Hey y'all, Do you think art directors are doing enough to reach out to illustrators of color and if not, how do you all think can that be rectified? There is a sore lack of black and brown perspectives that concerns not only myself, but my peers.
Dear Anon,
100% agree that we need more black and brown voices in the media. But the thing about ADs is that we don’t generally reach out to illustrators…they reach out to us. So it’s on you to connect with the ADs you want to work with. Once you are on our radar, we will hire you like anyone else.
One thing that can happen to illustrators of color is they can get pigeonholed as artists who only work on assignments that have to do with race/ethnicity. While this can work to your advantage if that’s your goal, you might want to diversify your portfolio if you wish to work outside that niche. Every illustrator needs to make sure the work in their portfolio reflects the work they want to get hired to do.
Agent Real Talk
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Honestly because I meet only a fraction of the artists I work with, I often don’t know what ethnicity an illustrator is unless they tell me. I’ve been really surprised a few times when I assumed someone was an ethnic group, or certain gender, because of their name, then I met them at a con and that wasn’t accurate. I like artists to show me in their portfolio or tell me in their emails if they have a speciality in their art - whether it be ethnicity or gender, the same as if it’s aliens or robots or mermaids, etc. because I like to give assignments to artists who have a voice/knowledge on a topic that matches that project. When it comes to commissions, the portfolio of the artist is THE deciding factor, then price, then deadline… the personal identity of the artist really doesn’t come into it too much and I’d think it would be out of line to inquire about someone’s ethnic background or gender identity. I know when all us secret agent ADs see that an illustrator is a person of minority ethnicity or gender identity we get very excited about it, because we all love diversity in art, and that comes from a diversity of people making art. It’s probably true that we ADs do gossip about the fact that an artist is from a minority group because it’s more rare, so if we do know then they do get a bit more notoriety among ADs.
That’s for the commissioning end of things. For the educational end of things I absolutely go out of my way to encourage any and all ethnicities/genders to be artists - I think in every case the majority group naturally defaults to picturing their own identity, and I love seeing work push at those norms. I think minorities tend to face stronger discouragement from society when they want to be artists, because it is harder to push into a field that you don’t see yourself as well represented in. Hopefully the art world in general is trying to change that. I know the realm of the industry I work in definitely is. If hate mail from asshole gamergaters is any barometer then we’re definitely making a difference. Is it “enough”? I don’t know how to answer your question, because it’s kind of open-ended. I don’t think we’re doing enough as a society as a whole yet to get everyone to a place of equal opportunity. I’d be curious to hear what suggestions you have that you think ADs specifically could be doing and aren’t. And I don’t mean that confrontationally, I genuinely want some suggestions.
—Agent KillFee