Do illustrators need an agent, and what do they actually do?

Do you really need an agent? Why? What do they actually do? In a talk hosted by The Illustrator’s Guild of Ireland at this year’s Offset festival a panel featuring Peepshow Collective’s Andrew Rae and Chrissie Macdonald, illustrators Rod Hunt and Matthew Griffin and Bernstein & Andriulli agent Sam Summerskill, we heard about how best to go about finding an agent, what they look for and what they get up to. Here’s what we learnt…

Make sure your agent is the right one for you

All the panelists agreed that there’s no point approaching an agency with a roster of creatives whose style is totally different to your own. And don’t rush into an agreement just for the sake of having an agent. “I went with the first agent that said yes,” says Andrew. “They weren’t a good fit so I ended up leaving them and we set up our own studio, Peepshow, so I was publicising myself and handling jobs myself.”

If you’re approaching an agent, do it properly

It seems obvious, but use the agent’s name, show you know a bit about them, make it personal, and for god’s sake, don’t send the same email to tonnes of people. A claim that you “love the roster/agency” when the recipient can see another 154 agencies on the CC list doesn’t look too good, Sam points out. Other advice was that an email needn’t contain lots of images (“a bit of intrigue is always nice, all you really need is a link and a vibe”).

An agent can be the bad guy so you don’t have to

If a client doesn’t like your work, is being unreasonable about time or money, that’s what the agency can deal with, so you can focus on being you as a creative. They can also help you learn to say no. At the start of an illustration career, it can seem terrifying to come back to a client with a negative response, but that’s something an agent can do – help you get a fairer deal and not be trampled on.

Agent or no, use personal connections

Whether it’s clients or collaborators, personal connections are invaluable, They mean a better level of trust on projects, a sense of community, and easier communication.

Learn to love each other, and communicate

A relationship with an agent is “a marriage of sorts” according to Sam, so “learn to love each other and look after one another.” The more an artist communicates with the agent, whether about commercial work or personal experiments, the better they’ll understand one another and how suitable work might be for a certain brief.