Lecture reflection - Julia Woolams, Mair Perkins and Adam Hayes

Adam Hayes

One of the most interesting things about the Professional Practice module is having the opportunity to listen to industry professionals tell us first hand about what it's like to make a living as a creative.

The three professionals all work in different ways and in different fields but there were some common messages.  Dealing with money isn't easy, but it's important to get comfortable charging a realistic price for your work.  Don't work for free - doing so undervalues the entire industry.  This is something I can easily relate to in my work as a Face Painter - I am often asked to work for charities and the implication each time is that it is such a good cause that I should donate my time, materials, expertise, insurance, hours of training and energy for free.  Doing this ensures that the next painter will also be expected to work for free.  It is important to set the bar and to value what we do.  As with the face painting world that I already understand, there are agencies and forums who can support and assist with pricing, noteably the AOI.  Agents will also undertake this piece of work but of course come with a fee, so it is worth considering the complexity, exposure and size of a commission before deciding on whether to go through an Agency.

Johnson Banks for the V&A

Julia Woolams is a Senior creative for London agency Johnson Banks. Johnson Banks are a small but successful agency who have represented clients such as the London Science Museum, the V&A etc.  Read more about them here.  Julie has chosen to work full time with the agency in the way of a traditional employee, i.e. to get up each morning and to go to the same place of work (or a client site). This is a secure way to make a living and allows concentrated focus on the types of work carried out by that employer.  For me, the downside would be the lack of personal creative time and the strict briefs.  Julia said that often, the client will not choose the preferred option but will choose something that the agency may not feel will work best and so either flexibility or negotiation skills are required, but also an openness of mind as often, this route will produce a successful outcome which may not have presented itself as an immediate solution. Julia is a Graphic Designer and said that Johnson Banks use illustrators on an ad hoc basis, usually from a bank of people already known.

Mair Perkins is a self employed illustrator / animator. She works from home or from her rented studio and the majority of her client work comes from her own animated illustrations.  Mair produces 'explainer animations' - short infographics explaining a point or a process or giving information about a place of interest.  To supplement her income Mair also produces anime portraits and also produces illustration work both for clients and for her own projects. Mair has an excellent website here to showcase her animation work and a separate website here for her illustration work. Mair's websites are excellent, informative and clear on pricing and structure of her services. Mair stressed the importance of being very clear on what a price might include, for example the number of revisions, milestones and deadlines etc - something I understand very well from my years as a Project Manager, for example, if a client doesn't give approval by an agreed date the project deadline may slip, for which the service provider may be unfairly blamed.  It is crucial when working for oneself that expectations, roles and responsibilities are agreed up front in any project. For a project to be delivered in September, it might be required for a milestone to be signed off by July - it is not the service provider's fault if the client does not sign off until August, but the client expectation will be that the delivery deadline does not slip, so it is important that each party understands the consequences of any project slippage, including financial.  

Adam Hayes

The third professional, and the one I identified with most strongly, is Adam Hayes. Adam lives in Wales with his family (until recently he resided in Matlock), and works with clients globally from his rented studio. Adam specialises in hand drawn type and hand drawn, complex illustrations.  Like Adam, I tend to steer away from technology (a Summer goal is to improve my usage of this a little more whilst staying true to my hand drawn origins)and I love to fill every inch of the surface with hand drawn tiny detail, a habit which often means that 'long' project deadlines are actually quite tight for me due to the intricacy of the drawing process.  Adam has an agent in New York and, knowing the value of face to face meetings when forging professional relationships, will fly over once a year or so to meet with clients and agency contacts. This greatly appeals to me and would fulfil the need I have to be maintain the professional persona I have spent many years building up in my Project Management work.  I know the value of making this effort, having regularly flown to Sweden and Germany to create and nurture relationships with clients which have always paid dividends in trust, communication and repeat business.

Adam specialises in illustrative type, something that highly appeals to me and another Summer goal - I have been playing with hand lettered type this semester (for personal, not University projects) and have been practising many times a week but the only way to reach Adam's standard is to increase this practice.  However to possess both skills, type and drawing, is to broaden the opportunities for the types of work I might be commissioned for.  Adam spoke of the pros and cons of using an Agent - for smaller pieces of work this might not be required and would allow the illustrator to keep 100% of the fee, but for larger pieces of work the Agent acts as a go-between, liaising with the client and allowing the illustrator to get on with the business of illustrating.  He talked of a recent, large project which paid well but was complex where an Agent would have allowed him to concentrate on producing the artwork instead of breaking up this concentrated time for meetings and discussions.

So, upon reflection, here is what is important to me:-

• Having my own dedicated studio space away from home life and kids - a place to 'go to work'.
• To be able to maintain professionalism - to take on well paid jobs that allow me to afford to occasionally put on smart clothes and fly / drive / travel by train to see clients and build up relationships.
• To work in a style that is true to me, but to broaden that style to include illustrative type and other skills that will allow me to bid for a wider variety of work.
• To maintain time for personal projects and technique development.
• To charge appropriately so that I maintain my value and can afford to work and live in my chosen way; as Mike Wilks said to me 'don't expect to be rich, but don't expect to be poor either.'
• To work hard, challenge myself, improve quality, build up a client list and portfolio and to enjoy every moment of what I choose to do, even in the moments that I hate it. 

And that's it for today - much food for thought.  Sincere thanks to Julia, Mair and Adam for sharing their own thoughts and processes which have allowed me to shape mine.

H. x