Complaint about my illustration work

carrieannebrown

Hi all,

I just wanted your opinion on something. My company received a complaint about the below image not being diverse enough. The complaint basically said that there was only one woman repeated, no diverse ethnicity and no young riders. The thing is, I feel like I have made every figure open to interpretation. Within the confines of the white only highlights I created long hair, beards, different shades of hair and skin. The white was supposed to represent reflected light not skin colour. I'm not sure how I can define more women and ethnicities. There are 3 separate characters with long hair (top middle for example) but even long hair = woman is surely old fashioned. Any apart from the 4 with beards could be women in my view.

I'm just wondering if I need to change it and how? My first reaction was that it was ridiculous because it wasn't my intention for them to all be read as white men but now I'm worrying that I'm coming across as insensitive and I need to remove it from my portfolio. Help!

demotlj

@carrieannebrown It's a great illustration and I think the fix is easy. The problem as I see it is that while most of the characters can't be identified by race or gender, the few that can are all white and mostly men (and because you repeated images, it makes them seem more numerous.) Just change the color and gender on some of the ones whose face is exposed and you'd be more obviously diverse.

jimsz

who or where did the complain come from? As far as I can see you have about 4 white men, 5 white females and around 7 non-descript.

So out of around 16 characters 25% are white men. The actual percentage of the US population is about 35% white males so you are actually under representing white men in this woke culture.

If it means money for your company, consider the complaint and if need be make changes. If it is just a general complaint, dismiss it. If it were me, I wouldn't put much effort or thought into it. The woke liberal culture will complain about anything they come across simply because that's what they do.

there will always be someone who has something to complain and as long as its not your client you dont need to change anything.

NessIllustration

@carrieannebrown You've said it yourself, it's open to interpretation That means there's always going to be at least one weirdo who's going to interpret it all wrong...

carrieannebrown

@NessIllustration @jimsz @demotlj @Molambo thank you all so much for your reply.

I just spoke to the company that it was for and they said they thought it was as neutral as possible and don't have a problem with it. I'll put it down to a learning experience and be careful to make it more obvious next time.