Communicating with images: Mark Smith and the art of visual storytelling
Freelance illustrator, Illustration graduate and World Illustration Awards winner Mark Smith talks to us about his craft and developing his creative voice in the industry
“It is, and always has been, a total pleasure doing this job and I count myself so lucky to get to do something that was a dream for me as a kid.”
Mark Smith is a freelance illustrator based in Exeter. After graduating in BA (Hons) Illustration in 2009, Mark has developed a career as a renowned illustrator and his artwork has featured in magazines, newspapers, books and advertising campaigns around the world for clients including Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, Time and The New York Times and many more.
Mark's work has won him recognition across the world and awards from the NY Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, World Illustration Awards, Luerzers Archive, SPD, 3X3 Magazine, Communication Arts, LA Society of Illustrators and the V&A Illustration Awards. Stand out's include the overall prize in the World Illustration Awards 2024.
In a wide-ranging conversation, Mark talks to us about his recent award success, developing his craft and creative voice, as well as how his time at Plymouth helped prepare him for a career in the industry.
- Award-winning freelance illustrator with specialties in editorial, publishing and advertising
- World Illustration Awards winner 2024 – 1st place in the editorial section and 1st overall
- BA (Hons) Illustration graduate
In conversation with Mark Smith
A World Illustration Awards winner
Huge congratulations on winning 1st place in the editorial section and 1st overall from over 5000 entries, how does it feel to have won two World Illustration Awards (WIA)?
Pretty amazing to be honest. I was really proud of these images when I made them but the reception they’ve had has been way beyond my expectations, I can’t thank the judges enough for voting for my work. The competition is always stiff for the WIA so to pick up the best in category and the best overall is a huge boost.
You were the category winner for your editorial project 'The Missing Mouseketeer'. It is a very striking series with its mix of photo-realistic scenes with cartoon characters depicting a dark Disney story and the fall of a Hollywood dream.
Are you able to tell us about the inspiration and process behind the project and how it came together working with Alta Journal? How much freedom did you have to express yourself?
I’ve been working with Alta Journal for a few years now, it’s a really nice, large format magazine, publishing stories and articles based on Californian culture. A large majority of my work comes from America now, I think they first contacted me through my rep in the US. They quickly became one of my favourite clients, partly because the stories are really interesting but also because they give me so much freedom with the creation of the images.
This one in particular was a bit of a step forward for me, I’d been trying to find a way of incorporating concepts into my work without the ideas themselves becoming too dominant for a while, I think the balance in these was what I’ve been looking for.
The Missing Mouseketeer – for Alta Journal
Turning a passion into a career
Your work has a distinctive colour palette and a vintage film poster quality that seems to intersect with classic skateboard graphics. Where did your passion for illustration come from?
My passion for drawing has been there since I was a kid, I loved it and used to spend hours copying old comic panels when I was very young, anything from old Commando comics to Asterix.
I was heavily into the skate scene from around the mid eighties to the mid nineties so I guess that’s rubbed off on me a lot. My work used to be a lot more graphic than it is now but I think the underlying ‘screenprint-style’ influence is still there. Board graphics were always screenprinted years ago and they used to degrade beautifully, particularly when you skate in all weathers. It’s slightly less noticeable in my work now but this was a big influence earlier in my career.
Sport is the 'Small, Good Thing' in a world of turmoil – for ESPN The Magazine
I didn’t really think I’d be able to make a career out of it but when Ashley Potter, Programme Leader for Illustration, accepted me onto the illustration programme at Plymouth he managed to teach me to turn drawings into illustrations.
The crucial role of semiconductors – for Trust Magazine
The next great California flood – for Alta Journal
Developing a creative voice in the industry
Your work shows a real passion and nuanced eye for layered storytelling – it can be both satirical and poignant, engaged with social and political subjects or figures in the sporting world. With a distinct print aesthetic your work explores lines of communication, often through metaphors, shining a new light on a subject, inviting the viewer to interpret their own meanings.
How have you honed your creative voice to produce work that continually inspires you?
It’s been small steps for me, I think I always had an idea of how I wanted my work to communicate but it was a bit stylistically crude when I first started out. Over the years I’ve found small things here and there, added them to the mix and slowly progressed towards something that better represents my ideas.
The search for that balance is addictive, particularly when you feel like you’ve really nailed an image. It doesn't happen every time, and it can get frustrating if you have a stretch of jobs that you don’t feel like you’ve really cracked, but when it happens everything feels great with the world.
How have you balanced nourishing your artistic joy with satisfying client briefs, especially in the more corporate world?
It can sometimes be more tough to find this balance in the corporate jobs but that usually depends on how open the client is to left-field solutions. When they go well they can be some of the most rewarding jobs to work on but they aren’t always the easiest to find a good mix of concept/narration. The constant push and slow development of my ideas and work always keeps me hungry to do more.
You have worked with a wide variety of clients from The New Yorker and ESPN The Magazine, to Penguin Books and The Guardian.
How do you approach a new project and what is your creative process in terms of the relationship between analogue and digital work?
I’ve usually got to read the article/brief a few times before it really sinks in and I can start to find an angle that I want to approach it from. Sometimes an idea comes straight away but there are plenty of times when I’ve just got to start drawing and hope a concept reveals itself, in fact, some of my favourite images have been created this way.
There’s always some kind of content in the article that can inspire the start of a drawing, I used to do this on paper but I use a Cintiq drawing tablet and Photoshop now, and as that drawing develops and I mess around with compositions a conceptual twist often pops into mind.
I think it might be this approach that has pulled my work away from being too concept-dominant. Most editorial work has got to have ‘an idea’ but starting out with a more narrative approach, for me at least, gives a more solid base for an idea to be incorporated into and hopefully makes the finished image more engaging.
What is your workflow for a commission?
I always send three different options for each image that I’ve been commissioned for so I go through this process several times for each job, get annoyed with myself when it isn’t working, feel on top of the world when it does, then cross my fingers and hope the ideas are received well by the client and they buy into the approach that I want to take.
The resurgence of the Dallas Cowboys – for ESPN The Magazine
Business working together to fix the planet – for Havard Business Review
From studying at Plymouth to working on global commissions
As an alumni of BA (Hons) Illustration, how did your time studying at the University help prepare you for life after you graduated?
Ashley and the team taught me how to illustrate, I didn’t have a clue before I did the course. I could always draw relatively well but illustration is another thing altogether.
They taught me how to think visually, be self critical without being destructive, and gave me the training I needed to go forward and develop beyond my years on the course, I can’t thank them enough for that.
Could you please share with us a little about your illustration journey and some of the steps that were taken to establish yourself in the industry?
When I started out I used to send out emailed samples to art directors, usually three samples every three months just to keep them up to date with my latest work or achievements.
On top of this I had various portfolio websites that I’d direct art directors to so that they could check out my work.
What was your first significant commissioned project?
I was lucky enough to get my first few commissions when I was in my last year at Uni. Linda Boyle at You Magazine gave me my first job, it wasn’t until then that I even started to believe that I could make a proper go of this as a job.
I also picked up a rep for North America around this time, Salzman International, it took a couple of years for the USA work to take off but I’ve been with him ever since and it’s my main client base now.
Do you have any tips to pass on to the current generation of students who dream of beginning a career in illustration?
People are using social media to establish themselves more now but the main advice I could give is to push, and keep pushing yourself artistically, tenacity will beat talent every time.
Keep on top of self promotion, whatever channels you choose to use, always be polite and courteous to clients, never make excuses (there aren’t any valid ones in business), and learn to love the grind because the first few years can be the toughest.
Having to do all the work needed to establish yourself, on top of developing your practice, and hitting deadlines isn't easy. The reward is getting to do the best job in the world though, and it gets easier, and even more rewarding as you go along.
Declining ticket sales for blockbuster films – for World Magazine
Cover art for Ae-ran Kim's 'My Brilliant Life' – for Forge Books
Reflecting on a dream job
How does a landmark moment like winning the World Illustration Awards and receiving an honourable mention in 3x3 magazine awards annual for The Missing Mouseketeer make you take stock about your career so far?
I wasn’t sure I’d ever make any money at all out of illustration so to have done so, and to have won the awards I’ve won is so far beyond my initial expectations I’m absolutely bursting with pride. It is, and always has been, a total pleasure doing this job and I count myself so lucky to get to do something that was a dream for me as a kid.
Do you have a dream commission you would like to work on in the future?
I used to have dream commissions but nowadays I just want to knock the next image out of the park, I don’t care who it’s for, it’s absolutely the best feeling and everything I strive for.
American Dementia sufferers in the criminal justice system – for Scientific American
Find your visual voice
Come and study in lively, purpose-built studios surrounded by other creative students and award-winning staff.
We will help you forge your visual voice to succeed in today's expanding creative industries.
You set your work in a global context through such activities as briefs centred on UN Sustainability Goals, study trips and taking part in the optional Global Exchange programme (including Japan) to gain new perspectives and broaden your cultural references.
