Shaping Expression: The Influence of Material Signification on Editorial Illustration

Where the way illustration appears in its reproduced state has a meaningful impact on all forms of illustration, this paper presents the hypothesis that for editorial illustration, framed by the material and ideological settings of both the singular story and its wider publication, the quality of this material signification is fundamental. Through the exploration of the principal technological developments of the editorial illustration, wood engraving, halftone printing process, digital printing and online publishing this paper traces the signifying impact of media transformations on illustration. It shows that story and illustration are not necessarily distinguished through the way they are expressed within a medium, but through the way these are used and interrelate. It exposes editorial illustration as a specific dialogical mode of communication, based on a particular underlying continuity, defined by material, intertextual and social constructions, rather than appearance.