Abstract

National Illustration Competition, November 2006 ISBN 978-0-9515448-9-1.Two illustrations selected for the Association of Illustrators 'Images' publication. This is the only peer assessed (jury selected) sourcebook for illustration in the UK. Judges for Images 31, included Angelo Ferrara, Art Director at Wolff Olins, Steven Heller, Art Director at New York Times Book Review and Co-chair of the MFA Design Department at the School of Visual Arts, New York, Izhar Cohen, Illustrator, Paris, Nathan Gale, Art Director at Creative Review, John Hamilton, Art Director at Penguin Books and Anita O'Brian, Curator at Cartoon Museum. The Images competition is an open competition attracting a huge number of entries from professional illustrators. The ‘Images’ publication is in its 31st Edition (2007) and is seen as an important survey of the best contemporary illustration practice. The work selected was made within the context of the publishing market and is part of a new body of work produced during 2005/6. ‘Ships That Pass’ is a work from a series which considers established infrastructures that become accepted, unquestioned parts of our lives; in this case the relationship between the US and UK stock markets. The work employs the conventional imagery found in financial magazines but aspires to subvert subject matter which has traditionally provided an outlet for commissioned illustration work. ‘Ships That Pass’ was also selected for the publication Freistil – Best of European Illustration 3 (2007), from an open competition for illustrators. The second illustration ‘Kiss on the Lips’ is derived from the premise of creating a visual response to the digital communication phenomenon of ‘emoticons’. These visual symbols which use text to create pictures enabling communication through mobile phones and email, seemed appropriate source material and analogous to the illustrators role in creating images in response to text.