Task 1 - Career Opportunities

10 studios/ agencies, clients/agents and universities:

• Staffordshire University, Illustration MA focused on character illustration
• Teeside University, Illustration MA
• Longrest Boardgame Bar and Cafe - I already have some experience selling my work at their makers markets
• Comic Cons such as Stoke-on-Trent comic con and Manchester comic con
• Titan Publishing Group
• SelfMadeHero
• Blank Slate Books
• Mixam
• StickerShop
• Awesome Merch
• Zap Creatives

Why you want to work with them?

I would like to work with Longrest, both to continue selling at makers markets and I'd also love it if they wanted to commission me for illustrations for their menus or advertisements as I know they've commissioned up and coming illustrators and graphic designers before. They seem to be very friendly towards artists and understand how much time and effort we put into our work, so they'd be great to work for and communicate well with.

After University I am planning on doing a MA, in particular at Staffordshire University as I'd prefer to be somewhere I know well and know the people I'd be working with, however I have looked into other Universities' MA courses and the only one I found interesting was at Teeside University, but I'm mainly focused on applying to a MA at Staffordshire University.

I'd like to work at more comic cons in the future selling my work as they seem to be a good place to get my name out there and and be noticed by a lot more people compared to your average makers markets, the only trouble would be able to afford the table at them, so they're things I'd have to work towards.

I'd like to work for the publishing agencies such as Titan Publishing and SelfMadeHero, so I would be able to work on having my own comics and stories published professionally as well as posting my comics to Webtoons or Tapas.

The printing companies such as Mixam, StickerShop, Awesome Merch and Zap Creatives will be used for my to print my products, I've already used all these companies before other than Zap Creatives, so I trust them to produce professional prints of my work in various forms. I've used Awesome Merch for my business cards and plan to continue to do this as they give the best deal, I use Mixam for my art prints, posters and art books/ colouring books and StickerShop for my stickers. I would love it if any of these companies would like to promote my work whilst they're promoting their own business.

How would you describe their approach and how you would fit?

I’d fit in with Longrest and comic cons as I have experience in selling at both events and I feel I have products that a lot of people coming to these events would like to purchase.

Going into a masters course after my illustration course would allow me to continue to work on my existing projects and come up with new ones immediately, it’ll also give me time to build my presence on social media.

How do you plan on achieving your goals of working with them?

To apply to my masters course I'll make sure to email Lou Reynolds with my filled out application form that contains information about the different projects I want to ensue, what research I'll be doing and if I need access to any specialised facilities, etc. 

I plan on working with publishing companies by submitting my proposal comic/ story to them in their preferred way, if I get nothing back from any of these companies I'll still continue to post my comic to Webtoons to try and build a fanbase and try again at a later time when the comic has developed further.

Have you made contact with them? (To find what they want and get yourself noticed)

I have already made contact with Lou Reynolds about undertaking a MA and they've let me know everything I need to know about applying and soon I'll be sending them my application form.