Owen Davey has been working as a freelance illustrator in Leicester since graduating six years ago from Falmouth University. His colourful and playful vector illustrations have won many awards such as the YCN professional award in 2013 and he has worked for many well known companies such as Google, Facebook, Virgin and more.
Linking the work of a creative practitioner to 'The Death of the Author' by Roland Barthes, we could view the illustrator, in this example, Owen Davey as an author in relation to their individual practice. The meaning of authorship can be seen as ‘the person who originates or gives existence to anything’ (M.Rock, the designer as author 1996).
A lot of what Barthes is portraying in his text is that any form of authorship is open to interpretation and the audience may not relate on the same level as what the author set out to achieve, both in an emotive and logical response.
In relation to Owen Davey's practice, I am personally inspired by his work due to his use of bright colours in textured vector form that I think appeal to a really broad audience, including both adults and children which is a really difficult thing to do. For example, his book 'Mad about monkeys' is an educational and informative picture book with supportive language about the history and relationships of the animals. Barthes claims that 'it is the language which speaks, not the author' although Davey is merely answering a brief to visually inform a large audience with facts about monkeys. This could also mean that the audience is looking at it from a non personal perspective, meaning that the purpose of reading and looking at the book is for its sole purpose, to learn about monkeys, rather than reading and looking at the book to understand Davey's thoughts and feelings towards monkeys.
I also feel like this is a rather difficult statement to interpret from Barthes; 'the image of literature to be found in ordinary culture is harshly centred on the author, his person, his life, his tastes, his passion'. Yet again I feel like this cannot apply in the correct context with an illustrator in terms of authorship, as the majority of the time the illustrator is given a brief from an external person in which they need to answer. It would be completely different if the illustrator had devised the narrative and imagery themselves where they could fully intertwine their personality, life,tastes and passions when answering a brief, but this is not always the most appropriate method to take when appealing to a broad audience.
This statement from Barthes translates to the fact that a text comes together gradually along the process of engagement with it, rather than from the point where it started,'a texts unity lies not in its origin but its destination'. If we were to relate this to illustration and the specific practice of Owen Davey's authorship this could make sense in the process of becoming a developed illustrator in a personal sense, for example the unity of his practice will take time to develop etc. However in terms of his work for example a book or piece of work, this could also apply and be seen as relevant in the sense that the unity of the image doesn't lie where it started- a lot of loose ends and ideas, but in the finished product which communicates the appropriate message and answers the brief efficiently.
To conclude, I believe illustration and authorship are two completely different things. In today's society, an illustrator will often answer a brief that is given to them with specific requirements, whereas a traditional author or writer will express themselves through language, and have entire control and ownership on what is delivered to the audience. However if we look at the illustrator as 'the person who originates and gives existent to anything', then this becomes relevant in a sense that through image making, the illustrator is illuminating and giving existence to a particular subject matter, message and theme that can be visually interpreted.
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