Some thoughts concerning illustration

Lawrence Zeegen - Creative Review (March 2012)
Where is the Content? Where is the Comment?
http://www.zeegen.com/index.php?id=307

The phrases 'contemporary eye candy' and 'mere nothingness' make a comment on how contemporary illustration can sometimes have no meaning or message and is just there to look pretty. Is meaningless work undermining the foundations of illustration? What balance is expected between a concept/message and the visual aesthetics of a piece.

'Its all about the materials, rather than the message.'

'Its all about design doing rather than design thinking.'

'Style over content'

'Function following form.'

Are illustrators trying to make their work appeal to a different group of people by choosing aesthetics over concept and idea? Is it possible that their work purely based on aesthetic will attract more people than work with a deep rooted concept? Are we more drawn to something that looks pretty because we register the beauty of something before we can establish its meaning?

Zeegen states that illustration is in danger of becoming a 'cottage industry' and claims that it is 'unable to peer over the fence at a world outside its own garden.' This suggests illustrators are keeping themselves to themselves too much and not keeping their discipline as broad as they should be. How can it move forward? This statement in particular has pushed me to keep up to date with trends in other areas of the creative industry to ensure my work stays relevant to people outside the world of illustration. 

Where is illustration heading? Illustrators are becoming more independent and business focussed and therefore less reliant on commissions. They are increasingly setting themselves their own briefs and are more focussed on selling personal work and products.