. balloons or a cake), giving it an originality.

The Sun Worshipper Phone Case

• I love how the illustrator has taken a phrase and illustrated it literally (the sun worshipper), in interesting yet simplistic concept.
• It has been applied to a phone case with the purpose of decorating quite a plain product, which people carry around with them and see all the time.
• It is a very simple and charming image, which makes you smile. It is light and happy, perfect for its application. 
• The simplistic colours of the illustration also help to communicate this sense of happiness and tranquility, while making it eye catching (complimentary colours amplify one another).
• I also like the way in which the arms of the sun wrap around the sides os the phone to incorporate the whole case in the design and not just the back.
• I am definitely giving it to Mum for christmas, a bit of a sun worshipper herself.

My India Cushion

• The use of really beautiful colours and interesting design make it decorative and it has decorated my bed for about 5 years (the perfect cushion for me as my name is India). 
• It is not only decorative but educational too (since having it I have learnt all the places in India without trying) as my eyes are drawn to it because it is so pretty.
• Creating an illustration that is both decorative and educational and decorative is difficult to achieve.
• The fact that the design is embroidered into the cushion rather than printed also really adds to it because it gives it a tactility, while enhancing the colours. This media also works well with the simplistic, slightly naive imagery.
• The application of the illustration therefore works to visually enhance the illustration as well as the illustration visually enhancing the product.

The Ortigia Candle Packaging Design

• I received one of these candles for Christmas a couple of years ago and I still have the packaging from it because i love it so much. It smells and burns the same as your generic candle, but what really sells it is the packaging.
• This is because it is elegant due to the simplistic design and colour scheme, which makes it look expensive (perfect for a present). The name of the brand had also been taken into account in the illustration (Ortigia, a small island in Sicily). This is expressed through the use of palm trees and the generally exotic nature of the design.
• I also think that the way in which the colour of the packaging has been coordinated with the colour of the wax and the smell of the candle works really well. Everything has been considered and it comes as a whole package.

Christmas Scene Wrapping Paper 

• The illustration for this wrapping paper has been really well thought through and it moves away from the generic Christmas wrapping paper by showing us a scene rather than a repeated symbol of Christmas i.e. a snowflake or a snowman.
• The design works really well as a repeat (compulsory for the product) .The repeated oversized green christmas tree helps it to hang together nicely. 
• The fact that the scene is quite complex and it is repeated works really well to express the hectic nature of christmas.
• However, even though the scene is complex, the use of simple shapes (with no outline) and a refined colour scheme with a plain background adds a simplicity to the image, which allows it to work as a repeat.

Illustration is an Applied Art: Class Discussion

Last week we spoke about how Illustration is an applied art. An Illustration serves a purpose and its purpose and relationship with an audience is defined by how it is applied. Where Illustration can appear is now shifting and growing within industry and they can be found anywhere from magazines, to wrapping paper, to clothing.

Illustrators therefore need to be sensitive to what image suits what product i.e. They wouldn't place a really complex design on a rug because this might clash with its function. We also spoke about how Illustration can alter the function of a product, giving it meaning or storytelling. If we take the example of a phone case its function is to protect. However, once you place an Illustration on it, it becomes something more. Something which decorates a phone or tells a story.

I found these ideas really interesting and I have never really thought about Illustration in this light before. I have always thought about Illustration for the sake of Illustration. However, now that I come to think about it all of the briefs that we have been given so far have been directed toward a certain product i.e. a poster, a magazine and a book.