Fifty Years of Illustration

50 Years of Illustration
Exhibition by Professor Lawrence Zeegen

Private View: Thursday 18 September 2014, 6-9pm
Exhibition Open: 13 September - 31 October, 10am - 5pm (Saturday 11am until 4pm and Sunday closed)

‘50 Years of Illustration’ looks at contemporary illustration’s impact on design, while popular culture is investigated through introductory essays and profiles of leading practitioners, accompanied by examples of their greatest work. 

‘50 Years of Illustration’ accompanies the launch of a new book of the same title by Professor Lawrence Zeegen, Dean of the School of Design.

Crowd Talks - Style

As a precursor to the next Mokita 3 Symposium on Friday 10 October 2014 at Somerset House our friends at Crowd Talks are collaborating with 'Make Sense' Kingston MA Illustration to discuss issues around Style.

www.crowdtalks.co.uk

STYLE: Plains Indian Drawings

Illustration can at times mistakenly become about ‘style’ - confusing personal visual language with developing an affected ‘look’ to court fashion, to commodify a product to make an illustration career. However with the consumption of imagery speeding up in the age of ‘Its Nice That’ the appetite for the next ‘trend’ is potentially altering how we value images, and illustration.

In the past the so called radical illustrators of the mid seventies, a group of illustrators congregated around the RCA forged strong visual forms of expression out of personal subject matter outside of the established commercial market. This subsequently became commodified in the 1980’s as a stylistic approach to illustration divorced from its personal subject matter.

As an undergraduate student I had the opportunity to attend the private view of Images The Best of British Illustration exhibition at the RCA. There was the expected buzz of an opening, and I was wide eyed taking in the greats of the illustration world.

The work itself on displayed proved troublesome though. Maybe it was the frames, or the fact that the illustrations had lost some of their intention being removed from their commercial rationale, but for whatever reason they left me detached and unengaged. The cacophony of styles on displayed left me cold and troubled as an undergraduate studying illustration.

On my way home later I did have to wonder why I was on an illustration course, as what I saw on displayed of the great and the good of the industry left me detached. In contrast the book that I had only just bought earlier that evening ‘Plains Indian Drawings 1865-1935’ by Jane Catherine Berlo, had an authenticity about the work, openness in the drawings, which the stylistic mannerisms of the illustration work didn’t have for me. Maybe it was the amount of work on show, the succession of images and styles that lost me in confusion, compared to the unaffected genuineness of the simple drawings drawn on ledgers.

Roderick Mills

First published in Varoom! The Illustration Report: Issue 26 STYLE
Varoom! can be purchased through the Association of Illustrators:
http://www.varoom-mag.com

Mokita 2: The Sentimental Gene

Mokita 2: Sentimentality

Symposium

Tuesday 16^th October

10.00 – 17.00

Portico Rooms 
Somerset House London

Mokita 2: The Sentimental Gene

A one day Symposium Tuesday 16 October 2012

Details & Tickets:

http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/learning/mokita-2-sentimentality-symposium

Mokita’s second illustration forum will explore "The Sentimental Gene" in illustration, covering themes of presence, function, validity, and role of 'sentimentality' as a medium in Illustration.

The idea of sentimentality in visual language is often viewed negatively, whether through the cult of Kawaii (Cute), Character Art, Greetings Cards, Folk Art or Nostalgia, Fantasy Art, Souvenirs, Kitsch and even Hello Kitty. Yet these are all deeply rooted within culture & have mass visual appeal, with ‘retro’ and ‘folk’ particularly emerging as recurring themes in many contemporary illustrator’s work. Mokita will be ideal for students, practitioners and professionals involved in illustration. The fee includes lunch and refreshments.

Speakers include:

-Rob Ryan
-Sanna Annukka

-Jasper Goodall

-Jonny Hannah

-John O"Reilly, Editor of Varoom Magazine

-Laura Carlin

Organised by:

University of Brighton

Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London

Kingston University London

Peepshow Collective interviewed by It's Nice That

Peepshow Collective interviewed by It's Nice That:

http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/peepshow-collective

A Future of Illustration.

As part of an AOI Master Class workshop delivered with the Illustrator Holly Wales we discussed the future possibilities for Illustration including self-publishing, art-direction, moving image, animation, & set design. 

Photographs taken from Amon Tobin's ISAM tour.

Illustrator as Author: Presentation Images #3

Drawings by the artist Donald Urquhart who illustrated the book Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray published by Four Corners Books.