Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Rant: Illustrations in magazines
Response
Watching all the presentations today about early magazines, I realized that I really miss illustrations in magazines. I almost feel photos have been overused by all the fashion magazines, and don't really have any impact anymore. The Vogue covers were really creative, drawn by real artists. Even the sketches inside the magazine were terrific. There were still photos in the magazine, but only in the articles that called for them. I think the problem with illustrations today is that every is so caught up in the Illustrator world, a lot of the skill has been taken out of it. It still is effective, but when you see all the cartoonish illustrations that appear in most magazines, it's just not at the same skill level. Eventually, everything looks polished and clean, but to a layman, it's just another computer drawn art effect.
I thought if I were in charge of a magazine, I would try to hire some really talented illustrators that did not depend on the cartoon style and really let that dominate the magazine. Two magazines I can think of now that still do a tremendous job at illustrations are the New Yorker--by FAR the best magazine covers around-- and Texas Monthly, which devotes a lot of its art space to illustrations. They do have the cartoony drawings though. Man, I wish the charactecture was never invented :-p
Watching all the presentations today about early magazines, I realized that I really miss illustrations in magazines. I almost feel photos have been overused by all the fashion magazines, and don't really have any impact anymore. The Vogue covers were really creative, drawn by real artists. Even the sketches inside the magazine were terrific. There were still photos in the magazine, but only in the articles that called for them. I think the problem with illustrations today is that every is so caught up in the Illustrator world, a lot of the skill has been taken out of it. It still is effective, but when you see all the cartoonish illustrations that appear in most magazines, it's just not at the same skill level. Eventually, everything looks polished and clean, but to a layman, it's just another computer drawn art effect.
I thought if I were in charge of a magazine, I would try to hire some really talented illustrators that did not depend on the cartoon style and really let that dominate the magazine. Two magazines I can think of now that still do a tremendous job at illustrations are the New Yorker--by FAR the best magazine covers around-- and Texas Monthly, which devotes a lot of its art space to illustrations. They do have the cartoony drawings though. Man, I wish the charactecture was never invented :-p
// posted by teresasanserif @ 1:56 PM 
