The Journal (Association of Illustrators) - Oct 2000
The Digit V The Digital

When I was about 11 years old (in 1975) my maths teacher, Mr Williams, came into class one day with the first digital watch I had ever seen. It weighed his arm down and took the hand on his other arm to operate. We all crowded round for a view of the red numerals telling us the time, the date and the... well that was all it could tell us, but at that moment I felt that I had seen the future for the first time. Later Mr Williams introduced us to the pocket calculator, a pocket the size of a Walkman was needed but that was ok as the Walkman had yet to be invented.

Years later, in 1989, whilst part of Big Orange Studios I helped install our first fax machine. It took three of us to lift it and a manual the size of the Yellow Pages to help us fathom out what it did and how it worked. Soon our visuals/roughs started to appear in the offices of art directors' just moments after we had completed them. I felt the presence of the future once again. No longer did we need to leave the studio to see clients at the ideas stage - more time brushing up on the table tennis. Phone and fax: full stop.

In 1990 I had my initiation into the computer, a Mac Classic, and two years later I bought my own piece of kit for the first time, an Apple Mac LC111 and printer. I parted with a cool £2000.00 for a piece of kit now worth about £20.00. It had the ability to write invoices and letters and clunk through early versions of Photoshop and Freehand but it changed the way I would work. Opening the box and connecting it all together, I felt like a NASA astronaut and knew Mr Williams would have been proud.

Eight years later and where are we now and where are we going? Well, a lot has changed, of course. Has the computer changed the way I work? I now work on any one of three in various locations. My studio Mac is where the illustration and design work is created, my office Mac helps keep the two courses I run at the University of Brighton organised and my Powerbook does both jobs when I am in between, travelling or just fancy working elsewhere. In 1989 it was vital that I was based in London and in 2000 my email address and mobile phone number position me anywhere. Clients may assume that I am in London but I do nothing, from my base in Brighton, to encourage them to believe this. The computer has changed where I work. Visuals as well as artwork now travel by email and the fax machine; the courier and foam board are a distant memory. The computer has changed the way that my work is delivered.

The tools of the trade, back in 1989, to create my illustration work were a bleed-proof marker pad, markers, acrylic paint, screen print bed and inks, spray mount, black and white photocopier and a plan-chest full of coated and uncoated pantone paper. Eleven years on and it is a Mac, a scanner, a drawing tablet and CD burner. My work has evolved during this time and the computer has enabled me to develop it, yet not dictated the direction that the work has taken. The computer has changed how I create my work but I have led that change.

Of course, the computer has not just altered the way some illustrators work but has created a brand new breed of illustrators. Young talent fresh out of art school have been emerging over the last couple of years, often despite the education that they have been receiving than because of it. Most illustration students receive little or no training on the computer whilst at college - Why? "It_s what the designers use". Most illustration courses are still employing staff with very little or no knowledge of matters digital. How many illustrators/educators attended The Expo 2000 at the end of September? How many knew of its existence? But even with the odds stacked against them this fresh, raw talent is utilising the not-so-new technology to produce exciting and innovative work that designers and art directors want to use. This is work that could not exist without the input of the computer. It is work that the technology has helped to create.

The great majority of designers are under the age of thirty for some strange reason (where they go after that is still a mystery). The time will soon come when every working designer will have been at a school from the age of five with a computer in their classroom. Computers are everywhere, in the bank, the cinema, the travel agency, the whole high street use and understand them but the illustrator remains the last remaining Luddite and let_s not forget we providing a service to our customers too. Very soon designers will only want to work with illustrators that can provide their artwork in the correct format. Why bother having to drum scan work or get it shot onto film when if it arrives by email, zip or CD set up correctly the job is done? Designers had to become typesetters and mini-repro houses when DTP arrived years ago but the illustrator believed he/she was out of the loop and off scott-free. The tide has started to turn. Art Directors get frustrated when they cannot send reference material digitally as a JPEG and have to pay for a courier or wait for The Royal (snail) Mail. Time is money etc.

The birth of cinema did not kill off theatre, the invention of the gramophone did not murder live music and the computer has not spelt the end for the hand drawn/created image. The two exist side by side and often some of the best work is a mix of traditional and digital media. The ability to scan drawings, manipulate colours and use effects can add to the toolbox rather than limit it. If you are unsure about how effective the kit can be take a look around at the work of illustrators: George Snow, Joe Magee, Andy Martin, Marion Deuchars etc etc. Great artists in the past have welcomed new technology, embraced it and used it to push their work in new directions; Hockney picked up the Polaroid, Warhol reinvented screen printing and Hirst has started to produce limited edition digital prints from artwork that exists only on disk. Why, apart from general lack of computer teaching in art schools, are illustrators so keen to avoid the digital? Are illustrators equipped with a different mindset? Do they/we have a natural phobia for technology? We all get stuck programming the video but editing digital video on an ibook is like falling of a log and after a life-time of drawing on paper, drawing with a stylo on a tablet takes about a day to get to used to!

Of course, it is not just the creation and delivery of the work we do that is enhanced by the computer; other issues come into play too. Having to print 1000 postcards and then mail to 1000 potential customers is a pretty outmoded method of advertising. Paying big money to appear in some of the current illustration "wallpaper" catalogues, will soon be another piece of history. You send in your artwork and your not-so-insignificant cheque and then wait six months for the book to appear; not the best way of keeping people bang up to date with what you are doing. You sit on the phone and attempt to get appointments to turn up for a slot with your portfolio with potential clients; it_s not going to happen. Designers and Art Directors are busy people and the system does not allow them hours spent with folk and their wares when most creatives know in a little over five seconds whether your work is suitable for their publication/project. One-to-one working relationships are now conducted over email rather than face-to-face.

So, how can the new way help promote your work? Well, the CD Rom never died, despite persistent rumours. A digital portfolio on CD can cost less than 95p, can include many pieces of work and won_t break the bank if it is not returned. We will go over to DVD but only when the price of DVD burners comes down. CD burners started life at £2000.00 and now a mid range Sony can be had for less than £200.00. Cheaper still is your own website and advice on this subject can found elsewhere in this issue. Creating your own site gets easier by the week; software has been developed that negates the need for programmers and prices charged by hosts fall all the time. Managing, keeping up-to-date and promoting your site are time consuming but the potential for work from any major city across the globe goes up beyond belief. The site can be used to showcase your work and can be tailored on a daily basis, if you wish. That six-month wait for your work to appear with the illustration annual is down to six minutes with the Internet. The same site can be used to market all of the other spin-offs - the T-shirts, prints, original drawings etc that you need an excuse to produce. One piece of advice, buy your domain name now... www.zeegen.com has gone but that should not upset many of you!

The Internet is not just there to market what you create but should be used as a reference facility too. No more hunting for images and reference in libraries (sadly they may be history too considering the lack of investment in them generally); if you know where to look it is all out there. Point your browser in the right direction and someone, someplace has that something you need.

Before you begin to think that everything digital is one beautiful utopia, think again. That artwork sent as an enclosure in email can come back just as quickly as it was sent off. Clients expect immediate changes to work and feel that these changes are "quick and easy" because it has been created on the computer. They don't have to worry about the price of the courier anymore or the speed of delivery; it has not resulted in much more time on the job for the illustrator but more time for it to come back. Other problems can and will surface as files and software clash, your computer starts to crash and you wave goodbye to cash. But after weighing up the pros and cons, I still believe that the pros win hands down and I am pretty sure Mr Williams would agree.

Lawrence Zeegen is Academic Programme Leader for Communication and Media Arts (BA (Hons) Graphic Design and BA (Hons) Illustration) at the University of Brighton and is a working illustrator represented by Heart.

Mr Williams has probably retired from teaching.

© Lawrence Zeegen