In search of the right illustration
Let’s continue our journey inside the colorful and imaginative world of illustration, trying to figure out where we can find the best illustrators or even just the most suitable ones for our projects.
Meanwhile, it must be said that the situation in the last ten years has changed a lot: some digital showcases have resisted, while others have lost subscribers, in favor of social networks, especially Instagram, which has emerged as a kind of social portfolio where you can show your work.
With this article we will travel through the platforms, sites and socials where the world’s best and most original illustrators can be found, because whenever we need an illustration for one of our projects we need to know that we have at our disposal a truly impressive variety of authors and styles. For those who like original projects, there is nothing better than commissioning images from a professional illustrator.
Behance: the great worldwide portfolio of Adobe
The Behance platform has been around for fifteen years, and for those no longer as young as me, it was the first real window on the world, both to show off to others, but more importantly to see how work was being done in other countries and on other continents.
The platform was acquired by the giant Adobe in 2012, and since then it has strengthened even more its position as the global benchmark for a certain kind of visual creativity.
Behance is a platform where you show your work, placing it in a kind of portfolio that can be liked and receive comments from other members of the community. Thanks also to its essential and functional graphics, it is a perfect place to showcase one’s best work.
The community has its strength in the curatorship by Behance’s editorial staff, which daily goes in search of well-done, original and amazing work to show among the “features”-being selected means showing your work to thousands of people all working in the creative industry.
In fact, the community consists of designers, artists, students, but also agencies, art directors, art buyers and is visited by many international clients.
Through the search page you can explore this colorful world to search for your favorite illustrator. You can find a little bit of everything there, but mostly realistic illustration, including 3D, concept art and character design for video games, images used for products, campaigns and visual identities. The type of illustration that is most appreciated, by the Behance community and editorial staff, is digital, well-finished, sometimes glossy.
If you are looking for the latest trends in digital illustration here you are in the right place.
Showcases for illustrators
Hire an illustrator has been active for a decade or so and collects the portfolios of many illustrators, mostly English-speaking. Illustrators must pay a membership fee to be featured.
Altpick and The Ispot have been active for many years and although they have a rather sparse graphical interface, they are very popular in the US.
In fact, all these services are leaving more and more room for illustrators’ personal sites and especially their social profiles. An example for all is the site of Magoz, a highly regarded illustrator, followed not only for his brilliant images, but also for a very useful newsletter and a constantly updated blog.
Social networks
Established illustrators, students, up-and-comers, and amateurs vie for our attention by posting their artwork and works on social newtworks.
The most popular is definitely Instagram, whose interface encourages the viewing of illustrations, even previously published ones, creating a very welcome portfolio effect. Facebook is interesting as a narrative of the profession, but less effective for showing the portfolio. Twitter is especially important for those who produce images related to current events and issues of the moment. Pinterest is probably one of the easiest tools for those looking for illustrators: by collecting images in one’s boards it is possible to create collections that can come in handy if we commission illustrations, but also as a source of inspiration if we are illustrators ourselves.
Trade associations for illustrators
Each nation has its own illustrator association that has a site with members’ work. Which ones are the most important, in terms of image quality?
Here they are:
- the historic American Society of Illustrators based in New York City,
- the British l’AOI, Association of Illustrators,
- in Spain there are at least five.
- In Italy it is called the Authors of Images Association, changing its name a few years ago (before it was called the Illustrators Association), seeking a merger with the world of comics.
The European Illustration Forum (EIF) website contains links to all European illustrator associations.
Competitions and annuals
The profession of illustrator is very competitive: there are competitions, awards, annuals (i.e., annual selections, precisely) to try to enter if you want to stand out and be noticed in a market that is increasingly large and full of capable artists.
The most coveted competition as far as the world of periodicals and publishing in general is the annual awards of the Society of Illustrators in New York. In recent years, the World of Illustration Award, organized by the British AOI, has grown in importance and number of entrants. Other important awards for the American market (perhaps the largest market for illustration in the world!) are the Communication Arts,competitions, that of the Society of Publication Designers (SPD) Print magazine, and those of 3×3 magazine. Children’s illustration has in the Bologna Children’s Bookfair catalog its most important competition with the most coveted prizes.
Sites on illustration
There is no shortage, as in all areas of creativity, of sites and blogs about illustration. Some give advice to those in the profession, others search, select, interview and showcase the best or most original illustrators of the moment.
Sites of the first type include, among the best internationally:
In Italy we find the highly followed Le Figure dei Libri (dedicated mainly to picture books), Roba da Disegnatori and Ad un tratto.
Sites of the second type, that is, which are based on the work of illustrators, have the problem that they all end up resembling each other, because it is increasingly difficult to find original artists who produce images that are truly different from the multitude of styles in the world’s grand bazaar. Wanting to take a very broad view of illustration, these sites tend to be varied, confusing and repetitive, though always colorful. My advice is to peruse and browse them a lot especially if you are just beginning to learn about this world of creativity and unbridled imagination, over and over again daily, so as to enrich your visual culture.
Internationally I would like to point out, among the most important and long-lived sites, also in terms of talent selection and search capacity:
- Illustration Age, a kind of blog on American illustration
- Ape On The Moon, which for many years has been operating a selection of modern illustrators with an original style
- Nobrow, which also produces books and magazines, mixing illustration and comics, and in the last decade has become a reference for a nu-folk style that has influenced so many illustrators
- the Italian Picame.
Portals where to find creatives
We have already mentioned Behance and the specific showcases for illustrators, but there are other platforms that connect creative professionals of all types and from all countries, at any price, with the demands of the market These are platforms with lots of members, so the professional level of illustrators is not always the highest. In addition to platforms that offer principals the services of professionals in various creative fields, such as Freelancer.com, Upwork and Toptal, illustrators assiduously frequent:
- Deviant Art’s community (one of the earliest born on the web, more than two decades ago, and among the most active especially with regard to a certain type of comic, amateur, non-commercial images)
- Dribble’s and Krop’s well-organized portfolios, which provide visibility for their work
- do not disdain communities based on pitches and competitions of ideas such as 99Design.
