Last Wednesday, I was invited to give a talk about my work to illustration and animation students at Ballyfermot College. I decided not to rely on technology and have a slide presentation; I opted instead to extemporise, with a couple of topics noted down to make sure I covered them. I always amaze myself that I can blather on at such length -I spent an hour and a half holding forth. Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised because after all; I was talking about my favourite subject. For props, I brought along some illustration originals and a bunch of sketchbooks that I thought the students might enjoy and they were passed around.

One of the topics that has been on my mind rather a lot lately has been the plummeting fees for original work…as users chase the cheapest forms of imagery, apparently with little concern for quality. We can see it everywhere, from the often indiscriminate use of bland stock imagery in our newspapers who seem engaged in dumbing down their visual communication as a response to economic troubles [as if this will help them; it reminds me of the decision of the White Star Line management to cut the number of lifeboats on the Titanic]; to some of the appalling concoctions appearing in adverts. I really hope I didn’t put the students off or ruin their dreams. I tried to impress on them that they should diversify and attempt to develop multiple sources of income and not doggedly make their art into their job, thereby risking creative burn-out. Diversification brings choice into negotiations.

About valuing yourself and your work

Another point I made was that artists should value themselves and their work -after all, few can do what we do. Unfortunately, much of the world of commerce seems to equate original and exclusive imagery with used off-the-shelf photographs. Visual aesthetics and communication through art are way down the priority list in Irish business. So how does one arrive at a figure for a daily rate? Simple: Ask yourself what rate does the newspaper editor or creative director of an advertising firm or design firm charge out his or her services? Logically, if they can’t do the job they require you to do or if they don’t have the time to do it, then ipso facto you must be worth that amount exactly. That then, is your negotiating position -whether you can prise that amount out of them is immaterial. At least you now have assumed a position of equality from which to start. As far as charging for a particular job is concerned, a simple way to calculate a fee is to exploit the expertise of the stock houses, such as Getty. They have a price calculator here. Go to the site, choose any image from ‘Creative’ [surely an oxymoron?] and a dialogue box will pop up and take you through the entire process, ending with a price quote. It’ll also teach you how rights are assigned. Remember that you can’t acquire exclusivity from the stock houses; clients have to phone them directly for that -and the price will be dramatically higher. All these images are available for anyone to use. Strangely, they never seem to have one that says exactly what you need it to say. The amount of times clients have told me that they couldn’t find exactly what they wanted from the millions of available images. This highlights the difference in value between the illustrator/photographer and the stock libraries. Your price should reflect that.

Working for free?

One student raised the question of working for free. Never work for free. If there’s no financial gain, then negotiate some other reward, whether it’s some advertising, PR or other contra-deal that suits you. There’s often something that could be of value but it has to be negotiated from a position of your daily rate. People don’t respect work that’s given for free and many have a tendency to abuse artists who fall for this sort of bolloxology. If some bullying twit [who happens to be paid regularly by the way] suggests that being published in their magazine/newspaper/advert will be a ‘great shop window for you’ or ‘a great portfolio piece’, or an ‘in’, ask them to quantify the greatness exactly in terms of cash. If there’s no benefit at all; walk away. Below is a short and entertaining video clip from the film ‘Dreams With Sharp Teeth‘, about the writer Harlan Ellison, in which he has something to say about free work.

A word from Don Draper

Finally, all this brought a great quote to mind from the excellent Mad Men series which can be applied to much of the woolly thinking out there.  Don Draper, the creative director character, retorts to the simplistic line; ‘Sex Sells’, by saying, ‘Says who? Just so you know, the people who talk that way think that monkeys can do this. They take all this monkey crap and just stick it in a briefcase completely unaware that their success depends on something more than their shoeshine. YOU are the product. You- FEELING something. That’s what sells. Not them. Not sex. They can’t do what we do, and they hate us for it.’ Bang on, Don. You can read the full passage here.

If you have any points to make or feel that I’ve missed anything here, do leave a comment, they’re almost always welcome, especially if they’re not anonymous. Best of luck, Kevin