Editorial Illustration

John Holcroft

Techniques:
. Clean, shape driven imagery
. Flat, possibly digitally produced illustrations
. Uses a muted/restricted colour palette
. Textured effect created using 'a bit of jiggery pokery on Photoshop'
. Screen print style using photoshop
. Similar to 1950's ad's
. Used to work in acrylic paints on boards
. Delivers sometimes complex messages in a simple format
. Easy for everyone to understand

Symbols:
. Messages hidden within messages
. Two symbols/ideas combined to create one whole image 
. Visual metaphors e.g. feeding your ego
. Social issues and modern behaviour drawn in a satirical way
. Focuses on our dependance on technology, society's greed and the devaluation of workers, as well as other topics


















Paul Blow

Techniques: 
."I take a deep breath and stare at the blank page until I force the ideas out or my eyes start bleeding - whichever comes first"
. Writes down lots of words, like a word association game 
. Just draw - doing one thumbnail after another leads to the important creative ideas
. "Just do your own thing"


Symbols:

. Clear and obvious messages communicated through his illustrations
. Simple illustrations with restricted colour palettes
. Digitally produced to make work easier to scale etc
. Not overly detailed but would say there's more detail in these images than the John Holcroft ones
. Combing images to deliver a message also runs through this illustrators work
I really like both of these illustrators, I've been reading a few interviews with both of them and think that reading interviews is something I should start doing with illustrators that inspire me. I found a lot of handy tips and tricks and pieces of advice, as well as getting an insight into the illustrators life and working methods.

I'm excited to get started on this brief, we touched on editorial last year but I found my article really boring and therefore didn't put too much effort into it. Now that the idea of visual metaphors has come into play a bit more, I'm thinking about how we can deliver a direct message to a large audience using word play and imagery in a simple format, and in turn how editorial work may fit into my own practice more. I was starting to figure out at the end of last year that i wanted to try and spread idea/messages/opinions through my work and maybe this is the way to do it!