For almost 15 years now Google.com has been occasionally replacing its standard colourful corporate logo with the, so-called, Google Doodles, "the fun, surprising, and sometimes spontaneous changes, done to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists". Looking at a large archive of these images (often interactive and animated, especially in the last 3-4 years) I'm wondering what Illustration Daily and our contributing illustrators could learn from this on-line phenomenon and what Google could potentially learn from us? 

“A telling shift in the way newspapers discuss content is the way in which photographs are now more often described as images.” This opening statement by Chris Elliot in his commentary in the Guardian immediately caught my eye. The article very interestingly analyses the issues around stigmatisation through images, a serious subject for illustrators. But also it touches upon how photography is performing more and more the role of illustration.

The students of Cyprian Koscielniak, a member of our editorial board, are presenting an exhibition Illustration 57 from 15th till 26th of April 2013 at the Minerva Academy in Groningen. The opening is on Friday, the 12th of April at 16.00, Praedinussingel 59, Groningen.

See also article in NRC Handelsblad (Dutch only) >

Gain more insight into contemporary illustration, get enlightened by world famous speakers and extend the discourse around image making for your Spring Holidays!

For those of us that are not familiar with Varoom, this is the magazine from the Association of Illustrators in the United Kingdom. It is a quarterly publication - more newspaper than glossy - where in-depth articles, features and portfolio’s are published dedicated to illustration. This is one of the few magazines where you can actually find information and points of view that are beyond the usual promotional blurb or image-porn. With this I mean more than just pretty pictures that forever hope to inspire clients to commission or other illustrators to copy. This is a magazine that takes the practice and culture of illustration serious.

During one of my many research trips online and in libraries I came upon this article by James B Carrington, written in 1905 for The Collector and The Art Critic.

In this still very readable article he is promoting the editorial illustration as a valuable and unique contribution to magazines. How true and how valid still! Though I fear perhaps the working climate might have changed somewhat.

My research in editorial illustration in new media pushes me to look out for interesting formats and new usage of the ‘illustration language’ and editorial usage of illustration in digital media platforms. This being a rather long title for what I call online illustration.

‘It’s still a search with mixed results and great projects are few and far between’.  But every time again, I get drawn to the Canadian National Film Board and the interactive projects they produce: NFB/ Interactive.

Many magazines and newspapers have created an online or app- version of themselves, but the amount of magazines created in a digital format from the start is increasing. Often, illustrations are placed next to the accompanying text, just like in the paper versions. But digitally published magazines give illustration so many more options to explore.

As one of the editors at Illustration Daily I often see editorial illustrations that - though beautiful - are not able to communicate much beyond what they depict. What could have been a good illustration is now ‘just a picture’, in other words: it's to be ignored. Sometimes this is simply because the image is not strong enough, but all too often it's actually the flip-side of a core quality of illustration: the ability to connect to the reader. But this is a thin line. If an illustration is too specifically connected it means no-one but that one reader understands the picture, but on the other hand if the illustration is too general no-body cares.

Let me show how a great illustration walks the line.

Imagine you had to make the illustration that represented the world, an image for an audience of spacefaring extraterrestrials as part of a welcome pack to planet Earth.

Today I revisited a famous image that is just that, the famous image of the Pioneer Plaque.

The AOI Illustration Awards are accepting international contributions in the category Editorial & Social Comment and other categories. Deadline: 28 February.

Transmediale is a longstanding annual festival/conference in Berlin where computer technology, new media, freedom of information and social change are at its heart. Here the concerns of illustrators are very much addressed. Mind you, not directly - most of the attendants or speakers wouldn’t know an editorial illustration if it bit them - but if you listen, it’s not difficult to place illustration within this context of technology, engagement and media and in turn see the potential of these ideas to expand the illustration-horizon.

Let me present three of the ideas I heard and how they are relevant to (editorial) illustration.

Can my illustrations change shape when it rains? Can they respond to my whistling? Can they look slightly different in the morning or in the evening? Learn how to control the elements of your illustration with the movement of the mouse pointer, make them clickable, draggable, scalable, react to the live sound from a microphone or image from a webcam, adjust to the current time of the day, randomly change colors, generatively develop into another drawing or composition, or even visualize the actual weather conditions outdoor!

In 2013 BNO Amsterdam and Illustration Daily organizes a set of hands-on trainings in interactive illustration, starting in March with an intensive programming workshop.

In a time where the printed newspapers and magazines are losing out to the online editions, and readers still believe that online content should be free, the publishing industry is in dire straits and is forced to drastically cut their spending. Where editorial illustration a few years ago was seen as 'the bread and butter' assignment for illustrators, today the illustrator will count him or herself lucky to get an assignment at all, even for half the pay. With cutting out these expressive yet insightful eye-catchers, magazines might save money, but they lose out on a powerful tool that attracts and persuades readers.