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SOME EDITORS know exactly what they want, some know roughly what they
want, and some just want the space filled by whatever I can come up with. In all
cases, it’s a question of reading the feature that the illustration is to accompany – if
it has been written yet – or, at least, reading a synopsis of the story. The question
then becomes: how do I tell this story in the most economical, effective way?
Illustrations inside a newspaper or magazine provide visual interest on the page,
and it’s to be hoped that readers will have the time and inclination to explore them
and examine them at leisure. These images have to relate to the story, of course,
but since the readers will have the illustration in front of them while they’re actually
reading the text, we can assume they have a fair idea of what the piece is about. So
the image can allude to the text, pulling out ideas and references within the story
and adding a twist to it.
Cover illustrations are a different matter. They’re not so much works of art
as advertisements for the publication. The reader won’t have any idea of what
The editor’s
initial sketch
My rough, showing a
different viewpoint
I N T E R L U D E
Working to a brief
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the story is about, save for a teasing headline, so the illustration has to grab their
attention: it must be simple, it must be direct, and it must get the point across as
economically as possible. There’s little room for extravagant embellishment. A
cover has to be taken in at a glance.
The same often goes for illustrations that open a magazine spread. They have
to tempt the reader, to give them enough visual stimulus to make them want to
read the article. The example below right was for a Reader’s Digest feature on
placebos – the fake pills that nonetheless have a beneficial psychological effect
on the patient. The idea was a simple one: a handful of pills made of glass, so it’s
clear that they contain nothing of medical benefit. Of course, there’s no reason
why the illustration can’t be beautiful as well as informative, especially when the
idea (this one came from the art editor) is as clean and impressive as this. The best
illustrations are usually those that start with the simplest ideas.
Often, an editor will provide a rough sketch, and equally often, that rough will
need to be reinterpreted. The image below is about Swiss gold, and was a cover for
the Italian news magazine Internazionale. Below left is the editor’s original sketch:
a bar of chocolate with the word ‘Svizzera’ (Switzerland, in Italian) written on it. I
realized that the text would be unreadable upside-down, and that the image would
look more dynamic with some perspective; so I produced the quick rough of my
version of the image in return. Once this was accepted, I could then go on to
complete the finished artwork.
The finished cover
illustration
Placebos: the pills that
aren’t pills
How to Cheat in Photoshop CC
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How to Cheat in
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