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uiprofessionalpractice-blog · 5 years

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Week 14: Graduate Talk

enter competitions and be extremely quick at responding

entrepreneur spirit personalised house portraits are a good way to keep a steady income GoogleAds can rack up a large bill so be specific about your tag words how to I go about helping someone trying to self publish? always check the royalty rates when selling on other websites portfolio websites: keep everything updated, keep it simple, choose a website that is easily accessible to add blogs etc, search engine optimisation Etsy: look at all the guides online to make sure that your listing works well NOT ON THE HIGH STREET: joining fees may be negotiated, they have to accept you to be part of it Artfinder: particularly only good for one off works e.g. original oil painting Agents: takes about 22-30% of the cut, you can tell whether they are more commercial or business based, Children’s books are usually 25%. As you get known you could haggle to pay less, you could settle at a higher rate to start but eventually as you get known you can demand a bigger cut, you’re only paying on what they’ve worked to get you, they can get you in through doors that you wouldn’t have been able to and they can help if things go wrong to make sure you get your money, they avoid you having to be the harsh person who decides costs which keeps you at a good relationship with the client, be aware of contracts especially if they don’t want you to take on your own work A lot of the work is word of mouth, look after your contacts, within the industry people move around, your name can be spoiled extremely quickly so be quick to deliver especially when it comes to print work, look after your PR WORKING NOT WORKING: job site Shopify keep a collection from job boards but be careful of the prices for the work You can charge if you weren’t briefed properly and there is a large change You need to ask questions to avoid future mistakes and have evidence that you have been specific with what it was they wanted. Get them to specify the budget first as they may surprise you rejection fees would be when you’ve done the roughs but still getting paid for the work you have done. Once the final product is done it has to be paid. Be careful with people’s information Don’t sell your work for full ownership ever. graphic artist guild - guide to ethics and pricing (based on real projects) price per project, not hourly. There is no right way but it depends on many factors; how long you’ve been in the industry, who you are working for etc can-do attitude! stay focused on being an illustrator, the freelance mentality, it’s a job so keep the hours as they should be and not on weekends (unless absolutely necessary), say yes; it will teach you something, It’s not just about having the best work, often those who aren’t the best do the best. Sales in an important skill to have. Being too precious is not helpful either, holding onto good work and keep it under your bed won’t get you anywhere. Sometimes doing work can help you too, not just the client. Art directors don’t like postcards as much as self-promotion, It will always be a slow start, the harder you work the better you’ll do. “It’s more the hard work than the talent” Be diverse in your work otherwise you will be commissioned endlessly for the same thing. But it has to still look like you, otherwise they won’t know what they’re getting.

#mdx3001pp

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uiprofessionalpractice-blog · 5 years

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Week 13: Self-Promotion Brief

For my brief, I currently have an idea to make a chatterbox design which would be a fun way of using my illustrations to be interactive. Haven spoken with Louise I won’t be using it for information purposes to avoid being dull and I will also need to make the envelope design interesting also…perhaps see through? More than one promotion can be made.

Brief

Produce a piece of self-promotion for Professor Phil Cleaver that can be sent through the post

During teaching week 17 (By Tuesday 12th March at the latest/ first class post) you will need to post one of your self-promotion pieces to

Professor Phil Cleaver

32 East Street

Osney Island

Oxford

OX2 OAU

Keep the other to present on week in case of any problems

#mdx3001pp

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Week 13: Self-Promotion; Louise Weir’s Guide

Good self-promotion and marketing is the most effective way of fostering interest in people that know nothing about you.

Pre-internet, self-promotion was a much more expensive business.

Outside of clients seeing commercial work, Illustrators needed work hard remain visible, sending out regular marketing and promotion via direct mail was a very necessary part of this. As an independent Illustrator and member of a small Illustration collective I/we realised quite soon that it was easier for work to get noticed and be memorable if work was packaged and promoted differently. Not only that but clients were excited by individual and original items and much more likely to hang on to these than those that adopted a standard approach. With our collective (Monster) we sourced unusual packaging and fun items (badges, sweets, monster pen toppers) to accompany printed material when sending out our regular Monster “goodie bags” that reflected our “brand”. These were particularly effective when tied in with events such as exhibitions where the self-promotion would be on show as the latest “limited edition” as well as the work. Clients were enthusiastic about the Monster “brand” and eager to receive the next piece of marketing to keep in their collection.

To induce and promote client confidence in your work, it’s important that everything you produce to promote your work reflects your visual style, approach and identity, right down to the envelop you put your work into and how you write and/or print address and even place the stamp. This creative cohesion of design, product and identity will ensure that you and your work have more authority and are more memorable. Increasing the chances of you remaining in the drawer or the brain of an overworked art director.

Nowadays it’s so much easier to research and reach clients on the internet and target them with emails, but do art directors and designers look at your work when they get so many and what distinguishes you from everyone else? I know many art directors who dismiss emails from unknown recipients and send them straight to trash, that is why it is so important to create physical pieces of self-promotion that are less easily projected into the creative abyss of the trash bin.

So how to start?

As I’ve said before, like any “product” to promote it with conviction and sell it effectively you need to know it inside out and pitch it to the appropriate market. Research the market and research yourself.

(See notes for Marketing and Promotion Week Nine https://mdx.mrooms.net/course/view.php?id=12684#section-9)

Be selective you can’t and shouldn’t show people everything you’ve done ever (for example that GCSE work on your mum’s wall), it’s about showing them what’s appropriate and relevant.

Think about the main focus of your portfolio and reflect this in your self- promotion. For example, if you do lots of maps you could create your own version of an ordinance survey map. If you do lots of pets you could do a set of pets tops trumps. You could laser cut a cardboard record and sleeve if you’ve been working on a series of blues stars. A tongue in cheek anti-capitalist shopping tote bag. Good places to look for inspiration are gallery and museum gift shops, Etsy,

Product websites such as https://www.thirddrawerdown.com/collections/all-products

https://magma-shop.com/

Look at your competitors and clients and listen to their advice

https://taaryn.com/blog/2018/2/6/self-promotion-for-freelance-illustrators

https://www.creativebloq.com/computer-arts/30-self-promotion-tips-1108942

https://www.fastcompany.com/3027752/the-art-of-self-promotion-6-tips-for-getting-your-work-discovered

https://shop.mr.bingo/collections/other-shit/products/2018-advent-calendar

Also now is a good time to make use of digital printing, 3d laser cutting etc.. that could be prohibitively expensive when you leave

What are the basics that you need to include on your self promo piece?

Your Name

Web-site, e-mail, Instagram, twitter feed, FB etc…

Links to Flkr or mpgs

When you regularly send out physical promotional items to clients they are then often more eager to follow you on social media and thus keep track of your upcoming exhibitions, events and of course your current commissions and promotional items. This is what is sometimes known keeping the client “warm” on the way to “hot” which is where they have made their first purchase and are happy with your products.

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uiprofessionalpractice-blog · 5 years

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Week 12: No University

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uiprofessionalpractice-blog · 5 years

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Week 11: No University

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uiprofessionalpractice-blog · 5 years

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Week 10: Film

‘How to get ahead in Marketing’

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uiprofessionalpractice-blog · 5 years

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Week 9: Marketing and Promotion

Stop procrastinating - invest in a diary and stick to it.

Browse internships; Orion books, Penguin, The Pipe-Ogilvy Educational Publishers; Pearson, Oxford University Press, Macmillan Story Boarding may also be an option which isn’t often considered. Make employers aware that you have strengths in English The Folio Society Competition Book of the month - illustrations on books you’re currently reading, this can be uploaded to your blog and used to gain a niche following. Infographics

#mdx3001pp

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uiprofessionalpractice-blog · 5 years

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Week 9: Marketing and Promotion; Louise Weir’s Guide

As an Illustrator if you’re not visible you’re not commissionable.

This shouldn’t be a one-time effort as you emerge into the marketplace, this will be a continual process through your working life as an Illustrator. A colleague of mine put it simply, because competition is so fierce in the creative workplace you always need to think yourself as a start-up business, researching potential clients and areas of employability, searching for work, hustling clients and adapting to change. Good self-promotion and marketing is initially an effective way of fostering interest in people that know nothing about you, over time it is a good way to establish and maintain authority and client confidence in your brand.

Marketing and Promotion as an Illustrator is vital for visibility and thus survival as an Illustrator. But remember It isn’t always an instant transaction. Sometimes it’s that repeated exposure, and it has to build over time.

In the Olden days pre-internet, self-promotion was a much more expensive business, I was continually sending out direct mail, taking pages out in Illustration directories and going to see or biking clients your portfolio.

Nowadays it’s easier to research and reach clients on the internet and target them with emails, but do art directors and designers look at your work when they get so many and what distinguishes you from everyone else? Also art directors had to be much more active when seeking out interesting work and were given more time in their working week to meet illustrators in person. So the internet is a double edged sword, before they open your email and go to the trouble of looking at your work who knows whether you’re a talented professional or a weekend weirdo with a passion for pastels.

So how do we start this process? During your time here some of you will have been considering this very carefully, whilst others will have been happily preoccupied with developing and refining your creative passions and aesthetic away from the constraints of commerciality.

Being creative and being business-like can feel like two conflicting states of being. It’s almost like having to operate as two people inside one creative and commercial persona.

Marketing and promotion is for some illustrators an instinctive and natural part of their working process, for others it is almost an enemy to their creative flow. Whatever your opinion or regard it is part and parcel of being an illustrator. Producing effective and original self-promotion takes research and reflection and if you are making something physical such as a zine a certain amount of production skills.

Like any “product” to promote it with conviction and sell it effectively you need to know it inside out and pitch it to the appropriate market.

This requires research and analysis on two fronts,

One is the commercial market, the other is you.

So Firstly

1 Do lots of research into all the different areas of Illustration to discover which is the most suitable for you to pitch your work at?

You will be surprised at what you find and the crossover between disciplines. For instance, even if you are convinced that your work is only suitable for children’s books you might find a design group working on packaging projects that you’re perfect for.

The marketplace is forever changing, within all creative disciplines who are increasingly broadminded in who they commission.

2.Who is most likely to give you work at this stage with your current portfolio and/or at this stage in your career?

Once you have identified potential clients, research their output and the creatives that work there. What is their creative approach/ ethos?

Can you visit them with your portfolio?

3. Research your competitors, how can you do it better? Meaning how can you make your work more visually exciting, innovative and memorable. Look at agency publicity how are they promoting their artists?

4. Where do you want your work to go, what do you enjoy doing?

Do you want to develop your work in a different area? Eg if you want to develop some of your work using a travel theme that interests you, whilst considering what clients are likely to use this and how can you approach them.

5. Ultimately what is your dream client/ job and how can you target them effectively and get them to want you to work with them?

6. If you have friends in the business ask them what they like, if you have access to an agent ask them for pointers

Research and analysis of the market and your competitors should inform your work but not rule you or your approach or radically change it. The Illustration market/client moves fast and is continually changing, what is celebrated and popular one day can be disregarded the next.

Clients do not always know what they want or need until they see it, often they are looking for something different and innovative to move them forward and give them a head start on their competitors.

This is why it is not always the best idea to try and second guess the client youneed to be confident in your own aesthetic.

THEN you need to research yourself

1 Examine and reflect on your aesthetic, themes, and subject areas within your portfolio

Where do you want your work to go in the future how do you want to develop as an artist ?

2 What makes your work different and desirable ?

3 How can you develop new skills ?

Adapt to market changes and the personality you want to project within your brand.

4.Be selective, some of your older work might seem unsuitable to send to potential clients or to promote new directions you want to explore with your work. For example if you are planning to focus on portraits in the next year don’t send out a load of landscapes.

5. As time goes on assess how effective your self-promo is. Ask Fellow creatives for feedback and advice.

6. Would it be more effective to market yourself within a collective or as part of an agency?

7. What is memorable about your work and /or you? Think about about how you think of other Illustrators, how do they stay at the top of their category/peers? What will make your trademark ?

some might call a “gimmick” to promote their work Don’t stress yourself out trying to do something totally original, take an old idea and give it your own flavour or a twist.

Look at Aiden’s print wagon, a twist on the travelling salesman. Aiden by his own admission says he takes his clothing approach from Jonny Hannah

8. Do you have different skills you can market/pitch to different areas?

Promotion you shouldn’t do

1.Be careful what you post on your Instagram and Facebook if you are using it to promote your work. Pictures of you getting drunk down the pub and baring your all on holiday won’t do you any favours when clients are considering you for work. There’s a lot to be said for keeping your personal and your business life separate?

Work you post never goes away

2.Promoting work before its published not acceptable (visibility) will upset clients and might infringe client copyright

3.Other people’s work as your own obs

Non-Negotiable, No Brainer. You have to have:

1.It may seem obvious but you have to have a website.

To begin with it doesn’t have to be fancy, but it does need to be nicely designed with your work as the main focus.

When it comes to making a website, keep it clean and simple, something that you can update easily rather than having to pay someone or wait for someone else to do for you.

If it isn’t your name (why you wouldn’t want to familiarise clients with your name is a mystery to me) try to call it something memorable but not stupid. I only eat sausage.com might seem hilarious when you leave university but ten years down the line you’ll probably be sick of it and it will seem immature for someone in their 30’s or 40’s, likewise with email addresses, not so much for Instagram and twitter but it’s good to have continuity between all your online platforms so that people can find you.

Don’t make the mistake of

Pen island pens who are shortened to penisland.net

Effective Office Environments, based in Cincinnati www.effoff.com

2. Resilience and self-belief

3. Persistance but be polite

Be prepared to chase and chase people. Don’t expect anyone to get back to you! They are busy, it isn’t personal.

4. If at first you don’t succeed, package it differently

Also very useful

Well designed:

Business Cards, People still use these I have recently run out after going to a whole load of borough of culture events

Postcards If you don’t send all of them you can also sell them

Letter headed paper Very useful when approaching alternative income streams such as galleries, agencies etc as well as commercial clients

Designed invoice Makes you look the professional you are

Presence on Online portfolio sites such as Behance

When you send out physical marketing and self-promotion, a few days after follow these up with an e-mail, this is a good way to remind busy people that you exist and also to make sure it reached them. Often in large firms mail can get lost in the system and never leave the post room. You’ll be sitting at home wondering why no-one has responded and often they haven’t even seen it.

Michael Parkin says At first I sent out some postcards, but I think that this is quite a common thing to send, so tried to rethink the idea and ended up making some fun mock-magazines which got a much better response when I sent them out.

Whenever people ask me about how they should contact clients I always recommend that they send out something physical, as it has far more impact than an email. If you think about how many emails they must get a day, the last thing you want to be is another person adding to their unread emails. Physical mail is different though, opening a nicely written letter that is addressed to you is exciting and seeing the work printed is far better than as a small attachment on a screen.

It is important to have side projects that inform and enrich your commercial work, these also can keep you sane and give you something to focus on and promote in those lean periods that are common to any creative profession. These personal projects should be something that you are passionate about.

They are also a way of letting the commissioner know more about you and your interests and adding power and authority to your brand. Jack Sachs illustrator says In terms of your work I think it’s really good to maintain a personal practice alongside your professional one. They end up informing each other and help to keep the other fresh and fun

Also I think art directors are more interested in work you’ve done for yourself and not another client as it’s easier for them to imagine it working for their job without another client’s stamp on it.

https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/the-graduates-2017-advice-how-to-go-freelance-170517

The Illustrator Michael Parkin says “When I first joined Folio and took the freelance plunge, it was quite a quiet time for me. Work would still trickle through but I would often start to panic and call up to ask if there was anything I could be doing to improve my portfolio. The agents were all so helpful through this period and gave me ideas and tips, suggesting personal projects and areas that I could bulk out and strengthen. I would set self-initiated projects based around their suggestions, whether it was a set of icons for my favourite films, or a detailed map of a road trip I went on in the USA. Both of these examples have since lead to work, with Art Directors sending me them as reference for what they want.

The mini-mags that I put together evolved from all of these individual projects, as I was thinking of a way to involve all of the different styles/themes that I could send out, and the magazines worked perfectly for that. Since keeping myself busy and constantly producing work, my commissioned work has really picked up and now I am busy almost all of the time, which is amazing. I now see the quiet times completely differently – and now don’t panic (as much!), but use them to work on self-initiated projects that excite me.

The Illustrator Russell Cobb is a regular “sketchbooker” drawing intricate designs and dreamscapes every day when he visits his local coffee shop Russell’s daily sketchbook and coffee routine that he promotes on his website and through social media is something that is born out of a regular habit. It is authentic to his working process, it is not forced he is simply documenting his working process.

Some of these he develops into colour paintings to send out as postcards in self-promotion and publicity. When he started out he sent regular packs of Cards every four months for two years before he got a billboard campaign for the Times from design company

https://russellcobb.com/self-promotion-cards

Steven Twigg Illustrator, graphic designer, says this on this subject :

“I think you need to find out what you want to do. You can experiment with side projects and let it flow that way. And then find space for how your work fits into projects, rather than finding projects that you can fit into. Find your groove first. Does that make sense?”

He’s a master of self-promo looking at ways to promote his work that reflects his work.

This is a very important point, there is no point sending out samples of etchings from your portfolio of work done at University if you don’t want/ or can’t do that commercially. Also the packaging of your self-promo is as important as the content. A beautiful piece of artwork might never get seen if it is sent in a shabby envelope or badly packaged, things do get binned before they ever reach the designer it’s addressed to. Also think of the tone of your self promo piece do you want it to be humorous, anarchic, satirical or magical etc? The one thing you want it to be is memorable, but for the right not the wrong reasons. The best pieces of self-promo often don’t look obviously self promo. Make it personal.

Also be selective you can’t and shouldn’t show people everything you’ve done ever ( for example that GCSE work on your mums wall) , it’s about showing them what’s appropriate and relevent.

The compare and share culture of Instagram etc.. can consciously or subconsciously encourage us to be self-limiting as we conclude what is popular and refine our aesthetic to pitch at that level. As image makers we always need to be broad minded and extend our view beyond the mainstream to discover and explore the things that will mark us out from the crowd.

This is a difficult balancing act as we can’t second guess clients but we need to research and consider their needs and aspirations.

It’s also good to consider

Tell your people, do you have anyone in your real or online community who can give you a break

“Really tell your friends and family what you’re doing. I went out to people and said this is what I’m doing. I’m writing. Do you know anybody who needs anybody for anything? You start by mopping up the crumbs. Then you start getting recommendations and it moves on from there.”

Owen Gildersleeve

The first is the importance of having a website and getting your work out there: nobody will know who you are or what you’re capable of unless you have something to show them. Sometimes people feel their work isn’t worthy enough to be shown to people, but it’s always surprising the good things that people are able to see in your work from a fresh perspective.

https://www.bygoodgorilla.com/event/talking-self-promotion-illustrator-steven-twigg/

https://www.beingfreelance.com/freelance-articles/how-to-get-freelance-clients-5-proven-ways-to-get-your-first-freelancing-gigs

https://russellcobb.com/self-promotion-cards

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Week 8: Collectives

Having weighed up the pros and cons of collectives, I definitely think it would be worth starting with fellow students, perhaps even including students which don’t just specialise in illustration e.g. animation, film. However, it does seem like a trial and error process as it is dependent on how work we all work together and how much effort is being put in from all sides. It may work better if we could work dependently but still be able to recommend jobs to those we feel it would better suit. This would need to be arranged amongst us, perhaps with a sign up sheet?

#mdx3001pp

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Week 8: Collectives; Alex Moore’s Guide

What are Collectives?

A collectiveis a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectivescan differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an economic benefit or saving, but can be that as well.

Why might forming a collective be for you?

Share costs, clients, conversations + creative inspiration

- splitting costs for space/promotional material (for both the show and individual members) which instantly makes things more affordable. A HUGE LEARNING EXPERIENCE.

wanted the utilise the shows as an opportunity for people to make some money so really put an emphasis on people making merch/prints (also provide live research opportunities to see what sort of things people buy). This is something we do with all our shows- print rack, sell old work.

Also the first time we worked with guest artists. And that’s something else- that people are excited and want to get involved with stuff like this. As a result we’ve got to meet some really cool people in the community.

conventions. Again doing them as a group helps make them more affordable. Personally enjoy hawking other people’s stuff. Chance to engage with people and grow your audience. Legit work opportunities come out of these- editors and agents do come to these things.

Organisation

- run through a facebook group. Usually when we do a show or meet after finishing the projects there’s very casual chat about what we want to do next. We’ll then vote/discuss these in the group and then meet up to thrash out the ideas.

- We use voting a lot. To decide on guest artists/venus/ect

- Usually everyone takes part in the shows but recently we’ve embraced the fact that different people will have different interests which has allowed us to do smaller spin-off projects.

- Everyone is busy. As such we try and give a big lead up time to the shows and final print deadlines.

- Face-to-face meetings are good. They keep projects alive and help sustain interest.

- We have someone running our website (although talk about the dangers of just having one person doing something. i.e webmaster going dark)

- Not everyone has the same level of involvement. Again, this tends to happen naturally.

Membership

- When we initially started it was a bit of a free-for-all. Wish we’d been more selective as there are maybe some people who aren’t quite up to snuff and just seem to linger. And that’s hard. Are you a cut throat buissness? Or are you friends?

- People do come and go though- WEBSITE RENEWALL. Opportunity for people to leave. Or be booted out if they don’t pay. Then we usually have a meeting to discuss what we’d like to do and who we’d like to join.

- Keep number roughly around 20.

Money

- People in shows share the cost for gallery hire (and all the stuff like van hire)/Print runs/ table hire

- We’re at a point where the collective has enough money in the bank to cover the cost of printing but again, this would be split between the participants and then they would be paid back once we made our money.

- Conventions- collective covers the initial cost for the table. Anyone can put it stuff to go. They will then put their percentage of sales towards the table cost (i.e

- We have print racks/tables/a card spinner- these are bought with collective money and anyone in the group is free to borrow them. Equally members will also lend each other stuff.

- We have a card reader, paypal and seprate bank account.

1. Structure

We have 25 members. But we have a core 4 members who are the founders or people like me who like to be more involved. So the 4 of us have meet ups, then have a group email/whatsapp and we have meetings with whoever can turn up, but we very much have an open, not one person making decisions

2. How does the collective go about deciding on projects?

We meet in the pub :) we openly ask what we could do, and who could do it etc,

3. How does the rotating membership work?

Every year we ask the current members who wants to be still in, but we also the core 4 members look at who we felt have not put in the effort, not really contributed, we just don’t ask them back

4. How does the collective handle finances?

We have a PayPal account any money we get goes straight into that and we use that when we need it, Dave the founder handles that

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Week 7: Plagiarism and Copyright

I did not understand the extent and seriousness on copyright issues until now. Which is definitely beneficial to have learnt before I started on serious commissions! From now on I will only use reference images to collage together my own. However, there may be times when it is worth paying for an image or even going out and finding those images myself. For example by going to exhibitions or having family members reenact a scene.

#mdx3001pp

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Week 7: Copyright and Plagiarism; Louise Weir’s Guide

It used to be difficult and time consuming gaining access to the specific images we needed to use as reference for our Illustrations. Now it is easy isn’t it? There’s an endless library of images at our disposal only seconds away at the end of our fingertips…. But stop and think unless these images are copyright free they all have a permitted licence for usage and unless you are willing to pay for the privilege that doesn’t include you.

People read blog posts, watch social media feeds and follow you based on the credibility you have earned. It will be pretty hard to maintain your credibility either as a person, a brand or a business if it is discovered that you ‘stole’ an image. Intellectual property in the digital age of ideas, creations and online assets is important and for many it is how they make their living. Just because you can find content online without any notice of copyright protection, this does not guarantee it is meant to be given into the public domain. The image might just have been copied and republished (legally or illegally) by a different person. While the acknowledgment of your sources might be an additional requirement for licensing or usage terms, it does not replace the need to ask for permission from the content creator.

Stock Libraries Watermarks and Bots

All Google Images and YouTube Clips are copyrighted and their use requires permission – nothing is for free, check out their terms and conditions.

Photographers and Stock agencies are embedding metadata/bots on their photos so they can track where their photos are used. If you use an image without their permission they will expect you to pay, or you will be prosecuted.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement. If you use photography in your work or are a collage artist, this is particularly relevant to you.

All published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form, is covered under this definition. In the commercial arena it can lead to legal proceedings being taken against the wrong doer and embarrassment, within what is now a global creative community where news spreads fast.

It’s copyright infringement. Practicing the processes of others can be a useful exercise to develop one’s own skills. If these experiments stay in your sketchbook or drawers it’s no problem, but if you present these as your own intellectual property, sell or publish them on any platform you are infringing copyright, which is embarrassing and also a punishable offence.

The best way to avoid any potential infringement is to work from your own photos, still lives, models and imagination. There is always a risk using primary reference material that is not your own, if it is any way recognisable from its’ original form.

You may be aware that there is no copyright in an idea, only in the form the idea takes. If you have a brilliant idea for an illustration and someone copies your idea but renders it in their own distinctive way, they will not be infringing your copyright. However, if they copy a substantial part of your actual image, they will be infringing.

Neither is there any copyright in style, a fact that seems particularly unfair to the many illustrators whose ‘style’ is very personal and an important selling point. However, there it is. The only consolation is that illustrators who copy someone else’s style are generally frowned on by their colleagues and seldom thrive.

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