Company has grand designs on the world

A 30-volume series of children's books received a lot attention online in China recently, not just because of its sheer size but also because of the source of its financial backing - crowdfunding organized by an online bookshop.

The illustrations in the 30 volumes of stories, taken from all over the world, reflect the breadth of the books and the stories in them - 3,000 pictures by 30 illustrators from various countries and regions, such as Francesca Greco and Valentina Fiore Perla from Italy.

"There are stories from Grimm's Fairy Tales and from the Middle East, and of course illustrators from those countries and regions are very well suited to that job," says Hou Mingliang, founder of IlluSalon, a company in Beijing that aims to bring together illustrators and those who use illustrations.

"Prices of illustrations can vary widely, depending largely on the local economy. There may be little difference in the quality of works when you compare various places, but some will be expensive while others are extremely cheap.

"With IlluSalon, publishers have many choices and can make decisions based on their needs and their budgets."

In China, publishers have long paid students in fine arts academies a pittance to churn out illustrations for books.

"There is a joke about those cheap illustrations," says Gao Shan, chief executive of IlluSalon. "If you go to many illustrations and remove the hair or skin color of the figures in them you will find that all the eyes and noses - including those of dogs, cats and humans - are similar."

One reason such conditions have prevailed for so long is that there is a scarcity of good channels through which anyone can find suitable illustrators, Hou says.

"Also, publishers demand the best illustrations, but are not willing to pay accordingly," Hou says.

IlluSalon was founded in 2014 at a time when an upswing in demand in China for good-quality illustrations and picture books was emerging.

"We have lived through the printing era and the writing era and are now in the audiovisual era," Hou says. "So people are crying out for more pictures, especially really creative ones that express a creator's ideas."

IlluSalon has been the driving force behind a new event that recognizes artistic talent, the Global Illustration Award. At the Frankfurt Book Fair in October, IlluSalon hosted the awards ceremony. More than 10,000 entries from five continents were received in two months, in five illustration categories: covers, children's books, editorial, scientific, and one entitled "Learning to live together". The awards went to 15 artists from seven countries and regions.

One of the original aims of IlluSalon was to bring foreign illustrators into the Chinese market as it continues to grow. Further down the road, the idea is to introduce Chinese illustrators to the world.

IlluSalon says it has signed contracts with about 1,000 foreign illustrators, mainly from Europe.

"Illustrators who want to join us can show us their works," Hou says. "After signing a contract with us we will link illustrators with customers, and eventually we should have a stable of great illustrators. They will be the backbone of IlluSalon."

Under IlluSalon's plans the website would eventually become a trading platform akin to taobao.com. Illustrators would post introductions of themselves and their works on the website, and potential customers would use key words to search for works or creators.

IlluSalon says that in addition to publishers, it has customers from other fields such as Apple and the global advertising agency Batten, Barton, Durstine & Osborn.

IlluSalon says it has found illustrators from all over the world to paint emoji packages that users can pay to download from Apple.

"We want to build a platform through which the creative abilities of illustrators and their works can circulate efficiently globally," Hou says.

( China Daily European Weekly 01/13/2017 page16)