Finding Work in Editorial Illustration - Plus Pricing Advice!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2017
- Sorry this video starts out of focus - not for long! OPEN ME for links and more info relating to this video.
I hope you enjoy this video and find it helpful. Do let me know about your illustration journey in the comments section, or if you have any further questions I can help with. I was nervous to disclose my business fees but I hope they'll be useful to new illustrators who are unsure. Remember not to undercharge - your creativity and work has value.
Thank you for stopping by!
The Association of Illustrators www.theaoi.com
Dear AD / dearartdirector
Books I recommend:
'Becoming A Successful Illustrator' by Derek Brazell and Jo Davies
'The Illustrator's Guide to Law & Business' by Simon Stern
'How to be an Illustrator' by Darrel Rees
ABOUT ME
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My blog
hollyexley.blogspot.co.uk/
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My Website
www.hollyexley.com/
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Amazing video Hollyyyy! THANK YOU SO MUCH for talking about pricing!!! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Fran Meneses Hi FRAN! ;) Ditto Holly, this was an amazing upload. Great job! You deserve that giant breakfast.
Thanks Fran - that was a little nerve-wracking!
This is all spot on. I used to work in the magazine industry as a designer and a large part of my job was contacting illustrators for work. This is a great outline of the process. And yes, typically our budgets were pre-set.
Thank you for explaining Holly! That was really informative :-) I always find it a bit of shame that artist don't talk about their prices with others, because we're constantly worried we're not charging enough, but if nobody talks about it that doesn't help any of us. So thank you for sharing! :-D
Exactly! It's all a bit of a mystery isn't it! Glad to open up about these things and get such a positive response.
Totally hit it on the head! Why can't art and design and illustration be open like basketball, where everyone knows who earns the big bucks, and you know what kind of quality you get for what price and there is no mystery because no one else can do the things that truly talented and hard working artists are able to achieve.
I really appreciate you doing this video talking so honestly about pricing etc. It's really important to know especially for new illustrators who don't understand like me, although mine is papercut work but I would love to get into editorial work. Thank you!
I've seen papercut artwork being used in editorial work - it looks so cool! You should defo pursue it. Thank you for watching!
Studying Illustration at uni right now and this was super insightful, always appreciate and admire your openness and hard work! All the ♥️ !!
Wow, thanks Holly for all the wonderful advice on editorial illustration and specially for talking about pricing. I've always felt it's a "Tabu" talk around artists and illustrators and I'm so happy you was so open about it!!! Also, totally agree that you should never undercharge yourself, it truly damages the illustration world. Thank you again :) hugs.
Really appreciate the openness! Thank you! Even a rough guideline is helpful, plus I think we know a new artist won't command the prices of an established artist but knowing where to start negotiating. In American money it would be hard for me to accept less than $75 for a spot illo with no color, for example, but it would depend. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for the video, I love how honest you are about pricing. It's so unbelievably helpful that you felt confident in sharing your prices with us. Especially for a new illustrator, its helpful to know what to aim for.
Two Holly video in a week!! Thank you!!!!! Have a beautiful weekend!
Great video Holly! It's nice to hear someone openly discuss pricing and the business side of art, and also very helpful, thank so much for taking the time to do these videos.
I appreciate it so much that you're so openly talking about every aspect of editorial work. Thank you for making this video!!
This video is so great! Thank you for talking about pricing! I'm in the middle of working out a contract for a children's book right now. It's so great to see how the process of editorial illustration works to be able to pursue that work.
This is amazing! I'm just starting out and making my way through your videos taking A LOT of notes. I think not talking about pricing really damages the industry, even though I can understand why some people don't and respect that decision. It's really good to be given at least some notions of real numbers for specific commissions so that you can go from there. Thank you so much!
Thank you, Holly, for talking openly about pricing! Awesome video. This will be helpful to sooooo many artists!
Thank you, Holly, for this super helpful video! If I ever get lucky enough to try editorial illustrations one day, I'll be coming back to this video for reference 🙂 Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us so openly and honestly!
The tips are very practical and very helpful! Thank you so much Holly!
Pretty sure this is the first time ever I hear anyone mentioning actual figures while discussing pricing, thank you so much! Really informative and helpful video!
Thank you for this video Holly! It's been really helpfull and I love your honesty! 👌🏻
Great video, Holly! :) Some really useful tips for new illustrators in there and I also REALLY appreciate you talking about pricing in such an honest way. Most videos I've seen on the subject are so vague and I never know if they're talking about hundred pounds/dollars or a thousand in regards to pricing. So this was really appreciated!
Editorial illustration is definitely something I'd be interested in doing after uni so this is incredibly useful, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!
This was super super helpful!! So glad you shared this, would really love to hear more!!
Thank you thank you for making this video Holly! I can't appreciate you enough for talking so openly about things that are not so easy to talk about. I admire you for thinking about the entire illustration industry as well. Thank you!
Ah thank you Sara!
Awesome! So informative and helpful!!! Thank you for talking openly about pricing with actual numbers!!! That is really hard to find!
Thank you for sharing Holly. I had saved this video to watch it again in the future! I worked in an advertising agency many many years with a fixed salary. Now as my life changed seems sooooo hard for me to direct my own business, this video is a rock!
your voice is so soothing. you're art work is awesome as well!
Amazing video Holly!! These are always really helpful
Thank goodness for talking so clearly about layouts and general pricing. I learnt so much from your video, especially thoughts on size of publication run. Thanks for the book recommendations, too!
Ah thank you - let me know how you get on with the books! I love having them in my studio just in case I get stuck on something.
Thank you Holly! Talking about pricing was really helpful!
I love your videos. I don't usually comment but I really appreciate you talking about all those things. It`s very helpful. Thank you!
THANK YOU FOR THIS!!
Especially for opening up about your prices, I know it's sort of a hush hush thing~
I loved this! I'm currently studying Illustration and I found this video very helpful, thank you for sharing :)
This was really helpful, Holly! Thank you for doing this xx
Thank you so so so so much for this. Thank you. I feel like this information gives me a place to start with my own research. It gives me hope. Thank you. ❤️❤️ Pricing is such an iffy subject! Thanks for giving me a rough idea though. I've definitely been under pricing. 😕
This was so incredibly helpful!! Thanks for sharing what I know must have taken a long time to learn all about and get comfortable with - it is so helpful for us newer illustrators.
Glad to help Katherine - thank you for watching!
Thank you for your honest and thorough discussion of this topic. I found it very interesting and helpful. :)
Thank you for making this video! The creative community needs to get a lot more comfortable with the business side of things and it's great to see more and more people openly talking about it ^_^
This is brilliant. Thank you for sharing all this - it is very helpful!
THANK YOU for taking the time to make this.
I've got a page full of notes and ideas and I'm really excited to make the work that I want to be commissioned for!
Also, your hair is lovely :)
This was so honest, insightful and interesting! Thanks so much for making this :D
Such an important topic that is rarely discussed! Thank you for discussion pricing! ❤️
Holly! thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, I'm going to Europe soon and watching this made me want to prepare much more. This video was awesome thanks :)
Thankyou so much Holly! Just what I needed! Basically all the questions I've ever wanted to ask you! I've recently decided to steer my illustration degree towards editorial work and I was really stuck on where to start so thankyou again 😊😊
Glad to help Olivia!
Thank you for this very informative and helpful video, Holly!
Thank you for making this video, it is so important that someone talks about real prices and the process. There are too many artists undercharging for their work and that breeds more and more clients who get spoiled and then want everything cheap. The lower rate becomes an expectation. :( You are so right when you say it effects the entire industry. I wish more illustrators and other creatives would openly talk about their process and fees. Too few people turn to the types books you mention. I find people often don't trust those sources to be realistic, I've heard many people who undercharge refer to the information in the books as an "idealistic standard... but nobody really charges that". Unfortunately there is a great void in awareness of the reality of creative industry and pricing so HUGE HUGE THANK YOU for being someone who steps forward and begins to fill that void with information and shedding light on things.
EZENAMI ah! I'm so overwhelmed by this comment. Thank you for being so lovely 💙
Thank you very much for sharing the information about the editorial illustration and also the pricing x_x now I know I'm under pricing! =S nobody talks about it and it was like a mistery!, it is nice to have an idea.
Great video Holly - really enjoyed this! It's really helpful!
This video Holly is really helpful! Thank you so much for that!
Thanks for being transparent about your prices! Lots of videos like these are very vague (they'll say charge higher, but what does that actually mean?). So glad to learn about your art journey :D
Thank you so much for this video Holly!
Thank you for all the wonderful advice, Holly! :)
Such a helpful video! I love you're videos - they're both inspiration and advice! Btw I don't know why but this video was super quiet (just mentioning it as feedback for the video, thought it would be helpful). Anyways - keep going, you're great!!!
So very helpful!! Thank you so much for sharing!
you're the best Holly, thank you so so much for talking about this in particular. I hope you can make more videos about these topics, you're really educating us with your experience! it's so nice to see there's people like you in this world, it gives me so much hope about collaboration between humans bc sometimes all I see is bad shit. I guess you know what I mean, all those "humans are shit" moments.
oh, and send kisses to Midge and Quentin, I saw in the ig stories he was wearing some kind of .. thing, I understood he had something going on I hope he's better by now. Love
This was so awesome! It's very brave of you to talk about these things. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Kimberly - glad to have such a positive response to being a bit more open about my business!
Thanks for Sharing Holly!!!! Great video!
Thank you Holly for your video :)
Awesome Holly, thank you! 😄
This is sooo helpful ! Thank U so much
Hi Holly. I want to say "thanks so much" as a childrenbook illustrator. Thank you again.
This was super helpful thank you!! 💕
This is soooooo interesting! Thank you for sharing
Your watercolors skills are amazing!
Jessie Renfro thank you!
wow! thank you so much for talking about pricing - very very helpful!
Glad to help!
Great video Holly. Please re-stock your shop with the gemstone stickers!!! I have a blank ipad case to decorate!
Thanks Anna, I will be sure to do so!
Thank you for this video, it is very helpful!
You are a queen girl!!! Great video
This is really helpful thank you so much
This is SUPER useful! Thank you sooooo much! :) :)
Some excellent advice
thank you so much for this!
Super helpful, thanks so much for this :)
I found this so helpful!
Thanks for another great video, Holly! Would you be able to do a video on how you put together your portfolio? Do you have a digital portfolio and a printed one? Thanks again! :) (sorry if you've already done this!)
Thank you. 👩🏻🎨
9:08 - Thanks for the honesty with your pricing info Holly :) it's great to have the assurance that I'm not over or under charging - just had a quick question about this point though. You talk about asking publications about their print run to find out how large the company is and therefore how much you can/should charge.
The thing is I have absolutely no frame of reference for this, how much is a lot? How much is about average? How much is very small?
Thank you!!
Thanyou so much for that!!!
Hi Holly, this video was very informative thank you 😊! ( I just found your channel the other day, I love your videos and your illustration style is so beautiful) .
I am hopefully going to study illustration next year, having insight into what illustration is like in the real world, is making me feel a bit more confident that the future holds prospects of work. I was just wondering which university did you study at?
Ali ☺️
How would you find an artworker to approach, do you find your favourite brands? local brands? are these fashion houses, art galleries, bespoke furniture shops?
Thanks so much, this is so helpful! Which portfolio sites do you recommend?
Thank you very much for this video! It is hard when you're trying to get out there, and I feel it is harder for me being so shy and wanting to work internationally. Perhaps you could talk a bit more about that in next videos?
I understand completely - I am the most shy person in "real life" but I'm forever thankful to the internet as a way to share my work! Great idea, will bear this in mind for future videos!
Good grief, the most dreaded questions to ask an illustrator or designer: "how to get work?" and "how much to charge?" Sorry, but as you said, Holly, there are just way too many variables that go into pricing work. You are incredibly generous to share your personal pricing info with your viewers. I don't think I could do that. I'd be afraid of misleading amateurs into thinking they should be charging as much as I do, when again, as you said, clients pay for YOU - your education, experience, and the style (your brand) that took years to develop. A fantastic video that I think every up-and-coming illustrator should watch. Well done! Cheers! :)
Super informative video, thank you Holly! Just a quick question, what are turnaround times usually like in your experience with editorial illustration? I know it will vary depending on the size/subject matter etc, but have there been any times where the deadline has given you a really tiny amount of time to get the brief/commission finished?
Super-useful
A video more in depth about how you do stuff digitally would be so helpful! As someone who never went to school for art I find that stuff so confusing sometimes! Any tips would be amazing :)
tinytofubunny hello! I have a video on my channel about how I edit my illustrations- I believe it's in a vlogmas video if you want to find it! I didn't learn about photoshop at uni really - mostly taught by graphic designer friends & by doing research online.
oh thank you! I'll definitely check that out then :)
+ holly exley - Hi Holly, thank you very much for this video, it helped me with several questions that I had. I just want to know about the size of the original illustrations, do you already make them the size that will be printed? Hugs from Brazil. 😄
I love you Vlog and Dogs Amazing gut
oh, I forgot to say, I had my first commission as an illustrator and it was to make portraits of fictional characters. They gave me the book to read it and then I had to just figure out what these characters were supposed to look like. I don't know if you ever did a job like this, but it was very frustrating. First of all, I charged them as if I was doing a regular portrait from a picture, because I didn't know what was coming. Then, they made me go through A LOT of sketches bc none of the faces I made were "what they were looking for". So how many sketches do you think is ok to a regular charge and when do you charge more for more sketch proposals? (I don't know if that's the word, but I looked and it seemed like it was). Then I had many issues trying to communicate with the clients. They addeed me on whatsapp right away so everything there is confusing and it gets too informal very rapidly. Do you have any advice on client communication for us?because they are confusing me a lot and making me work as if they were paing me loads and I only charged them with nothing literally (If I translate the regular US or euro fee to my country money I am literally charging nothing) so it's very difficult to me to know if I'm just giving away my work or not. Sometimes I feel like I can't charge really for the work that I'm doing only because I'm not enough known or experienced. I guess it works that way but where is the line there? ok I hope you can help me with this. If it's too much information I'm requesting that's ok and I understand. I know I have to go through all of this and learn by myself so if you can't help me that's perfectly understandable (it's that the word?) and you help me a lot already so thank you again you're the best (heart) ps sorry my english I'm argentinian so it's not my n°1 strenght.
thanks for talking about money, it's such a taboo and we are so lost U_U
Hi holly, thanks for you video, i love your work :) iam a freelance illustrator based in marbella. Do you have any advice on licensing artwork? Thanks again, lovely xx
Hi Holly,
I recently found your channel and find it quite inspiring.
However, I have one quick question that layout usually scared me like how my illustration will look in the print format. As an illustrator, it is his/her job to send illustrations only or to design the layout as well? Like how to export illustrations for a print purpose
Hello Holly! My question is: would you say that rates recommended by the AOI or by illustrators based in the UK/US would apply in countries like Eastern Europe or Asia? Here in Hungary prices and sallaries are very different from Western Europe and I was wondering if I could ask for the same price from a Hungarian client as an American one. (I gather the question is where the client is based, not the illustrator).
Love this type of video! (by the way what is name of the track you used?)
MARLOU Brand thank you! All music from epidemic sound 💙
How exactly do you say the project will include one small change? I keep getting in a situation where the client asks for a series of changes towards the end of the project. Then I work too many hours for the price we agreed on. I would like to start clarifying from the beginning that revisions are limited but I don’t know how exactly to word it.
Awesome vid! But the most interesting question is how did you get that first job at the Intelligent life mag.? Was it that you knew an art director, or they found you by luck? Or?.. Thanks alot!
mi milk google search! That’s how most clients find me. I have another video which will answer in more depth th-cam.com/video/SVtC3SAd6AA/w-d-xo.html
So if i paint a sandwich I should price it 100-800 pounds depending on the company and size/detail of the piece? So if a big company request sandwich, Tea cup and a pastry i should get payed around 2100 ? Is that right ?
Where are you from?
Really good video Holly! If the client gives you a fee upfront, are you able to haggle on that or do you just accept it? Specifically if it's lower than what you'd expect? I suppose at your stage you could afford to say no but what would you do if you were just starting out? Thanks!
Chloe Elise, I guess it depends on how low the fee is. If it is just a bit lower than you would like to charge, you could take it. But if it is really way lower than you would like to charge, I would try to convince the client that your work is worth more.
The biggest problem when you accept lower prices in the beginning, is that you will struggle to bring your prices up when you work with the same clients again later on. Or if they recommend you to others, new clients will expect the lower prices, and you will have problems to argue with them about your higher pricing.
I always try to explain every bit of my pricing to my clients, if they don't understand, so that they see, if I would go any lower, I would not be able to live of that any more. (That's mostly for privat clients, when they are a bigger company, they often try to keep the price low and hope you just accept it. But usually they will be paying you a higher fee, if you tell them what you normally would charge for that kind of work, without the need to explain every bit of your pricing.)
When you are self employed, there are so many more expenses then you would think at first, you have to cover not only your rent and food, there are insurances, taxes, material expenses... and so on. For the most part clients get it that way. But of course, when they only have the amount of money they told you and can't give you more, you could try to work something out with them. For example, what they could get from you with that amount of money they have (maybe not a full page illustration, but a half page or something like that). If all of that does not work out, then I would decline, because they obviously do not have(or do not want to pay) the money for your work.
It's a bit like when you want to buy something in a supermarket. If you can't pay the price for it, you can't have the product.
Hope this helps you a bit. I am just at the beginning of beeing an illustrator, too. So I learn from my current client work and mistakes I made/make a lot :)
Hi Chloe - if it's much lower than you're comfortable with, I would be upfront and say something like "my fee's for this type of commission are usually more like ___" and ask politely if they have any more in the budget to cover this. If you're starting out, your fees may be lower, mine were, but not so low that you're being ripped off for your time. Nothing wrong with asking for more - even if client's can't match your suggestion, theres usually an opportunity to meet in the middle. I've never regretted being assertive about fees.
Thanks to both of you for your replies :) :) Really helpful!
Hi Holly - just wondering, if you know whether The Association of Illustrators is international or only for British residents? I can't find anything on their site that answers that question? Many thanks for another fantastic and informative video! :)
Auntie Betty hi! There was an annotation when I was speaking about them which maybe you missed - said "based in the U.K. but with worldwide membership" hope that clears things up!
Hi Holly - thanks! I did miss that - even though I watched the video twice! Oops! :( Thank you for letting me know. I am relieved to hear that, as there is no similar group in New Zealand, and the NZ Artists' Guild shut down a couple years ago. I will join as soon as possible. Many thanks :)
Hi,do you have any videos that show the art supplys that you use?
Yes - I made a playlist here: th-cam.com/play/PLzpSQwY6oWUJW47ybK6mxWO_KXQFoTipc.html
Thank you holly