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Ask a Pro
Ask a Pro is a collection of illustration related questions answered by top art directors, designers, editors, artist representatives and other professionals in the commercial illustration industry.
If you have a suggestion for a question or know someone who might be a good candidate to answer a couple questions
Contributors
How do you justify getting paid for what you do?
(more questions)
That’s a pretty loaded question. Illustration and animation is a product
like anything else. And I suppose I have enough talent, work ethic, sense of humor,
interpersonal skills, personal hygiene, and business sense to make it a viable
career option for me. Some of what I do is art directed, which makes me just a
pair of hands. And some of it is up to me to bring what I can to the project,
be it innovative character design, storyline, color, design and font choices.
And all that takes skill, thinking, time and effort. All of those are valuable
commodities.
The graphic arts is one of the few fields I can think of where people consistently
ask you to work for free. “I can’t pay you, but this will look totally
killer in your portfolio,” has been thrown my way all too often. Same
goes for “I can’t pay you, but it’s totally easy.” I
usually respond to that by replying, as politely as possible, “if it’s
so easy, you should be able to do it yourself.” Generally, I won’t
work for free or on a project that pays too little; I can work on my own projects
for free.
I do feel fortunate to be able to get paid for what I do.
Dave Savage (more answers by this person)
Creative Developer
American Greetings
http://www.savagemonsters.com