The Educational screen (c1922-c1956])

September, 19 3 S Proceedings of the Department of Visual Instruction Meeting Page 219 :n of communication. The form should be used, however, wnenever \-isual iiTiager>- can advantageously serve in those circumstances where verbal language cannot be wholly ef- jecti\-e. Illustrations should be the means of making more con- crete whatever may be difficult or elusive in comprehension because of abstraction or \-agueness. The intrinsic qualitj' of illustrative material depends a great deal on the illustrator and his own qualities. We may specify four traits: The first of these is care, which means a metiulous concern for details, for getting the kind of material and the appropriate technique. It means a relentless pursuit for a significant idea. The second trait is imagitiation. which means a flexibilin- and playfulness in thinking, an ability to ^-isualize. The third trait is a sense of humor, which means a quick, sj-mpathetic response to the foibles of man, an eye to the ridiculousness or incongruity of a situation, a wnt that reveals ■?s unexpected. The last trait, and hardly separate from • ithers. is love, that is, a deep emotional feeling for the job aiid a desire for the perfect result. When illustration has to be judged critically it might be well to consider how much care, imagination, humor and love has gone into the work. The quality of illustration may be judged by the extent to which it follows functionally the basic uses which are to help visualize people, environment, quantities and processes. The k'eneral tv^pes may then be indicated as follows: . Illustrations of hmm/iH interest H Illustrations may be used to relate subject material to *^ people, to portray and to make real to the student ttie characteristics of human beings in the sittiations of the text—their appearance, dress, actions, poses, attitudes, surroundings, etc A vast amount of our learning revolves about human beings in their personal and social circum- stances and relationships: The illustration can serve to visualize the human aspects of the text. The photo- document is perhaps our best means for this type of il- lustration. 2. IHustraiioHS of em'ironment Illustrations may be used to relate subject material to place, to locate people and activities, to give dimensions and spatial relationships. Place and space are important facts of evidence in almost any study (and perhaps too often neglected'*. Maps, plans and diarts are the typical means for this kind of illustration. ' Illustrations of quantity Illustrations may be used to help grasp and understand figures and statistics: Modem learning is statistically- minded. The illustrative technique is primarily one of arrangement of quantity facts. The means are chiefly charts, graphs and tables. - Illustrations of processes ninstrations may be used to simplify complex processes and organizations. \ great many of our problems—ma- chines of production, governmental organizations, indus- trial processes, to name but a few subjects—are so com- I plicated that we need to risualize them in blue prints, charts. and diagrams, or illustrate them step by step to make them clear and easier to study. Possibilities For Improvement .\ special word is needed concerning photographs. Photo- graphs arc essentially documentary m mattire. They arc especially powerful as social documents: They have the force of reality, of actuality. Their use is not for esthetic decoration. They should be selected and tised with as modi care as verbal evidence. The possibilities for improving illustrations and their use are infinite. Improvement will depend on three factors: The person writing the text the publisher producing the text and the designer illustrating the text The most desirable situation is when these three factors are in close and harmonious co- ordination. The most ideal arrangement would be to build a text with the active cooperation of all three from the very beginning of the idea of the text through to the finished prod- uct: author working with illustrator and publisher w^hile the manuscript is being prepared, illustrator working with author and publisher while the book is being designed, publisher working with author and illustrator while the book is being produced. The new textbook must be a collaborative effort with a nice balance at play among the three important factors. Such a situation is not impossible of attainment A hook is DOW being done with active collaboration of author, publisher and illustrator. I am indebted to Robert Disraeli, the photographer, for an idea in book illustration that needs to be adopted. When photographs are used in a text the present practice is to try to collect from a number of sources whatever photos may be available. Sometimes it is possible to get good illustraticms, but more often the right photo for a particular illustrative situation is not a\-ailable. It would be almost too much to expect it to be. Disraeli suggests that a photographer could be engaged much as a graphic artist is engaged on the basis of am entire book. Where the right photo is not available the photographer would make it for the direct purposes of that particular text. I look forward to an experiment of this kind; I am sure the results will be worth the effort. It is rather unsatisfactory to speak of other possibilities in improving illustrations without having specific problems to work out before you and with you. But I can mention a few ideas that may help in cases where the nature of the text might warrant use of the ideas. One present practice in book making is to group a number of irfiotographs together at certain inter\-als throughout a book. This is done partly for economy in binding since the sheets of photographs can be wrapped around signatures of the text instead of "tipping-in" individual pages of photographs. This method can be extended and better organized to provide a kind of \nstial review or preriew for the verbal text Better still, die photographs can be more functicmally organized in the form of chapters to pro^•ide continuity of text Ruch's book on "Psychology' and Life" is an interesting demonstration of this idea. .\nother possibility is the use of illustrations as running comment for a text. The illustrations would fall consistently on a reserved portion of the page in the same way marginal notes and footnotes are used. Careful selection or making of illustrations in the control of scale and proportion may permit a continuitj- of illustration, the effect being like that of a motion picture film. Still another possibilit)-, which I believe will find increasing adoption, is the use of visual material as "text" and verbal material as "illustration." This is done in "Land of the Free" where MacLeish uses his poetry to intensify the effect of the photographs. This possibilitj- will be in the nature of what I have termed "visual textbooks," already superbly exemplified by the Building America series. Finally there is the possibility of color. We have lived too long in a black and white world. The reality is that color exists everj-where and in all things: we need color reality in our illustrations. The use of color photography will be the next major advance in illustrating textbooks. I have just learned that some fourth grade readers containing color pho- tograjrfiy will soon be published. The improvement in tech- nique and quality in color photography indicates that we shall be able to expect more and more photos in illustrative work. WTiatever ideas in illustrations may be followed, the basic problem is more unified effort What is needed most is a finer and more honest integration of the talents and capabilities of author, publisher, and illustrator.