The Power of Illustration
Whether you use your hands to explain how something works, or sketch a quick map for a lost traveler, you’ll try to illustrate your thoughts more often than you think. There’s a reason we’ve heard this saying many times: “A picture’s worth a thousand words.” What may take multiple paragraphs to explain may be shown quickly and accurately in a diagram. What may be more humorous as a cartoon may be awkward as text.
In our line o’ work, we enjoy simplifying elements to convey a simple message. We also love to explore details that paint a vivid picture or provide a visual experience that oozes personality. Award-winning illustrator Shirley Hughes said, “The illustrator fills out the characters with details not always described in the text.” She goes on to note, “it was the Strand Magazine illustrator Sidney Paget...who gave the great detective [Sherlock Holmes] his deerstalker hat.”
As much as Lewis Carroll was a master of imagery, he seems to admit through his own text, “And what is the use of a book without pictures or conversation?" (asked by Alice in Alice in Wonderland). Hughes goes on to point out that “Carroll's story has been permanently linked in the common consciousness with John Tenniel's unforgettably dreamlike and sometimes unsettling illustrations. Images like these in the books we grew up with lodge as firmly in our memories as the stories themselves.”
Is there a message you want to broadcast that could use some clarity? Do you want your message to “lodge firmly” into the memories of your prospects? Consider the definition of illustration: An example serving to clarify or prove something. Need some illustration? We’re illustrators. :)
-Corey Wilkinson, Wilkinson Brothers, Inc. |