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BRIEFS FOR ILLUSTRATIONS come in three basic varieties. There are art editors
who will send you the copy for the article in question, and wait for you to come up
with a visual idea to accompany it. There are art editors who will work out the idea
on their own, get it passed by the editor, and sometimes even supply a rough sketch
of what they want. And finally there are editors themselves, who will insist on the
first idea that pops into their heads and expect it to be turned into a work of art.
I have nothing against newspaper editors. Many of them are charming
individuals who are great conversationalists and probably make outstanding
contributions to society. But they frequently lack the ability to think in visual terms.
One of the illustrations I’m frequently asked to create is a montage showing a
politician taking money out of someone’s pocket (this usually happens around
budget time). I pause, take a deep breath and explain patiently that the problem is
that newsprint technology has yet to embrace animation. There’s no difference, in a
still image, between a politician taking money out of someone’s pocket and putting
money into it. This has to be explained with great tact, of course, since ultimately
these are the people who pay for my children’s designer footwear.
It comes down to a question of what’s desirable, what’s visually interesting and
what’s humanly possible. The purpose of an illustration in a magazine or newspaper
is to draw the reader into the piece and to make them want to read the article to
which it’s attached. It should express the sense of the article without giving away
the punchline, and without prejudging the issue (that’s best left to the journalist who
wrote the story). An illustration in a printed publication is not a work of art; it’s an
advertisement for the story, and its job is to sell the story to the reader. Sometimes –
at the best of times – it can be a work overflowing with artistic integrity and perfect
composition. But if it doesn’t relate to the story in question (and make that story
seem interesting) then it’s failed to do its job.
Those taking up photomontage for the first time frequently fall into the trap
of piling on evocative imagery in the hope that the result will be poignant. I’ve
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The point of illustration
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seen student artwork that incorporates a baby, a flaming pile of dollar bills, a
nuclear explosion and a McDonald’s wrapper within one image. Look, they say,
all human life is here: it must mean something. But this is the visual equivalent of
Tchaikovsky’s 1812 overture with added reverb and a drum’n’bass backing: the
cacophony simply prevents us from seeing the meaning.
Labeling, above all, is to be avoided at all costs. The days when you could depict
Uncle Sam wearing a hat with Government printed on it rowing a boat labeled
Economy while tipping out a handful of urchins labeled Unemployed rightfully
died out in the early 19th century – and yet illustrators are still asked to label their
artwork today. I nearly always refuse, unless the wording can be incorporated into
the image in a meaningful way. The destruction of a building bearing the sign
Internet Hotel seems, to me, to be a reasonable request; the sinking of a boat
labeled Fair Deal does not.
When you execute an original idea successfully, you can confidently expect to
be asked to reproduce it within a few months. I’ve drawn cakes for the 20th birthday
of Channel 4, the 10th birthday of Sky television, the carving up of Channel 4, the
first birthday of satellite channel E4, and the 50th birthday of ITV – all for the same
newspaper. I’ve blown up computers, telephones, televisions and video recorders,
and I’ve tattered the flags of at least half a dozen of the world’s top blue-chip
companies. And I’ve completely lost count of the number of company logos I’ve
pasted onto the backs of poker cards.
The hard part is keeping each new version as fresh as the first. I’ve often made
the mistake of assuming that readers will find the repetition of the same idea
tedious: but it is a folly, for the stark truth is that readers of publications cast barely
a glance at the image that an illustrator has sweated blood over. Illustration, for the
most part, is simply the ephemeral wrapping that’s discarded once it’s done its job
of selling what’s inside.
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