Illustration Book Pro 1

Varoom, Issue 5

Introduction by Erik Kessels

I’m in a café in Soho. Sitting opposite me is a guy in a brown cap. He is drawing. In the time it has taken me to order tea, study the book for this review and empty my teacup twice, he hasn’t stopped drawing. I tell him I’m amazed at how intently his hand moves across the notebook. He tells me his name is Albert, that he has been working as an illustrator for six years and that, for him, drawing is the most natural way to communicate. Erik Kessels might well agree.

In his introduction to the book, Erik Kessels, the creative director of KesselsKramer, writes; ‘Illustration is more than a drawing on paper – instead it becomes a prominent piece of communication. Some (illustrations) say more than a thousand words.’ Illustration Book Pro 1 is advertised as containing 150 of the hottest illustrators in Japan today. Edited by illustration agency Pict, their concept is to highlight talented up-and-coming illustrators who have returned to the merits of craftsmanship and are, as Kessels says ‘getting their hands dirty again’.

The book’s straightforward layout presents contributors alphabetically, allowing each one a double page spread to showcase their work. All artists give their name and contact details, and list the materials used in their work. The question ‘What is the most important thing in your creations?’ was posed to each participant, offering them the chance to share some of the thinking and inspiration behind their work. This provides plenty of worthwhile insight, as artists describe the spirit of their line or talk about the way sounds and smells are transposed into colours.

Those featured demonstrate that the traditional boundaries that the illustrator is expected to work within are diminishing. Kessels says; ‘Illustrators nowadays become artists and artists become illustrators.’ This is shown in the work of Wataru Hikichi. The collage scenes he creates are made with ‘unconsciously collected kinds of old paper’ where mountain ranges and countryside views are muddled together from fading, torn papers akin to the work of Robert Rauschenberg and Kurt Schwitters.

This method of collage is also utilised by Natsko Seki to achieve otherworldly results. In her 1950s and 1960s inspired work the delicate pencil line contrasts with intense shapes of colour and antique cuttings to create a wonderful fantasy world where trains can be smoked like cigars and where teapots double as outfits. These works have a wistful innocence, and depict a world where anything goes.

‘There’s only one criterion for me,’ says Kessels. ‘There should be an idea in every piece of artwork…an illustration without an idea is like a body without a soul.’ The previously unpublished 1000 illustrations showcased here certainly have soul. The illustrators, selected for their ability to ‘use their hands and brain’ show how beautifully and clearly a message can be communicated in a multitude of media. Albert is certainly impressed when I show him the book.

Published by PIE books
£19.95