An Audience with Jill Calder & Sarah Coleman

4/15/2021

On the 15th of April our university held a talk with illustrators Jill Calder and Sarah Coleman. Jill has created illustrations for publishing/editorial/advertisements and Sarah is known for her typography work on books/advertisements/editorial pieces.

Jill Calder

Contacting clients - find clients through social media, art director’s are tagged sometimes in illustrators posts etc. follow them/find their contact information, better to contact them this way than through contact information on website, clients can find your work through social media/use specific hashtags, have to show yourself/life to an extent as people like seeing those aspects as well, just start contacting now.
How they got into picturebooks - only recently fell into it through doing the Robert the Bruce book, learnt along the way and from the SCBWI , takes a year or less for completing a book.
Agencies - majority of work through them, they take 30 - 33%, built up client life before getting an agent though tried after graduating, it is a relationship you have to communicate with them can’t just expect them to do everything, talk to them about what clients/work you want so they can help.
Negotiating - AOI can be helpful, have to learn the business of it, keep a lower sum in mind but go higher to meet in middle, not an equal relationship if they ask for free work/they are probably being paid why shouldn’t you?, don’t be taken advantage of.

Sarah Coleman

Contacting clients - go out hunting for the director’s, don’t wait until graduating, make contacts, they still like seeing physical printed stuff, don’t expect any response they will contact you if they want to, doesn’t mean they don’t like your work, she had contacted one person took 8 years for them to respond as they only got a project suitable until then, no correct way. When email only use a link not attached images, can be marked as spam/ junk, send images if they ask. Have key pieces in portfolio that bring clients in, some paid work unhappy with the outcome the client chooses, while personal work more happier with.
How they got into publishing - asked to do a cover when at university, was used without her knowledge, did hand lettering which wasn’t a thing done much in the industry at the time, a cover can take 4 - 8 weeks.
Agencies - work 60% through agent and 40% them self, didn’t want an agent at start, felt like she had nothing to offer them, 13 years of work then approached, “it doesn’t matter how bad the news is as long as the client knows what is going on”, there to enhance not replace the work, advice get experience first then get an agent to show you can work with clients/deadlines, the agent negotiates to get more money as it is in their interests, they take about a third of pay so you have to keep that in mind you want to get as much money as you can in the early days.
Negotiating - you need to cover your life costs, not the minimum but the fees should reflect the life you want/ need to live into later life. Your fees should go up with experience and demand for your work, some set prices are for editorial/ packaging/ publishing.

Take Away Thoughts

It was really insightful hearing about how to go about contacting clients, that you need to go to the art director to get the best response and not through contact information on websites of the company they work for. Also I think emailing is still the best way to contact, as again if you print something that costs money/ more time, even if they do like seeing physical work it is wether you can afford to do so. Both of them saying about the agencies and having them later on in their careers puts it into perspective how it is probably better for myself to contact clients and get experience first. Though I think I still might contact agencies now and just expect nothing back. Katie Chappell had a goal of getting 100 no/rejections in 2019, which is something that I think will make it “easier” when I start sending emails out, it is a way of not getting disheartened and also as Sarah said no response or not yet as a reply, isn’t always a bad thing as they could come back to you later on.