Position Statement

Line is at the core of my practice and I feel as though that I have solidified a creative process in the last few months. Through rigorous exploration of line in different mediums, I have noticed that it is most effective when realized traditionally and then scanned in to be coloured and enhanced on Photoshop– taking a purely digital approach from start to finish has been detrimental to pieces of work beforehand and it is good that I finally realise this in order to have a strategy to image-making. While the themes of my work tend to vary quite a lot, content-wise, the figure is often relevant.

I am strongly influenced by literature and would ideally like to work in the world of publishing and book design. I have built up a portfolio exploring this industry and will slowly send it out to relevant art directors in the form of my post card mailers, interwoven with regulated e-mails.

Screen print is also another strand of my practice that I wish to continue. I have spent the last three years on this course nurturing this skill and I feel like I will leave here confident enough to work independently in a print studio. I want to be able to intern at one, but if this doesn’t happen then I will purchase membership to East London Printmakers in order to further this aspect of my practice.

While I have built up a strong portfolio in both these areas over the last year, I am aware of the fact that editorial is the ‘bread and butter’ of most freelancing illustrators. I will not get regular work in the publishing industry immediately, so need to begin to think about how I approach this industry and build up a relevant portfolio to send to a new batch of relevant employers, as it is currently very sparse.

Summative Evaluation

I feel as though it took me a lot longer than it should have to engage with this module. I'm disappointed that I did the bulk of my contacting as late as Easter, but at the same time I feel that perhaps it was unavoidable: A huge concern of mine last year was my lack of a developing tone of voice - all my work was scattered and it was hard to make sense of it. It has only been in the last couple of months that I feel like my work has started to come together as a cohesive portfolio.
When I e-mailed a couple agencies at the beginning of the year, they said that they look for illustrators who are confident enough in what they do to have a 'style'. Now that I feel a bit more confident about what I do, I think I'm in more of a position to send out portfolios to art directors, agencies and other prospective clients.

In terms of my self-branding, I think this is something that has come out strong. I'm pleased with my visual identity - the idea was to make something a bit odd that people would remember. I think I have done just that, particularly by spilling my portrait onto variously coloured business cards which I think people will hold onto. I feel as though the brand identity is sleek and consistent through defined use of colours and type. As well as the printed material, this look is also translated onto my online presence sites: www.emanuelsillustration.com and emanuelsg.tumblr.com use the same colours and feature the same self-portrait.
Since getting my website, my use of Tumblr has radically changed - while I would only post portfolio-style work once a week, now I am posting multiple times a week with odd little things I do. This makes it much more exciting to view and makes me feel better about how much work I've been producing lately. My use of Behance definitely needs developing though, as a lot of people use it so post their conceptual development and process while I just tend to post finished artwork with a short description.

I feel as though without an Instagram, I am definitely missing out on a lot of potential attention and exposure that could come my way, but not having a smartphone at the moment makes this an impossibility. Instagram may be what pushes me to get one though - a lot of people I've spoken to speak very highly of it, and have even been told by practitioners that it's a huge help.

In regards to progression, I have researched into how I can maintain a screen printing practice. East London Printmakers is what I currently have my eye one as it is very affordable. I should have looked into getting an internship sooner than I did, but the thought that they might exist in these studios hadn't even crossed my mind. I have sent e-mails out to two studios asking if they do summer internships, but haven't heard back. I will chase them up a little later down the line, or think about visiting them in person over summer.

I think the most important thing to take from the module is that it never really ends - I am going to work very hard to continue doing what this module has taught me to do well beyond I leave this course. Luckily, my mailing strategy has me with a plan for at least 6 months.

Final Presentation

I was surprised by how smoothly this went, even though I was nervous about being first. Public speaking isn't my strong suit, but perhaps it's not as big a weakness as I think.

Presentation Boards

Professional Portfolio

This is my professional portfolio of a more general nature. It can be added to/taken away from as need be.

Rejecting

End of Year Show Art Marketing

I want to sell some screen prints at the End of Year Show Art Market, so decided to adapt the Lolita and Clockwork Orange illustrations I did into posters. I already have The Bell Jar one, which makes a nice set of three.

It would be nice to make a bit of money, and having sold that 2-colour A2 Flight Facilities poster before, I can do so more aware of how to price my work. At £35, I definitely undersold it. 

Each of these posters are 18"x24": The Bell Jar is 1-colour, Clockwork is 2-colour and Lolita is 4-colour, so I will take this into account when I price each poster.

I've sent off my application form so am hoping to hear back soon. If my work is chosen I have to attend a briefing on the 25th May. I won't be doing any printing related to these till after the 603 deadline though, which is quite a few days before this date - all very convenient.

Submitting

I've sent submission e-mails to The Artworks, Killington Arts, Heart and Eyecandy.
When asking for low-res JPEGs to submit, these are the ones I have been falling back on:

As I think they show a good breadth of work while still being able to show what I'm about.

Bridge-ing

E-mailed Andy Bridge who I discovered a bit ago and whose book covers I really like and he got back to me with a really in depth e-mail with comments about my work and some insight into his practice - he talks about how his use of digital can keep his work fresh while still being his own and how he makes images more exciting by playing with viewpoint. What a nice guy! Will definitely take his advice and try and make my images as exciting as his.

Mailing

My business cards arrived a few days ago and so I thought it was time to start sending post cards out to art directors. I realised though, that since I'm sending the bio postcard first, it might look a bit odd to send that and the business cards when they have the same design on them - so this first bit of mail will just have the post card and a short handwritten letter.

Each letter is different and tailored to the respective art director. I've name dropped illustrators and designers they've worked with in the past in order to show I've done a bit of research into their work. It was a little harder for others though as either very few of their projects or none at all come up. Regardless, I still tailored the letters as best I could, referencing the company they represented.

Now that these are done, I'll wait a month or so before I send out the second batch, tailored further according to the spreadsheet. These will come with a business card as well.

Advice reading

http://muddycolors.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/approaching-art-directors.html
http://muddycolors.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/how-to-cold-call-email-art-directors.html

http://www.printmag.com/article/art-directors-and-illustrators/

Found some useful links with some tips about approaching art directors - some stuff which sounds pretty basic but makes sense - do your research into what they do and what they commission, don't get in contact more than once a month and what sort of thing to say in your e-mail/letter.

E-mailing pt.2

I discovered The Artworks, an illustration agency today and really like the work they represent - there's a consistently strong amount of draughtsmanship that can be seen across all their illustrators which I really like. I sent them a few low-res jpegs of my work to see if they would be interested.

I also sent an e-mail to Rachael Saunders, a recent-ish graduate is signed to them asking about her experience with them and she replied very quickly:

She says they're a really nice agency, but it sounds like she may not necessarily have needed them because the quality of her work has gotten attention elsewhere. Regardless, she still talks highly of the agency. I'll keep them in my books since I like what they're about.

http://www.goodillustration.com/submissions/

Spreadsheeting

This is a spreadsheet I've made as a sort of action plan for who I'm going to send out the postcards I printed out to - Everyone will get the bio post card first, but after that I'm going to send them out in terms of potential interest to each client. For example:
The Bell Jar is published by Faber, so I will send that one out to Faber first and other publishing directors later.
A Clockwork Orange was made for the Penguin Design Award, so I will send that one out at a later date as it is potentially being seen by directors at the moment.
etc.

I've also looked at the art directors' portfolios and the sort of work that they commission as well in order to try and gauge what they might be interested in.

Everyone will get every post card, but when they get them will differ from each other. My business cards are supposed to be arriving from Moo this week so I can get on with sending these out very soon.

Print interning

http://www.jealousgallery.com/

Was made aware of this print studio in London that does screen and digital printing services. I've sent them an email asking if they offer work experience or something similar so that I could continue screen printing after graduation. It would be a (potentially free?) alternative to East London Printmakers

Hi, 
I'm an illustration student from London currently approaching the end of his final year at Leeds College of Art. 

I was made aware of Jealous recently and really like the look of it - I'm passionate about screen printing and have been trying to adapt it to various briefs since last year. 
I want to continue maintaining a screen printing practice until after graduation and was wondering if you guys offered any placements for work experience that might be available over summer and beyond? I'd love to continue screen printing, but also learning about related processes.

Thanks for your time.

regards,

Emanuel Santos


Also didn't realise that Print Club London do internships - found a post from January 2016 about them offering one on another website. It requires a CV and portfolio, which I haven't set up for screen print yet, but I sent an e-mail asking if they have any positions open for the summer period. Hopefully they get back with news that they do.

I also messaged Louis Craig Carpenter, a brother of a friend who graduated from Arts Uni Bournemouth   a couple years ago after doing illustration- he's now a technician at Print Club London.
He said he just e-mailed them asking if he could intern while they were setting up a show, so they needed a lot of help and were happy to take him on. He worked as an intern for about a month before becoming a technician. Although the internship would be unpaid, apparently they're quite happy to have people help out for a bit.

Editorial pondering

As I e-mail and send my portfolio out to various people, I'm beginning to think that even though I have several publishing-related projects that I'm proud of, I've limited the amount of people I can send my work out to since there's very little in terms of other areas of illustration - particularly editorial.

I shied away from editorial at the beginning of the year because I didn't think the way I made work lent itself well to editorial-style projects, in terms of coming up with a snappy image that looks at articles from an interesting angle. I'm beginning to regret not trying to remedy this lack of confidence because obviously editorial commissions are the bread and butter of a freelance illustrator's practice.

I'm definitely going to have to try and build up a portfolio in this area of the industry so that I can really expand the amount of people it would make sense to send my work out to. I might try and make a small 603 brief out of this - spending a day or so working on an editorial piece if I can manage alongside the big kahuna.

E-mailing

Killington Arts is a cool agency that represents the likes of Owen Freeman and Jun Cen

Hi,

I'm an illustration student coming up to the end of his final year of study at Leeds College of Art. I discovered your agency through the work of Owen Freeman and really like the type of artists that you represent - the sensibilities of the work really resonate with me.

Ive been trying to make sense of some recent projects on my website and was wondering if you had any feedback you could share on what's up at the moment:
http://www.emanuelsillustration.com

I appreciate you guys must be very busy, so thanks for your time.

Regards,

Emanuel Santos

This is the first agency I've emailed since Heart and CIA at the beginning of the module, when I asked them if there was any point getting in contact without a developed 'tone of voice'. I feel now that I have developed a bit more of that now so maybe it's not so bad an idea to contact them now.

 

Also e-mailed David Stevenson - an art director from Bantam, an imprint of Random House and Henry Yee - AD from Picador books. Picador does actually have quite an impressive catalogue of illustrative book covers

Burton-ing

Highly illustrative book covers which I love - particularly his Kingsley Amis series.

Even though he's not an art director, I'd still love to get his feedback on my work so I sent him a mini portfolio. Beginning to wish I asked Owen Freeman for feedback, but I wouldn't want to bother him again. 

His 9-colour screen prints are also insane - hopefully he gets back to me to talk to a bit about them.

John Gall-ing

Sent another mini-portfolio out to an American art director and designer for Vintage, John Gall - really like his work, although it's a lot more design based than illustrative. His design for the 1Q84 set is really cool, using transparencies as I've been doing recently.

I've also discovered Helen Yentus who has worked with John Gall on a lot of projects - her portfolio is also very cool. I'm beginning to find book design portfolios that aren't necessarily illustration heavy quite inspiring. It's definitely inspiring me to branch out even more with what I'm doing.

Portfolio updating

So in response to the advice I got from Henry Steadman, I've re-considered how I approach the creation of my cover for Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and am now more aware of the necessity to break up the similar work.

I think the pages containing The Versions of Us covers and the War Horse illustrations certainly needed breaking up due to the similar colour palettes. I am removing War Horse and sticking in Electric Sheep to finish off the portfolio with a strong piece that stands out a bit.
Naked Lunch is being introduced after The Bell Jar as it breaks up my usual approach to image making with more expressive brush and ink work.

I really like my War Horse work and I think it's a good demonstration of my skills in purely illustration, but I feel as though for publishing-specific clients perhaps it's not as necessary to be included.
I'll send out this updated portfolio to people from now on. I want my e-mail to be a follow up to a mailer though. At the moment I'm waiting for my business cards to arrive in the post so that I can send them out along with the postcards I printed out recently.

I have also made a preliminary general portfolio. At the moment it's just the publishing one with the extra projects from 603 tacked on the end, but it's more representative of the portfolio I will have out on display at the end of year show which is good to see.

Henry Steadman-ing pt.2

This is an encouraging e-mail to receive with interesting feedback.

I sent Henry the mini portfolio for publishing and book design, but he says that it all looks quite same-y. A lack of consistency between projects has been worrying me for a really long time now, but I suppose this is a problem that is only really relevant in certain areas of illustration.
I guess in publishing, if I want to take on as wide a variety of projects as possible, I need to show a diversity in the appearance of my work, whereas with something more quick fire like editorial, perhaps a client would feel safer with that consistency so they know what I'm going to give them.

Considering I've been so worried about a lack of visual consistency developing, this is very nice to hear. If I want to build up a portfolio in something like editorial, I'd better keep that pretty consistent, but for my book projects I think it sounds like I can be a bit more experimental.

Henry Steadman-ing

Hi Henry,

I'm an illustration student in his final year of study at Leeds College of Art and I discovered you and your work from the judges list of the Academy of British Cover Design 2015.

I'm really interested in entering the world of publishing and book cover design, and even though you're no longer art directing and your body of work is primarily photography-based, I was wondering if you had a minute to let me know what you think of this mini-portfolio I've put together:
https://issuu.com/es251397/docs/portfolio_bd_and_p

I'm also interested in your decision to go freelance after art directing - what prompted it? Is there any advice you can give to a graduate that is most likely going to go freelance?

I appreciate you must be very busy, so thanks a lot for your time.

Regards,

Emanuel Santos

Sent this e-mail off to Henry Steadman - hopefully he has a minute to look through the issu document i sent him. Would be good to get some feedback on my work from someone outside of university, an ex-art director no less.


I also sent connection requests to Suzanne Dean of Penguin, Donna Payne of Faber and Jo Walker of HarperCollins on Linkedin. If they don't get accept in a couple days I'll shoot them an e-mail too.

Post card-ing pt.2

I've printed out 6x6 different post cards that I can send out to people.

As I said before, I intend to stagger the sending so that I have stuff to send potential clients for a few months to come. I'm going to order some business cards from Moo this week, and then I'll send the two out together

Portfolio making - publishing and book design

As part of a specialised portfolio to send out to publishers, I lumped together my favourite bits of work related to publishing and book design to send PDFs of.

It only contains five pieces of work since I don't want to take too much of their time while they browse e-mails. Sending this and then following up with the post cards would be an ideal strategy.

In terms of the ordering, I lumped the more illustrative projects at the end, with the more typographic ones at the beginning in order to immediately show I can use both type and image together.

List making

Jim Stoddart: Art Director at Penguin Books since 2001
http://www.jimstoddart.co.uk/read-me/
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.uk/about-us/offices/strand/

David Pearson: AD and designer, Penguin
http://typeasimage.com

Cara Petrus: AD and designer, Penguin USA
http://www.carapetrus.com

Penguin Offices
375 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
+1-212-366-2000

Donna Payne: Art Director at Faber since 2005
http://www.dandad.org/profiles/person/246152/donna-payne/
74-77 Great Russell Street
berthold wolpe - faber design history!

Lucie Stericker: Creative Director, Orion Books
http://creativeinterviews.com/publishing/lucie-stericker/

Steve Marking: AD and designer Orion books
 steve.marking@orionbooks.co.uk
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
https://paraicodonnell.com/2015/08/21/the-maker-of-swans-the-making-of-a-cover/

Jo Walker: AD at HarperCollins
http://www.jowalker.com

Richard Ogle: AD at Transworld
https://mobile.twitter.com/misterogle?lang=en-gb
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.uk/about-us/offices/ealing/
http://creativeinterviews.com/publishing/richard-ogle/


Suzanne Dean: AD at Penguin Vintage
http://suzannedean.co.uk/contact/
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.co.uk/about-us/offices/vauxhall-bridge-road/
listen to podcast


Henry Steadman: no longer Art Directorat HarperCollins, working freelance
http://www.henrysteadman.com/#!about/cnmv



http://illustrationage.com/adcontacts/

Owen Freeman-ing pt.2

Got a reply back from Owen Freeman, sounds like his method of getting into publishing was really simple and doable which is encouraging as long as I work hard and be nice.

Owen Freeman-ing

Really dig Owen's work - spent quite a bit of time on his blog where he posts a lot of process pics and insights into his practice. I discovered his work through his series of William Burroughs book covers in which he worked with art director Jo Walker of Harper Collins (must send her an email too at some point). It's really good to see his process when designing those covers, particularly as he mentions they were inspired by screen prints he had done previously. 

Perhaps I could also begin to think more in terms of screen print in order to more effectively plan out colour and composition - this would benefit both the print and screen based sides of my practice.

Post card-ing

I've designed some post cards that can be sent out to potential clients. Their designs are based heavily on my business cards. The backs of each post card contains further information about the illustration on the front. The self-portrait of me contains the bio that can be found on my website.

I don't want to make a whole elaborate promo pack, but I would like to send out these in small envelopes along with a business card. I was originally planning to send out a whole pack of these to one client, but Teresa reminded me it's better to have things to send out over several months - therefore, I think I will send out one at a time along with a business card in order to give my 'campaign' more longevity.

Business card-ing pt.2

Updated with the new self-portrait, coming in four variations. Will probably send this off to Moo later this week for printing. Can still use the raised glossy effect on the face 'e' to even more interesting effect. Good stuff.

Portrait-ing

I finally updated that silly portrait of me that I had on my site with something much cooler and indicative of my practice.

Having done this, I now have more work to do updating all my other bits of branding to include this portrait (which will include the tumblr side bar thing I just updated).
Anyway, I'm a lot happier with this portrait and the potential it has to go on a variety of items.

Invoicing

The grey that I have been using so far for everything, including my website is HEX #dddddd along with regular black.

I've designed a basic invoice using this colour to make it stand out a bit more:

Along with this, a letter head that could go on correspondence. It is based on the header of the invoice:

Sampling

My sample pack from Moo arrived today and all their products look really nice - it has re-affirmed my decision to go with them for my business card printing.

The cards which attract me the most are the raised glossy ones, seen above. I want to go for this finish with my business card, making the 'e' raised and embossed as seen in this simulation:

Could look pretty cool.

Tumblr-ing

At the AOI lecture, Lou Bones mentioned the importance of maintaining a blog alongside your portfolio website. She said that unless you post on it very regularly, you shouldn't have one at all as it can actually hurt your online presence.

Having heard this, I've recently started changing the way I treat my tumblr. I looked on my /archive page and realised I was posting only once a week, sometimes even only twice a month. Since I have my website, I can use that to post finished work, and now start blogging more experimental stuff and other weird things I do.

In the first three weeks of March I've made 10 posts that include things I wouldn't necessarily put on my portfolio site. This is also making me feel a bit more confident about my work output these days.

I've also changed the sidebar to reflect my updated branding since I've stopped using that self-portrait.

emanuelsg.tumblr.com

Business card-ing

I've been trying to come up with a business card idea since last year's one is no good anymore. I like the idea of using the 'e' from my handwritten name as a more compact logo:

Front and back

Front with alternate back

Not sure which I will go with - I feel as though the alternate uses some nice design to lead the reader from my name to my details, but it's kind of repeating the front.

I also want to experiment with the Magritte-esque portrait of myself with the e over my face to see if that could also go on my business card to make it more 'illustration-y'

Regardless, I think I'm going to keep on using this 'e' when branding other material of mine.

I am looking to order business cards from Moo.com, as the last set of business cards I got printed in college were a little misaligned on the back. I've ordered a sample pack which should arrive in several days.

Portfolio grouping 1

I had a go at grouping certain pieces of work together into one portfolio. The main concern for these images was large areas of block colour and graphic imagery. I think some are more graphic than others, but I tried to make them flow in terms of colour and amount of open space.

I'm not too sure about the final piece in the apartment building as it's quite detailed, but the approach to making the image was similar to the rest of the pieces in the portfolio so it can stay there for now.

In contact with the Brudenell

Received this email a few days ago from the Brudenell. Wasn't really expecting to hear back from them, but I replied saying that I do indeed already have prints but would be need to/be willing to do more to sell at the gig. They haven't replied yet, but at least I'm being passed on.

Bell Jar book cover

Next book cover - takes a little bit after what I did for COP. Luckily that module produced more than enough research for tackling this cover. I will try and do one or two more covers before I compile them somehow for sending to a potential client.

Andy Singleton talk

To be honest, I didn't get a whole lot out of this, but his work was very nice to look at, especially the more illustrative stuff which boasts some great photographic composition and colour - he placed great importance on the quality of photographing your objects well, since it's these photos that will be circulated on the internet and people will see.

He also mentioned that after uni, as part of a personal project he was fascinated by photos of nebulae out in space. This led to him just doing lots of cut out installations based on these photos. Him and a friend eventually set up a gallery exhibition in New York that was funded by Kickstarter.
He also placed great emphasis on being pro-active in trying to get stuff like this done, it's not that hard. I found the bit about him making work based on photos of nebulae really inspiring since I'm on a bit of a space craze myself - I want to carry on this momentum of fascination after uni. I want to keep on painting planets and making work like this.

He also mentioned the website artsjobs.com, which posts just that. Should keep an eye on it.

Naked Lunch book cover

As part of building a portfolio of book covers, I revisited Burroughs' "Naked Lunch" which was the basis of my printed/moving pictures brief from second year.

 

I've produced two variations. Will fiddle a bit more before committing to one for the portfolio

mock up:

Buying screens

https://www.daveroper.co.uk/store/product/used-22x32-aluminium-frame-screens-new-mesh

Spoke to Mike in the print room about where to buy screens - I knew that printed textiles students had bought screens through the College, but Mike told me the specific distributors.

This website, Dave Roper, sells second hand screens at really good prices, but I also asked Mike about what the numbers with the 't's next to them meant - they're the amount of holes in the mesh per square inch, meaning that the higher the number, the more intricate your design can be while still printing successfully. The paper screens in the print room are around 120t, so this is what i should be looking to buy.

http://silkscreeningprintsupplies.co.uk/23-x-31-used-frame-new-mesh-1444-p.asp

this place also seems quite cheap - lots of second hand stuff too.

and this one:

http://www.wickedprintingstuff.com

Creative Networks - The Future of Colour and Application

Some interesting talkers this evening. The content of the talkers' work was diverse and their ideas behind colour were interesting.

Kit Miles:

Has two sides to his practice - Very classical botanical style repeat wallpapers, but also the more futuristic shape based stuff. He said with these shape based designs, that what made them interesting was the strange adjacency of colours to create drama in the piece. I think this is most evident in the first image with the pink emerging at the bottom.

Shape based work has colour at its core. When using shape, the strength of the image is built upon how they interact and build the image. He believed that form and colour are interlinked, the two help build each other.
Even though my work is primarily line based, I found this really interesting, since I do try to soften the obviousness of line in my work by colouring in my line work as well to create more harmonious connections between spaces of colour.

Kit takes inspiration for colour from old master paintings, particularly Piero Della Francesca. He also said blue is the colour of dreams.
The combination of orange and grey in the third image really appeals to me. Must try this sort of thing out myself at some point.

Dennis Parren:

Glow 2014: color noise from Studio Dennis Parren on Vimeo.

Harder to relate this stuff to my practice specifically, but Dennis Parren is a Dutch artist who graduated in 2011 and has made lots of light installations and sculptures. What I did find interesting was the flexibility of the appearance of his installations by making them all white and then using coloured light to change them.

He likes working with LEDs, particularly for his lamps because they are small and easy to conceal, while also giving sharp shadows. If I ever want to go into 3D that will be good to know.

Blond and Bieber, a Berlin-based designer duo were even less relatable to my practice, but were still very interesting to hear talk - they were into making sustainable textile designs from using things like algae as colour pigment. What I did note down was the way they were able to make yellow, maroon and green work together as a colour palette in one of their images. Must try that as well at some point.

Stuff to do after AOI lecture

• Re-jigger my website, make it more easy to contact me
• Re-evaluate my use of my tumblr. Change format, update it more often with creative process and etc.
• Bought a copy of "The Illustrator's guide to business and law". Read this.
• Do a letterhead. Produce some self-promotional material.

Vote for Adam

I drew a picture of Adam for his election campaign. I think he looks nice.

Seeing this up and around the college, it definitely stood out, especially compared to the other election posters. I think just the fact that it was a bold, striking image with minimal text was the reason. It certainly paid off since Adam's campaign was successful and he is now next year's student president.

The image is wholly digital however - I wanted to go over in brush pen to make the lines more organic, but didn't have time. The whole thing was completed in only a couple hours though, so it's pretty good considering.

AOI lecture

This was intense. Key notes:

• Blue and orange is becoming overdone. 

Self-promotion:

• Make contact details as easy to find as possible on website. E-mail immediately being visible is good
• Blog should be a place to put my creative process - use it to nurture self-initiated projects. Don't be too inspired by trends. Don't blog at all if you won't do it well or often enough.
• Keep aware of NDAs in relation to posting 'sneak peeks' of jobs in progress.

Mailers:

• Keep A5/A6 - letter sized.
• Include a short statement about who I am why I want to work for them, why I fit in their company. Something handwritten? Make it more personal.
• Creative directors keep pin boards - they will probably pin something that they like the look of
• Follow this up with a PDF of 3ish illustrations.
• THE PUBLISHING DIRECTORY - client list to contact
• Avoid "Dear sir/madam" - Find these peoples' names out.

Accounting:

• Must register for income tax within 3 months of declaring self-employment
• Keep up to date with accounts
• Retain claimable receipts
• Keep all paperwork for all jobs
• Cultural expenditure can help you gain more on your tax returns

Copyright:

• Your original artwork is still yours - you are only providing clients with a LICENSE to copy and reproduce (for a set time) your illustration.
• If a company becomes more successful/grows after you have licensed an illustration to them and they come back asking to re-license it, you can charge more.
• Combining references will help you sidestep any serious copyright infringement
• Reference fees are a thing - whether for you to pay, or others to pay you. (See: Flour babies re-edition)
• Ideas can't be copyrighted
• You should never assign copyright unless for things like logos. If you do, the price should be very high. 
• Must ask permission before putting something of assigned copyright in portfolio.
• Try and stick a copyright symbol on every page of website. Try and get my name in the filenames too.
• If the client wants to buy original artwork from a job, consider this entirely separate from the job itself and charge whatever in terms of materials, time, personal value, etc.

Contracts:

• Don't entertain 'verbal' or 'unspoken' contracts. All business agreements need contracts.
• Look out for copyright assignments in contracts/moral rights waivers:
• Rights of paternity=the right to be identified as creator
• Rights of integrity=the right to not have your work subjected to derogatory treatment/bastardization
• Crucial clauses to read: Termination, cancellation, rejection, sub-licensing
• The illustrator DOES have the right to strike things out and re-negotiate contracts.
• Make sure final payment is on DELIVERY of artwork, not after something else comes through on client's part, i.e. publishing of book or raising of billboards. These events may not even be in contract.

Pricing:

• Don't work a day rate - this implies employment, e.g. what you are making is company property. 
• Avoid "Work for hire" jobs as this is a similar thing.
• Quotes are legally binding - never give one until you have ALL job details:
• Squeeze as much information about client as you can - number of outlets, worldwide or not, number of staff. You ARE allowed to know this information.
• If it's advertising, ask what kind - editorial, billboard, etc.

Advertising: 

Above the line = Publicity material appearing within paid spaces and advertising, i.e. Print- mag/newspapers, ads, posters, billboards, "out of home".

Below the line = More targeted, within home. Direct communication through e-mail or advertising on feeds based on assumed interests.

• Large snack company - UK, 1 year license, all print and digital medias: £6500-£7000
• Skincare brand - Worldwide, 1 year license, below the line: £500-£550 per illustration
• Local barber - [Liverpool]: £280-£300

Editorial:

Consider size of client = based on circulation. 

Consider usage = cover, spread, full page, half page, spot

• Free paper - UK, interior illustration: £350-£400 per illustration, up to half page.
• Consumer magazine - UK, 1 month license, print/web: £230-£250, quarter page.

Packaging:

Consider duration - In general: Limited (1yr), 3yr, 5yr

• Large UK supermarket - UK, 5 years, 12 packets, spot, £400-£450 per illustration. The price is reduced slightly per illustration due to the large number you are producing.
• Large drinks brand - Worldwide, 1 year, all packaging (bottles, boxes): £2750-£3000

Publishing:

Self publishers are "risk clients". License them for the initial run only in order to maximise payment.

Education provides the least amount of money.

Flat-fees = same as the products/editorials as above. Generally for fiction, non-fiction and educational.

Advance + royalties = advance payment + royalty %. Generally for children's pic books/novelty books.

• Working as illustrator only - picture book, worldwide, flat fee: £4500-£5000 OR advance against royalty: £2500-£3600 + 5%-7% of RRP as royalties.
• Adult fiction cover - UK: £800-£1000.

Licensing:

• Duration: 1 year = [£300]
• 2 years = 60-70% of original
• 3 years = 2 x original
• 5 years = 3 x original
• 10 years = 5 x original

extensions are generally 60-70% of original for an extra year.

Messaging the Brudenell

Had been putting this off for a really long time, but finally got around to e-mailing the Brudenell about how they go about commissioning their gig posters and if they'd be into the Shonen Knife one I did before Christmas, albeit with information specific to the Brudenell's gig.

It's a shame that I had to contact them through their enquiry form on the website, but I couldn't find any other email addresses on the site. I did find a Promotional assistant on linkedin though and sent her a connection request with a short message as well.

Lolita book cover

I finished reading Lolita over the weekend, and since I'm really interested in getting into books and publishing I thought I may as well design a cover for my portfolio.

Pretty pleased with it since, having looked at loads of other covers for the book, I haven't used any obvious cliches- instead opting to suggest the point in the book where Humbert and Lolita are driving from motel to motel around America.

The turnaround was also pretty quick - thumbnailing started it last night and the finished thing was done by lunchtime. Will try to keep up this work output and remember to try and illustrate any books I read.


Also, Ben presented this website to the second years:
http://gray318.com

Which is the portfolio of an interesting book designer I'll keep an eye on.