How to do things with style

A conference on the history of the concept

This is the edited transcript, alongside some of the slides, of a talk I gave last week in St Louis at the Blind Spots, Illustration Research conference. This is a brief version of a longer paper on the topic. Note that the tone is more academic than my usual writing, this might not be for everyone, but what is? If you do give it a read, I hope it’ll provide a useful background to think about the current moment in the illustration industry. Hope you’ll enjoy it!

Intro

This question may have everyone here roll their eyes. We’ve heard it time and time again from students and aspiring illustrators. I certainly have asked it many times myself. Maybe more perceptive and lucid than established illustrators, those asking this question see as evident something we too often ignore. The creative industry runs on style. Illustrators spend their lives cultivating what is perceived as a unique style, art directors hire us based on said style, and recently, style has been the thing that machine learn…