By Lawrence Zeegan and Caroline Roberts
384 pages, hardcover, $40. Published by Laurence King Publishing, laurenceking.com
Just as art chronicles each decade with aesthetics that define the times, so it is with illustration. This book begins in 1960, when cultural revolutions in the East and West began to stir. From the heyday of the “Mad men” era to the introduction of the Apple computer, which forever changed how graphics are created, the past 50 years have seen many changes in technique and ripples within the profession, which itself hinges on relationships with other industries—like publishing and advertising—that are also changing.
Thoughtful introductions to each decade sum up the circumstances influencing each generation, and work samples from 250 illustrators offer a broad, lingering look at the relevant contributions from the past. It’s a great reminder to illustrators to look up from the client brief to see what’s happening around them and step more fully into their roles as artists of the world at large. —Amy Ng
