Cameron Davidson, Department of Design
This creative work and research project was divided into two parts. The first and majority of the project was to intern with a company in New York, and the second was to illustrate four adult/young adult book covers that would promote a higher quality of moral values while still meeting the requirements of the commissioned piece.
It was a great privilege and opportunity to further my education by interning in New York with Lindgren and Smith during the months of May and June of 1995. Lindgren and Smith is a company that represents approximately 40 illustrators to several thousand publishers, add agencies, entertainment companies, and other organizations that use illustration. My goals while working there were to learn the business side of the illustration field, what the market was doing and where it was headed and to meet and discuss these things with as many illustrators as possible. These goals were met and were even exceeded in many instances.
Lindgren and Smith provided an abundance of information concerning the illustration field, including marketing, promotionals, business practices and ethics, quality of work and dependability were at the forefront of the information gained from their vast experience. After showing them my portfolio they advised me on my strengths and weaknesses, and gave advice on which direction that would be best suited to my work.
While my time with Lindgren and Smith was very educational, I found that equally beneficial was meeting with illustrators in the surrounding area. In all I had the very fortunate opportunity to meet with about 25 illustrators. There were many that had very practical suggestions ranging from how to get started to pursuing specific styles for specific markets. All of them were very informative and interesting while some of my personal favorites were Max Ginsberg, Burt Silverman, Joseph Johnson and Serjio Baradat.
The book covers I ended up doing were three fantasy novels and one children’s story. They turned out to be extremely fun and creative and I enjoyed working on them very much. These paintings will be used in part of my Senior project and will be on display in the Brimhall Gallery some time during the month of August 1995.
This experience has opened my eyes to the enormous range of people that can be reached through art. One of the artists represented by Lindgren and Smith had his work used in an ad that was estimated to have been seen by over 40 million people worldwide. With that kind of exposure, an illustrator should be highly aware of the influence that they could have on a very large scale. The responsibility rests on the artist to make sure that influence is one for good.
I have found the whole creative work and research project to be one of the highlights to my university experience and would encourage all to take advantage of the opportunity to stretch their education to new heights. My thanks and gratitude go to all those that helped make this project a reality.