career talk : Let’s talk about a little thing caled “style.”
illustration by valeriy kachaev
As an advertising agency art director, I would select illustrators based on what they did best. I was familiar with their body of work, by either in print or promotional pieces I received. And I still do that. I look for illustrators with a consistent personal voice that is unique to them and echoes in all their work.
I get asked many times about style, and why having one singular style is so important. My answer is illustration is a hard sell compared to other creative mediums. With photography we would always either find something in magazines, or actually shoot an image to show to a client, that way there are no surprises. With illustration I would talk about my choice of illustrator, their work and build a good story on why I selected them. But even I didn’t know what the illustrator would come back with, so there’s a leap of faith that an art director takes when suggesting illustration. And an even bigger leap of faith taken by the client. Having multiple styles complicates the matter even more. Illustrators shouldn’t want someone to select a style among a variety of styles. There are illustrators with multiple styles that have been quite successful, but that’s rare.
When we look at fine art, we recognize a Cezanne, a Van Gogh, a Paul Klee, a Jasper Johns, a Cy Twombly because the body of the work is consistent, especially in their mature work. Those like Picasso continued to explore new directions, but even then, the later work was always recognizable as his and his alone. Or take the late Brice Marden a painter who continued to explore new avenues of mark-making and painting.
In the words of jazz great, Charles Mingus, “Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can play weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
How then do illustrators like Pascal Staub at Grafilu operate with a multitude of different styles? After twenty years he’s been quite successful offering art directors many choices. He says, “I think that I don’t have as many different styles, and that the ones I have do reveal, at a second glance, that they are created with one mindset and only one pair of hands. I understand however, that people who come across my work are surprised at times, that one illustrator offers a variety of styles. Although people have told me ‘You cannot do that’, I knew from the beginning that this was right for me. My passion for illustration and my interest in graphic design inspired this way of working.”
Asked about who selects the style for a project, Pascal answered, “Usually when I am presented with a brief from a client, I think how to visually best solve the problem at hand. If the client and I see that an existing style from my portfolio would be perfect for the project, we will look no further. But often, the specifics of the project and the client’s background, inspire a new solution, and guide us in developing a suitable style for the project at hand. The developing of a new style however always happens within parameters that must feel right to me, which are set by my interests, tools and skills.”
And what happens when an illustrator tires of his style?
Many illustrators have for years done the same type of art, never really modifying it and still remain successful. However, I’ve personally seen more than several go in totally different directions, either reinventing themselves with something brand new or going back in time to an earlier way of image-making. One example is UK illustrator, Nishant Choksi who for over ten years had a singular style (one primarily computer generated) and tired of doing the same thing, and spending so many hours in front of the computer. He pulled out his work from university which was brush and ink on paper and returned to his roots. With the shift he gained a number of new clients in America but with the change lost the majority of the ones in the UK. So, there’s a risk of moving away from something that commissioners are buying.
And what about those coming out of school today without a singular style? How does that style arrive? A Brooklyn-based illustrator, Kim Salt looks at style as the unintended byproduct of a ton of influences and thousands of drawing hours. Her advice, “Consider what are the things in your everyday life that fascinate and fulfill you or a thing you find yourself obsessing over and when you draw this thing you lose all sense of time because it’s so fun to draw.” Kim also points out that the arts and media including the work of other illustrators you like are also things to immerse yourself in. To create a unique point of view she advises you remix all these influences, “The greater the number of influences, the less it will look like you’re ripping off another artist,” she concludes.
And on the importance of a singular style, Folio artist rep and YouTube’s Illustrators Guide moderator, James Hughes points out you can certainly have multiple styles, and you can get work that way, however “People won’t remember you because you don’t have a signature style that becomes popular”. In essence he says you won’t become famous. He doesn’t discount illustrators who have multiple styles but cautions those artists that they will lack notoriety. He makes the point of difference between a singular, popular style and artists with varied styles, “The work of a famous artist might not work for everybody but the ones it resonates with will love it and love the artist.” Though in the words of Andy Warhol, “Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.” Or follow the advice of children’s book author and illustrator Theodor Seuss Geisel, Dr. Seuss, “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”
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