The AOI turned 50 in 2023. Below we summarise our history and what the organisation has done for illustrators and members since its inception.
In 1973, a group of agents and illustrators grew frustrated that many clients didn’t return original artworks back to their respective illustrators after the completion of a commission (remember, this was a time before computers or scanners!). They felt the need to set up a group to campaign for the safe return of these works – an organisation by illustrators for illustrators. And just like that the Association of Illustrators, or AOI, was born.
Some things are rather hazy now, from a distance of fifty years, but what is not at all hazy is the justifiable sense of anger which essentially was our motivation.
Peter Brookes, Illustrator and part of original AOI committee.
The 1970s
Within a year of the AOI’s foundation, the original volunteer-led committee (comprised of Terrence Dalley, Rufus Segar, Angela Landels, Jannat, Peter Brookes, Norman Messenger, among others) set up the Standard Job Acceptance Form for illustrators, a Code of Practice for Agents and their artists, and the production of Ownership of Artwork stickers for members to attach to their physical artworks as a reminder to clients who received the work. These set the tone for illustrators to be taken seriously as professionals within the wider creative industry, and some became the founding ground for many of our vital Resources.
From the beginning, it was clear that there needed to be a direct line of communication between the AOI and its members, and for much of the AOI’s timespan this meant issuing printed material. The first Newsletter was born in 1974 with an illustration of the AOI’s governing committee as its cover. It presented an opportunity for original writing to explore illustration in all its variety, commissioning interviews with established and emerging practitioners, as well as highlighting the challenges faced in the industry. The publication was sent out regularly to members until 1977, at which point it evolved with a redesign to the Illustrator magazine.
In 1976 the AOI published its very first jury selected annual to accompany the inaugural annual exhibition of British illustrators, forming the first permanent record of some of the best illustration executed during that year and setting a long-standing tradition of our Awards. Additionally, the annual was quite unique for its time – not only it helped make illustrators’ works more directly accessible to commissioners, but it was also influential in increasing demand for illustration and in changing commissioners’ ideas about the type of work they could use. Before long the AOI grew large enough to support a full time administrator, Joyce Kirkland, and something more like proper premises.
The design industry was strong and becoming more adventurous and ready for new ideas, so when the AOI published it’s bi-monthly magazine and brought out the first Best of British Illustration Annual, they found a receptive audience. Illustration was something new and fashionable, and a surprising number of commissioners became supportive members of the AOI.
Simon Stern, AOI Patron, 1998.
The 1980s
The early 80s were heady years for illustration and for the AOI, with membership reaching a high point of 1400 and staying there for a good while. A newly elected “Radical” committee set out to establish a permanent exhibition space for illustration, achieved in 1982 when the AOI moved to Colville Place round the corner from Goodge Street station.
The Annual was renamed Images in 1981 and remained in place, later including Best of British Illustration, until the final edition in 2012.
Continuing to facilitate art directors wanting to see a large range of illustrations, the AOI started Image File – a collection of members’ works which could be viewed at their office. Basically a few slide projectors with loads of carousels of slides for commissioners to sit in front of, but it fulfilled an important role in offering illustrators the opportunity to promote their work in addition to making individual contact.
Throughout 1980s AOI Patron and legal advisor, Simon Stern, wrote about ethical and legal disputes, covering disputes over money, lost original artworks and solutions for slow payments (and more) between illustrators and their clients. In 1989, Simon himself would write and publish the AOI’s Rights – An Illustrator’s Guide to Professional Practice, covering essential business and legal information for illustrators. This would become the forerunner of the much cherished Illustrator’s Guide to Law and Business Practice (published In 2008). In years to come, Simon would also train up many of the AOI’s ethical advisors, leaving a vital legacy that benefits members to this day.
A financial crash in the late 80s caused issues for everyone, but the AOI pushed through and made ends meet creatively. The lush Illustrator magazine turned into The Journal in 1989, a black-and-white 16 page publication published at a cost that fit the newly reduced budget. It included news, exhibitions and information on campaigning and articles – in many ways, the predecessor to our current website and News section.
The 1990s
The 90s can probably be defined as the AOI’s ‘Black and White’ period, with more financial ebbs and flows marked by new economic recession. The office took the decision to bid the gallery adieu to move to Fitzrovia and then Clerkenwell, at one point sharing offices with the Chartered Society of Designers. This began a new strategy of more intensive joint action with other visual arts organizations in the face of the copyright demands that were beginning to emerge at the time.
Recognising the need for illustrators to have easier access to client contact details, The Editorial Directory, ‘the first in a series of Directories of Illustration Users’ was published by AOI in 1994, detailing 120 editorial commissioners (including those essential fax numbers, of course). This was followed later in the year by the Publishing Directory (the Advertising Directory surfaced in 1999). To this day, the Directories continue to be annually updated with relevant contact information and commissioning preferences.
In 1995, Images 20 became the first exhibition to tour the UK, presenting the nation’s best illustrators, and promoting the cause of illustration outside of the nation’s capital (a tradition which would continue and expand through the WIA tour).
Stock imagery and emerging technologies provided many points of discussion throughout the decade, considered at the time possible threats to the illustration and photography industry. Much was written about the pros and cons for both at the time in the renamed ‘Illustrator’ magazine. Despite rising concerns, the digital age was making inroads into many aspects of life including the AOI’s, whose staff were in desperate need for a computer to assist them with the increasing number of members’ enquiries at the time.
In 1998 the very first AOI website launched, just in time to mark its 25th anniversary and the dawn of a new millennium.
In an uncertain world illustrators need a professional body to represent them as much as they ever did. It is surely not simply a case of taking the short-term view ‘What’s in it for me? What can I get out of it?’, but rather the long term one of, how can we work together as a profession to be mutually supportive, maintain a high profile and help effect a positive future for illustration?
Edith Southwell (Senior Lecturer Illustration, Exeter School of Art & Design) for Illustrator, December 1999
The 2000s
Membership was just below 900 in 2001 but growing steadily, allowing the AOI to open for five full days a week instead of the four days previously. The AOI would finally be able to sustain a more permanent staff team as the organisation’s finances became more stable.
The AOI had long worked with colleges, and in 2000 the first meeting of the Education Forum was held with representatives from 28 institutions attending along with AOI representatives. The agenda covered issues concerned with the provision of Illustration and its teaching in a broad range of institutions in the UK. Business Masterclasses were born out of this exercise. Delivered by AOI staff to students from College members, they helped (and continue to help) the next generation understand what’s required for a successful career in illustration.
A website refresh saw the precursor of AOI Folios – the AOI Image File – going live online in early 2003. Long gone were the days of the image slide projectors in the office. This was a permanent collection of over a thousand published illustration works from all areas of the industry, making it ‘the ideal place for art directors to find the illustrator best suited to their projects’.
On the Campaigning front, the Pro-Action – The Illustration Campaign and Liaison Group committee was established in 2006 by the AOI and the Society of Artists Agents (SAA) to tackle unfair terms facing illustrators. Over several years, Pro-Action challenged various companies on their contract practices, including Condé Nast, Bauer, IPC, The Guardian, Future Publishing, Cambridge University Press and News International, with some successes. The AOI would also join the newly established European Illustrators Forum in 2003 (later becoming President of the group from 2020), safeguarding illustrators’ rights and the continental promotion of illustration through the co-ordinated action of its member associations.
By request of AOI members, two essential resources were added to our compendium: The Guide To Commissioning, aiding illustrators and clients further understand the illustration commissioning process, and the Code of Practice for Member Agents, written in conjunction with the Society of Artists Agent’s Code of Ethics.
Alongside our own annual illustration competition, the AOI would partner in several long running awards competitions, including the London Transport Museum’s London-themed competition open to all illustrators.
In 2006 AOI launched its new tri-annual illustration magazine: Varoom – the journal of illustration and made images. The publication was the result of much internal debate. AOI manager Silvia Baumgart and Journal editor, Jo Davies, worked with a new Editorial Board and Editor Adrian Shaughnessy to create a bold new magazine designed by Non-Format. Rather than just focus on the business side of the industry,Varoom would examine the role of illustration in contemporary society and be ‘stuffed with visual delight’. The magazine was a great success and three years later a new team of editor John O’Reilly and designer Fernando Gutiérrez took over the reins, starting the first of a few redesigns of the magazine.
The arrival of social media meant more opportunities for illustration to be shared, viewed and appreciated, awakening a wider appreciation and interest for the discipline. As illustrators increasingly made regular use of these platforms, so did the AOI. It would not only generate more direct communication of our activities and that of our members, but also a greater reach that would extend far beyond the UK.
Within visual culture illustration has been neglected, eclipsed by its noisier siblings, advertising and graphic design. But that is changing. There’s an interest in illustration that goes beyond the professional sphere.
Adrian Shaughnessy, Varoom Editor 2006 – 2009
The 2010s
Varoom magazine was also the spur for the creation of the illustration research project, VaroomLab. Spearheaded by Jo Davies, the research group held four fascinating symposia from 2012 hosted by university members across the UK, leaving a legacy of four published journals of papers.
After almost a decade based in east London (at points sharing offices with the Association of Photographers and Big Orange/Illustrators), 2012 saw the AOI office move to its current home in Somerset House, which served also as the venue for our awards’ exhibitions in the following 8 years.
Images relaunched briefly as the Illustration Awards in 2013 and 2014. Recognising the need to celebrate all illustrators at an international scale, in 2015 the AOI partnered with the USA based Directory of Illustration to move the awards global and the World Illustration Awards took over from the Illustration Awards, proving to be the most successful awards yet, peaking at 5300 submissions in 2021.
After two limited term managers and a period where the AOI staff ran the organisation with major support from the Board’s Chair, Andrew Coningsby of Debut Art, Ren Renwick joined as CEO of the AOI in May 2016, and a short while later David Gilbert joined the Board as Chair.
Following feedback from our members, our Events offering was revised to include a more regular programme of public talks open to both members and non-members, with the AOI participating more widely in industry-focused conferences and festivals including Pick Me Up, New Designers, Bologna Children’s Book Fair, Pictoplasma, among others. We also implemented the AOI Meet Ups, giving the tools and support to our members to connect meaningfully with each other across the UK.
In 2017, Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration Artistic Director, Olivia Ahmad took over editorship of Varoom magazine for the next five issues, bring a wealth of knowledge in the area to the role, with new redesign by the Fraser Muggeridge studio.
This coincided with a much needed redesign of the AOI website, bringing an upbeat look and more user-friendly interface. Membership would increase by 10% to over 2000 members.
2020 onwards
Always aware that illustrators need assistance in working out fee levels to offer quotes to their clients, in 2020 AOI designed and launched the Pricing Calculator. It has remained one of the top visited pages of our website, proving it to be an immensely beneficial membership resource.
As much of the world shut down due to COVID 19 in 2020, AOI pivoted to a more online presence during the pandemic, quickly starting free online meet ups and webinars to make sure that members could still connect with each other. College Business Masterclasses started to be delivered by staff online, which proved to be a successful way of engaging students and reaching more universities. The World Illustration Awards would host the first online showcases and awards celebration, remaining so in the years to come.
On the same year we launched our first pilot Mentorship Scheme designed to help member illustrators who are under-represented in the industry, with direct 1-1 guidance sessions with established illustrators through a 6-month period. Following very positive feedback, the scheme has continued annually to include non-members and illustrators based internationally.
Following feedback from our members, the final issue of Varoom was published in 2021 and AOI focused on more content for members online, resulting in the creation of Inside Illustration in 2022 – a multi-platform season for members focusing on a particular area of illustration for each edition, complete with a podcast, Creative Course for members, in-depth articles, resources, industry-focused interviews and comprehensive ‘How To…’ guides.
After a period of intense campaigning for creative freelancers’ rights during the COVID-19 pandemic, and supporting our members meaningfully during this time, our focus shifted to Artificial Intelligence and its effects on illustrators and the industry. In early 2023, the AOI published an initial statement on AI, took part in a range of events and sessions (including the AI/ML Media Advocacy Summit in March 2023) and has engaged and contributed to a number of consultations directly with Government.
As we look to the future, we remain committed to providing 1-1 support to illustrators, as well as advocating for their collective rights. The industry has come a long way over the past 50 years and will of course continue to evolve. The AOI will be here as a guide to help illustrators navigate shared challenges and engage with new opportunities on the horizon.
Rachel Hill, CEO. 2023
More on the history of the AOI:
AOI 50th Anniversary – 5 Major Achievements
AOI 50th Anniversary – Here for the members!
Fifty years of support for illustrators
AOI 50th Anniversary – Got your back! Campaigning
AOI’s achievements for all illustrators
AOI 50th Anniversary – Awards and Events
From the first annual in 1976 to World Illustration Awards
AOI 50th Anniversary – I was there!
Recollections from important AOI contributors
AOI 50th anniversary logo by Jonny Hannah