The Unfolding of an Illustration Project

I am not scary. I promise.

I started off my career as a designer at an ad agency and I was a little intimidated by illustrators at first. (Should I admit that?) I guess it was mainly because I was so green, but I didn’t know the first thing about how to work with an illustrator, even though I was used to living with their work (in magazines, on tv, book covers, etc). So I waded into my first project with an illustrator very slowly… and luckily she was nice and walked me through it. (Thank you Sandra, wherever you are!)

So now that I have switched over to the other side, I’d like to speak for my fellow illustrators and say “Hello, I’m here to work with you.” WITH you. Like, collaboration and building on each other’s ideas. And it’s so much fun! (not scary)

I’m happy to be a guest blogger here on Notes on Design and I’d love to be that illustrator who walks you through it (if this is your first time). Here we go…

Illustration Project Phase 1 – Starting
So the way it starts is usually with your assignment. And you get this little sensation in the back of your brain that makes you think: “Boy, an illustration would be perfect for this!” (I agree, it would!) And so you set out to look for the perfect illustrator for the job.

When I was an art director, I usually started looking in source books (like Workbook) and then looked up the illustrators I found there on the web to see more work. Other good sources for talent include rep sites (mine is scotthull.com, but in fairness you can find more if you google “illustrator reps”). Bookmark a few artists that you like. And then make some phone calls. (Again, we’re not scary. We’re just people like you, and we’re probably still in our pajamas downing our 4th cup of coffee… the beauty of working from home.)

Then you tell us about the project: timeline, your ideas, the client’s ideas, (or that you have NO ideas… we can help there, too), the budget, etc. And we’ll be pleasant on the phone and say yes, we’d love to work with you. (See, aren’t we nice?)

And then…

Well, you’ll have to wait till tomorrow’s episode to find out what happens next.

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