Photograph: MOKITA Darryl Clifton / Geoff Grandfield / Roderick Mills
OPTIMISM AND DIVERSITY - A VIEW FROM ICON
ICON10 The
Illustration Conference Detroit Michigan USA July 2018
July 2018 saw the latest incarnation
of ICON10 The Illustration Conference, held in the city of Detroit Michigan
USA. Held every two years the conference has grown in statue to cover 5 days of
conference, workshops and related activities. Of all the growing conferences
happening around illustration it is ICON with its split between both academic
research and the industry that position itself on the crossroads of where
arguably the profession currently resides. Detroit or Motorcity, the birthplace
of Motown was suitably the venue this year, a city that has had its fair share
of economic ups and downs, with the conference split across the two venues of
the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel and Detroit College for Creative Studies.
I was fortunate to speak during the
Educators Symposium at the start of the conference, where once again there was
a growing number of international delegates and speakers discussing how
educators are reacting to the changing nature of illustration, both in terms of
careers, the challenges of technology, but also the social political situations
that illustrators find themselves.
As in the previous conference in
Austin Texas two years ago there was a palpable air of celebration, of a
profession evolving as an ever increasing number of creatives are calling
themselves illustrators. The illustrator Robert Newman likened it to a ‘golden
age of illustration’, with the illustrator no longer confined to the page, and
what we know of as illustration greatly expanded. This diversity of those
moving into the profession was very evident at ICON, with a greater range of
speakers bringing new perspectives to the audience during the 5 days the
conference. There were talks on the reclaiming of images for minorities,
feminist voices in comics, the politics of working in VR, and self promotion
for gay illustrators, all added to great range of topics and agendas that
demonstrates the change of illustration discourse from those of the past that
centred purely on the industry. The illustrator and academic Gil Ashby
commented that illustration is more about ‘a way of thinking rather than
learning a set of skills’, there is a genuine shift for illustration to a sense
of advocacy, that it has an inherent quality to engage with communities beyond
the traditional routes of commercial work.
Alongside this sense of optimism,
conversely the importance of defining yourself from a legal point of view when
dealing with clients or the very software that we use was also pointed out. In
the complex world of corporations understanding the difference between
freelance, contractor, or employee becomes ever more essential - knowledge and
education would seem vital in sustaining a career in the future. Attorney Chuck
Cordes gave one of the most thought provoking talks on copyright and how the
artist/industry relationship is changing, suggesting that illustrators need
greater confidence in asserting one’s rights, and the bargaining power that a
visual image maker inherently has, one of the best professional practice talks
that I’ve heard.
The
energy and enthusiasm of ICON is extremely infectious, they certainly know how
to do conferences in the USA, but on a wider point it perhaps is also
reflective of the buoyancy of illustration worldwide?
Review original published for the Association of Illustrators:
