We supply our costing as estimates; although these are highly accurate, if the brief or usage changes, so must the estimate. Often our sixth sense gives us enough foresight to see this coming, but to that end our estimate can only be as accurate as the information we are given.
If you haven’t commissioned illustration before, or are interested in how to get the most accurate quote possible, you can download our handy PDF brief checklist which will outline the necessary information in more detail.
Creation
This is the time it takes to create the artwork you need. Every artist has a day rate, and once we have reviewed your requirements we will supply you with an estimated creation time. We will only ever revise the creation cost if further work is required once we have sent you an estimate, or if excess revisions are required post estimate sign-off. The creation fee makes up the Base Usage Rate (BUR) of which usage fees are applied as a percentage.
Usage
All artist’s work needs to be licensed for usage. This is really important for a professional illustrator’s income and is part of the agreement we have made with them, as well as the artist agent member charter of the AOI of which we are members. The overall price of a commission is not affected by how difficult the work is to execute, but rather a combination of creation and usage fees. The more an image is used, the greater value it has. The more an image is worth, the more it costs.
We have tried to answer in more depth commonly asked questions about licensing in our Client FAQ here, but in brief the cost for usage licensing is based on the following:
The Use
This is the particular media that the work is going to be used in. Is it going to be in a local magazine or a global ad campaign? Are 100 people going to see it or 100,000?
For advertising, we work with four main areas of usage:
Above the Line: This covers paid advertising space, billboards, print campaigns. Below the Line: Unpaid space, point of sale, direct marketing. Broadcast: TV and cinema. Online: This is a new fad you may have heard of.
Work such as storyboarding, ambient media, or paid pitch/research work usually have their own usage terms specific to the output.
For editorial work, we have our house usage conditions, but in most cases will defer to a publications set usage policy unless amendments need to be made.
Area of Use or Territory
Where in the world will the work be seen? The more people who’ll see it, the higher the usage fee.
Duration
The longer the work is used, the more people will see it, so this will mean a higher fee… do you see a pattern emerging?
Client’s Profile
We work very closely to our standard process of costing, but of course the profile of the client may effect costs. More often than not this is because the higher profile the client, the higher the exposure of the work.
Reputation of Illustrator
It tends to fly that the higher reputation of the illustrator, the busier they are. So if we need them to start work at 3am they need to be paid accordingly.
Expenses
Expenses only tend to be needed if our illustrator needs to buy excessive amounts of one material – often this is only for props. If you need to fly our dude and their entourage around the world, they’ll need a hotel. We will, of course, flag this with you immediately.