Sam (Eye Candy Illustration Agency)

We had a guest speaker Sam from Eye Candy Illustration Agency come in and give us a talk on what an angecy is and how they operate. With the intention of becoming a primary school teacher joining an agency seems like the ideal option for me as an illustrator.

What I learnt from the talk she gave was that agencies firstly you have to be selected or accepted into. They will then subsequently promote your work via different methods:

• Website
• Magazines
• Brochures
• Zines

Using their pool of contacts and client lists. They promote all artists together as a catalogue to look through and in doing so find you work. There is the option to turn down work if it doesn't suit you, you're too busy or for ethical reasons you decide to say no. The position in an agency isn't necessarily based on how many clients and jobs you bring in as some artists had been on their books for a few years without getting any work.

Pro's:

• Your work is promoted and sent out to clients and contacts without your own efforts
• You have connections to other artists, illustrators and their pool of clients 
• Work almost falls into your laps without the effort of seeking it
• An established agency will have a reputation and as so, being part of it you will to

Con's:

• Potential fees
• Other artists, illsutrators in the agency being selected over you (if art style is too similar, they're more popular)

From listening to the talk and information provided I can safely say that joining an agency is what I personally would see myself doing as an illustrator as having a full-time job in education finding work, keeping up-to-date and promoting myself would be neglected otherwise.