The Illustration Idea Book

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Just think for a minute how helpful it would be to have a guide walking you through the types of illustrations you need for a your book, or project. Today I reviewing a helpful book called The illustration idea Book. A fascinating look into the why and how of illustrations from around the world. 

What I am Reviewing

The illustration idea book: inspiration from 50 masters serves as an introduction to the key elements of good illustration.  This simply done up book presents 50 different approaches by illustration masters from all over the world.  

Seven themes covered include creating characters, symbol and metaphor, illustrated lettering, inventing worlds, and caricature.  This results in an accessible, inspiring guide helping you to use professional techniques to illustrate your materials. 

Put together by Steven Heiler and Gail Anderson, The illustration idea book: inspiration from 50 Masters is a trade paperback of 128 pages.  This book design guide helps you gain skills to help you in illustration and graphic design. Published by Laurence King Publishing, I am reviewing it on behalf of Raincoast Books. 

The Details about The Illustration Idea Book

The Illustration Idea Book contains seven themes.

1. Play with Lettering (six examples)
2. Create Characters (nine examples)
3. Invent new Worlds (seven examples)
4. Experiment with Caricature (seven examples)
5. Transform Cliches (seven examples)
6. Use symbol and metaphor (ten examples)
7. Visualize Data (four examples)

Each new theme is introduced by blue pages that list the theme and the masters that you’ll be learning from.   There is no explanation about what each of these sections concerns beyond what you can infer from the title. 

Each lesson by a master includes a one page write up with an illustration to go with it.  In the write up the master will give an explanation about the illustration provided.  The master will then explain why it was created and what the illustration is all about. 

Thoughts/Recommendations

The Illustration Idea Book encourages graphic designer to think outside the box (and sometimes within it) in order to create just the right image.  It’s not really for the beginner student, more for the advanced student who has some skill but needs to refine them.   There are no direct walk-throughs, you’ll find explanations as to the why behind each illustration. 

I personally think it’s very interesting reading about the hows and whys, seeing the thought behind the creation. It is difficult to say how helpful it would be to illustrators though. 

I would suggest that it’s at least worth a look through.  It’s good to be inspired by the thoughts and creations of others Seeing where that will take you is such an interesting process. How it will influence your future efforts, I really couldn’t tell you.  🙂