[Sara Gómez Woolley]

In a few sentences discuss the article. Consider questions like:

What does Hendrix Define Illustration as?

What does he mean when he calls illustration a “powerful, profound, and unpretentious shaper of our visual lives” ?

Be sure to read eachother’s observations BEFORE posting your own. ITS A DISCUSSION. :)

• This topic was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Sara Gómez Woolley.

[Jasmyn Cooper]

After reading the article, I feel like the work I’m trying to do in the future has a much bigger purpose than just being cool to look at. Hendrix defines illustration as communication. Every drawn image, no matter the style or level of detail, is made to convey some kind of message, and those messages are more of a part of our lives than we think.

[Yimei Han]

The illustration is not just an image it’s an image contains a story. It’s a way to communicate. Illustrators can translate messages to images. They can express themselves by their drawings. As people become more visual, images could make people understand things faster and more efficient.

[Laura Wong]

Hendrix defines illustration as powerful tool for communication and he believes in the power of images. I agree with Jasmyn and YiMei on how they say illustration conveys some kind of message or has a story to it. We don’t draw something out of nowhere, we draw something because we have a concept or an idea of what we want to express to our audience. These images can shape anyone’s imagination and allow creativity to flow. Like the English idiom: “A picture is worth a thousand words.” which mean the image itself is conveying a deeper meaning than what it looks like.

[Savannah Hendrickson]

Hendrix describes illustration as something that is more than just art and images. He describes it as a form of communication that tells a story. Therefore, illustrators are storytellers who have something to say. When Hendrix called illustration a “powerful, profound, and unpretentious shaper of our visual lives,” what he means is that illustration can influence the way we view life. It would also have an strong impact on our imagination and help us create more ideas.

[Jenny]

Hendrix define illustration as a communication through images or media or styles. He also defines as a storytelling. When Hendrix calls illustration a “powerful, Profound and unpretentious shaper of our visual lives, He means that drawn images have the power to shape an imagination and show us what we don’t want to see.

[Isabella Gomez]

Hendrix makes some really interesting points in this article. From reading it, I have a better understanding of the role that illustration plays in our lives.

Illustration serves as a sort of story telling mechanism, it is a means of communication that is more inclusive and accessible. Artists show their view on the world and their perspective, things that we would not see if it were not for this medium.

Illustration is beautiful in that it can bring comfort in times of distress, and give hope. It continues to inspire and invoke thought.

[Yong Wu]

It’s very interesting to read the translation parts in the article because it happened in my real life. Someone told me that do not introduce myself is the freelance graphic designer, which means you are unemployed. Illustration is a powerful tool to translate our visual into meaning, The article talks about the visuality, Hendrix quotes that “My colleague D.B. Dowd, who spoke at ICON6, said it this way:
“Visuality is the currency of the 21st Century.” I totally agree with this statement, nowadays we are living in a technology world, visibility equals credibility, and we now have social media to help us to promote the visibility and sell our value on the Internet, which is the free and easy way to develop our reputation and create our marketing value. According to Hendrix, he states illustration is “powerful, profound, and unpretentious shaper of our visual lives,”, and yes, people are easily catch attention to the graphic instead of text, and hence, we are addicted in social media, video games and television, and people can’t live without it.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Yong Wu.

[Alex Victoria]

The way Hendrix speaks on illustration brought up some very interesting points about us as people/artist and our pieces or work. Illustration is used as a means of story telling and communication with everyone. He makes it an understanding that everything can be used as fuel to help you make something that can be put back into the world. The best thing i read from this piece was when he mentioned culture and said “Do NOT let people tell you that this stuff is pop-culture, this IS our culture.” Everything is for everyone and with every new person something new can come from it.

[Edward Alston]

A part of the article that stuck out to me was when Hendrix said that “Illustrators should define themselves by their communication and collaboration with their culture. Be proud of that. You are a contributor.” It makes me think of a cycle where you can’t have one without the other. Illustrators collaborations with their culture help contribute to their culture which then helps shape another person’s imagination or relay a message to the viewer who can then illustrate something based on what they’ve seen which then starts the cycle again and it goes back and forth. Plus with digital media making it easily accessible, it can reach even more people who can feed off those ideas and help contribute to it.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 7 months ago by Edward Alston.

[Garnet Garcia]

I laughed out loud at the different ways of describing an illustrators job, mainly because I related to it a lot. I love the point about “visuality being the currency of the 21st century” because now more than ever everything we see is visual. Despite moving away from more traditional form of media like newspapers and physical magazines, those things still exist on the internet we spend most of our day on ON TOP of things like social media, video games, movies and shows, and even fashion. Both in class and in the article, the idea of “illustration = communication” was hammered home multiple times, because when someone sees an illustration they see a story, an idea, a character, a concept. I actually shared this article with some friends who are also aspiring to be illustrators because it defines not only what we do but our place in society as “tangible contributors”.

[Timothy Dennis]

What I got from this article is that an illustrators job can take on various forms. Hendrix defines an illustrator as someone who creates culture through the use of images. Hendrix describes the many effects that a visual image created by an illustrator can have on people from being able to “to shape a young imagination” to being able to shape the course of human history. Hendrix shows his belief in the importance of illustration by giving emphasis on Illustration is NOT just images… Illustration is storytelling. Illustration is NOT a media or a style, Illustration is communication. We are saying something to our world”. Illustrators can have a profound effect on the culture an people’s lives, from propaganda makers influencing people to enlist in a war, to comic book creators whose characters provide role models for people to aspire to.

[Franco]

Hendrix conveys a powerful message about illustration in this article and how it has evolved. An illustrator can be very influential since there are so many different areas and aspects illustration can touch on. Hendrix defines illustration as storytelling and communication. What he means by this is that as an illustrator, you can convey a message, tell a story, or communicate with an audience which is something that can be very impactful. When he calls illustration a “powerful, profound, and unpretentious shaper of our visual lives” he means that illustration can actually have one of the biggest impacts on us as individuals and on society. Illustrations can have a big impact from helping you form an opinion, to inspiring people, to making propaganda for a political statement that can impact a nation.

[Sadia]

In this article Hendrix is introducing illustration to a different level. He thinks illustration is not a piece of drawing that was completed digitally. He thinks illustration contains emotions and feelings behind this work of the owner. Thats why he tells illustration as a “powerful, profound, unpretentious shaper of our visual lives”. One can see another story based on the illustration that the other person does.