Mark Smith

I looked through some of the websites suggested in the brief without finding anything that really drew my interest until I found an illustrator called Mark Smith. His illustrations interested me as the subject was not instantly clear but the images were intriguing, his work makes me want to read the articles they are associated with. This method of illustration links into the research I did last year, I have been trying to find out the best ways to create a dialogue with the viewer. I don't want my illustrations to ram information down peoples throats. I find it is difficult to balance subtlety and clarity into an illustration that will capture the attention of the audience. I think a large part of being able to do this effectively is knowing how visual signifiers work.

Teaching Tolerance - Exposing the negative attitudes towards meal ticket holders

Discoveries Magazine - Putting prostate surgery on hold

Therapy Today - Psychological bullying in the workplace

In these images Mark Smith uses a variety of visual metaphors but what stands out the most is his use of shadows. This works really well as they are not always immediately noticeable and mean that the meaning of the image becomes clear in stages. This allows Smith to include multiple meanings in the same illustration. In some cases the choice of information depicted in shadow helps to further illustrate to subject matter. For example in the first image the views of the bottom line of people are only shown in their shadows the symbolize their private views that are often not shared in public.

Mark Smith uses digital media to produce these illustrations but adds to texture to solid areas of flat colour. These textures create a feel of crafting that make the images more appealing. I often use this process myself and find that vectored shapes look better when printed on texture stock or overlayed with textures digitally. Although I like the way he creates these illustrations the most impressive thing to me is the thinking behind them, they are clever well thought out ideas that have been visually translated intriguingly.