Jenny Bowers (Peepshow collective)

We had guest speaker and artist Jenny Bowers talk to us about her work and working in a collective (Peepshow Collective)

Her insight into working in a collective was quite useful. Peepshow have become quite an established collective and worked together for years. What I learnt from this was that as a collective they have a varied style of different illustrators all adaptable and able to take on and work together on various different projects that may come their way. Peepshow have worked with some big names and usually as a team and not as individuals. Whilst they don't all work on the same project together they are often split into smaller teams each handling their own role.

Pro's:

• Group pool of clients and contacts
• Group promotion of you work, your name, your collective
• A branding as a collective
• Other artists to bounce off
• Not as "lonely" of a career choice

Con's:

• Disagreements amongst artists
• Working in a team instead of as an individual
• Being overlooked as part of a team and not an individual
• Other artists finding more work

I would say I have learnt that collectives don't mean that you're always working as one unit and all on the same projects but instead that your collective finds work and with that you can work in smaller groups on projects. It seems like a fun way to work but also has the potential for problems such as difference in opinions and artistic visions.

Jenny gave a useful insight into the illustration industry and surprisingly I discovered that a lot of work is found in things such as:

• Editorial
• Reports
• Internal magazines
• Newspapers
• Websites

Which was refreshing to hear as I had began to think there was little hope of finding work if you didn't make it as the next Quentin Blake. Other areas of illustration to consider are your ethics and morals and this can depend on what jobs you are willing to take and who you are willing to work for as the Peepshow collective had in the past turned down big jobs for these reasons.

"Like a tree, you will continue to grow" was also something Jenny mentioned which stuck with me as I felt if I hadn't found my illustration style or knew exactly what I wanted to do that I had wasted my time at university but to hear that illustrators in her collective or the industry for many years are continuously changing their styles and ways of working was reassuring.