The death of illustration?

Question

Will Illustration die from the ever increasing acumulation of stock illustration? Mainly traditional, but also other forms of illustration, suffer, in my opinion, from clip art/internet stockpiling of an illustrations/photos of every possible event that are free, or libraries/achives of illustraion at advertizing companies. Is there any hope?

Answer 1

There has been clip art, available, almost as long as the print industry has been in existance.

All that the proliferation of such art, in the net, has done is to increase the illegal use of copyrighted artwork. A couple of things prevent your, so called, "death of illustration."

Much of the "free" stuff available, on the net is of poor quality, either because the illos are junk, or, because much of it is in too low a resolution to be of much use, except for limited website applications, and, most of those sites are rarely viewed but for a pitiful, poor few.

The other reasom I think my job is safe is, because good clip art is, still, relatively rare, the best images are used again and again ad infinitum. It's gotten to the point that I can often look at an advertisement, logo, or other corporate identity piece, and I can name the exact collection from which it originates. In my town, alone, I have seen the same little guy in checked pants, wearing a chef's hat, carrying a tray of spaghetti, used as company logos, phone book and newspaper ads and on the sides of catering trucks all over the place.

The problem with most clip art is that it LOOKS like clip art.

I admit to using it when the client cannot afford an original illustration. (I charge plenty for that) However, I will attempt to make the clip art more of my own by making some modifications. I may make the character thinner, add or modify a piece of clothing, combining two separate images to create a new one.

You also have to understand that there is a level of client who, not only, insist on original artwork, but can recognize a clip or stock image when they see one. It's one of the reasons that a high end Art Director will be a college graduate, with, at least, a BA, if not a MFA degree.

I'm looking at my shelves and I see about a half dozen, legal, clip art collections and, nearly, twice as many stock photo discs. I still own dozens of line art, hard copy clip art books, suitible for scanning. Between these, my subscriptions to other stock image sources and my own talent for drawing, I can keep my current and future clients happily within their need and their budgets.

Answer 2

Totally agree, fewer clients than ever are prepared to pay for illustration or photography, I don't think it will die because there are and always will be markets for both, for example, automotive and fashion businesses, where product changes every year or season and exclusivity is vital to the brand identity. There are examples of publishers using the same stock photograph for books.