Juliette Wolf-Robin travels the U.S. asking art buyers, editors and industry insiders how artists can market their businesses more effectively. I’ve combed through dozens of podcast interviews Juliette has conducted with influential art buyers and creatives. In Part 1 of this article, art buyers talk about searching for talent.
Juliette Wolf-Robin: When you need a photographer or illustrator, how do you find new talent?
“Often the art directors already have some idea of who they want to work with and that gives me an idea of the style they’re looking for. Then I’ll set up a whole bank of links for them to look at. And I go to my bookmarks and hunt through–both for reps and for photographers–who might be viable. I do the printed pieces too. We’re all still very visual and tactile people and sometimes it actually seems to get [an art director’s] attention faster and better when I can stick [printed promos] in front of their nose.” – Melinda Estey, Art Buyer, Young & Rubicam/Wunderman, San Francisco
“I use websites as the primary tool to introduce artists to the art directors. And sourcing from everywhere. I have a Rolodex of photographers and illustrators and designers in my head, so I can just kind of think about it and refer back to the list.” – Michelle Jackson, Freelance Art Buyer/Print Producer and Founder of Snap Indigo
“It's a constant trolling. It's truly the part we all enjoy the most about the job, so we’re doing it on a daily basis. Then when a project comes through… we typically have people top of mind already. A lot of [searching] happens online. We’ve awarded projects where we haven't even called in portfolios in the last year. Seeing a commercial collaboration is hugely important, seeing a client list, seeing work that resulted from it. But I also want to see personal work. I want to know what a photographer does on their own, what they are going to bring to it because, to me, that is the best match for a project.” – Sandy Boss Febbo, Executive Art Producer, Carmichael Lynch, Minneapolis
“In the 10 years that I've been involved with the Society of Publication Designers, I've met some of my best friends and collaborators. I would definitely recommend that any illustrator or photographer looking to get into editorial work, become an SPD member, check out their website and go to those events because it's a great community of collaboration. People are looking to help each other and improve and solicit advice and give advice. And it's a great forum for teaching and networking.” – Scott Dadich, Creative Director, Wired magazine, San Francisco
“Well, we have a pool of people that we really like… That’s part of my daily life, to spend hours looking at portfolios online and checking my email because people send me emails all the time to keep me posted on what they’re doing. We know two months in advance what we’re doing, so we try to think ahead and say, “Okay, who would be good for this?” as we plan the story. Now more than ever, I feel like I’ve been looking at other people’s blogs. Some people are doing really interesting work curating their blogs. They invested into getting really good images.” – Alejandro Chavetta, Art Director, San Francisco magazine, San Francisco
“I look through every single way possible that you can imagine: websites, promos, email promos, card promos, agencies, other magazines. Anywhere I look, where I find something interesting, I make a note. I’ll look up [the artist’s] work.” –Amy Feitelberg, Photo Editor, Outside magazine, Santa Fe
“It really depends on the project and any work that I've seen recently. Usually, working with art directors in the concept phase, I get a really good sense of what they'd look for… I search the reps’ websites and even AdAge, and I look through all the resource books, FOUND, just keeping an open mind to everything. Then I narrow down what's appropriate for the project, who's fitting the style and who will bring something to the table.” – Justine Barnes, Art Producer, Cutwater, San Francisco
“I bookmark [websites] and look at PDN and Applied Arts. I look at blogs and local editorial like the Walrus and Toronto Life magazine.” – Heather Morton, Freelance Art Buyer and Consultant, Toronto
*****