Creative Review - June 2001
Pen and Mouse Review / It's All About Furniture
Lawrence Zeegen gets to grips with a round-up of hot illustrators.
You are going to need a new coffee table. Get yourself down to
IKEA / Heals / SCP (according to budget) and buy one now. I sense
a glut of glossy new books about to arrive on the scene. This
time it is not the turn of "graffic" or "new meedja" designers
or even fashion (able) photographers, it's not skateboards, Cuban
street art or T-shirts. It's the turn of illustration. It had
to happen - now officially regarded as a "hot subject" (see the
book's jacket blurb), illustration is back. Sadly too late to
have stopped the Royal College of Art dropping it from the title
of their MA course, but nevertheless illustration is back on the
table, albeit probably the coffee table, once again.
Angus Hyland, Pentagram partner and editor / art director of Pen
and Mouse has championed illustration before, and as an industry
"name" appears a good choice by the publishers, if only in marketing
terms. Hyland, of course, comes with the Pentagram seal of approval
but the bigger question must be: why has it taken a graphic designer
to get this book out? Consider the alternatives; an illustrator,
a writer, an association, an academic. One soon realises that
there are very few "big name" illustrators recognised outside
of the Pen and Mouse target audience, but there are a number of
writers more than capable of investigating the subject. Is it
that the choice of editor has been more to do with the position
that illustration finds itself in? As ever, the control still
rests with the person responsible for commissioning illustration;
the graphic designer, the art director and not the humble image-maker
him or herself.
Pen and Mouse attempts to get under the skin of contemporary illustration
in two ways. The first is an introduction built up of quotations
cobbled together from a number of sources that does touch on a
few issues, but "touch" is the key word. Illustration and the
place it occupies "between graphic design and fine art" demands
much more critical debate than this book allows. The second attempt
throws it back at the contributors themselves. Presented with
a set of six (six!) questions that range from 'What do you use
as job title?' to 'Why do you do what you do?' we get some illuminating
answers. We read that Chris Kasch is a "Freelance Illustrator"
and Akio Morishima is a "Graphic Artist" that Michael Gillette
does it "because I've got itchy fingers", Kate Gibb "because I
love it" and Alan Baker "because I feel like it". Ground-breaking
stuff, indeed.
The debate about the use of the digital within the profession
is not a new one but it gets another airing here. The role of
illustration itself is alluded to in the introduction, but if
one expects any detailed information about the projects / assignments
/ commissions featured in the book then think again. It is left
for the viewer to determine the relative strengths and weaknesses
of the work, to decide if the work satisfied the client's needs,
answered the brief, challenged preconceptions, communicated a
idea, expressed a view etc etc. The work is presented out of context;
we see the pictures and nothing else. How were they used? Without
the context or description, they are simply pictures; eye candy.
The cover is credited to six (yes, six!) people. I may be wrong,
but it looks like a photograph traced in Illustrator or Freehand
with some well placed typography. It's an okay cover but six people?
Where the illustrators have been asked to submit a self-portrait
and have responded we see the image alongside questionnaire answers.
Where no image was submitted we see a graphic pictorial symbol
adapted to look like an illustrator; a cute line drawing of a
figure in combats! But in at least two cases we see nothing. I
run the risk of sounding petty but design mistakes like these
should be spotted before going to press. This is a Pentagram product,
after all.
So, I cut to the chase, the images themselves. Who's in, who's
out? No work from people who in my opinion simply should be included
in a book about contemporary illustration, digital or otherwise.
No Andy Martin, no George Snow, no Brett Ryder, no James Jarvis,
no Aude Van Ryn no... the list could go on. We do have Jeff Fisher,
not exactly at the "cutting-edge" as the blurb states the contributors
all are. We do have John Maeda, is he an illustrator? He ignored
the questionnaire, so the jury must still be out, but looking
at his own book, I think we know the answer to that one. It ain't
all bad; enjoy images by Shonagh Rae, Kam Tang, Reggie Pedro,
Ian Wright, Marion Deuchars and Paul Davis (not Davies, bless
him.)
So why the new coffee table? For a place on that piece of furniture,
Pen and Mouse pushes all the right buttons. It has just the right
feel and comes in at the right price (£19.95). A weighty tome
with deep analytical investigation, it is not, but a glossy catalogue
showcasing some interesting images, it is. You decide, does it
sit better on the coffee table or in the bookcase? I have made
my decision.
Lawrence Zeegen is Academic Programme Leader, BA (Hons) Graphic
Design, BA (Hons) Illustration at the University of Brighton and
an illustrator.
Pen and Mouse is published by Laurence King, £19.95
© Lawrence Zeegen
