Hello and welcome back to my channel.
Today we are starting on a new series of videos
about working with clients and what the actual
process in real life in the illustration industry,
what the process of working with clients is
like from beginning to end.
So I'm going to do several of these
videos focusing on different industries.
This first one is going to focus on editorial,
so work for magazines and newspapers
different sorts of publications.
So we're going to dive right into the first
phase which I am calling the groundwork phase.
And for me the beginning of the groundwork phase
is usually when the client reaches out to me by email,
it's almost always by email, occasionally it
might be on some sort of social media platform.
I'm going to show you guys an example of an actual
intro email that I had from a recent editorial client.
All the details have been scrubbed, so there's
not going to be any name that the name of the
client the name of our director that will all be
removed from the email but you'll get to see the
content of the email and as well as my response to it.
So here it is and you can see that they opened up by saying,
Hi Kendall hope this email finds you well I love the work
you did for our recent issue, your work is really beautiful.
I was wondering if you'd be able to take on three spots and a
portrait for our upcoming issue.
I'd need sketches by Monday April 29th and finals by
Monday May 6th.
We usually pay two hundred dollars a spot.
Let me know if this is doable for you and I'll send
over the info A.S.A.P.
Thanks so much.
So I would say this is a pretty standard to maybe even a
little bit above average better than average intro email.
The opening line just sort of saying hey how they found you,
what they like about your work, that's pretty standard.
What makes this email really nice is that they are already
saying right up front what they're looking for, they want
three spots and a portrait and they say the budget
that they have, and the timeline.
So those are like three big important things that if
they hadn't been included in this you know I would have
had to go back and figure out what those were before I
could think seriously about taking the project on.
So here's my reply.
Hello Art Director.
Thanks so much for reaching out
and for your kind words about my work.
I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with
the magazine on the last issue and I'd love to work
with you on this assignment.
I could have sketches by end of day Monday provided I
receive all the references and the brief by this evening.
That said my project schedule is already quite full next week.
Do you have any flexibility on the due date for finals?
As for budget, I generally start at $250 for spots and $400 for portraits.
Would you be able to make that work?
Looking forward to hearing more.
Thanks very much, Kendyll.
So some important elements here, I mention that I can have
the sketches by end of day Monday as they've requested as long
as I receive all the references and the brief by that evening.
So if I were to have just said sure thing I can I can have all
that done by end of day Monday but not said when I need all of
the references then they might have not gotten me the references
until like Monday morning or something and that wouldn't have
given me enough time to work on it.
So I agree to their timeline but I stipulate when I need the materials
by in order to get started and have it finished by that deadline.
And then I went ahead and asked if there was any other flexibility in
the project schedule since my plate was already pretty full in the coming week.
And then I also raised the issue of budget since their budget was
$200 per each of these four illustrations of one of them was a portrait
which is always more work more complex just they take more time.
So I went ahead and asked whether there was more money in the budget
whether we could increase the budget and you can see if you look at
the time I replied to this email within a couple of hours so especially
or editorial clients having that really snappy timely communication
in the beginning is always really appreciated.
They agreed right away to my budget terms which was great.
Then in terms of the schedule that turned out to actually
be kind of the sticking point in this project where they
really wanted it by a certain date and that date was really
just pretty challenging not very doable for me.
But basically we came to an agreement and within 24 hours
everything was all squared away and they were sending me the
references and I was getting ready to go ahead and jump in on
the project so I would say that is pretty typical turnaround
time in terms of the communication, the initial communication
with the client for an editorial project, somewhere between
four to six or seven emails altogether.
The terms will get decided within that chain of communication.
So the first is the scope of the project and that can really
vary widely from client to client, it could be anywhere from
one little tiny spot illustration to ten spot illustrations.
And usually in my experience and working with editorial
they they don't need the work to be quite as large,
they're usually just presenting it in a magazine or in
a newspaper so the size that it's going to be printed
out isn't massive.
So they are typically ok with things
being a bit smaller in size maybe even a little bit less
detailed than say a client for packaging or advertising might be.
The type of direction, so the type of art direction that you
will receive from the art director, how specific they're going
to be in in what they tell you in how they dictate the process
basically like how much they're going to micromanage you or not.
With editorial clients the direction in my experience is usually
pretty minimal maybe one to three sentences per subject so if
you're if you're doing one subject one illustration it might just
be a couple of sentences that describe what they want that
illustration to be.
Maybe they'll attach a couple of photos to the email.
Alright timeline for editorial clients is usually pretty quick.
So this example communication that you saw with this actual
client of mine that was it was quick for me and I was trying
to push it out mainly because I already had a fully booked slate
of client work but overall that was actually a great timeline for editorial.
With editorial you can have timelines that are as quick as
like 24 or 48 hours depending on the client.
I would say they are in my experience never much longer than 10 days
and that would be a very generous timeline for an editorial project.
So in this industry and editorial you do have to be able to work
quickly and be ok with working under pressure.
The budget, that varies a lot depending on the publication,
the complexity of the illustration, the experience of the illustrator,
the timeline, there are all of those factors that play into it.
I would say generally speaking for spot illustrations on the low
end you would find maybe like a $175, $150, $175 which would be
pretty low I would not take on any work at that rate but it does it
does get offered and there are clients that have that set as a budget.
And that would range all the way up to like $500 which would definitely
be on the higher end for spot illustrations so there's a huge range.
I typically will ask for something in the $250 to $300 dollar range
$250 would be the lower end for me, $300 or $350 would be the higher
end and then if it's something like a portrait it would be closer to
to $400 or even $450 depending on how much of the figure they want included.
And a full page illustration could be anywhere from $800 to $2500
depending again on those factors that I mentioned the complexity
of the illustration, the size of the client, the market for this
particular publication, all of those factors will influence the pricing.
I am going to recommend a resource that I talk about all the time
and that is the 'Graphic Artist Guild Handbook for Pricing and Ethical Guidelines.'
And that is what I base pretty much all of my pricing on as
well as my own experience but it's been a huge help and a
contributor for me in being able to come up with with what
are fair, industry standard market rates.
So I will have a link to that book in the description.
Continuing on with groundwork here references
whether they're supplied or self sourced.
For the most part editorial clients do have some
sort of reference that they come to you with, some sort
of image that they show you to indicate what they're looking for.
Alright two more points in the groundwork section,
first is payment schedule.
So generally with editorial clients they pay in full at
the end of the project.
So or rather you submit an invoice
for full payment at the end of the project.
If you have
watched my channel and you've watched my illustration
business videos before you know that I really strongly
recommend getting deposits whenever possible.
But in this instance in this field it's good to know that
it's pretty standard to not get a deposit.
So that ties into the next point which is the contract
and if you're not getting a deposit it's even more important
to have a really solid contract that stipulates that they
only have the rights to use your work if they have paid you.
So generally with larger clients they will have a contract as
well as some other forms other paperwork that you'll have to
fill out but you can still sometimes they will still be willing
to sign your contract or if it's a smaller publication they may
want you to go ahead and just send them your own contract.
Regardless of which route you take, if a client supplies you the
contract make sure you read it really carefully and and check to
ensure that it has those important elements those important things
that you want to have in every illustration contract.
We're not going to go over those in this video but I have already
made a video about that which will be up on the screen and will be
linked in the video as well.
So all those important terms that you
want to be sure to include in a client contract.
All right moving
on to phase two the sketches or sort of initial development phase.
This phase includes you coming up with the ideas, you presenting
the sketches and incorporating the, receiving client feedback
and incorporating client feedback on those ideas.
Alright so first step number of sketches.
This can vary a lot depending on the style of illustration you do.
And typically if it's an editorial client I will do one sketch if
it's a spot illustration.
And if it's a larger illustration has
multiple components that could be presented in a few
different ways I'll do you know depending on the situation I'll
do anywhere from one to three different sketches.
For size and level of detail that varies again.
It really depends on how the illustration is going to be used.
If it's a spot illustration I create it smaller,
if it's gonna be a big illustration somewhere big on the
page or big on the website I create it larger.
In terms of how much detail they have sketches don't
usually have a ton of detail at least for me.
They're typically just very simple pencil sketches.
Their entire purpose in life is to get the to communicate
what the composition is to the client.
So I don't really need them to be really fancy or really
detailed they just need to show where the different
components are going to be how the composition is going
to look so that the client can drop it into the page layout
and just get a sense for it and make sure it's gonna work.
So color or no color, sketches usually do not have color as I
mentioned they're usually just pencil line sketches for editorial clients.
Alright and number and scope of revisions so typically for editorial
clients I do two revisions total one revision will be at this phase at
the sketch phase and at the sketch phase I allow for pretty much anything
that the client wants to change.
Anything that involves changing the
composition or the layout or the elements themselves in the sketch at
the sketch stage revision I will accommodate for that.
The only things I won't do are any major additions of new subjects.
So if they came to me and they said all right we want an illustration
of a bagel and we agreed on a price I would change lots about the bagel
itself maybe even turning it into a different kind of bagel,
but if they were to come back at the revision phase of the sketches
and say oh can you also include you know a hand and have it bringing
the bagel up to the to a mouth and a person taking a bite, at that
point I would say that we would need to potentially revisit the pricing
for that illustration because the pricing was based on just being a bagel
with cream cheese and including some significant new elements would
increase the complexity and therefore the price.
And you also need to make that clear to the client upfront rather
than just billing them for extra at the end that's beyond what you
beyond what you agreed upon in terms of the budget.
So once they send
me that feedback once I get the feedback I will incorporate it,
I will change the sketch according to whatever the client has asked for.
If we have a good timeline or if the client has asked for it I will then
show them the sketch just to be 100 percent sure that that works that they're
on board with the way that it's been set up.
But if the timeline is really tight or if they haven't requested it sometimes
I'll just incorporate the feedback and then move right on to the finals.
So that's something you kind of have to figure out on a project by project basis as well.
So the length of this phase the length of the sketch phase this is usually
aside from the initial groundwork.
This is usually the shortest phase of
the process could be anywhere from just 12 hours to maybe up to 72 hours.
In my experience this is usually where there's the least amount of communication.
I typically will just send an email when I'm getting started and then
I'll send another email when I'm done with the sketches and have presented
the sketches and then there will be another email or two from the client
when they receive the sketches and give the feedback.
OK so moving on to Phase 3 which is the creation of the final artwork.
So the size the level of detail all of that will just be for me
it's just exactly the same as what it was in the sketches.
So if I was working at a four by six I'll be working
at a four by six for the final.
As for the number and scope of revisions I mentioned
that I do two total for editorial clients usually.
So the first revision would have already been taken care of in the sketch phase.
The second revision that I include is at the final phase.
So after I have created the final work fully rendered it it's
all in color it's all done I scanned it in I send it to the client
and then they have one last opportunity to request small changes.
These would typically be limited only to things like tweaking the
color maybe saturation things that could be done digitally or
potentially a little bit of surface texture like adding more
highlights or adding more shadows or smoothing a certain area out.
Those would all be things that be included in this revision in
this phase of revisions.
So that is a personal decision,
there's nothing that's like across the board expected but
I would say it's fairly standard to have at least two
opportunities for revision one at the sketch and one after
you've presented the final for any small tweaks.
Alright the length of this phase, generally you get two to five days
from the time you get the feedback from the client and the sketches revised.
You have a few days, two to five days to complete the final illustrations.
Right communication during this phase again somewhere around three to four
emails total probably, I'll send one once and confirming that I've gotten
the revisions, made the revisions and will start on color.
Then I send another one letting them know that the color is
done and presenting the final illustrations.
So yeah they'll either reply and say it looks great, please send
a link to the high res versions and your invoice, or they might say looks good
but can we change this or that in which case I would have to reply back and
say yes and then go ahead and make the change and send over the new version.
So fairly minimal communication once again at this point just really what is
necessary to go back and forth and get things taken care of.
All right phase 4, approval and delivery.
So at this phase you've already completed the work, the client has already
approved it, the only thing left to do is to perhaps the final files for delivery.
So another common question I get is whether clients get the actual illustrations
or just the digital files and that depends on your work, that depends on the industry,
but in my experience with the editorial industry and the editorial market
clients really only ever are requiring the digital files.
So to prep that file the standard things that I do are to completely remove
the background so not just to tone down the noise or amp up the white but I
actually clear cut the background so the illustration is just
isolated on a clear background by itself.
I'll do some sort of small color tweaks to make sure it looks like it does in real life.
I do not do the RGB to CMYK conversion.
Plenty of illustrators do,
the reason I don't is because a lot of especially larger publications
actually have someone either on staff or someone that they contract
with who specifically specializes in RGB to CMYK conversion.
All right and as for the file type and delivery method,
we've already said it's going to be a digital file usually for editorial
clients my editorial clients usually just want a jpeg they want a high quality jpeg,
occasionally if they want the clear background I'll export a tiff
but either it's a high quality jpeg or a tiff.
I always make sure format the illustrations specifically for their size requirements.
And then also on that note if I've made something at 4 by 6 but
they're only going to be printing it like at roughly 2 by 3,
I don't want to give them a 4 by 6 because they didn't pay for a 4 by 6
so I want to make sure that they are limited to the scope and the
size of the illustration that they actually paid for.
As for delivery method if it is only a couple of small spot illustrations I
will usually just attach those to the body of an email they're not typically too large.
If it's several spot illustrations or a spot illustration and a large illustration,
I'll put together a folder in Dropbox with the finals and just
send the client a link to the Dropbox folder.
You can use a free Dropbox account for that I have I have a paid
Dropbox account because I need it but if you're just getting started
or you haven't done a ton of this yet a free Dropbox account will
be more than enough space to do that.
All right so the final phase, Phase 5 this is the last sort of wrap
up communication with the client and actually getting paid.
So once you have delivered your files you can send the invoice and
some people will send the invoice in the same file in the same email
that they that they send the hi res finals in, I prefer to have it
in a separate email that actually has the word invoice and the invoice
number in the subject line of the email it just makes it really clear
it makes it harder for that to get kind of lost in the shuffle among the other stuff.
So pretty much as soon as I as soon as I send or when I'm sending the
the final delivery email I'll include a line at the end that says my
invoice will be along shortly and then within a couple of minutes or
maybe if I'm not doing any admin that day maybe the next day I will
send along the invoice but I always let the client know when the
invoice is going to be coming and then just having the word
invoice and your invoice number in the title just makes it
easier for everybody to keep track of.
Again depending on the publication the size of the publication you
might be sending your invoice directly to the art director that you
worked with or you might be sending it to someone in accounting or some
other sort of assistant person some kind of liaison go between person.
Really it can depend on the publication so my advice there is just to pay
attention to what their protocol is and if you don't know that's another
thing you can mention when you send the final email you can just ask our
director please let me know who I should direct my invoice to or whether
there's any specific protocol I should follow in terms of titling the invoice.
Sometimes they want you to put your name on the invoice for example so paying
attention to the procedure and trying to do it the way that the organization
the company wants it done that would just speed things along in terms of
receiving your payment quicker.
All right last point, how long does it take
to receive payment?
So in my experience it can be anywhere from a week to I
think the longest terms I've had were 90 days and actually those weren't
even the terms I think the terms were 45 days that the client was late.
And that is a reality and fortunately it's across many different industries,
in my experience it tends to happen quite a lot with editorial just especially
if you're working with a larger client.
So you do tend to have to wait a little
bit longer which is unfortunate but, I have never been completely stiffed by a magazine.
They've always paid in the end.
I can actually do a dedicated video about that if you guys
want like a video about chasing down invoices and some tactics I use to make sure that I
get paid.
If you want to hear more about that or you want to have a dedicated conversation about
that
let me know in the comments and we can make it happen.
Ok, so that is it for this video on working
with editorial clients from beginning to end.
I hope it was helpful, I hope you like the video.
As I said I'm planning on doing a series of these so there is another one in the works
already
that's gonna be on packaging.
And yeah if you'd like this kind of video if you'd like to see more
of them about different industries there are certainly some other industries I could do
as well
and I'm even open to potentially reaching out to other illustrators who work in
different industries to see if they would be willing to do one of these.
So yeah let me know your thoughts on that as well as any follow up questions that you
have.
I probably will do just a general Q and A on working with clients once once these first
couple of videos
have come out so you put those in the comments as well and yes thank you to you for watching
this video.
If your subscribed thank you for subscribing, if you haven't subscribed please do.
And thank you to Meg for the amazing editing thank you to my patrons especially for supporting
this
channel and making it possible for me to put weekly videos like this out into the world
for free for you guys.
I love doing it.
It's a huge privilege and yeah I just can't thank my patrons enough for
making that possible so thank you thank you.
Hope everybody has a great week and I will see you guys in the next video, Bye!