Abstract

The Independent has a daily circulation of around 100,000.
A continuing series of editorial illustrations produced over the last three years which accompany some of the most high profile commentators and journalists writing in this country including Andres Whittam Smith, Owen Jones, Robert Chesshyre, Christina Patterson, Tim Lott, Julian Baggini, Mary Dejevsky, Peter Popham, Mary Ann Sieghart, Rupert Cornwall, Sebastian Faulks, Steve Richardson, Dominic Lawson, Laurie Penny, John Kampfner, Michael Bywater Matthew Norman, Gordon Brown, Griff Rhys Jones Howard Jacobson, Will Self and many others.

The articles are opinion pieces and often relate to contentious or difficult issues. The continued fascination and interest for me is to produce an illustrated outcome which conveys an appropriate message in a given context. Appropriateness of tone and appreciation of the audiences interpretation determine the success of the illustration and it’s the functional role. As a methodology the production of these works and the critical feedback I receive informs each of the subsequent works and is the basis for my research and its application.

As such I’m interested in the formal and working relationship between the written content of the articles, usually opinion pieces, the illustration itself and the headline. The image text relationship both visual and conceptual is an important strand of my engagement with the subject and academic teaching.
The formal constraints offer a useful construction for debate and exploration of issues around perception and reading of images in a design context.
The working relationship between an art director, writer, illustrator and editor, provides a useful grounding to explore working in collaboration with other creatives.

As part of my research interests editorial illustration works produced for this newspaper have been entered and selected for inclusion in juried open competitions.