Nate Williams’ Illustration Career Advice

“Technical” may be the last word you’d use to describe illustrator and illustration community leader Nate Williams’ work. But his advice on a career in illustration is relevant to just about anyone with a career in image making.

I first read it shortly after graduating college, and since then I’ve revisited it every few months to re-evaluate my career and hone my efforts. It’s an all-encompassing checklist, covering the subjects of technical skills, style, online and offline marketing, customer service, workflow, creativity and attitude. I think this is a great resource for any illustrator, at any stage in their career.

Illustration Career Advice from Nate Williams

Contracts – You Want WHAT?

I was recently approached by a publisher of several software/tutorial magazines about doing a 6-page technical illustration primer. The pay was laughable, but the contract was downright insulting:

3.2 Anything that you […] produce or invent for [us] as part of, or in connection with, the Contract shall be [our] property absolutely and you shall assign or procure the assignment of all Intellectual Property in such things (whether existing now or arising in the future) free from all encumbrances to [us]. You also agree to obtain all releases that are necessary to enable [us] to exploit the Work as it sees fit. If you provide any of your own pre-existing Intellectual Property as part of the Contract you hereby grant [us] and, if relevant, Clients to whom the relevant Work has been provided, an irrevocable, perpetual, royalty free licence to use such Intellectual Property in relation to Work similar or equivalent to the Work.

Worse, still:

3.3 Where you are the author of the Work, you waive absolutely your right to be identified as the author of the Work […] and your right to object to derogatory treatment of it (granted by section 80 of that Act) and, so far as is legally possible, any broadly equivalent rights you may have anywhere in the world. Where you are not the author of the Work you undertake to obtain equivalent waivers from the authors.

…and in case they missed anything:

7.6 This contract may be reviewed and/or amended at any time by [us].

[Emphasis is mine]

Even if I was ready to work for next to nothing, even if I was willing to hand over all rights to whatever I created, even if I convinced myself that the exposure from a project like this was worth the work involved, they wanted me to waive my right to be identified as the author of the work. Oh and they could modify the contract at any time.

Illustrators — Read your contracts. Understand them. If they have bogus clauses, ask for changes or reject them outright.

What bogus clauses have you gotten on contracts? Let us know in the comments!

Ask a Freelancer

Hey I’ve got a question for you freelancers.

I’ve got it in my head that freelancing is this wondrous thing where I get to work my own hours, and more importantly, live where I want to. I dream of living in a shack in the woods on a lake, or on an island somewhere, or just traveling around like some kind of gypsy nomad. Can you do that kind of thing (obviously dependent on internet availability) or do you need to stay closer to your big clients? Does all of your interaction with your clients happen through email/video conference/phone calls or do you meet face to face?

If you can live where ever you want to why did you choose to live where you do now?

Non-Disclosure Agreements

Technical Illustration Non-Disclosure Agreements

Technical Illustration and Non-Disclosure Agreements

Almost every project I take on involves signing a Non-Disclosure Agreement of some sort. An NDA is a contract that protects the client as well as the illustrator from legal and financial liability should confidential information related to the project fall in the hands of a third party.

A client with a patent pending wouldn’t want their illustrator disclosing details of a project to a competitor (or anyone for that matter). On the other hand, the illustrator needs to show work in their portfolio in order to bring in more work. The NDA contract ideally strikes a balance between the needs of the two parties.

For example, they may agree that everything is to be kept under wraps until the project is completed and published by the client. After that, the illustrator is free to use the sketches, roughs and finals for promotional purposes or even reuse or resale. This is a typical NDA clause for magazines

They may agree that all roughs, reference materials and correspondence be kept confidential, and that the illustrator can use only the final image. This is typical when working with science and technology firms.

Or the client may insist that the project be kept strictly confidential in perpetuity (Forever. Forever ever.). Because an illustrator needs to show work to get work, a clause like this seriously restricts future work opportunities. This factor must be taken into consideration when negotiating a fee for the project.

How to Get the Most out of NDA Negotiations

  • Understand your client’s needs. Clients often use boilerplate NDAs, meaning they’re often more restrictive than they need to be. Figure out what aspects are important to the client, and propose that the other restrictions be loosened.
  • Explain your needs. The client most likely hired you because of the work they saw in your portfolio. You might be missing out on the next job because you can’t show your work from this one. Explain to the client how that affects your fees.
  • Just ask. A contract usually states that changes can be made with express written consent. Once a project concludes, send the client a friendly follow-up email expressing your pride in the work and your desire to include it in your portfolio. Keep a copy of the email along with the NDA contract.
  • Deal with it. Sometimes a client really really needs absolute confidentiality. Try to work it into your fees – you don’t want this becoming standard practice. Use self-assigned projects to keep your portfolio updated and keep getting the work you want.

A non-disclosure agreement can work for you or against you. Read it. Understand it. Negotiate it. Abide by it!

How do you deal with non-disclosure agreements? Let us know in the comments!

Protecting Your Reputation

The phonecall woke me. It was early morning. Summer. A few months after graduation. I was a freelancer. I had started freelancing during college, so the transition to full-time freelancing after graduation was natural.

The phone rang again. This could be work. I scrambled for the phone. I didn’t recognize the number. Maybe a new client. It rang again. I answered.

“Hello, James speaking.”
“This is James Provost?”
“Yes it is.”
“Hello, this is John Smith. You posted a message on my blog yesterday?”
“I don’t think so…” Who the heck is John Smith??
“Do you know my blog?”
“Sorry, I don’t…”
“Could you please go to suchandsuch.com/johnsmith?”

John is an illustrator, and like many illustrators, John blogs about his work. To my horror, in the comment section of the latest post on his blog was a rather inflammatory message. The author: James Provost. The message itself was standard internet troll-ism, your typical YouTube comment. But instead of using a disposable, anonymous identity, the troll had decided to use mine.

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Let’s see those workspaces

I love to see where people work, what kind of equipment they are using, desk, chairs, how you set up your space etc.

Here’s where I work at home. I’m really pleased with the desk. My brother in-law bought an antique mahagony trunk for 20 bucks and we chopped it up and turned it into a desk. I’m still surprised how well that turned out.

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