Event date: 19 June 2025, LCC
Words by Paul Jackson
The Illustration Study Hub invited four illustration PhD candidates to share their diverse research practices at this event at London College of Communication. Through their presentations and a lively Q&A with the audience, we explored the role of research methods in illustration studies.
Our guests brought a range of perspectives to the conversation: Gabrielle Cariolle’s extraordinary documentation of her childhood dwellings used poetry and autobiography to produce narrative illustration; Haiqi Yang used picture books to address anxiety disorders in young adults through metaphor analysis; Miriam Elgon explored listening, memory and performance as ‘translation’ methods of research; Yuqiao Zheng put forward action research and visual analysis as compelling methods for children’s book illustration practice.
We discovered common threads through their inquiry into the discipline. All shared approaches which considered the role of the voice and the purpose of narrative in their research activity. Questions from the audience asked if and how the illustrator might be able to distance themselves from their research subjects, if and how they can remain objective in their research activities, and most compellingly, whether they should.