4 minute read
If you’re new to this series of posts titled ‘The Trouble With Illustration…’ - the idea is essentially to investigate some of the key barriers that might prevent you from taking a bespoke illustration approach for your organisation’s marketing or communications materials, and offer some potential solutions. Here’s where it started > Read the initial article here and all the follow up posts so far are listed at the bottom of the page.
In this latest article I’m looking specifically at how illustration could potentially be more reactive for your brand/content and become a more viable option when timescales are tight.
Commissioning an illustrator and having them do the work can sometimes take longer than you’d like, I get it.
They’re not being slow on purpose. They need the necessary time to do the work, and may not have availability straight away…
Plus, to have a nice illustration job done it will always take an appropriate amount of time.
From my perspective, when a client’s brief lands and I’m given go ahead, I love to be able to bat the work back to them in a timely manner. (Always allowing for the process of initial concepts/sketches first though obviously, otherwise you’re just asking for trouble!)
If it’s likely you’re going to need illustration work turned around quickly, here are some points worth considering:
1. Think ahead if you can
Thinking ahead and being clear about what you’d ideally like in terms of illustration/s can help make the process of turning things around quickly much more workable.
Would you like the ability to be able to pull together presentations with a sprinkling of illustrative elements throughout?
Perhaps a set of assets relating to your business and the sorts of ideas/approaches you generally discuss could be useful to have and mean you could more easily generate your own ‘on-brand’ visuals - (I discuss the merits of having a kit of parts with regard to flexibility in this post ) These could be created effectively as a stock set, that you can apply or adapt for specific needs
2. Have illustrators waiting in the wings
If you’d like something bespoke, then it’s useful to have an illustrator already lined up or if you do a fair amount of this kind of ‘quick’ content creating, perhaps a roster of illustrators (a roost?) who can work quickly and in a suitable style, ready for you to call on when needed.
This could be particularly useful for illustration which is specific to content/output you know is happening but perhaps don’t have yet. Eg, relating to current issues/news
3. Is it possible to schedule in a regular slot?
For a regular blog post or newsletter content perhaps…?
Even if you’re not 100% sure what the content might be, would it be helpful to schedule in time with an illustrator so they have availability to do work when you know it will be needed.?
4. Be realistic about what is possible
It stands to reason that a large and/or complex illustration will take a reasonable amount of time to complete, particularly when you factor in time for feedback/consulting with others in your team etc, in addition to the actual time it takes to create the work.
If it’s an all encompassing illustration, perhaps to describe something important like your organisation’s process or vision for the future, something that will be useful for you for a long time to come, why rush it?
If time is short, perhaps put that to one side and commission an interim version which will suffice for your needs now, and can be developed in the future.
5. Cut your cloth…according to the width (time) available
In deciding on an approach for quick turnaround pieces, it obviously makes sense to choose a style that can be done relatively quickly, rather than something very intricate/highly detailed.
6. Turnaround times aren’t always a problem for illustrators
In fact some positively thrive on short deadlines! It would really just come down to availability, and whether they can slot the work in.
Generally searching out some editorial illustrators is a good place to start as they’re potentially used to creating work with relatively short turnaround times
7. If all else fails…
Stock illustration is an option, particularly if it’s a one-off, stand alone piece that doesn’t necessarily need to tie in with an existing brand style.
8. And one other thing…. Speed can cost!
If time is tight, and would require an illustrator to work outside of regular work hours to meet your deadline, it is reasonable to expect they would likely charge a premium for this.
The old saying ‘Good, Fast, Cheap - Pick 2’ seems relevant here.
If ‘Fast’ is a requirement, something’s likely to need to give on one of the other 2!
Image credit: heinley.com , via berkonomics.com
I hope these have been some useful insights to share. I’m guessing many of the points could be things you may already know, but perhaps lose sight of when under pressure to deliver your content in whatever form.
If you have any other successful strategies for dealing with tight timeframes I’d be interested to hear.
And if you have a possible project in mind, or are thinking about how illustrator timescales could work with what you do, I’d always be happy to discuss it with you - drop me a line to see if we can make the logistics work !
OTHER POSTS IN THIS SERIES
Wondering why you’re being asked to pay again for an illustration you’ve commissioned? Let me explain…. with a few examples to hopefully make the licensing model make more sense…