COMMUNICATION DESIGN- ILLUSTRATION By Sacsha Sayal

Communication Design- A Brief Introduction Communication Design is a mixed discipline between design and information development which is concerned with how media intervention such as printed, crafted, electronic media or presentations communicate with people. Examples of communication design include information architecture, editing, typography, illustration, web design, animation, advertising, ambient media, visual identity design, performing arts, copywriting and professional writing skills applied in the creative industries.

Illustration An illustration is a drawing, painting or printed work of art which explains, clarifies, illuminates, visually represents, or merely decorates a written text, which may be of a literary or commercial nature.

History of Illustration The origins of illustration - prior to the invention of "writing" – date back to the cave painting when paleolithic artists used charcoal and ochre to illustrate what they saw around them (c.30,000-10,000 BCE). A notable exception was the series of Egyptian illustrations (eg. pictorializing legends of the after-life) discovered in the tombs of the Pharaohs (c.3000-1000 BCE). In the East (China, Japan), the earliest forms of illustration were created using woodcuts.

The Middle Ages In the Middle Ages, narrative pictorials appeared in illuminated manuscripts. Christian belief in the sanctity of religious writings was the primary reason for the preservation and copying of books.  Monasteries were the centers of cultural, educational, and intellectual activities and studio spaces called "scriptoria" were provided for writing, copying, and illuminating books. 

14th Century Starting In the 14th century, artists of the Renaissance presented new music,literature, art,and Publications that could be mass-produced and distributed due to the invention of a mechanical printing process by Johannes Gutenberg in 1452. The creation and distribution of woodcuts and engraved prints brought images, ideas, and entertainment to a wide audience and provided people outside the upper class the possibility of experiencing art.

Industrial Revolution Period- Commercialization With the start of the Industrial Revolution in the mid-1700s, printing technology improved rapidly and more publications were distributed and seen. Illustration became more commonly encountered in daily life. English wood engraver and publisher Thomas Bewick established a studio for the creation and printing of commercial illustration that was used for many purposes, including works for children, educational materials for schools, natural history plates, and title-page art for books. Newspapers are increasingly embellished with engravings.

Illustration in the 1800s The profession of illustration fully took hold in the early 1800s. English and French caricaturists independently earned a living as full-time illustrators with sales of etched or engraved prints through small, gallery-like print shops and city street book stalls. This made illustration accessible and affordable. Publishers soon recognized that illustrations helped to sell magazine subscriptions and increase advertising revenue. Strong and consistent sales allowed more commissions of original art, and the business of illustration was fully established.

In fact, illustration was beginning to be seen by publishers as a necessity, and competition between publications for the limited number of fine illustrators led to increased budgets for art, instituting higher fees and greater recognition for the artists. The best illustrators became well-known figures and some, like Charles Dana Gibson and John Held, Jr., achieved celebrity status. Magazine covers and story illustrations by Howard Chandler Christy, James Montgomery Flagg, C. Coles Phillips, J. C. Leyendecker, and Norman Rockwell were seen by millions throughout America.

Illustration in today’s time Traditional illustration seems to have come full circle, from falling out of favor to photography in the early 1990s to being superseded by CGI and vector graphics as digital technologies evolved. Many illustrators are freelance, commissioned by publishers (of newspapers, books, or magazines) or advertising agencies. Most scientific illustrations and technical illustrations are also known as information graphics. Among the information graphics specialists are medical illustrators who illustrate human anatomy, often requiring many years of artistic and medical training.

Digital Illustration Computer illustration or digital illustration is the use of digital tools to produce images under the direct manipulation of the artist. Computers dramatically changed the industry and today many cartoonists and illustrators create digital illustrations using computers, graphics tablets, and scanners. Software such as Adobe Illustrator or Adobe Photoshop are now widely used by those professionals.

Types of Illustration Depending on the purpose, illustration may be expressive, stylised, realistic or highly technical. Archaeological illustration Book illustration Botanical illustration Concept art Fashion illustration Information graphics Technical illustration Medical illustration

Archeological Illustration- Archaeological Illustration is a form of technical illustration that records material derived from an archaeological context graphically. Book Illustration- Book illustration is a form of fine art that is used to create drawn pictures and images for books. Illustrations are meant to be much more than pretty pictures, however. They will usually help add to or enhance the story in some way. Generally speaking, illustrations are more commonly found in children's books.

Botanical Illustration- Botanical illustration is the art of depicting the form, colour, and details of plant species, frequently in watercolor paintings. They must be scientifically accurate but often also have an artistic component and may be printed with a botanical description in book, magazines, and other media or sold as a work of art. Concept art is a form of illustration used to convey an idea for use in films, video games, animation, comic books or other media before it is put into the final product. Concept art is also referred to as visual development and/or concept design. This term can also be applied to retail, set, fashion, architectural and industrial design

Fashion Illustration-Fashion Illustration is the communication of fashion that originates with illustration, drawing and painting. It is usually commissioned for reproduction in fashion magazines as one part of an editorial feature or for the purpose of advertising and promoting fashion makers, fashion boutiques and department stores. Information graphics- Or infographics are graphicvisual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present information quickly and clearly. They can improve cognition by utilizinggraphics to enhance the human visual system's ability to see patterns and trends.

Technical Illustration is the use of illustration to visually communicate information of a technical nature. Technical illustrations can be components of technical drawings or diagrams. A medical illustration is a form of biological illustration that helps to record and disseminate medical, anatomical, and related knowledge.