Effective Illustration: a Categorical Imperative
Scott Hull Associates for Altpick, Published June 25, 2007

Sometime in the 18th century, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant theorized that the everyday objects we take for granted — trees, rocks, or illustrations, for example — could not actually be known at all. By his account, each item is at its core a Ding an Sich, or “Thing in Itself,” which can be understood only through the phenomena associated with it — taste, smell, color, etc.
Clients, however, don’t read Kant. When they hire an illustrator, they want something more than a theoretical entity (just try billing for a “noumenon”), and this is of course perfectly understandable. Besides, there’s nothing wrong with getting results — in fact, it can be a lot of fun. This is the idea behind the Trigger Award.
Officially designated to recognize clients who have had “exceptional success in achieving their objectives through use of original illustration,” Scott Hull Associates’ latest accolade not only acknowledges the universal craving for results, it *celebrates* it.
And while SHA has been making things happen for their clients for some 26 years now, only recently have they begun to focus so closely on measuring the results. It’s a brilliant, if paradoxical, proposition: set the project’s objectives at the very beginning, and you reduce the client’s uncertainty. Reduce the client’s uncertainty, and you can take more risks creatively. Make the rules so you can break the rules. What a concept.
What’s more, under this new model the success stories quickly start piling up. And not just “this piece turned out really well” or “everybody thought it was pretty” types of responses — *real* (and really client-friendly) successes. Phrases get thrown around like “23% increase in overall attendance,” “brisk sales” and “10,000+ customers engaging with the campaign.”

Being able to cite results like these has a way of making business-types smile, whether they’re current clients, tentative clients or potential clients. And a smiling client, it goes without saying, is a very good client to have.
Consider the University of Washington, who hired Scott Hull Associates illustrator Clint Hansen, a specialist in the hyper-detailed scratchboard technique, to capture the likenesses of each of their campus’s Husky Hall of Fame inductees — more than 160 student-athletes and coaches in all. They then used his artwork in etched metal medallions of these legendary Huskies, and featured the medallions prominently in the college sports museum.
Granted, Hansen can’t take all the credit, but the fact remains (and the client proudly reports) that visits to the Husky Hall of Fame have grown by an estimated 24,000 people per year since the project began, and increased from roughly 100 annual visits at the museum’s beginning to well over 100,000. A ten-thousand percent improvement: that’s pretty darned measurable. They’re a definite candidate for a Trigger Award.
Triad Stage, an alternative community theater and another Scott Hull Associates client, has seen average attendance increase 23% overall since the 2003 season. They attribute the jump to the “Broadway-quality poster artwork” they now place throughout the city. Also Trigger-worthy.
Full-service agency Frank Best International enlisted the help of SHA illustrator Mark Riedy for their unique “find-what’s-wrong-with-this-picture” campaign for Honda Engines. Mark’s engaging, lifelike creations helped inspire a tremendous response — to the tune of 10,000 members of the target audience, who visited Honda Engines’ website and submitted exhaustive lists of “errors” in his illustration. (Not only that, Mark’s illustrative style helped sell the campaign to the client, making possible the use of a concept that otherwise could have been prohibitively expensive because of the extensive original photography and post-production work. Not technically a campaign result, but a nice bonus nonetheless.)
Hayward Baker, the largest Geotechnical Engineering group in North America, got 5,000 requests between this year and last for their beautifully illustrated promotional calendar, courtesy of perspective-intensive illustrator John Maggard. Now, take a moment and ask yourself: What other explanation could there possibly be when thousands of people are clamoring for a Geotechnical Engineering calendar?
Used properly, great illustration doesn’t just amuse people — it inspires action. And the recipients of Scott Hull Associates’ Trigger Award get more than a plaque for their office wall — though it *is* quite striking. They get the results that earned them the award, obviously, and the confidence that comes from knowing they achieved what they set out to do by collaborating with an artist who is just as excited and dedicated as they are.
So while Kant may have been on to something with his revolutionary theory of being — in fairness, it *has* influenced Western thought for upwards of two centuries — there’s a lot to be said for plain old cause and effect. It’s certainly a lot more compelling to folks whose careers revolve around year-end numbers and upward-tilting sales curves.
That’s not to say we should start using Microsoft Excel to sketch out our concepts. Heaven forbid. But when it comes to client meetings, there’s one thing you can safely assume: if anybody mentions the Transcendental Aesthetic, they aren’t talking about a non-metaphysical exposition of space and time.
They probably just want some good art.
The winners of Scott Hull Associates’ Trigger Award, including descriptions of the results generated, will be posted quarterly on the SHA website, scotthull.com. Sign up online to receive notification via email. SHA also plans to publish an annual compilation of the winning entries.