The Informed Illustrator: A Resurgence Of Abstract Illustration

In the early 20th century abstraction began to weave its way into illustration, particularly illustration produced for advertising. The simplicity and immediacy of abstract illustrations, and their bold inventive style began worked very effectively to deliver promotional messages to mass audiences, which responded well to an abstract aesthetic. Abstractly illustrated advertisements and announcements were distinctly effective at drawing a viewer’s attention and reinforcing their retention.

The use of abstraction facilitated the communication of message content that was distinctly conceptual. Narratives and concepts that defied a documentary or realistic approach to visualization could be easily communicated by the use of abstract relationships, and abstract symbolization. Structurally, abstraction provided a means whereby strange juxtapositions of subjects could be illustrated without offending the sensibility or aesthetic preferences of a viewer. Abstract illustration provided the means whereby pictorial elements seeming to be strange and compositionally out of place became accepted forms of illustration.

Now that it is some 100 years since entering the communication arts, abstraction is finding resurgence. Abstract illustrations, due to their universality and simplicity of expression have the ability to transcend differences of language and culture and are often used message content must be disseminated internationally. Pictured below are contemporary examples of abstract illustration used in advertising campaigns.