Cartoons can be magnificently complex. Take a look at any cartoon by Giles. They are large, beautiful works of art with all sorts of things going on, and very funny. This approach can work in corporate cartooning, it can get a message across to the reader, and if they have time they can pause to enjoy the art. Cartoons don’t have to be big and complex though, a simple approach can be very effective in attracting the eye, getting the message across, and allowing the reader to move on quickly to whatever you want to direct them to next.
Here’s an example:
I could have gone to town on this cartoon with a complicated backdrop and a cast of thousands – all sorts of onion characters enjoying the show, and engaging in sub plots in the background. I didn’t though. It was designed as a fast cartoon – get the message, enjoy the joke and move on.
What’s it about?
Well the gag is obvious – the analogy between a stick thin model on a fashion catwalk, compared to normal sized people in the admiring audience. There are several types of humour employed in this gag.
- Satire – parodying the unnatural thinness of the professional model
- Visual pun – thin spring onion as model, normal round bulbous onions as audience
- Surreal – Onions don’t normally parade on catwalks or watch fashion shows
Why does it work?
Employing more than one type of humour helps, the gag works on different levels. It is topical and familiar. The debate on the size of models is on-going and looks likely to roll on for some time, and everyone will recognise onions. The cartoon even works without the caption.
This brings me to a side issue I will talk about at some length in another blog, the use of language in cartoons. The caption works in England where spring onions are sold as “spring onions” in every greengrocer’s shop and supermarket. In other countries where they are known as scallions, green onions, salad onions, etc, it might not.
The use of colour is minimal, and used to draw attention only to the parts needed to make the gag. These are the orange colour of the onions, and the distinctive green of the spring onions. I was tempted to make the dress a fetching pink but it didn’t add anything and I took the colour out again.
The shape of the catwalk, and the shading was carefully designed to bring the eye through the audience to they key figure, and back out through more of the audience.
Cartoons, should they be simple or complicated?
Both types work in corporate cartooning, it depends what you are trying to accomplish. Simple can be very effective if you put some thought into it. If you need to cut through the clutter of today’s information rich society, you can’t do better than use a well crafted cartoon.
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