Illustration

Illustration has evolved much over the past several decades. Tools back in the day were physica, such as pens, paper and pencils. There are other ways of illustration, including unique methods like photocopiers, FAX and collage. I researched some key figures for each of these illustration methods to better understand them:

• Marion Deuchars is a children's book author and illustrator, recogniable for her unique illustration style. Her works are simple enough so that they appeal to the young target audience, with vibrant colours and fun character design incorporated into them.

• David Hockney found the photocopier to be a great was of creating illustrations with unique details. He describes its dual scanning and printing capabilities of making it a unique blend of cameras and printers.

  

• Paul Elliman used fax to create illustrations. I found this really interesting, as this left the work with quite an old-fashioned, unique look that’d likely be difficult to achieve with other forms of media/devices.

  

• Kurt Schwitters was an artist born in the 19th century. He used collage of different everyday materials to create unique illustrations. He described his art as ‘Merz’ to describe the technique of recycling junk fabrics and materials and turning them into art.

  

All of these artists developed a unique approach to art, rather than following the traditional mediums. This is similar to the freedom that we have today, with technologies and software (such as Photoshop and Figma) allowing for countless ways to illustrate, all of which will allow for different styles and outcomes.

Illustration Now

As mentioned above, there are so many different forms of illustration now in comparison to the past. I love learning about different art styles and methods, so I was excited to see how different people have used modern technologies to develop new approaches. Some of the illustrators which ——

• Ollie Moss uses tablet to recreate movie posters. I enjoyed researching his work as I found that I recognised many of his reimagined posters from coming across them in the past in everyday life. He also worked on Firewatch, a 2016 game recognised for its beautiful visuals.

• Niel Stevens specialises in creating illustrations for advertisements and sports. His works instantly strike me as vibrant and fun, which shows how effective this approach to illustration and style could be in grabbing an audiences attention. The following example was created was a sports mural for Nike;

  

• Benny Productions is a young digital artists whose aim is to share his work to simply inspire others. Looking at his work, I was honestly shocked as to how someone could create something so visually stunning, particularly the Pheonix artwork. I watched the YouTube video in which he created this, and it helped me to understand his process of taking aspects of existing images, combining and refining them to make an image.

  

Illustration in UX

Illustration clearly can be an excellent digital tool, making it useful for digital and UX design. Many designers use illustrations to create aspects of user interfaces, such as icons and imagery to make apps more interactive.

• Charlie Wait created an app about water, developing 2d icons and images that users can interact with. Not only does this create a visually appealing and neat app, it gives users a more engaging experience as fun images are incorporated into the design and operations. He also worked for the Uber App, which has detailed icons such as cars to match the drivers to create a smooth and straightforward experience. This ties back to user requirements, as having simple illustrations mean that the app can have a nice appearance, but not so that it distracts from users completing their desired task.

  

• Kyle Tezack

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