Otto Dettmer

Otto Dettmer came into college yesterday to talk about his work. He gave us a good insight into what life is like as a practicing illustrator. I found it useful to hear his experiences of starting out after university as we shall soon be in a similar position. He moved from Berlin to Bristol in 1988 to complete a graphics degree. When beginning his studies he used mainly drawing and collage techniques, before moving on to silk-screening whilst studying for a MA in illustration at Kingston University. In his first 5 years spent as an illustrator he did a lot of self promotional work, mainly silk-screened images onto posters and books. The self promotional work was very important but he mentioned that perhaps he sent a little too much time concentrating on this rather than his actual commissions. So he was always chasing the next job instead of putting his all into the current one. He explained that this wasn’t a good idea as if you create good work for a client they will commission you again where as if you do a bad job they will be put off for the future. So the self promotional work lead to many one time commissions but no steady work. He has since built up a number of steady jobs with different newspaper. His work is well suited to editorials as he can produce work fast and he has a talent for creating strong concepts within illustrations to compliment an article.
When starting out he would make regular visits to London and try to make as many appointments as possible, on average out of every 8-10 contacts he would get 1 commission. Otto showed us some of his earlier editorial work from the mid 90’s and explained that back then there was a lot more room on the page for illustrations. This space seems to becoming less and less each year with pages getting smaller and adverts taking over. Here is an example of his earlier work for Business and Technology where the illustrations are uncompromised by advertisements.

These illustrations were created by hand using silk screen prints. Soon after he began to work digitally using a very simple graphic package on the Mac. The process was still very similar in terms of creating abstract montages. Here’s one of his earliest digital pieces created for the Independent on Saturday magazine.

He also noted that the success of an editorial illustration can be affected by how the editor/art director places it on the page. Some will compliment the shape of the illustration with the text but others will crop elements or separate them to different areas of the page. Otto said the best way to avoid elements being separated on the page is to make it a solid image. However they still have the power to take elements away which they might be unhappy with. One of his illustrations had a hook taken away with the art director saying it looked as though the figure was committing suicide, I couldn’t see this myself but with such a wide audience viewing the article they have to be sure they are communicating the right idea.

As Otto Dettmer has been working freelance for almost 20 years he has built up a large collection of work. He utilizes this collection by using pieces again when possible; he also has a stock illustration section on his web page for clients to look through. This is working well at generating extra income from clients who don’t have a large enough budget to commission new illustration. Many of his illustrations can be read in different ways so they are well suited to many articles. He has been approached by stock agencies but they take a 50% cut of the sale and also he would not be able to sell them himself so he declined.
Otto has never had a regular illustration agent either. He said that agencies usually go for illustrator that will bring in big jobs with high pay from advertising agencies etc. Where as his work is more suited to smaller quick turnover magazine/newspaper editorials. He has tried advertising work in the past and although it is well paid he found in un-enjoyable. The ideas had already been thought up and there were too many people along the chain to try and please. He is much happier creating editorial illustration where he can come up with his own concepts. He creates a number of roughs which the client then selects their favourite and then he adapts it into the final piece. Most of the time the art director selects the best image but there are times when they select a “safer” option. As they have to answer to the editor this can sometime limit the creativity of an art director.
Otto has an eclectic range of influences, ranging from renaissance paintings to sci-fi and horror movie posters. He is also influenced by Russian Constructivism and Polish posters. He showed us a number of Constructivist posters by Lizzitsky and Rodchenko.

This illustration was directly influenced by Constructivism. He wanted to create a feeling of revolution and the constructivist aesthetics work well for this topic. I really like this idea of looking to be influence by a movement which relates to the concept of a piece. As I am usually influenced by style this is something I would like to try and do more in my own work.
Although the current financial climate is having a negative effect on most peoples income Otto has managed to make it a positive. As his work is well suited for business articles he has gained a lot of commissions to illustrate articles about the current financial crisis. He also mentioned that he has been working for a German client for a while, it used to be quite a poor paid job but with the value of the pound decreasing so rapidly, as the job is paid in euros it has turned out to be quite lucrative. So I suppose that is something to bear in mind with the current financial climate.
Overall I found Otto Dettmers lecture very informative. I wasn’t sure if I would get much out of it because of him being an editorial illustrator, and his style being so different to that I am usually influenced by, but he has a lot of experience as an illustrator and plenty of knowledge on the industry. So I have been able to take on board a lot of what he has said which will hopefully help me in the future. His work can be found on http://www.ottoillustration.com/