Artist Insight: Alva Skog On Gender Clichés

How to draw against stereotypes and use illustration as a form of activism

- Alva Skog

These days, it’s easy to feel powerless about the state of the world as a creative. But perhaps you can affect the world through illustration and if so, then how? Here, I’ll be tackling this question by focusing predominantly on my portrayal of gender in society, suggesting ways to draw genderless people, as I’ve featured throughout my work, from entries to competitions to commercial assignments.

Political illustrator Edel Rodriguez once said, “You can’t avoid an image” and I couldn’t agree more. Illustrations and images are able to spread messages much faster and more effectively than words because they have a much bigger visual impact. Obviously – and most importantly – illustrations when done well don’t have to worry about crossing any language barriers.

FEMALE REPRESENTATION

My journey to activism in illustration started when I was in my second year studying graphic design at Central Saint Martins in London and I decided to enter the D&AD New Blood design competition. The competition brief was to create three posters that communicated advice to someone and I chose to give advice to my younger sister, who was 14 at the time.

In these posters, I wanted to share my own experience of being a young woman and communicate to my sister that she doesn’t need to conform to society’s rigid and box-like ideas of how she’s expected to behave and act. For example, she doesn’t have to shave her legs or smoke to be accepted by others. I also wanted to encourage her not to overthink or worry too much and to avoid being self-absorbed, because that never leads to anything good! I wanted her to be confident and to be herself and in time, know that everything was going to be alright.