Today I will be discussing ethics in illustration in the environment of war journalism which is a discussion that started in a CTS lesson by looking at the works of Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, E.H. Shepard and C.R.W. Nevinson which you will find bellow.
Eric Ravilious
Edward Bawden
E.H. Shepard
C.R.W. Nevinson
Looking at these artists opened a discussion about how illustration is used to express complex narratives. What I’m interested in, in this case, is how illustration, when expressing complex narratives, can stay journalistically rigorous and specially, maintain visual integrity. I will be looking at a couple of quotes that reflect on this.
Lucienne Roberts, in her article ”Being good: Most avenues take me back to ethics”, speaks about how a piece of work is generally judged to be ‘good’ by it’s aesthetics, but considering aesthetics to the point where it provokes an emotion, such as happiness. Therefore if it makes someone’s quality of life better for example, then ethics are involved. On another hand, AIGA The American Institute for Graphic Arts, (in their guidelines for ethical standards) explain that the client comes first, the designer’s opinion cannot come in the way of the work in any way and specially not in the way of what the client has asked for. It seems that the designer is simply here to fulfil a job, a task, and that his ‘personality’ as a creative being is not demanded to be present.
But what really got me thinking and questioning myself and my role as an illustrator was Clive Dilnot’s (2009, p180) question ‘Why might we need an ethics in design?’. So, why might we need ethics in design? In my opinion ethics come in with the choice of issues, themes or matters you choose to work on as an illustrator and/or how you choose to approach these. In a previous post I discussed stereotypes and I think these two intertwine, specially on how you handle or take them on. In my opinion it is a question of having some knowledge. In this case; what are ‘ethics’ or what they mean to you and having some knowledge on the subject you have chosen to work on or have to work on, and taking both of these on with an intelligent approach. And not an uneducated one.
In my opinion it is as simple, in thought, as finding the right balance between ethics (your personal ones or more professional ones) and your opinion on the matter. But this is in thought. Putting it in practice is obviously a little bit more complex. The question of ethics brings up an interesting discussion and chain of thoughts on how an illustrator or designer has to find the right balance between personal and professional. That is why ethics are there, because this is one of the constant battles that a designer/illustrator will have to deal with throughout his or her career; how much of my personal opinion can I allow myself to express in this particular project? Or how much does it matter? Is it ethical for me to express my personal opinion in this project when it hasn’t been asked for? Etc.. Personal, professional. This is what ethics stands for me in the environment of design and illustration. Or at least one of the first thoughts that comes to me when reflecting on ethics.
To finish off I believe you need ethics in design because your work will always be aimed at or seen by someone from the outside, and it is but pure logic that you need to take them (sometimes their opinions) and their reaction into consideration.
SALOMÉ GAUTIER 