Find out about copyright laws in your country. What do you need to know?
How much would you charge a client for your time? Think about how you would go about working this out. You may want to research into what other illustrators charge for their work.
If you want to develop as a professional illustrator, at some point you may consider joining the Association of Illustrators as a student member. In the meantime, access their resources for further guidance on payment rates, contracts and copyright issues. Summarise the important things you need to remember.
For this Research Point I used some of the AOI’s free resources as this is a trustworthy and current source of reference.
Copyright in the UK
Prior to this research, I only had a vague, basic understanding of copyright so I found this new information to be extremely useful in clarifying an illustrator’s rights with regards to the control of the reproduction and usage of their artwork.
The fundamental key points about copyright to remember include:
- Copyright is covered by the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, which states that when an artistic work (a list of what this covers is available) is created, its creator owns the copyright. An exception to this rule is if the artwork has been created by an employee for an employer, in which case the latter will generally hold the copyright.
- It is not required to register the copyright of an artwork, nor is it necessary to add a © symbol, but it is recommended to do this with work published online (alongside the year of creation, your name and “- all rights reserved”). This is seen as good practice and a visual reminder to others that the work has been produced by you.
- Copyright is applicable during the creator’s lifetime and then for 70 years after death.
- If someone reproduces the work without permission, they are infringing on your rights and it is possible to take legal action.
- As the owner of the copyright, you have the potential to ‘license’ or sell (‘assign’) the rights to the artwork.
- To license the copyright to an artwork is to allow someone else (or a company) to reproduce it for certain purposes for a set period of time. The work still belongs to the creator and the license can be ‘exclusive’ or ‘non-exclusive’. It is recommended that this agreement is in writing to avoid any disputes.
- To sell, or ‘assign’, the copyright means that, asides from having moral recognition as the creator, you no longer have any control over the reproduction or usage of an artwork. Assigning copyright must be done in writing. It is not generally recommended for illustrators to sell the copyright of their work, unless in certain circumstances and with appropriate renumeration.
Payment for a Project
The AOI free resource outlining the basics with regards to pricing clearly explains the key details to be provided by the client so that an appropriate fee can be calculated, which I have referred to below:
- Usage – what is the artwork going to be used for?
- Location – is the artwork going to be seen locally, nationwide, internationally?
- Duration – how long does the client want the licence to cover – e.g. a month or a year?
- Type of Client – a large, international business or a small, local shop?
- Budget – is the client willing to disclose the available budget for the project or will they require an estimate? Is the fee negotiable?
- Expenses – any additional expenditure by the illustrator, e.g. postage, research time, travel for meetings, should be included in the fee.
Other points to take into consideration include the complexity of the illustration, the input required (e.g. number of roughs and revisions) and the timeframe for completion of the project.
As stated earlier, it is highly recommend that a licence is agreed in writing. This should clearly define the territory (e.g. UK or worldwide), duration (e.g. 3 months) and usage (e.g. postcard).
I had never really seriously considered how much I might charge for any of my illustration work. This is mainly because I do not really have much belief that someone would want to pay for my illustrations – not the best mindset, I know! Having learnt more about the process of setting rates and the interactions required with clients, I feel it is even less likely I would entertain going down this route.
Presently, I believe the only potential way for me to make income from my illustration work would be through ‘passive’ selling, e.g. greeting card designs, t-shirt designs, etc. that would be sold via an online company and I would get a (tiny) percentage of the profit.
In a hypothetical world, if I was to work directly with clients, there would be certain considerations to take into account:
- I am not a fan of hourly rates as I do not think this is fair reward for someone who puts in more effort and therefore efficiently completes a task before someone who is not so inclined to do the same (to put it politely). This is the frustrating experience I have regularly encountered whilst working as a temp in administration and I find it quite disheartening and infuriating. I would most likely set standard starting prices for the work depending on the type of project and this price would also encompass all of the considerations noted earlier.
- The rates would also depends on my level of experience and as this increased, so would the amount I could charge.
- Working freelance, it is also necessary to take into account all additional expenditures both related to the profession (e.g. subscriptions such as Adobe Creative Cloud, electricity usage and materials), as well as the amount of income required to be able to maintain (or improve?) living standards.
All of the sources I have looked at for this this Research Point have stressed the point that illustrators should not work for free, even as a student. It is suggested that this sets the wrong precedent and is detrimental to the profession.
I have actually undertaken a couple of freelance projects in the past. One of these was on a voluntary basis (it was not a charity) so I just accepted that to be the case. On completion, I felt annoyed with myself as I had put so much effort into the work and, although I learnt a lot during the creative process, I knew I should have been rewarded for my effort. I was paid a very small amount for the second project, which I suppose was better than the former, but I still did not feel it was representative of the amount of effort and time I put into the final work. I realise, as a beginner, I should not expect huge payouts, but it is quite disenchanting to be paid nothing or peanuts.
When contemplating the actual amounts I could potentially charge a client, I believe I would need to join the AOI so that I could access further guidance on this matter, including a pricing calculator.
I did come across the website for the Artists’ Union England and on this resource there is a page of guidance rates of pay for artists. I was genuinely astounded when I saw the suggested amount for a graduate as being nearly £195 per day, which would work out at £33,000 per year (based on 220 days work).
This Research Point has certainly been one of the most eye-opening I have undertaken so far.
Bibliography
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