Beyond boundaries; illustration futures

"Art = Design = Art...? The boundaries are not so clear now. I would like to make them much less clear." Gaetano Pesce, 1988 In the collection of essays in Design without Boundaries: Visual Communication in Transition, 1988, Rick Poynor explored ideas around the blurring of boundaries between the disciplines as authorship within Graphic Design became more commonplace. With the advent of digital technology and the information revolution working practices have increasingly moved towards hybrid practice and a multidisciplinary approach - Designer as author, designer as entrepreneur. In an age when the image is all-pervasive, and the consumption of images via the Internet accelerated, the popularity, or awareness of illustration has blended into the everyday of visual culture, enabling accessibility for illustration, whilst making it harder to stand out amongst the noise of the Internet. This paper intends to explore recent developments within illustration practice that has continued this blurring of definition, questioning what it actually means to be an illustrator today, and what it may entail tomorrow. It is no longer the prerequisite of the illustration graduate to set up as freelance, sole practitioner, but requires a broader approach, in an age where careers are non-linear and life long learning necessary to evolve one’s creative practice. ‘Today it is routine to see illustrators who have produced self-directed work: books, comics, and saleable goods such as clothes, posters and assorted objects. These outcomes have no direct clients, and rely instead on the urge for authorship amongst illustrators. In these times of dwindling budgets, clip art and the decline in editorial commissions, the authorial instinct is no longer a choice for illustrators - it is a necessity.’ Adrian Shaughnessy in Making Great Illustration, Derek Brazell & Jo Davies. London A&C Black. The aim of this paper is to explore the importance for illustration to be viewed as an expanded field of practice, both in terms of artistic practice and the development of research in the discipline.