Shed Light On Your Illustration Career Path
Cover illustration by Andrés Palacios, art direction by Gab K De Jesus
With graduation around the corner, many illustration students are understandably lost. Our courses prepare us for fulfilling creative briefs, but leave us blind on our career prospects. It’s pretty bad, with senior level illustrators admitting they shouldn’t be in their current concentration.
It’s ridiculous, but also understandable. There’s immense pressure from family, peers, and job anxiety to choose a path, any path, even if it doesn’t quite feel right. With the lack of information and people to turn to, it’s easier to settle for the options provided than find out what we really want.
After all, you don’t know what you don’t know.
So, if you’re feeling lost in your creative career, here are some tips for shedding light on your illustration career path.
Find career inspirations to see what’s possible
One of my professors noted how MFA applicants would list an artist as inspiration, but have no trace of that inspiration show in their illustrations.
I would say the same, except when it comes to our career inspirations. We’re trained to think that art style makes the illustrator, when it’s only one facet of our career. What about branding success stories? How illustrators connect with target markets? The potential commercial uses of illustration?
If you keep an eye out, there’s career inspiration everywhere.
Start by finding artists whose work you can see yourself doing. Remove skill and connections from the equation. Could you see yourself spending hours on splash art illustration like Mingchen Shen and Jessica Oyhenart? Maybe animating your illustrations and working with agencies like HeyRaeRae and Rebecca Mock?
The more professionals you find, the more possibilities you’ll see. Leo Natsume showed me how tech companies use illustration to communicate values; COLLINS showed me how brands use illustration to show customers a better future through their products.
Keep an eye out for how illustration is used outside the norm. For example, Van Cleef & Arpels feature illustration to advertise jewelry. The Wall Street Journal has an investing challenge newsletter. These are unique uses of illustration that you can emulate for projects, showing your familiarity with the market.
Another great way to grow your career awareness is by following industry organizations and publications, like D&AD, the AOI, Creative Boom, and others.
Take steps, not leaps
The most common obstacle I’ve heard art students run into is fear. What if I’m not good enough? What if I don’t enjoy doing that as a job? What if, what if, what if.
So many if’s, so little doing. We let the future paralyze us, when just a small step in one direction can tell us so much.
For example, I fancied myself a concept artist and self-directed a weapons concept for my career strategies class.
It was my first proper foray into concept art, and I hated it. I skipped the silhouette and design stages in favor of rendering. Although pretty, the final illustrations felt useless to me.
At the same time, I was taking an editorial illustration class. I thought I would hate the tight deadlines, but found that I enjoyed the limitation. My idea became more important than my execution, freeing me from art style fears.
It only took 2 projects to completely up-end my career direction and expectations. So, test your assumptions and your fears. You only need to take a few steps to potentially shatter them.
Accept change, it all adds up anyway
Whenever I meet friends after not seeing them for a few weeks, I’m always surprised at how much can change.
“Long time no see! I just changed my major”
“Wow, great to see you. Have I told you about my new job?”
“How have you been? I’ve just decided to go to art school instead of working as a programmer”
Despite how big these changes seem, they’re usually years in the making. Our old major stifled us. Our previous job was lacking excitement. Outside expectations weren’t gonna stop us from trying something new.
Over my three years as an illustration major, a lot has changed. I’ve refined my focus little by little, day by day. I went from wanting to be a freelance NSFW artist to making art for the entertainment industry to editorial illustration and brand strategy. These might seem like completely different fields, but they’re all connected in some way: by the fact that you wanted to be in them.
Change seems disruptive, but I believe it all adds up. Your skills adjust between fields, and combine to make you unique. For example, my time in entertainment illustration improved my rendering, so editorial illustration time crunches became possible. Being in NSFW helped me learn how to grow brands and create communities, thus my delving into brand strategy.
How have your skills in other fields sneakily played into your current career direction? Are there ways you can leverage what you were in the past to make your future better?
