“A picture is worth a thousand words”
The ability to convey a message through visual elements is crucial in design. Using illustrative means to inform your user can make for a much more engaging and enjoyable experience rather than having the user just reading text. The main way this is achieved in design is through the use of icons, however, to be able to design icons requires a knowledge of the wider lens of illustrative design.
Andre Carrilho is a illustrator well known for his critical political works. His work has been featured in some of the biggest magazines and newspapers around the world, such as the New York Times, and Vanity Fair. One piece of Carrilho’s work I really like is his depiction of how the West treated ebola deaths. The piece features multiple beds with people infected by the ebola virus, which is represented through the decrepit and wisened look of the figures. All but one of the figures are black, and left alone, while the one white figure infected is surrounded by journalists reporting on the figure. This is a really effective way at showing how western media single out those from their own culture with a disease, while not reporting the many more than have died who are not from their culture. While morbid, I do really like this illustration as it’s a great way at showing the injustice.
Marion Deuchars is an illustrator well known for her loose, hand drawn style and use of hand written typography. I really like Deuchars hand lettering work, as while it would appear to go against the idea of illustrative design by using words, Deuchars manages to bring a whole new expressive style to the words through how she writes them. Her use of various weights, sizes, and styles create expressive images formed from words which convey ideas through simply their appearance, with the actual words acting as a secondary to how the word is presented. I particularly like Deuchars “Google Trends Galaxy”, which is a map of the UK drawn in words which were search trends in the area that they are in on the map. The way the lettering is stylised to fit the word is really fun and interesting approach which creates a dynamic and comedic map, in a way that reminds me of a more expressive version of Paula Schers written maps. Overall I love how Deuchars manages to achieve expressive illustrations through just the utilisation of words.
Macin Ignac is a Polish programmer and designer whose works mainly focusses on data visualisation. Ignac used computer graphics to represent data often in abstract forms. I particularly like his visualisation of the worlds Sea Transport Network form 2011. This project uses tracing a paths taken by transport vessels to create webs of visual data. I think what I like most about this project is that it works on a number of levels. Firstly, to the uniformed the shapes created are visually interesting and unique looking, but with the knowledge that the shapes formed represent data it brings a whole other level to the work even if the data is somewhat unimportant. I really like this way of forming shapes and images from data, no matter the importance of the data. It makes the otherwise abstract shapes and form have a logic and structure which makes them feel important.
I’ve never really considered the importance of illustration in design. While I knew there was a connection, this week has allowed me to see how the two are connected I feel I understand the importance of utilising illustration especially when it come to representing information. Overall this has been a good first week and I look forward to exploring illustration further in the coming weeks.