Hasta La Ideas

A record seven Black Pencils were awarded at D&AD this year, several of them for social or public awareness projects. Here’s our comprehensive round-up of the winners

EdenSpiekermann’s Improving Safety and Comfort on Train Platforms project for NS Dutch Railways won Black in Digital Design. It uses a colour-coded LED strip running above a station platform to help guide passengers to the right part of the train. The strip includes information on the different class carriages, as well as where there are free seats available

Also in Digital Design, Finch won Black for The Most Powerful Arm campaign for charity Save our Sons

No surprise that Volvo Trucks The Epic Split from Forsman & Bodenfors is among the major winners – this time in the Online Branded Films category. The entrie campaign also won a Yellow Pencil

Martin Riddiford and Jim Reeves’ GravityLight powers a light source or other electrical device using the power of gravity. A bag filled with rocks or sand generates power as it slowly falls. It was one of two Black Pencils from the White Pencil category (confused?)

The other White Pencil Black Pencil was for the Terre des Hommes Sweetie campaign by LEMZ. The project reportedly helped identify over 1,000 online sexual predators

In Crafts for Advertising, Dentsu Tokyo won Black for Sound of Honda/ Ayrton Senna 1989 in which the driver’s record-breaking lap at the Suzuka circuit was recreated as a sound and light experience

WAX Partnership’s Calgary Society for Persons with Disabilities 2012 Annual Report won Black in Graphic Design. It is bound with a single, central staple in an attempt to convey the difficulties of living with a disability. This is somewhat painfully explained on the D&AD site thus: “Using the insight that ‘being handicapped is hard’ we decided to make the annual hard to read”. Hmmm

This year’s Yellow Pencils are:

The Mac Pro for Product Design

In Writing for Design, McCann Erickson Melbourne won for Phubbing: A Word is Born, for the Macquarie Dictionary

Serial award winners Bloomberg Businessweek chalked up another gong in Magazine & Newspaper Design for a series of covers

Another much-garlanded project, OgilvyOne Worldwide London’s BA Magic of Flying won two Pencils  in Integrated & Earned Media

And it’s no surprise to see Dove Real Beauty Sketches, by Ogilvy & Mather Brazil, picking up a Yellow in the same category

Ogilvy & Mather’s New York office won Yellow for IBM Datagrams, in Crafts for Design. which visualised stats about tennis matches to be shared on social media

In the same category, Stinkdigital won for Luxottica (Ray Ban) Social Visionaries,

As did hat-trick design for glow in the dark story book, Hide & Eek!

And Barcelona-based Mucho won for Nitsa 94/96: El Giro Electrónico. Here’s how they describe the project: “‘Nitsa 94/96: El giro electrónico’, is a documentary that chronicles the beginnings of Nitsa, an iconic nightclub in Barcelona. We were asked to design a limited edition poster to promote the film’s premiere. The visual idea is based on Nitsa’s famous revolving dance floor that the club once featured. In order to create 150 unique posters, we invented a wooden surface that allowed us to turn the paper in a silkscreen machine, printing on a different angle each time. The posters also have a fluorescent colour dot that refers to psychotropic drugs as well as to the proportions of vinyl records. “

A2/SW/HK won for the typefaces it created for The Independent Newspaper redesign (the newspaper itself did not pick up a pencil, however)

Outdor advertising/Ambient
A Yellow for La Voz del Interior, Life Signs by Ogilvy & Mather Buenos Aires in Outdoor Advertising.a road safety campaign from a Colombian newspaper using real crashed cars

Digital Design
Box, Bot & Dolly
“Box explores the synthesis of real and digital space through projection mapping on moving surfaces. The film documents a live performance, captured entirely on camera.”

Press Advertising
The Sunday Times – Rich List, Grey London

Book Design
Nineteen Eighty-Four, Type as Image

Film Advertising Crafts
Hennessy, The Man Who Couldn’t Slow Down, Droga5

Southern Comfort , Whatever’s Comfortable: Karate, Wieden+Kennedy New York

PETA “98% Human”, The Mill/BBDO

Daimler, Chicken, Jung von Matt

Mobile Marketing
Unicef, Food Photos Save Lives, Draftfcb New Zealand

Natalia Project, RBK Communication

Smart Communications, TXTBKS by DDB DM9JaymeSyfu

Direct

Colombian Ministry of Defence, You Are My Son by Lowe/SSP3

Amnesty International Trial by Timeline by Colenso BBDO

New Museum, Recalling 1993 by Droga5

Graphic Design
Royal Canadian Mint, Heart of the Arctic by Jam3

Amsterdam Sinfonietta posters by Studio Dumbar

Art On The Underground, Labyrinth by Mark Wallinger by Rose

Whitney Museum of American Art Identity by Experimental Jetset

Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, Mind and Movement by Magpie Studio

Digital Marketing
Delta Airlines, Delta Photon Shower by Wieden+Kennedy New York

Dove, Real Beauty Sketches by Ogilvy & Mather Brazil

Packaging Design
Nippon Design Center, Pierre Hermé Paris
“These three designs were created to package the Ispahan, a macaroon that is one of Pierre Hermé’s most well-known pastries. Using a study of hand-moulding, we designed the packages with smooth joint-free curves and a delicate white texture so that they wrap the Ispahan in a fluid, curvaceous body, as if it were made of dough pressed lightly by a single touch.”

Branding
Lidl, Dill – The Restaurant by INGO

“Lidl tried to convince Sweden about the quality in their products. Low price and quality just don’t go together. We built and opened a gourmet restaurant. The British two starred Guide Michelin Chef Michael Wignall was in charge of the cooking. What nobody knew was that ALL food that was used was bought at Lidl, down to the smallest grain of salt. The restaurant, named DILL was open during 3 weeks and fully booked from first day to last.”

Tama Art University, Tamabi by MR_DESIGN
“TAMABI is a nickname for the Tama Art University which is one of the top art schools in Japan. These official advertisements needed to incorporate the university’s slogan ‘MADE BY HANDS’ and principles : the avant-garde, the challenge, and creating something new. We focused on the hand-crafted. We produced many different visuals in a simple format and with a limited selection of motifs. This series consists of about 100 variations. A lot of variations represent the university’s slogan ‘MADE BY HANDS’ and principles. Also we tried to represent the spirit of art and design.”

Harvey Nichols, Sorry, I Spent It On Myself by adam&eveDDB

Writing for Advertising
350 Action, Climate Name Change, Barton F. Graf 9000

Art Direction
Mori Building , Tokyo City Symphony by SIX

Music Videos
Les Télécréateurs, Gesaffelstein Pursuit directed by Fleur & Manu (two Yellow Pencils)

Is Tropical, Dancing Anymore directed by Raphael Rodriguez (NSFW!)

Magazine & Newspaper Design
Series of Moscovskie Novosti newspapers

Crafts for Design
Yoshida Hideo Memorial Foundation, The Beautiful Black List by Dentsu Tokyo
“Celebrating its 50th anniversary, D&AD exhibited successive Black Pencil works together for the first time. We named these collectively as the ‘Black List’ and executed the exhibition’s total design. The main theme is that of the whale. We feel its ability to travel the world without boundaries is equal to D&AD’s unparalleled potential for new discovery.”

Further details (including two radio Yellow Pencils) and credits here

Ireland’s creative community has launched an online archive documenting visual communications in the country. We spoke to designer David Wall about the project…

At this year’s Offset conference in Dublin last month, the three-day schedule featured a range of talks from Irish creatives: photographer Richard Mosse discussed his stunning images from Eastern Congo, Chris Judge spoke about his award-winning children’s book, The Lonely Beast, and street artist Maser reflected on his colourful and thought provoking public artworks. On smaller stages, studios and educators spoke about their creative heroes, getting commissioned and judging good design – and several mentioned the 100 Archive.

The 100 Archive is a website documenting visual communications in Ireland – from illustration and animation to album covers, packaging, identities, exhibition graphics and logos.

The site is divided into two parts: 100 Future, which acts as a rolling record of contemporary professional work in the country and 100 Past; an archive of the 100 finest projects submitted each year, as well as examples of great graphic design and communications dating back to the 1960s.

The project was initiated by four Dublin studios – Atelier, Conor & David, Detail and Studio AAD. Atelier founder David Smith first suggested the idea at AGI Open in Barcelona in 2011, when he became the first Irish member of AGI, followed by Johnny Kelly a year later.

The archive was officially launched late last year and since then, it has received hundreds of submissions: a curatorial panel are in the process of judging the finest projects from 2010-13 for 100 Past, which launches next month, and they have also trawled archives and personal collections for interesting items from the past five decades.

“Ireland has a rich visual culture and history of visual communication,” says Conor & David co-founder David Wall. “Design competitions have played a vital role in the setting and raising of standards, but they haven’t left us with an extensive record of the work done here. The ultimate goal of the 100 Archive is to establish such a record,” he adds.

To submit work to the 100 Archive, creatives pay a 20 Euro fee and their entry is assessed by a professional panel who decide if it’s suitable. The panel is currently made up of Johnny Kelly, Alastair Keady (Hexhibit), Susan Murphy (Ogilvy & Mather), Gillian Reidy (Penhouse) and Eamon Spelmen (Limerick School of Art & Design).

The criteria for submissions is broad, says Wall, and any work that has been produced in response to a commission and led by an Irish designer or created in Ireland, is eligible.

“If the work can be described as any of the following: good, interesting, different, unexpected, simple, modest, clear, well executed, considered, culturally relevant or noteworthy, it can be added to 100 Future,” he adds. If three out of five judges opt to include a project then it is uploaded, and judges aren’t aware of how their peers have voted.

There are local and global awards schemes for Irish creatives who’d like to see their work recognised, of course – some of which are documented online – but Wall says that as a non-competitive scheme, the 100 Archive offers something quite different and is more inclusive.

“As a non-competitive space for showcasing work, the archive offers a celebration of graphic design rather than the exaltation of a small group. Crediting of work is centred around individuals…so as the archive grows, it offers a rich history of the people behind the practice,” he says. “For those at one removed from the day-to-day industry here — whether they’re students or designers based abroad — the Archive [also] provides an overview of ongoing work here,” he adds.

The 100 projects added to 100 Past each year are chosen by an additional curatorial panel, which will change every three years. The current line-up consists of Brenda Dermody, Gerard Fox, Oonagh Young, Linda King and Liam McComish, who have also been responsible for sourcing historical work from archives and personal collections.

As well as its core staff, the site lists a number of ‘founders’ who have made the site’s launch possible through donations. The team has received hundreds of submissions for inclusion so far and Wall says many have dedicated their own time and resources to sourcing archive material. These objects will be launched on 100 Past later this year, says Wall, and include packaging, album artwork and editorial design.

“One of the things I’m most looking forward to seeing is the evolution of the Tayto pack. Tayto is one of Ireland’s longest established crisp brands — their packaging has passed through the hands of many designers over the years so that will make an interesting case study,” he says.

“Another gem that has come to light is Campaign magazine, which came to us from ICAD. They are the oldest representative body for creatives in Ireland and have been working with us to identify projects and individuals of merit from their extensive archive – Campaign was their magazine in the 1960s and 1970s and some of the cover designs are a joy to behold,” he adds.

More recent examples include the cover of U2’s Boy, designed by Steve Averill, which Wall says is one of his earliest memories of graphic design. “I remember being struck by the image on the cassette cover when I was barely older than the boy pictured on it. Steve’s son Jon is also a practicing designer, and part of the 100 Archive community too.”

The 100 Archive is a community project, and Wall says the response to the site has been overwhelming. “At each step, we’ve found more and more people who are willing to help  – one of the exciting parts of the process has been to forge new connections with designers whose work I knew but didn’t previously know personally,” he adds. In the future, he hopes there will be an exhibition of featured work from the 100 Archive, too.

It’s an interesting model and The 100 Archive provides a great platform for the country’s designers to share their achievements, work together and review their practice on a regular basis. The site should also prove a valuable source of inspiration for aspiring creatives, and a useful reference point for designers based abroad.

Images (from top): Dublin UNESCO City of Literature Stamp by The Stone Twins; What Happens Next is a Secret exhibition catalogue by Ciaran OGaora; Insular typeface by Naoise Ó Conchubhair; Le Cool exhibition poster by Rory McCormick and Rossi McAuley; Back to the Start by Johnny Kelly; DIT Masters of Arts programme by Cian McKenna; Ard Bia cookbook by Me&Him&You; David Smith & Oran Day’s artwork for Ghost Maps; Wayne Daly’s Archizines; a 1963 cover of Campaign magazine;  album artwork for U2’s Boy; AGI Open identity by Dan Flynn, album art for Dulra by David Donohoe studio and The Lonely Beast ABC app by Chris Judge. For more info on each project see the100archive.com

Our April issue is a photography special. In it we talk to photographer Nadav Kander abourt his new TV ad for Age UK; discuss the enduring appeal of Henri Cartier-Bresson’s work with the curator behind a new retrospective; and also talk to four photographer’s agents about how they help their artists to make great work…

We also look at how the GoPro camera sells itself and how leanin.org and Getty are to change the perception of women in stock photography.

The April issue of Creative Review will be available to buy direct from us here. Better yet, subscribe to make sure that you never miss out on a copy – you’ll save money, too. Details here.

On top of all that we talk to the client, agency and packaging designers behind the Marmite brand and have reviews of the Richard Hamilton exhibition at Tate Modern, the Muriel Cooper retrospective in New York, and Cape Town’s Design Indaba. At the back of the issue, Paul Belford wonders why it is so difficult to make a great poster for an exhibition.

Opening the issue, our Month in Review section looks at the controversy surrounding the new identity for the city of Amsterdam; spotlights an inventive digital subway poster from Swedish agency Akestam Holst; and examines the story behind the creation of the ‘ultimate selfie’ at this year’s Oscars.

In the columns, Gordon Comstock bemoans the lack of time for outside artistic projects in today’s ad agency culture; Michael Evamy looks at the new ‘inflatable’ identity for Darling Harbour in Sydney; while Daniel Benneworth-Gray dismisses the old ‘work/life balance’ adage in favour of embracing the fact that, as a designer, he has little need for other hobbies.

We also talk to Dave Sedgwick, the founder of the BCNMCR initiative that is bringing designers from Barcelona and Manchester together for another exhibition (work from which appears in this month’s Monograph, see bottom of post).

The features open with our photographer’s agent round-table – Mark Sinclair grills four of the best about just what their multifaceted job entails and how they help to get the best work out of the artists on their books. Plenty of advice for new photographers, too.

Eliza Williams talks to Nadav Kander about his work on a new commercial for Age UK featuring models aged between 0 and 100 – a behind the scenes shot by Calum Head also features on this issue’s cover (see top).

Jean Grogan interviews Clément Chéroux, the curator of a new exhibition on the work of legendary photographer, Henri Cartier-Bresson.

And Rachel Steven talks to CR readers about their experience of the GoPro camera, and looks at some of the brand’s forays into content marketing via video sites and social media.

Antonia Wilson looks at a new initiative from Getty and leanin.org which aims to shift the ways in which women are portrayed in stock imagery.

And we also look at stock trends from the last 12 months – Shutterstock delve into their data to tell us what you’ve been looking for on their website.

In Crit, Adrian Shaughnessy enjoys a detailed retrospective in New York on the work of pioneering US designer Muriel Cooper…

And Rick Poynor takes in two London exhibitions dedicated to the work of British artist Richard Hamilton. Rachel Steven also reports back from Design Indaba in Cape Town.

Finally, this month’s Monograph (spreads shown below) features a selection of the artwork produced for the BCNMCR show, bringing together the work of design studios from Barcelona and Manchester, which opens next week.

The April issue of Creative Review will be available to buy direct from us here. Better yet, subscribe to make sure that you never miss out on a copy – you’ll save money, too. Details here.

With one of the most tragi-comic opening paragraphs to any article I’ve read for a long time, Caitlin Flanagan’s recent story on US college fraternities for The Atlantic also made use of some great imagery, courtesy of Philip Toledano…

The Dark Power of Fraternities is Flanagan’s year-long account of the men’s ‘general’ or ‘social’ fraternities which have been a feature of American campuses since the nation’s founding. The resulting investigation is the cover story of The Atlantic’s March issue.

Far from the beer-swilling cliché of any college party scence in a Hollywood film, fraternities also have “a long, dark history of violence against their own members and visitors to their houses, which makes them in many respects at odds with the core mission of college itself,” writes Flanagan.

“Lawsuits against fraternities are becoming a growing matter of public interest, in part because they record such lurid events, some of them ludicrous, many more of them horrendous.”

Toledano’s images adhere to the familiar tropes of fraternity life – the upmarket casual dress, the mouth fixed in the “YEAHH!” position – but add in a sense of the storm which has long been brewing. Each ‘member’ is photographed engaging in some hardcore drinking, but shot in freefall.

To get the photographs, Toledano apparently used a trampoline to “create a sort of frat-boy ballet” – with the young men spilling drink everywhere in the process. At first glance they’re a funny counterpoint to Flanagan’s dark tale, but seem creepier when you realise that these are characters clearly out of control.

To read the full article, visit theatlantic.com. More of Toledano’s work at his agency Casey’s site, wearecasey.com, and mrtoledano.com.

Dare to Dream by Chrissy Lau (Illustration Ltd)

If you’re a freelance illustrator, you might have thought about getting yourself an agent. But what exactly can they do for you and your work, and how do you go about approaching one? We talked to four agents to find out…

For our recent illustration special issue, we organised a round table discussion with four agents – Helen Rush, director of Rush Agency; Victoria Pearce, senior agent at Illustration Ltd; Caroline Thomson of Arena Illustration; and Claire Meiklejohn of Meiklejohn and New Division agencies. They talked through everything from how they get their illustrators work to negotiating contracts, fees and rights.

In addition to the topics discussed below, the four of them also shed light on new trends within the industry; how agents can help illustrators to manage their own style and exposure and develop a long-term career, whether as a recent graduate or an established freelancer. An edited version of the discussion is presented below.

CR: How do you go about getting work for your illustrators? Do you still place value in showing a physical portfolio, for example?

Victoria Pearce: There’s a whole armoury. When I started out as a junior booker for a photographic agent 20 years ago, it was just based on the reputation that you built with your client. Sending portfolios over by courier, hoping one would get selected. Now you have to be as competitive as you can digitally. You need a well-designed, optimised website backed up with the traditional forms of promotion. We first reacted to the digital age by doing e-marketing and newsletters, but now we’re all aware that people’s inboxes are terrifying things to open every morning – so there are opportunities for print promotions to stand out.

Helen Rush: It’s so nice to see something in a decent format that you can hold and see in print. And the majority of the time it is going to end up in print. But when we show work, it is always backed up with an iPad so people can zoom in and see all the details. And the volume of work on an iPad means we can carry around much more.

Claire Meiklejohn: When you have meetings, it’s also an opportunity for the person you’re visiting to get away from the screen. Your mind becomes clearer as you look at something physical.

VP: I saw a fantastic presentation by a young graduate illustrator, Chris Gilleard, who we’ve recently taken on. He had a small traditional portfolio but then each project was extended by a digital presentation on the iPad – all these long continuous scrolls. But from a purely selfish point of view, with a physical portfolio it was always very difficult to get the edit correct if I was seeing different people. It wasn’t flexible – so the iPad was the answer.

HR: We have loose-leaf portfolios that we change depending on who we go to see, as well as individual portfolios for the artists, then iPads for animations. You can’t do all that on your own though, it’s hard work!

The Diary of Dennis the Menace cover illustration by Steve May (Arena Illustration). Puffin Books TM © DC Thomson & Co. Ltd

CR: How do you actively look for new talent?

Caroline Thomson: In the main, it’s really recommendations from a client – they recommend us to the illustrator. Obviously, we have to love the work, and we might then have a six month trial period and go from there. We also go to student shows; we’ve picked up a lot of people from D&AD’s New Blood, and we have affiliations with certain universities, so we see the illustrators coming out of them before the shows.

CM: The amount of submissions is always tricky to manage, as it’s huge. But you get quick at going through them. You know what you’re looking for, you can tell.

CR: And what is it that? Can you quantify it?

HR: No! It’s a bit like falling in love, isn’t it?

VP: Yes, it’s seeing the work and getting a shiver down your spine. It is like sieving for gold though, because of the sheer numbers we get as a large agency. We have on average over 200 submissions a month through the website.

CT: You have to be really honest as well. We’re a small agency, so we don’t really take on that many people a year, two or three. And we find we have to be really honest, as much as we might love what they do, will we get them the work?

CM: You also might already represent someone similar. And even when you’ve got to the point where you like their work, what’s their personality like, what’s their background? We talk to our illustrators a lot, the relationship is absolutely crucial.

CT: And you have to learn about how they work. Even how long it takes them to do a piece of work. It sounds obvious, but it really is true – it’s important that you know that, so you can tell the client.

CM: We’ve been representing some of our illustrators for over 15 years. But every new person we take on, in my mind, we’re still going to be repping them in 15 years. It’s long-term.

Vogue Portugal cover by Nuno DaCosta (Illustration Ltd)

CR: Can we talk about fees and rights? What factors determine how you work out these aspects of a project?

HR: Yes; exposure, territory. And the client budget.

CT: It’s all based on the exposure of that image. Is it worldwide, or just regional?

CM: So it’s actually a lot of factors, and while it’s probably very simple for us because we do it all the time, unfortunately a lot of independents fall into not necessarily knowing how to price things.

HR: I think they just lack the experience. When I was training someone in pricing things up, we both wrote our figures down and I’d say, ‘Well I don’t know how I got to that’. But it’s experience, it really is. Having a feel for what you’re doing.

VP: A younger freelance illustrator might just be flattered to be asked to work. But they aren’t thinking of the bigger picture: that the client wants to work with you specifically because they like your style in order to sell their product. The illustrator is part of that selling, that promotion and so there’s a value to that. And you need to be very careful about that value. A really useful point of call can be a membership with the Association of Illustrators (AOI) who have a telephone hotline. They are there to help you specifically with costing as part of the membership.

CT: I was part of the pricing survey that they did recently. In the members’ section online it gives you examples of certain parts of the industry; like ‘a book cover on somebody else’s book with a UK publisher’ and there’s a fee bracket for that. But rights are changing so much, with ebooks and audio downloads – an image might now be on the audio account, too. And most publishers are now also thinking about worldwide usage, as many of the big publishers are global.

CT: So many clients say to me, ‘We will retain the copyright’. But it’s not theirs to retain, it’s the illustrator’s, it’s their intellectual property. And in the majority of cases, when an illustrator comes up with their own characters, backgrounds and scenes, it’s their IP, their copyright. So it’s only for the client to buy, or make use of – they can’t retain it.

Watership Down by Al Murphy (Agency Rush)

CR: For those thinking about working with an agent, could you sum up what it is you look after for an illustrator? And is there an ideal time to work with one?

HR: It’s about supporting somebody and developing a career. When we take new grads on, that’s what we do – show them what to do and build a portfolio.

CM: Generally speaking the portfolio they come in with is not the one they’re going to work with, it needs to be produced into a commercial portfolio. The right samples and subject matters are crucial. But most important are the fees and the contracts.

CT: Yes, knowing always to ask for money for something – not to do free work, on the whole.

CM: Some people seem to think that if they do work for free this time, they’ll be paid next time. And we’ve all been in the industry long enough to know that at the moment you do it for free, that means you work for free! That will carry on.

VP: We probably take on fewer graduates as we like people to be a couple of years out of university – to have come out with these high expectations, spent a year getting them dashed. So they’re starting to market and promote their own work with clients, and managing the process. But one important piece of advice would be to separate yourself from your work – see it as a business and create a business plan for your work over a year or two years. By separating your creative from yourself you can see it objectively and strategically.

CT: After two years they’ll probably have a better idea of whether their work is selling, for a start, but also they might be getting to a point when they’re really quite busy. And that’s the problem with illustrators – the busier they are the fewer clients they are able to see. And that’s when an agent is really handy, because we do the business side of things and they can get on with being creative.

CM: Yes, if you’re at the point in your career when you’re very busy, that’s the other area when we come into our own as well. Lots of people presume that if you’re really busy you don’t need an agent because you’re getting the work in. But actually that’s exactly when you do need an agent.

HR: I remember one of our artists getting a great job but they weren’t used to pricing. He said, ‘Oh I’ll do it for a couple of thousand’. We got him £68,000. That’s a life-changing amount of money.

VP: There can be a perception with agents that we can be unfriendly, that we’re the bad guys, but we’re not, we’re here to facilitate and help everybody in the process. And, hopefully, make everybody happy by negotiating the best deals all round. Us then invoicing clients frees illustrators up. And it can be hard to chase up that client who might well be the same person who commissioned you.

HR: It’s quite easy for us to ask for more money; it’s sometimes very different to ask for more money
for yourself.

CR: What else can new graduate illustrators do to get their portfolio into shape?

CM: You need to know where illustration is being used. Go into WHSmiths, look at the editorial – that’s how to develop your portfolio. All the work you’ve done in university should be about honing your skills. So the briefs you’ve responded to aren’t necessarily enough like ‘real life’ – you need to know your market. The easiest way is to be commissioned, but you can set your own briefs. Look through a magazine and find an illustrated article, that’s your real life brief. Set yourself ten from ten different magazines, then you’ve produced ten pieces of work for your portfolio which are as ‘real’ as you’re going to get them.

CT: Many new illustrators don’t think about the end-user and I think that’s because of what’s happening with illustration courses at the moment: because of the situation with the fees you’re getting a lot of students who perhaps would have done fine art being pushed into illustration, because it’s deemed commercial. But it’s not commercial unless you want it to be commercial; it’s as ‘fine art’ as you can get it if you want. College is a great place to experiment, but if you want to go out and get work then you do have to think, ‘Who’s going to buy my work?’

HR: And push yourself – don’t just pick the safe and easy magazine articles to work from – be tough with yourself so your work is always moving. Remember it is a rollercoaster. Even the busiest illustrators have quiet patches.

Claude the Lion by Sean Sims, designed for the Queens Jubilee celebrations through the Greeting Cards Industry Show, PG Live (New Division)

CR: Finally, have your own opinions on what illustration is – and can do – changed over the years you’ve been in the industry?

VP: I think there’ll always be a place for illustration because what it offers is a unique identity to clients and brands. They want something very distinctive.

HR: And you can work with anybody from anywhere in the world.

CT: I still think of it as being the most basic, most fundamental communication tool out there. It is specifically designed to communicate an idea, sometimes with text, sometimes without. But in the most simple and graphic terms it’s an amazing tool.

VP: With the rise of digital media, I felt some of the magic and the art was being lost in photography. With illustrators, still working by hand, I could see the art was there. I’d love to see more use of fashion illustration within an editorial context, though – to one day see a return to an illustrated Vogue cover, if there’s an art director out there who’s got the balls to do that. In fashion photography there are a lot of fantasy images but some of it is too objectifying, there’s too much retouching. Looking at illustration, I know it’s pure fantasy. It has a sophistication.

CM: When someone uses illustration it just stands out from the crowd, from editorial through to advertising. It’s the medium that is going to grab your audience’s attention.

The full round table discussion was featured in our February 2014 issue – an illustration special, available to purchase here. For more details on each of the agencies featured and the illustrators on their books, see Agency Rush at agencyrush.com; Arena at arenaillustration.com; Illustration Ltd at illustrationweb.com; and Meiklejohn and New Division at meiklejohn.co.uk and newdivision.com