Ralph Steadman is a legend – legends are often those that have been around for a while and Ralph goes back to the 60s and probably earlier with his illustrative work.
Let me just get the introduction out of the way as I just want to talk about Ralph’s fantastic mastering of pen and ink.
Steadman is renowned for his political and social caricatures and cartoons and also for illustrating a number of picture books. Awards that he has won for his work include the Francis Williams Book Illustration Award for Alice in Wonderland, the American Society of Illustrators’ Certificate of Merit, the W H Smith Illustration Award for I Leonardo, the Dutch Silver Paintbrush Award for Inspector Mouse, the Italian Critica in Erba Prize for That’s My Dad, the BBC Design Award for postage stamps, the Black Humour Award in France, and several Designers and Art Directors Association Awards. He was voted Illustrator of the Year by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1979. – Wikipedia
I have admired Ralph’s work for such a long time, from my teens when I was drawn in (so to speak) by his amazing expressive visuals, often grotesque, always confronting, rarely pleasant and more often disturbing – but that’s where the beauty lies – there is a freedom in his expression and an amazing use of pen and ink – the lines themselves do most of the talking, the serendipity of a spatter – his use of space – his somewhat over use of line to then to allow for quiet with fewer lines – it has a sense of volume – an amazing and an eccentric illustrator/artist.
On to more modern design, design that is seen everywhere and on the chests of many people is the explosion of T-Shirt art – well, when I say explosion, T-shirt art has been around for more than several decades now – starting out as under garments the on to the 60s where it became the standard dress of the youth with their tie-die experiments, through to the 70s and 80s where they became a personal billboard that expressed the opinion of the owner, through to the 90s and 00s where they seem to express more about peoples personalities and attitudes.
We are now seeing design and illustration explored in depth through applications to Ts and some of the best examples of illustration adorns them – sometimes irreverent, sometimes whimsical, often humorous and always engaging.
There are many T-shirt companies that are reaping the glory with all this glorious illustration that is being generated by talented image makers. One such company is Threadless from America – certainly worth visiting for inspiration next time you want a T or want to create for a T.
T-Shirt design from Threadless
This video features a launch for a range from a art group called Black Rock Collective – with plenty of their examples filtered through it.
These playful, dynamic and expressive illustrations (the first 3 illustrations) would find a place in today’s design world, and in fact you can see their influence on several illustrators today. These are illustrations are from a Russia set of placards, illustrated in 1923.
We have a fascination with the early 1900 design and art world and their relationship with the birth of modern visual design. throughout this blog we will bring to you several examples of work from this period – without a computer in sight, this work is all hand crafted and painstakingly prepared for print – it truly is an inspiring time.
Below these 3 examples from “The Russian Avant-Garde Book” are 2 examples from the work of illustrator Craig Fazier (USA) created in 2008
We just love the way design can be so effective at expressing humour, in particular, with irony and subtly – take these images from Glennz T-Shirt range. Find their full range at store.glenzz.com
