Namely, whether the last decade’s improvement in photographic technology would end up increasing the demand for illustration? To explain: at one time it was relatively difficult to find good photographers. Now, there are so many photos being taken with good equipment, even non-professionals are “accidentally” producing quality work. I’m thinking of the stock image market here to some degree.

With so many faux-professional photos available, it would seem that their aggregate value should go down. If I’m a marketer trying to cut through the clutter, photos could be seen as an overused solution… leading to an increase in the demand for illustration.

We’ve already seen this surge in demand for some types of illustration work and I wonder if this is a larger, technology-driven trend? Surely, developing more business-oriented illustration work (as you suggest) would add fuel to the fire.