keefcontextualstudies

[keefcontextualstudies]

the future of illustration

The Future of illustration

This was one of the lectures that I was unable to attend in person due to a leg injury, though I was able to pick up the main threads through talking to other students and looking at the handouts.

While it’s only in my late thirties (and now early forties...argh) that I’ve formally studied illustration, I’ve always been interested in it, and been fascinated by trends, and seen things I like come in and out of fashion, so in a way, my best guess about the future is that the trends continue being cyclical, but that technology will continue to blur the boundaries between traditional and digital art/illustration; it already feels like an entirely natural step to tweak even a traditional painting once it has been scanned into a PC - even if only to make the on screen image more close;y resemble the original artwork as it appears on paper.

I’m writing this blog post during lockdown during Covid 19, so the question prompts of how the industry will change or develop feels particularly pertinent right now. It was something that ever student would have to address anyway, but Covid 19 and social distancing makes it more important than ever that work we create is not reliant on its physical, tactile properties if it’s to work. Perhaps translating those elements to a screen, and actively working to make a digital image appear tactile, is something that will be more in the forefront of minds as we work with little prospect of original artwork being in somebody else’s hands. Practical measures like applying heavy, textured gesso to paper and scanning and overlaying artwork are tricks I like to use to counter the gloss of a digital painting, or even to put back texture after a cheap scanner fails to capture the level of detail I’d like.

The industry itself - again, especially during and post Covid 19 - seems like a harder thing to predict. Realistically, for me I think it’s going to make it even more difficult to start out as a freelance illustrator; other lectures, quite rightly, mentioned how social events, private views, book launches etc are excellent places for networking and making contacts, and that when potential clients have a face to put with a name they are more likely to remember you. Depressingly that feels a long way off right now, and that’s before thinking about the economic landscape. It’s perhaps a cliche, but also a good idea I think, that I’ll intend to use this uncertain time to just keep making work that’s representative of the type of work I want to get.

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Illustrators and their methods of self promotion

The illustrator and cartoonist David Squires has been a big influence on me in recent years (although so far only in quick sketches I’ve done to make a joke on social media rather than things I’d consider my actual work, though it’s an area I want to explore more, using humour and making more stuff where the humour is as crucial as the image)

David Squires’ presence on social media and method of communication was interesting to me, because it was only after having this task that I realised that I realised that it takes conscious effort for his voice outside of his cartoons to be identifiably the same as his voice within them; I’m sure that on his personal facebook page, and away from the internet as a whole, he has a more varied voice, but his tone of voice on Twitter would make him identifiable even without the accompanying images or his name - his use of self deprecating humour, sharp wit turned on himself as opposed to football and the cast of real life characters he lampoons are clearly the same. Even when linking to prints for sale, he casually, sarcastically describes “a chance to own an original cartoon, complete with my spelling mistakes, crossings out and all the things I thought were a good idea when I drew them at two in the morning”; this strikes me as a good case of knowing his audience, football fans and comedy fans who have a good ear for bullshit and wouldn’t respond well to pretension. This works really well for him, and almost uniquely for the normally hellish comment section of The Guardian, the comments below his weekly cartoons are almost always unanimously not just positive but full of love and respect - there’s a real sense that he’s one of us, but just happens to have been sat up all night weaving the weeks events in football into a genius piece of humour.

His working relationship with the guardian means that the guardian gives him a platform to advertise his series of books, which collect his cartoons from the guardian itself, and the more recent two consist of original material.

This works great for him, but the tone of voice would be almost completely out of place for the other illustrator I looked at, another big influence on me but in a completely different way. Paul Shipper is an artist and illustrator who creates beautifully detailed artwork for movies and tv shows, very much in the vein of the illustrated movie posters of the 60s 70s and 80s, which declined in popularity in the 90s but are now having something of a resurgence. Even as I admire his work for films I like and would aspire to create work for (Star Wars, Blade Runner etc - yes, I am an old geek who never grew up), I’m struck by the way he brings the same quality to artwork made for films which its hard to imagine he - or anyone - has much affection for. When promoting his artwork on social media, he avoids the sarcastic or humourous tone adopted by Squires, and is for more earnest and talks about the privilege of working for movie studios, and hope much fun he had creating the projects - he seems to have an army of fans, though due to what seem to be rights issues, he rarely sells prints directly to fans, as often they are created exclusively for movie studios and film magazines etc. He regularly talks of being excited to “finally” be able to share art he’s created, which suggests that he has to put himself in context as part of the publicity drive for a movie, with his art being in support of that, rather than the art being a thing in its own right - he will rarely, if ever, post a personal project on social media unless its something from years ago as part of his willingness to support young artists in their development.

In everything he posts, he comes over as being professional and friendly, which as I think about it seems likely to be a choice to allow him to be attractive as a person for studios and magazines to work with - he may well be every bit as funny/sarcastic as Squires in his spare time and on his personal pages, but this choice to have a less prominent voice and let his art (and the movie) speak for itself works well for him. In the light of the earlier lecture by Louise, this makes me think that I really do need to have two diferent social media presences, not just due to the differing styles I work in, but because of the clash of tone of voice that’s possible if I dont make a distinction between my styles

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Here’s a few initial images that kind of begin to show how the aesthetics of a football club can become part of the club’s identity, and how a failure to engage with that visual identity can undermine the sense that a club’s owners/custodians understand what the club means.

Every year, around June, fans of the club start speculating about the “new shirt” - most of those people will have no interest whatsoever in actually wearing a replica shirt, but what’s important to them is that the visuals of a kit, and in particular specific designs unique to one club, manage to say something about what the club actually *is*. The shirt with the red braces is held in high regard, not because it is associated with a successful era at the club, but because its unique design gave the club something that was theirs alone, unlike the generic kit designs a lot of smaller clubs have. In the image below, you can see a recent shirt design that was created as a (rather half hearted) homage to the much loved seventies classic above. Similarly, the other unique design shown above is the kit with the V, the chevron. This design is close to the hearts of many Orient fans because of its association with the footballers from what was then Clapton Orient, who fought and died in the First World War (as shown in the commemorative illustration above by Grimsby Town supporting illustrator Proffit Paine), and when Orient’s new ownership launched a commemorative kit for the centenary of the end of the War, it solidified the idea in many fans minds that the new ownership understood the club’s identity and history - in the image of the new version modelled by Orient club captain Jobi MacAnuff you can see that it has been designed with the history of the club in mind, and in particular the badge used back when the club were known as Clapton Orient which also utilised the chevron. In contrast, in the image with the gambling company “energybet” as shirt sponsor, which was taken during the last season under the ownership of Francesco Becchetti, you can see that the shirt itself is a boring generic design (and is in fact a boring off the peg template shirt you can buy without badge in sports direct for a tenner if you were so inclined) and doesn’t say anything interesting at all about the club’s identity. While I’m initially more inclined to focus on the politics around football and its place in the community, the more I start to think about it, the more I realise that the visual identity of a club is crucial to the way fans relate to it, and there are areas of this that I intend to explore further.

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Just the one image here for now - I want to do various themed posts containing images that get into the visual culture surrounding football, but this image does a really good job of illustrating what the club means to people across generations. This was taken on the pitch at Leyton Orient just after the club won a play off semi final, coming from behind, to secure a place in the final at Wembley, giving them the chance of promotion to the first division for the first time in decades. This couple were life long Orient supporters, who joined thousands of fans (me included) who invaded the pitch to celebrate at the final whistle. For a club that doesn’t have much success, this was a magical moment, and in the months and years of chaos at the club that followed, this image in particular, more than any images of players or replays of goals, grew to symbolise what the club meant to people, and what it was we were fighting to preserve

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First blog

Hope it’s OK to write informally here for now, I guess I’m seeing blog posts as the equivalent of thinking aloud at this stage, before developing my thoughts further and exploring.

Initially, I’m just going to discuss the reasons I’m interested in the subject mentioned in my abstract in the earlier post, and (perhaps lesss confidently initially!) how I feel it relates or can relate to visual culture and illustration, and then to outline some initial thoughts for who I might approach to interview about the subject, and how I might present a body of work at the end.

So, why do I want to research and write about this subject? I should start really by clarifying that I’m pretty rubbish at being a football fan - when time, money or even potential enjoyment is scarce, going to watch live football is the first thing I’m likely to drop, and I’m not really tribal - if Leyton Orient lose, any disappointment is usually gone by the time I get to a pub with friends afterwards. I don’t want to overstate it or anything, but the 90 minutes of football, and the final league position is maybe the least important aspect of football for me. What’s always been most attractive about being a Leyton Orient supporter has been the sense of community and belonging, and the sense that smaller football clubs like Leyton Orient are able to engage in and help to create a sense of community in a way that bigger clubs aren’t.

For a long time in my 20s, I perhaps took it for granted quite how much of my social life was completely entwined with the community around Leyton Orient, and how much the club cultivated that sense of being involved in the community. I could (and will in future) go in depth on this, but a brief overview of the scope of this is everything from standard, predictable things like being able to participate in football skills courses as a child, through to the gloriously surreal and sadly defunct Leyton Orient Message board, which was one of the most surreal, but funny and warm (while occasionally combative) communities on the internet between 1999-2004ish, and which related in me personally making several life long friends, but is also responsible for the existence of at least 5 children due to the formation of marriages between people who met on the board, and most meaningful to me, of the club allowing my friends and I *free* use of their 8000 capacity stadium to host annual fundraising football matches and gigs in memory of my friend, a fellow Orient fan who died of cancer at 28. When I talk of being an Orient supporter, it’s these things that are important to me, while the football itself is often the dull hour and a half in an otherwise pleasant Saturday.

The importance of this idea of a football club as crucial to a community was further enhanced in my, and in every Orient fan’s mind, when the clubs existence was put in doubt after the club was purchased and then run into the ground by Italian alleged billionaire, Francesco Becchetti, and when the fans had to fight to ensure we still had a club to support. I won’t detail the decline of the club under Becchetti here, suffice to say that three years after the takeover, the club had endured two successive relegations, had had 11 managers in three years which was as many as they’d had in three decades before, and players wages went unpaid for weeks. While Leyton Orient were rescued when Becchetti was eventually bought out, the conditions that allow unfit owners to take over and asset strip football clubs of great community value are still there, and the English Football League, the body that ostensibly runs the competition, have not addressed this issue in a way that provides any protection for clubs who are being predated on by potentially dodgy owners. Several football clubs have been put in the same position as Orient since 2017, and at least one so far has wound up as a direct result of bad ownership. Behind every club that faces closure, there is a community and people who rely on the club not just for entertainment for 90 minutes a week, and for tribal support of their team, but who rely on their club for real, tangible benefits to the community, and I think that’s something that people aren’t widely aware of - even fans of premier league teams seem baffled by fans of lower league clubs, so I suspect that we’re a mystery to those with no interest in football at all.

So that’s why I want to write about and research this subject. Who do I want to talk to? At the moment I’m just thinking aloud, and some of this list will be filtered down as I narrow my focus, and I would be amazed if all of my ideal world interviewees were able to speak to me, but some initial thoughts are - the former chair of the Leyton Orient Fans’ Trust, Doug Harper; Jonny Davies, who was responsible for Leyton Orient’s fan engagement immediately before the takeover by Francesco Becchetti, and who has gone on to work for the Premier League; Lindsay (I think) Duncan, who worked unpaid to make sure that Leyton Orient could still function as a day to day concern after Becchetti allegedly stopped paying wages and financing the club; ideally a representative from the EFL to allow them to put forward their position since I am likely to be very critical of them; James Nichols, editor of the fanzine “The Orientear”, the longest running football fanzine in the country, and which is responsible for an annual tournament between fans of lower league football clubs; Tom Davies, guardian journalist and lifelong Orient fan and former editor of the Orientear, David Squires, football cartoonist for the guardian who writes with wit and real love about football and its fandom; if possible I’d like to talk to some of the parties who were directly involved at Orient during the Becchetti era - players, a manager, etc, and will research into contemporary accounts from those who were involved. I’d also like to talk to fans of all ages, who can talk about what the football club means to them. It’s my intention to then open the subject up to look at an overview of smaller clubs in general that have unique places in their communities. At this point my intention is to focus on clubs in the football league. I’m also aware of the rising prominence of women’s football, and at this stage my intention is to view women’s football within the context of the football clubs, rather than as separate entities.

Finally for this post, I’m really excited by the potential of presenting my findings and my essay in a way that really evokes traditional visual aspects of football; programmes, tickets, retro kits, sticker albums, things like subbuteo, even video games which have developed at such pace that football related video games from just ten years ago can look nostalgic; I also want to meaningfully look into the ways that football’s place within a community relies on visuals, and a symbiotic understanding of a visual culture and identity of a football club

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Abstract

I will write about the value of lower league football clubs in their communities over several generations, the threats to their ongoing existence, and the ways in which communities have protected and fought for their local clubs as well as exploring the politics, aesthetics and visuals that help create their identity. I will initially focus on Leyton Orient as a case study, before broadening the scope to look at a range of football

I will speak with representatives from supporters trusts, fanzine writers and artists who have worked for or been influenced by football and its place within the community. I will argue that the importance of smaller, community football clubs is grossly underestimated by those running football, and the press.

I intend to collate my writing and related visuals into a format that adopts many of the visual cues associated with an interest in football, and which evokes nostalgic/fetishised paraphernalia associated with football, or, informally speaking - I’m going to make something that looks and feels like it could have been bought by a football when when they were attending a match as a child