The Business of Art

Young Playwrights Festival Production Schedule

Here's the complete production schedule for the CENTERSTAGE YPF project:

-9/25/08 RPF Presented, project assigned in class

-Formal estimate due to Allan via email before 10/2/08-

 acomport@mica.edu

-10/9/08    Roughs due via email to Allan (one or two concepts, plus one sample)

-10/16/0    Client visit to class to announce which concept was chosen

-10/27/08  Final art due (for only the chosen concept)

-10/30/08  Poster design finalized

-11/6/08    Poster goes to press

Spring Overview for Seminar

Spring, 2008
SENIOR SEMINAR- 2nd Semester Outline

Armed with a basic understanding of many of the issues of becoming a professional illustrator, we will turn our attention this semester to preparation of a professional portfolio, and practice presenting it. We’ll also be producing the collateral marketing materials and plans to help get you started in finding work.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ll require your portfolio in a printed, traditional form and also electronically, that is, on disc. Your portfolio should be written to CD in both high resolution and low resolution. (72 dpi/300 dpi jpgs) You will be required to show your portfolio and talk about the pieces in it before the class this semester. Given the number of students in our class we will need to begin this process no later than in the coming weeks. On your assigned day, you’ll be required to have your printed portfolio to pass around, your promotional pieces and final resume and business card. You’ll have about 10-15 minutes to present your work to the class on the computer that will be projected onto the screen. This should be in the form of a tour of your website or blogsite. If you don’t have a website or blog to show, you can use your CD and show your final portfolio from the CD, or a Power Point presentation would be acceptable. You will be required to attend class for all sessions. Please know that I will make time available for individual meetings for questions or portfolio development support throughout the semester.
Overall, I am going to give you the entire semester’s assignments today with the understanding that you will be responsible for getting the work in before the semester ends. All assignments will be required, as are all scheduled class meetings. All final assignment are due by end of class on May 1, 2008.
The assignments will be as follows:
1) A completed list of contacts, including a specific name, address and phone number. No less than 20, no more than 50. (Regional contacts should be 50% of the list, these will be used for your portfolio Showcase event)
2) Your portfolio finished and ready to show in TWO forms. The first will be a presentation portfolio for face-to-face meetings. It must be clean, neat and presented in a bound fashion.
The second form of portfolio will be a digital portfolio, on CD with your work in both a high and low-resolution form. The high rez form would be preferably .jpg files with the largest dimension no bigger than 12 inches. The image size should be 300 dpi. Or size 1024 x 768. The second form should be a 72 dpi format saved as.jpgs. You will submit finished copies of your promotion piece at the time of your presentation. (About 20) The printing method on these will be for you to decide, but if you choose not to use a commercial printer like Modern Postcards or Overnight Prints, they must be of professional quality. You need to turn in at least 20 promotion pieces that will kept by the department.
3) You will be submitting a personal business plan. The background and materials for you to form this plan were provided in class and available on my blog (http://allancomport.typepad.com/allans_blog)
4) Finally, there will be a final paper, brief in nature that will be chosen by you from a list provided or by discussing the topic with me for approval. This paper is required to include an interview with an industry professional in some fashion.

Senior Seminar Writing Assignment

You may choose from one of the topics suggested below, or with the Instructor’s consent, you may choose your own. If you decide to choose your own topic, it must be approved by Feb. 28, 2008.
The scope of the assignment is as follows:
Only typewritten papers will be accepted in hard copy form, or electronic delivery is also acceptable. The paper should be between three and five pages long (More is OK, less is not) using correct spelling, grammar and style. This assignment is required to be turned in before the end of the semester. Please list any sources you use, if applicable. Interviews need to be used in some fashion as part of the source material.
Some suggested topics:
-A biographical report on a famous illustrator. This could be a currently
practicing illustrator and should include an interview. This could be a mentor or inspiration to you. Another option in this area could be a seminal illustrator such as James Montgomery Flagg, Ben Shahn, Dean Cornwell, N.C. Wyeth, Winslow Homer, Harvey Dunn, Al Hirschfield, Robert McGinnis, John Held, Jr., Howard Pyle, Al Parker. Obviously a dead artist will be difficult to interview, so you’ll need to figure out how to work an interview into this subject. An idea might be interviewing a professional that’s been influenced or knows a great deal about your subject.
You could examine one or more of the current illustrator’s organizations such as the Illustrator’s Partnership of America, The Graphic Artist’s Guild, or the Society of Illustrators. You might consider examining the history and development of the ICON conferences.
You could do a survey of online resources for illustrators. Among these might be the ispot, folioplanet.com, portfolios.com, and many more.
You might choose a professional/ethical issue such as Copyright Issues, Orphan Rights, workflow management, marketing or The effect of Stock Illustration on the Industry or an in-depth study of effect of work for hire contracts.
You might do an overview of famous women illustrators.
Another suggestion would be to compare the effectiveness of Directory vs. Internet marketing. Or interview 5-10 established illustrators to survey their marketing programs. A report on the pro’s and con’s of having a rep could be explored.
These are only some of my ideas; please see me with your own ideas or suggestions.

My contact information:
Allan Comport
Cell: 410.271-2951
Email: acomport@mica.edu or allanwdc@comcast.net
All lecture notes, announcements, assignments, resources will be available on my blog: http://allancomport.typepad.com/allans_blog. Please check in regularly to stay informed.

Informal Business Planning

November 29, 2007

Business Planning: The Process

We all informally do the task of business planning, whether in the shower thinking about how to get better clients, more satisfying work, or while sitting in traffic, or perhaps especially when you are paying bills, and trying to manage your cash flow. These are all informal forms of planning. The mental activity you engage in that tries to get you from here…to there. This exercise will formalize this process and hopefully provide you with a concrete blueprint for the next year.
Ideally, this process should be revisited in a formal way each year. Take the extra step of writing this plan down in some detail. It makes a huge difference in realizing your goals.

General considerations

Start with the facts. Jot down everything important you can think about your business, present and future. Where has your work come from to this date? Who are you competing against (specifically). What are their strengths and weaknesses? What is your realistic potential compared to the present level of activity? Are you profitable? What problems and opportunities to you predict in the near future?

Identify Goals. Now that you’ve considered reality (above) consider your practical options and alternatives for growth, or greater prosperity. List up to 10 business changes/options for you with the greatest potential. Try to be specific.
Examples: I want to expand my business base from 3 to 5 dependable clients, or increase the number of publishing jobs by 25%; or decrease the number of jobs under $500 to no more than 1 per month. I want to show a $5,000 profit for 2004.

Rough-out strategies. Now you can take the goals you have set down and put your thoughts next to them on what it would take to make them come true. Eliminate those that are obviously not feasible. (I want to be the CEO of Pixar) settling on six or fewer that have a decent chance of success.
Examples: To expand my client base, I will make one new contact per week. In order to get more publishing jobs, I will write and develop a children’s story and produce a mock-up to show or I will produce 5 direct mail promotion pieces with a children’s publishing image, buy the NYC children’s publishing list. In order to show a higher profit, I will counter offer every job offer that comes in by a 10% increase.

Specific Considerations

Now you can modify the above general considerations with those things that define your unique talent, style, experience and client service. This begins to define your signature.

What are your strengths, what is it that distinguishes your talent?
Example: I am great at rendering, or portraits, or I have a very unique style, or my drawing ability is strong, I conceptualize unique ideas easily.

What is the extent of your business skills and experience?
Example: Unusual speed, I am obsessive about details, I have state of the art software, I have experience in editorial…

Where does your unique combination of talent, skill, and experience best fit? Example: I have worked in editorial for 3 years with good success, I have great animation skills, I should apply for studio jobs; My internship was with a design firm, I could use that experience to apply to other design companies.
Your uniqueness might best fit with your current mix of work, so you should concentrate on getting more of the same mix of work.

You are now ready to start writing the plan.

A Basic Plan

Even if you a one-person operation, you are still running a business and must approach your task as such in order to succeed. Just like a large business you will benefit greatly from an objective view of the market, a set of clear goals, and a precise strategy for obtaining them. The plan itself may not be as important as the thought that goes into it. No one may ever see it, it is for your use, but it is an essential exercise. What’s important is what goes into your plan and what it helps you accomplish.

The easiest way to do a basic business plan the first time is to think of writing a set of “New Year’s Resolutions” for your business. After you have considered all of the previous issues discussed above, write down about six (6) specific goals for the following year. Develop a paragraph about each goal. Include these five essential elements in each paragraph:
1) Exactly what you want to accomplish
2) Why it is important
3) How you propose to accomplish it
4) When is the best time to do it
5) The response you can anticipate.

Now arrange these paragraphs in chronological order. If the time ever comes when you would need a more formalized plan, this basic plan could be your foundation. Keep the plan where you can see it every month or two. Evaluate how you are doing. It should be an active document, constantly modified.