10 Pet Peeves Art Directors Have When Working with Illustrators

Ghosting, Missing Deadlines, and Other Ways to Turn Off Your Art Director

If you want to illustrate for magazines, publishers and advertising agencies, the people you want to please are the Art Directors. Art Directors are the people who scout out and work with illustrators for their projects. Art directors, or AD’s for short, are responsible for finding talent (like you) and for squeezing the best possible result from you! They are looking to you to help them create the right images for the job, which satisfies a specific need. AD’s are middlemen, though. While they have some autonomy in directing the creative, they are part of a larger team, usually answering to a Creative Director and at least one Editor, some sometimes even more.

As I write about the creative process, I am often thinking only about one side of the table—that of the illustrator. That’s why out of five main stages of my process there are only 3 points involving the client. While I think it’s okay to focus on just one side, it’s always important to give the other its due consideration. A little bit of empathy goes a long way when doing business. The more you can learn about the people you’re working with and how to serve their needs, the happier they will be, and the more likely they will call…