Long since dead and buried are the days when daily newspapers managed to get by without a single image on the front cover and information was served up solely by typographically designed texts. Today, both in magazines and on the Net, every text and every page has to bear images or illustrations. Back in the 1950s, media theorist Marshall McLuhan noted in his diary that “in 50 years’ time a collection of ad tricks and slogans will be a more interesting read than anything else written during that generation.”
At the 6th Illustrative Festival that opened a few days ago in Berlin you can get a good idea of how illustrators today work, what themes they choose, and how they present them – alongside painting, drawing, installations and animations there are also artworks on paper and book illustrations, and most of them by young graphic designers, illustrators and artists. The objective of not-for-profit “Illustrative e.V.” is to support international illustrators and provide as a platform for them exhibitions, publications and an active network. This year’s show centered on Poland as guest of honor.
Be it more plain, more playful, self-indulgent or cool, be it monochrome or colorful, figurative or abstract, the works that the young exhibitors have chosen to display are on balance surprisingly conventional. (SaS)
6th Illustrative Festival, thru September 8, 2013
Monday to Sunday 12 noon to 8 p.m.
Direktorenhaus Berlin
Am Krögel 2,
10179 Berlin-Mitte
Germany
