No prospect for illustration major? Many students studying illustration design also questioned the natural light with their soul: "Can we make money as a freelance illustrator? Can we really support ourselves only by painting. These problems are very realistic, but for artists, illustration never stays on the surface, and it is far more useful than you think!
No prospect for illustration major?
Because there is no so-called boundary between different kinds of art, so is illustration design. Cross border has already become the most exciting art development trend. With the improvement of science and technology, the application field of illustration is also growing, and its industry extends from traditional print to more industries. The following natural light will see how they collide with illustration from the four fields of graphic design, photography, architecture and clothing.
Illustration poster design of Oscar film Parasites
Graphic design × illustration:
Although it is often alarmist to say that the era of traditional paper media is coming to an end, from the perspective of the future development space of graphic design, although paper media has been impacted to a certain extent, it will not be replaced, at least not now.
In other words, whether it is a book or a magazine, its integration with illustration will only inject more fresh blood into the publishing industry.
Italian Vogue January
Let's take the January issue of the Italian Vogue in 2020 as an example. This time, Vogue broke the tradition of using fashion blockbusters as covers and chose to create in the form of illustration instead of photography. On the one hand, it is a new cross-border attempt, and on the other hand, it is a counter attack to the problems of resources and environmental pollution arising from magazine photography with practical actions.
One of the covers invited Vanessa Beecroft, an Italian artist who had worked with Kanye West, and she was famous for her ability to create illustrations in a variety of media.
Photography × illustration:
At the moment when smart phones are highly popular, almost everyone must go out. In addition to the basic chat and Internet access functions, functions such as taking photos and P charts are more foreign. It is a thing of great interest to record life with photos and make a new dynamic.
For photography and illustration majors, there is a higher level of play. To put it simply, based on the ready-made photographic works, it can be re created in the form of illustration, from hand drawing to board drawing. recommend: What is documentary photography? Three street photography masters take you to feel the unique artistic charm
The following picture is the work of Lucas Levitan, a Brazilian illustrator from London, who calls himself the "photo intruder". His works satirize the real world with a humorous tone, which can make the viewer feel that the photos are reborn.
There is a self description on his personal homepage:
“I’m an illustrator today, filmmaker last week,photographer last monthand art director last year.A new cycle might start again soon.”
With the introduction of different identities, his works have more possibilities. At the same time, his careful observation of life also makes his works blur the boundary between the real world and the illusory space, which brings us multiple experiences through a single picture.
Architecture × illustration:
When it comes to architecture, it generally refers to physical buildings that we can see and touch. For physical buildings, the most common cross-border form is wall painting.
Lin Congran, an architect in Taiwan, is a versatile designer who has stepped into urban planning, architectural interiors, and art curation. He cares about human-oriented space interaction interpretation, and is also keen on public welfare. He has participated in the public welfare art project "Coloring for Love" for many times.
"Liyang Museum" by architect Lin Congran
This time Lin Congran came to Gaoyou Primary School in Guangxi Province. In order to create a perfect wall painting, he invited his old friend, Chuck Lin, who is far away from the United States, to participate in the work, hoping to combine the artist's personality with the architect's rationality, and present a unique and appealing wall painting work.
The two have already had the background of cross-border cooperation murals for many times. This time, they combined Dong cultural elements into the painting, mainly two fish symbolizing yin and yang. The overall picture looks vibrant, expressing gratitude for the gifts of nature. They hope that Dong children can live as lively, lively and full of vitality as fish.
Wall painting of "Fish Boy" in Guangxi Gaoyou Primary School
Through the form of wall painting, the two cross-border artists not only gave one wall a new look, but also brought colorful colors to the local children.
In addition, most students majoring in architecture are familiar with various 3D modeling software, and students majoring in illustration are also very capable of 3D composition. Therefore, it is very popular in the market to use conceptual illustration of architectural scenes for 3D modeling and rendering.
Specifically, it can be modeled by software and integrated with stroke effects and texture materials with illustration elements; Or three-dimensional the completed two-dimensional illustration effect picture, and finally create the concept scene illustrations with different atmosphere through different light combinations and perspective choices. The effect will be more burning and explosive than simple architectural design drawings.
Clothing × illustration:
Clothing is the best choice for cross-border cooperation with illustration, whether from the perspective of fabric or modeling design, and is also the most common form of cross-border integration among professionals.
For example, Uniqlo, the famous "co branded maniac", is best at combining the creation of illustration designers with different styles to produce different series of clothing works, which are loved by the market and users.
Not long ago, UNIQLO announced that it would launch the first UT series jointly designed with Japanese popular singer and illustrator Mijin Xuan.
UNIQLO x Mijin Xuanshi Co branded Cooperation
This time, Mijin Xuan created an original illustration role exclusively for UT, and combined his photography works into the clothing design. He also personally supervised all the printing art creation of this series to ensure the perfect combination of his bold style of illustration and photography.
UNIQLO x Mijin Xuanshi
There is also the "Kaws co branded series clothing" that once led to the nationwide rush. Kaws is an American fashion artist who started from graffiti on the street. UNIQLO has cooperated with Kaws for many times, and every time the cooperation fund is sold, it will attract fans and eventually lead to a difficult situation.
UNIQLO × Kaws
Whether it is "Uniqlo × Mijin Xuan Shi" or "Uniqlo × Kaws", the co branding of clothing mostly takes T-shirts or other clothing formats as the carrier, and gives clothing "new life" through printing patterns with interesting illustration elements. It has to be said that after this form of creation, the sense of art design is really stronger, and the marketing model is also commendable.
In addition to classic cartoon images, there are many cases of cooperation between major clothing brands and illustrators. For example, Radio Woon, an illustrator from Malaysia, created his own virtual partner LALA COMPANY.
Over the years, LALA COMPANY has been constantly changing its shape and movement, but the only thing that has not changed is its long mouth and big eyes.
Image of LALA COMPANY
Adidas neo Radio Woon Series
This time Adidas neo launched a cooperation invitation to Radio Woon, which is also the first time Adidas neo tried to cooperate with illustrators.
The illustration style of this series of clothes can be tasted in detail. They are all characters newly designed by Radio Woon:
Adidas neo Radio Woon Series
Through glasses and mouth, it is not difficult to find that Radio Woon still retains his strong personal characteristics when painting, and the character modeling and movement are full of fun, which also fits the sports style represented by Adidas neo.
To sum up, in addition to freelance illustrators, there are many career paths for illustration design majors. With the development of mobile Internet, illustration can be associated with any product and form on the Internet, including UI design, interaction design, web design, etc. You should know that the possibilities of art are limitless, and interdisciplinary and interdisciplinary integration is also the general direction of teaching and research in major foreign art colleges. Whether you want to study illustration or other art design majors in the future, you should first start from your interest. At the same time, don't forget that this is an era of integration of disciplines and fields. From top universities to famous factories, you attach great importance to the comprehensive ability of talents~
More employment prospects related to illustration:
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