9th November

I am going to discuss how that if illustrators use the zeitgeist they can create a more impacting piece of work. During the great depression many African Americans migrated out of the south to escape ever growing racism. This caused some cities to become over populated such as New York. Due to racism though African Americans were stilled frowned upon in white communities and so they would often band together to create an area full of black culture, such as Harlem in New York. Harlem was renowned for having many African Americans that came from the Carribean. Because of the Great Depression there was a need for entertainment and in 1935 Orson Wells directed the play Macbeth, casting only African Americans. It was later refereed to as the Voodoo Macbeth because it was set on the island of Haiti and the costume design, along with the set design were all influenced by the Carribean, which was very popular at that time in Harlem. This shows how Wells used the spirit of the time to create a popular piece of culture for the black community. 

Macbeth has always been a popular play to perform, but during the 1980's the money and interest were in cartoons. In the 1990's the target audience for cartoons began changing to an older audience. A good example is BBC's animated tails collection. They created a cartoon version of Macbeth and doing so opened up the appeal of Macbeth to many more, especially youths studying for GCSE's. These examples show how using the Zeitgeist can help illustrators amplify the meaning of their art and also expand their audience.

 

Illustrators use many different mediums to deliver their work, because depending on the target audience their work may not relate or be viewable to them.A good example is Sarah Coleman. She uses different media for different purposes. The work she does could almost be described as a fingerprint. Its completely unique to her and her style is easily recognisable. Now days to keep up in this industry you need to be able to create a marketing campaign on all platforms, be it an advert on TV or a short animation to be viewed online. Sarah Coleman's work ranges from editorial, to fashion to motion pieces and even tattoos. Being able to create a multi-platform campaign, means that she is more relevant in today's market and so she can fit comfortably into other areas. This can create more opportunity as a client would rather pick someone who can use lots of different software and create a complete advertisement campaign compared to someone who would only be able to one thing. The client would obviously not want to lose money and so as new aids and new platforms open, illustrators need to be able to adapt to them.