Introduction. yesterday I’ve done a small illustration survey in class with 25 students. The goal was to get some insight in student interests, ambition and their view on the field of illustration. There were 6 multiple choice questions and 1 open question.
Outcome. Based on the input we can make some assumptions. There was a lot of variety in the results which implies we have a group of students with diverse interests within illustration. This diversity creates a rich learning opportunity, from which new innovative insights can emerge. The complexity of this diversity is that it is difficult to cater to the individual need of these students.
Many of the students are interested in ‘lifestyle-related’ or ‘unique’ products. Consultancy, service-, information- design are less appealing to them. From a technical point of view the interest are very diverse. Students have an interest from low-tech, medium-tech, to high-tech, as well as innovative skills. Most of the students wish to work freelance in the future, represented by an agent, or small multidisciplinary companies. To work in a large company only appeals to one.
When asked about why clients would hire them; most of the student prefer to poses strong conceptual abilities as a designer. They also have an interest in being able to clarify complex problems for clients. The qualities that most of the students wish to have are; being ‘commercial’, being an ‘expert’ and being ‘innovative’.
Open questions. When asked about what they see as future options in the illustration market, they gave the following answers.
- Theirs is a demand for original ideas because companies always want better, funnier and more creative.
- Illustrators can visualize new developments or technologies.
- Illustrators can be very flexible and work on all locations.
- Illustrators can design identities for festivals and use concepts of branding
- Illustrators can visualize interviews
- Illustrators can design new products to communicate with
- Illustrators can connect the real world with the virtual world.
- Illustrators can design ‘person-based’ products
- There are new opportunities in medical- an educational illustration
- There is a need for environmental friendly design
- There are new opportunities for a virtual exposition (using 3D or Tiltbrush)
- There are new opportunities for interior or fashion products
Next step. Based on these results it following topics might be interesting to continue with.
- Instead of asking what appeals to students; we can ask where they see their best chances in the illustration market for themselves.
- Find out what they consider to be; unique or lifestyle/design illustration products, or what they consider to be innovative.
- Find out; what these students know about the complexities of working as a freelancer.
- Find out which illustrators these students look up to that have; strong conceptual skills and who can clarify complex problems for clients.
I’m looking forward to take this survey to the next step.