“A picture paints a thousand words” - Frederick R. Barnard
An image can tell us a story from the early cave paintings to the modern day photo. It is a way to communicate a narrative of a story and make people feel emotions towards the images. When you look at an image I could tell you a different story than what an image tells me, it is all in how we interpret it.
Some people believe that the cave art that dates back to the Ice age tells the story of human exceptionalism. In this picture, I interpret as the humans are trying to spear/kill the animals for wood or for their skins.
When we combine a set of images together it tells us a story. For example through these photos, you can see the woman is thinking about going somewhere nice on holiday.
However when we juxtapose images such as changing one or changing the order, we can create a new story or narrative. Now instead of a happy experience of a holiday, the narrative is the woman is sick in hospital.
We looked at a few different illustrators and their work, some of which I cover in my pocket profiles such as Marion Deuchars illustrative work in children’s reading and activity books, her own clothing brand and many other things. I also had a look at the iconographic work of Vic Bell and how she creates icons which can be scaled to use at different sizes. Both women’s work is very inspirational especially for this module.
We also looked at the illustration work of Irish author Paddy Donnelly. Having grown up on the north coast, the tale of Finn McCool and the fantasy of the Giants Causeway is what inspired his writing. He now works in Belgium as an illustrator and designer as well as continuing to write and illustrate children's books.
One of my favourite illustrative pieces is the dyslexia beach, capturing beautifully how children with dyslexia then to feels. While all the other kids can spell the word raft the little boy of the beach sits and struggles, not knowing where to start and starts to get left behind. It is such an impowering piece which people with dyslexia can relate to as well as people in lots of different situations.