Researching Job Categories within your Market

What are the job categories for your illustration/digital media market?
What are the job descriptions?
Find some to include in your Research Presentation.

Employment Situations to look for in the overall genre: 
What are the general employment situations?
What type of/lack of benefits can you anticipate?
• Freelance? In which case there will be no benefits- you will be responsible for providing insurance and other benifits yourself.
• Work for hire. You as the artists retain no rights in creative. All rights are transferred.
• Sell usage for media, every time it is used you can get more money. (This is becoming rarer in the industry).
• In-house contract (duration of the show)? With benefits?
• Full-time- Benefits discussed with employer
• Contract Agencies- They set up benefits. Then have right to terminate contract whenever they want.

Supplementary Places for Research:
Kendall Weblab > Resources > Employment
Kendall Job Bulletin
Also see other listings in the Career Services Section of the Kendall site. 

Essential reading for project: 
US Department of Labor Stats

Notice the different types of portfolios for the different markets:

Create a list of what is required for your portfolio by the time that you graduate by comparing your work to people in the genre you are researching. This should help you to determine your direction while in school.

Example portfolio content:
sketches, full color images, comic pages, pencil work, inked work, animations, walk cycle, website, flash games 

Check off what you have and what you need.
Continue to refer to it through out your time in school.


CHOOSE A CATEGORY TO RESEARCH FOR THIS CLASS
Review the Genre Handout
Choose one of the categories
Remember that this is a seminar style class and you will be learning from your classmates about markets which may interest you. For the benefit of the class, if there is more than one person who has selected one market you may be selected to research another area within that market so that there will be no repeats.

Illustration and Digital Media Market Research Presentation

Project Description:
• The first part of the semester will be spent researching illustration markets. Students will make a presentation to the class covering emerging trends, and examples of professional work for a chosen market.
• Intro to the concept of becoming an entrepreneur. How will you brand yourself? Discuss in class of each person's ideal job.
• Research your ideal job and the companies that you would be an ideal fit, in some cases a market will be assigned to you so that the class can cover as many as possible to share in a seminar style.
• Tell the story of becoming a professional in your market.
• Create a database of companies, organizations and blogs that relate to your market.

• Project Deliverables include:
• Research Slideshow Presentation in Powerpoint (or exported into ppt) (or .swf - if you know flash slideshow)
• Logo in Illustrator that will be placed in the presentation

Example • Market Research Presentation

• Market List in Excel Spreadsheet (or exported into excel)
Example • Market List

• Freelance Studio Cost Analysis in Excel Spreadsheet (or exported into excel)
Example • Studio 1 Year Operating Expenses
Freelance Studio Operating Expenses Blank Template
Input your numbers and the document will do the math for you. 

• Market Research Presentation includes:
• 3 companies or individuals working in your market w/ work examples and links
• 1-3 professional organization w/ work examples and links
• 2 blogs or related websites w/ work examples and links
• Studio 1 year Operating Expenses for working in your market
• Summary of your market findings

• Market List:
This is to be a working document that you can refer to as you market yourself to get jobs.
You will want to continue to add to this as you develop relationships within the market.
include:

• 20 companies or individuals working in your market
• 1-5 professional organizations
• at least 10 blogs or related websites
• A written summary of all of your market findings, this writing will be included in your presentation.

To start to develop relationships with professionals in your market ask them questions like these: 
Example Market Research Phone / Email Survey Script

Supplementary Resources for Student Research:
KendallWeblab.com
Graphic Artists Guild Handbook, Pricing and Ethical Guidelines
Inside the Business of Illustration
Childrens Writers & Illustrators Market
Writers and Illustrators Market

How to begin your Market Research

You could start with going to a illustration rep website that offers a lot of artists genres:
theispot.com
Illustration Web

Input your genre into the search portfolios section that you are interested in researching.

You will come up with lots of portfolios.

Click on the artwork that most fits the type of artwork you can see yourself doing in your career.

Look for an artist with a client list > this will help you to see who buys this type of artwork.

Look at their own website, refer to this in your presentation.

Use the Graphic Artists Guild Handbook, Pricing and Ethical Guidelines to determine the going rate for the artwork in the portfolio, based on the project deliverables and the size of the client.

Use these dollar amounts to fill out your Freelance Studio Operating Expenses Blank Template

One of the main things to consider in your research is how much you will get paid per project.