Big Illustration Party: Contracts

The final podcast in the recent series that we were set to listen to was based around the act of drawing up contracts when you’re in the Illustration business. It was a real eye- opener for me to see how much more business there is than I originally thought, and showed me that the sooner I establish myself professionally the easier it will be to get my foot in the door when I’m let out into the real world.

Going over the basics in a nutshell, the presenters advised one to draw up a standardized contract that can be easily edited to meet yours and whichever clients needs, and it would definitely get changed as you learn about the ins and outs of the business anyway.

They gave great advice, like that if a client doesn’t like the idea of a contract, it’s probably not a client you want to be working with anyway, which makes sense to me! They also advised that we add a kill fee, which is a fee you would get if you get cancelled before you’ve finished your commission, and a late payment fee, which should be up to 5% of the project salary.

Other things that were touched upon (and that taught me lots) was how to charge companies for different types of projects, for example if the product you were illustrating for is a billboard, it is acceptable to charge more then for a once-run newspaper editorial, because of the audience seeing it and because of buy-outs.

Licensing of your work was another thing that was spoken about. They said to specify in the contract who had the rights to the final outcome and for how long, and that if you didn’t establish if it was a work for hire piece of not there could be trouble on the horizon, because you might not even be able to use the piece for your portfolio! This shocked me a bit, but I guess that’s just the way the business world works!

Final Major Project: Initial Thoughts

So I’ve come to the end of an era, and with the start of the new year will come the start of a new project: the Final Major Project. This, as I understand, is where the majority of my end of year marks will come from (hence the name I guess) so it would be a good idea to get this one right.

I’ve been racking my brains when I have a spare minute or so, or when I’m drifting off to sleep, thinking about what I might be able to work on for the last part of my education. I’ve not come up with anything definitive at all, but I’ve decided that the only thing I can really do (with me being one of the people in the class with a less focused style) is get guidance from my tutors. In the meantime, however, I can explore my strengths and weaknesses in order to find some sort of theme.

One idea I’ve had for a while is to invent some of my own characters (say, a robot, a chicken and a talking lamp, for example) and incorporate them into my world of illustrations. I think that this would work best with one of my greatest influences: comics. So this is a strong way forward for me. I’d also be interested in doing some BIG work, like a mural, and I want to finally try my hand at getting some t-shirts made. So incorporating all of these aspects would make my year more enjoyable.

However, I’m sure the tutors have seen students come in with ideas all the time and still not have anywhere to put them to good use, and I do think that this could easily happen to me, so I’m looking forward to the time when these ideas take better shape.

Tutorial with Gary and Ian

Last Monday I had a meeting with both of my tutors, Gary and Ian, so we could steer forward in the right direction for the negotiated project. I was actually pretty nervous for this crit (seems to be a running theme there) because my lack of attendance/ workload was sure to have them a little ticked off! However, once again I was second-guessing people and getting it all wrong!

So I took in what I had so far for my competition projects and my museum project to see what they had to say.

I started with a lone picture I had thrown together for my competition project, a portrait of Black Swan for the Little White Lies competition. It was quickly dismissed, and quite rightly, because after they pointed a few things out I realized it looked terrible! So instead I told them that I was already in talks with Richard from the moving image pathway where we were working on the Heinz brief. I didn’t have much to show them though because we’d only had initial talks.

Ian and Gary’s advice was (because there wasn’t much time left) to focus on one project, which was the museum project. I’d showed them a quick draft of the comic I I’m planning on making, which tells the story of how Anansi the trickster God got his storytelling abilities. However, they actually preferred my quick sketching to my final mock-up ideas, noticing that I’d refined the work far too much for the finished product. It helped me realize that while I was so focused on linear aspects, I’d not thought about shape much, which, they say, is a strength I should be working on.

Also, thinking of comics as a way forward was suggested, because my best work comes from narrative elements and I think I have a good eye for composition. In conclusion, the tutors helped me out loads and I’m glad I turned up for the meeting!

Thoughtful Presentation

A couple of weeks ago Stuart Price from design company Thoughtful came in to give us a talk, mainly about presenting portfolios, but also advice in general about the transition from student to practitioner. I say he came in, but really their studio is actually based in Stockport College so he only came up to our floor, but he’d prepared an excellent presentation for us, which I’m grateful for because I’ve taken a lot from it already!

The first part of the lecture was really quite bizarre; he had us dancing! Apparently, studies show that fifteen minutes of dance a day helps your thinking, so we did some structured dance to help our convergent thinking and improvised dance to help our divergent thinking!

Then I took in a lot of advice and knowledge, like a sponge. The key points I picked up on were that potential clients/ employers etc like to see a good mix of ideas, personality and execution in portfolios. Somehow I don’t think that it’s a mere coincidence that the three sections we get marked on are creativity, professionalism and technical aspects! It’s also better to be interested than to be interesting, so do your research. Finally, it’s a good idea to learn digital, as this is the way the world is moving.

Common mistakes to look out for when designing portfolios were for spelling, typo’s, too much/ not enough talking in interviews and people who show the work to themselves, not their audience.  

Some other words of advice were based around the interview itself and getting in contact. Stuart told us that persistence is essential, as designers are busy so we’re not always on their minds. In the interview, get an idea of how long it will last so you know how to structure it. Most of all, communicate!

Lord Whitney

Today we had a visit by Art Directors Amy Lord and Rebekah Whitney, who make up Lord Whitney. They were here to give us a little insight into how they got where they are now from leaving university, and later to chat to us individually about our own direction.

In the morning they gave us a talk in the lecture theatre about how they became… them! They started off in different disciplines in the same uni; Amy was into photography, while Rebekah was working with 3D illustration. They collaborated just before they finished uni, but carried on after, and still do to this day. I felt a little better about my current situation when the revealed that they didn’t really know what they wanted to do until after they left, and the rest of the talk was based around the realization that what they wanted to do was right under their nose the whole time.

Lord Whitney told us that they find inspiration in things that make them laugh, and generally just the playfulness that can come out of low budget design. They also said how hard it could be pursuing a passion like design/ illustration because so much time and money goes into it for little return (apart from the obvious fun and experience) so make sure you do it for you and not money.

After the talk they had a look at my recent work, and I revealed how worried I am about settling into one specific niche in illustration. They helped me massively, when they showed me that my styles could be brought in, taking the best out of all of my pieces, and putting them to better use. They also told me not to worry about that too much though, and when I told them I was interested in working big they encouraged the experiment for my next project, which is the brief they set me!

Click here to take a peek at their wacky and wonderful website.