Guest Lecture, - Introduction to the Association of illustrators by Louise Bones

The Association of Illustrators, (the AOI), formed in 1973. 

The AOI now has a membership of over 1800 people in the UK, (and that includes me too!)... It is a not-for-profit organisation which is particularly well placed as it sits on the panel for commissions and copyrights, therefore influencing not only United Kingdom law but also a wider audience in the rest of Europe.
As well as being part of the British Copyright Council it also sits on the British Rights Foundation committees.

The Association of Illustrators website provides portfolio facilities for artists and illustrators and their self-promotion. This is a shop window for connecting commissioners to artists. If a personal website is put onto the portfolio advises against creating contact forms but instead indicating directly email on the front page of your website.

A good example for website design will be out for "peepshow" which is a successful collective of artists and illustrators all feeding to one website.

If you do decide to start a blog, it is vital to keep it up-to-date otherwise if you have links that are out of date, or information that goes back, to say 2014, people will quickly lose interest.  If you are unable to update your blog regularly it is probably better not to do them at all.

In order to stand out from the crowd in today's illustration and artistic marketplace need to create your own unique aesthetic niche. You constantly have to revise your own presence, both in terms of the Internet and the web but also through networking and meeting people. A good example of an excellent presence and networker is work done by John Bergman for example "Drawings of girls as seen on Tumblr".

(Another really nice web presence on AOI is the website of Sarah Gulfgrand).

If you use Twitter trying to backup your Twitter with the drawing every day, but never, ever, publish a commission which is halfway through or in any kind of progress as this may be contravening copyright rules that you have already agreed with your client and they may well cancel the work with the.

Another good web-site to use is Behance, this is a great portfolio site as it is project based. For a nice example of a user on the Behance site, see the work by "Ben the Illustrator" as a guide.

One's presence is on the web, - all very well, but how do you then get noticed? Well, the answer is physical mail! There is no substitute for it. And A5 size is a good format which is the same as a postcard and provides a physical object for people to stick on the wall, - because almost every creative department has a pin board and so a postcard is actually a great sales and marketing tool.

Think about how you want to engage with your clients, and why you want to work with its own particular target company. Make sure that your passion comes through in the work that you provide as an introductory sample for.

Personalisation is very important. When addressing anything to potential customers or companies to work for major personal.

A number of websites which are very useful in finding commissioners and sources for work is bikinilists.com and the AOI client directory.

If, after you've left university, you do decide to go on your own and become a freelance artist or illustrator, it is vital to register for income tax within three months of starting up your business. Keep up-to-date accounts, and all your receipts. A proper audit / or paper trail is essential. From 2020, all freelancers will have to do their own tax returns. You can claim lots of tax breaks, however, and this is a very important area to familiarise yourself with. You can even claim cultural trips and cultural knowledge learning et cetera.

Copyright.

Copyright means quite simply the right to copy. The right to copy somebody's work is held by the originator and for 70 years after they die.
There is a difference between physical property and intellectual property.

• Physical property is your actual painting, the original artwork, or the electronic file that you've created, using photoshop or other software. 
• Intellectual property, however, is what are actually copywriting and it is intellectual property which holds its value. 

You cannot copyright an idea or style. If you copy a substantial part, it will infringe copyright. However, the actual rules say copying a substantial part, "in part, or in whole," infringes copyright, therefore a photograph of someone else's is clearly an infringement if the whole is copied, but what about a single person from a photograph? All this is a part of the photograph and therefore, that too becomes an infringement. Just by copying a part or image from the work, no matter what the size of it is, could infringe on copyright and you are liable to be sued by the originator or the creator.

Copyright assignment.

 The short answer to this is, don't do it!!!  Only ever consider the assignment of copyright for a business logo. If for whatever reason you to sign a contract to assign the copyright, then the money, i.e. your fee, needs to cover your entire lifetime, +70 years of value. You can see why the assignment is such an important thing to avoid. The reason why you mustn't assign a copyright is, - quite simply, you lose control of your work. It means they can change it for themselves and charge their own money and fee to other users. In practice, clients don't need to own the copyright! -  owner drawing or illustration anyway, whereas licensing is mutually beneficial.

Moral rights.

There are a couple of moral rights that you need to be aware of.
 The first one is the right of paternity. This means it is your right to have the work credited to you. The next right is the right of integrity. The right of integrity is to say that the right of your works are not falsely attributed to you. However, one should note that moral rights can also be waived. Moral rights do not apply to newspapers or magazines, is usually the artist and author credited in these documents in any event.

Rights online.

 Always always protect your work online so that you can always be identified as the author. Only ever copy and upload low-resolution files of 72 dots per inch. And, make sure you put your name into the filename to upload as a minimum. Use the copyright symbol on all the documents together with your name on every page. Read the terms and conditions of websites, as orphan works, can easily be copied. Orphan works are those works where no originator can be traced, as there is no information held within the file as to its origin.

Pricing.

Do not ever work for free,! It undermines the whole industry!
The price you are paid is based on the usage of your artwork, not for your time. Therefore, each time a piece of your artwork is used, it has a value.

Pricing has nothing to do with experience! The career stage that you are at, is completely irrelevant!

Quote prices accordingly. Never be sucked into a conversation which is "we need a ballpark figure" because this can set your pricing for the remainder of the engagement without you knowing anything about the real reason for the work being commissioned.  -  Accurate pricing and licensing is mutually beneficial as you both have been professional. The illustrator or artist and client jointly should know who the end customer is going to be.
You need to know who the end customer is so that a price can be judged. In fact, as the seller of your own work, you've got every right to know!...

This is the only way that you can price something accordingly based on its value.

Think of it this way... If you telephoned a painter and decorator and asked him to paint your front hall, would he provide a ballpark figure over the phone without coming to look at the work in hand? His question would be to look into seeing how difficult it is to paint.... He would want to know, is your front hall the size of the telephone booth? or is it the size of the Albert Hall?

In order to accurately price a work, the following information is essential.

• The client profile,
• The intended usage,
• The territory or area in which the artwork will be used,
• The duration of the licence in years or months,
• The anticipated budget that the commission has already set?

... but this question is open to some debate as it is at this point which the value needs to be pre-understood by someone.

By always simply asking for details, it demonstrates one's professionalism, but also it makes for a much more accurate costing to be provided too.

Make sure you research your client as much as possible. How can you illustration fit with their existing branding?...

Advertising.

There are two types of advertising, above the line and below the line.

"Above the line" advertising is when the work will be paid for by an outside client and it is going to be used outside of the business for which it is advertising. In other words, the work will be seen by the public.

"Below the line" advertising is what is in-house, on the cutomer's own premises, and will not be seen by the public.

A typical example of one piece of work for a large company,  with a fee limited to UK licence to use that work for up to one year, is between £6,500 to £7000 just for one illustration.

For a small company however, such as a hairdresser in town, just down the road, the value would be very different. With that situation, we're talking in terms of between £300-£450 for one year's usage.