presentation - ben jones

Ben had a talk with us about his practice, having 'Heart' as an agent and being a professional illustrator, these are the main points I got:

• having an agent like Heart is good because they can get you jobs with places which wouldn't normally consider you, or would be really hard to get in contact with
• it is worth sending work to places where you don't think it will fit because if they don't like it, they might know someone else who will - good to make contacts
• he managed to get the big clockwork orange job for folio society after being shortlisted for their competition for the bloody chamber
• important to do personal projects - try and cater them to places you want to work e.g. if I want to work with publishing and book design, do lots of book covers as personal projects, make fake commissions for myself
• important to go back to handmade work - practice can get quite samey if always digital
• read up on theory I am interested in, stay educated e.g. he reads up on surrealism and semiotics 
• Penguin books don't actually commission illustrators anymore for book covers, but Penguin Essentials does - research into publishers which have illustrated book covers and get in contact with them
• he works for some underground presses like Rotland Press - makes publications about black humour. It is free work - but only do free work if you think it will benefit you and your practice in some way
• books don't sell as well as they used to because of e-books so it is important to make covers which really stand out and are interesting - publishers need the important info to be big (hierarchy in type)
• to look for contacts, use linkedin - just type in a job name like 'children's book publisher' or art director for…' and you will get a person with an email address for that job
• research into what publishers, magazines, newspapers etc. commission illustrators and see what type of work they use - whether yours could fit there
• buy the AOI contact list
• be wary of sending emails as some people have trigger words which send emails directly into the bin like - portfolio, new work etc.
• when sending emails to art directors say you'd love to bring your work down, and that you are a student from leeds - sound enthusiastic and committed. Always email rather than call with art directors
• put an image of my work actually in the email - catch their attention
• gather a list of 50 people I want to work for and send work out to all of them - but be original with the work; screen print, lino cut, mono etc. also, keep it small so that they can pin it up on their desk
• difference between image maker and illustrator: illustrators have a set 'style' and process, but image makers have a variety of styles and processes, their work is more about their ideas which can be executed in a variety of ways