Interns have become essential to the running of Advocate Art agency. We run an active internship program that we hope many students or career seekers will find very beneficial. We attract students in art history, design, illustration and related courses. In exchange for helping us out we show them the inner workings of the leading artist agency, what’s hot, what you have to do as an illustrator to get work in the real world, and if they really impress us they may even get a job (5 of our current staff were recruited from internships!)
Here’s what Sophie, our last intern, had to say after she had finished:
“Hi
Just wanted to say thank you very much for having me the last three weeks. Was wicked working with you all, and you all made me feel really welcome.
Take it easy
Sophie”
check out Sophie’s work in the gallery above and for more info about internships go here!
Francois’ birthday was last month but it’s taken me this long to work out how to upload video’s, better late than never though. He might be great at selling greeting card illustrations but he sure does suck when it comes to blowing out candles!
Advocate Art has announced that it has formed a strategic alliance with Vendetta-Arts to produce and convert Children’s books into iPad applications.
Advocate is a leading supplier of content for children’s educational and picture book publishers. Vendetta creates animation, VFX and audio for the gaming industry, film and adverting industry. The alliance pools expertise and resources from both camps, targeted at Children’s Publishers looking at having their publishing lists in the new iPad format.
Vince Verma CEO of Vendetta made the announcement at the recent London Book Fair conference, “Advocate knows kids publishing, – and they have been around so long even I recognise some of the books their artists have worked on! Advocate and Vendetta have worked together on several iPhone applications in the past so we were the first call when they were looking for technical know-how on how to help their clients onto the iPad.”
Edward Burns commented on his blog after the show: “Vendetta are easy to work with… they don’t hang around, they are straight talkers and have a really fresh approach. They have some of the best designers and programmers in the business and a huge freelance pool. I like the way they structure projects in the same way as you would see a film or TV programme put together. They place the best audio, animators, writers and programmers and co-ordinate it with their in-house team. It means they can ramp up their operation for the big budget or short deadline projects.”
Children’s book publishers are not waiting to see if the iPad catches on in the UK, with already over 1 million sold in the USA it seems that this is a trend that will continue over here. Advocate Art have already secured several conversion projects from their existing clients including several “self-publishing” assignments.
Vendetta’s Art Director, Ava, comments: “We recommend to publishers that they don’t loose sight of the story telling element of the book or the book’s USP when bringing it to life on the iPad. It’s easy to make it look like the Homer Simpson title sequence (from The Simpson film) – it uses every visual effect available! This just detracts from the real reason the book is being purchased- it can spoil the book’s appeal. The iPad should be thought of as just another format – it can now make a book more audible, animated and interactive, sure, but not into some crazy toy that you can prod and swipe for the sake of it.”
When will we be seeing what Advocate and Vendetta have worked on? Visit their iStore or email edward@advocate-art.com.
Come and see Advocate Art at all of these trade fairs!
Edward Burns Founder of Advocate-artist agency is proud of the fact that they are the only Agency to take space at the book fairs and explains the importance of book conventions to his business and how they can invest so heavily in them.
“There are those who take part and those who just attend- it’s simply a matter of cost, and the company’s capacity for business, that divides the 2 camps.
The cost to exhibit at Bologna Book Fair, London Book Fair or Book Expo America adds up to around £10,000 per show. Add the 4 Greetings Card shows and 2 Art Fairs and an artist’s agency could easily spend £100,000 on Trade Fairs. It’s a figure that precludes small artist co-operatives and most agencies from taking space because they simply don’t have the capacity to make the figure up in sales. Therefore it relegates them to walking the aisles trying to show folios in coffee shops and ticket halls; not the best way to get your work ‘out there’ or to make sure you have the found the right Publisher – Artist fit.
Advocate Art are proud that they are the only Agency in the world to take space at all major events every year, sometimes exhibiting simultaneously with 2 events at once when calendars overlap.
It’s our face to the outside world, it’s our opportunity to meet international buyers, attract new artists and source new contacts. Of course you have to be a certain size to be able to afford these events, there needs to be a critical mass of business before your budgets can stretch to this outlay. For Advocate it is our thing, we spend 6 months of the year travelling at these events and the next 6 months, which includes the August holidays and Christmas, following up and meeting clients at their premises – only to start the process over again in January. We have made contact with fantastic Publishers in Korea, Japan and Russia who have seen us at these events, know us and therefore trust us with their projects; you simply don’t get that by cruising the aisles! When our Children’s book artists join Advocate, they realise by joining a big agency they will be able to have exposure that smaller agencies simply can’t afford.”
“How can I get into children’s books?” is a question that is an often asked by Greeting Card Artists.
The artistic limitations in designing a greeting card can frazzle some artists over a period of years. “I can’t do one more Christmas scene with out contravening my own copyright” was a quote from Sarah Pitt when she joined Advocate Art.
There is no doubt that designing greeting cards is a challenge that many relish and are very successful at. But after a period, if you don’t develop either, the industry will tire of you or you of the industry.
What next? How can I get into children’s books? We have coached many artists through the process of producing a portfolio which a publisher will pick up on.
Designing a card is about sentiment, synergy with the sender and recipient and trend. Designing a book folio is about almost the same things just in a different ways.
“Its very exciting” comments Senior Agent Kate Johnson. “Often the characters are there already, it’s just simply a matter of bringing them to life with good characterization and then showing them following a narrative. After that, knowing which publisher is interested in that look and presenting it to them!” How did Sarah Pitt get on? She was published in 6 days and now has over 20 titles to her name.
Advocate have recently signed greeting card designers from studios such as Hotch Potch, RMS and Stewo besides others. Greeting card artists don’t have to wait for the crunch day either. Why not supply both industries? The ideas spawned in one feed the other. An artist can also reduce their output in each industry and become more special by limiting who publishes their work because they are not over published in each. We at Advocate unveiled these new Children’s Artists’ folios at the London and Bologna Book Fairs.
One of Big Al Gruswitz' digital dinosaur illustrations
It seemed like every artist and agency was pitching for it – but to the winner the spoils! A huge project to revamp the Discovery Channel Dinosaur encyclopedia by bringing it up to date (and beyond) for Parragon.
Using state of the art wire frame technology Al Grunwitz brought to life a swath of long gone extinct creatures with in their habitats, capable of being viewed with 3D glasses!
With not a day off even over Thanksgiving and the Christmas period and by calling in help from world recognized Dino authorities, Al delivered the project on time and within budget. Oh and did I mention his major knee surgery mid way through? I get emotional just thinking about it!
If there were medals to be awarded for going beyond the call of artistic duty this man has won a Purple Heart/ Victoria Cross equivalent.
The Awards keep rolling in for Advocate’s Illustrators – and a massive ‘Congratulations’ to Carl Pearce who is now multi-award-winning for his childrens illustrations for the Title “Attention Girls! A guide to learn all about your AD/HD” with Magination Press. His boldness of colour combined with fantastic characterisation have worked fantasically to illustrate the complexities of the disorder, and in turn helped him win:
-National Parenting Publications Award (NAPPA), Honors
-Moonbeam Children’s Book Award for Health Issues (Gold)
-ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Finalist, Juvenile Non-Fiction
But most recently scooping First place Winner for Illustrated text in the coveted “Washington Book Publishers’ 2010 Book Design & Effectiveness”
It takes a great illustrator to communicate emotion and expression in their characters, and to be awarded for that ability not only once, but on so many occassions is a true accolade to Carl’s talents, and thanks to these continuing awards we can be proud to say that Advocate as an illustration agency represents the very best in the industry!
The Pope Twins, Advocate children's book and greeting card illustrators
Liz and Kate Pope aka “The Pope Twins” have been personally selected to illustrate a greeting card range for the hit singer Taylor Swift in collaboration with American Greetings.
Miss Swift won the 2009 American Music Award for ‘Artist of the Year’ and the 2009 CMA Award for ‘Entertainer of the Year’, Country Music’s highest honour. Taylor is the youngest artist ever and only the sixth female act in history to win this prestigious award.
The Pope Twins use mixed media and collage to produce very original and contemporary designs, which are in perfect sync with Taylor Swift’s Music. We hear she has been very involved in making the art style selections.
The Pope Twins are not unaccustomed to winning high profile commissions, recently they were chosen to front the Donald Trump backed bakery chain ‘Crumbs’ with a series of cook books and store marketing.
The Popes joined Advocate Art 9 years ago straight from college and have never looked back:-
“Thanks to the guys at Advocate, each year for us has been an exciting one and the Taylor Swift project gave us an incredible start to 2010. It has been a huge honour…..a real buzz….in fact when the brief came through we both got butterflies!!!
It is still the best feeling ever to create art from the ‘heart’ and explore our style without too many restrictions. Advocate have always encouraged this and given us the chance to make our dream jobs become reality!”
Even if you were abroad you still could not miss Expedia’s massive billboard and press campaign this spring.
Leading advertising agency Meteorite commissioned our very own Michael Emerson to produce paper models depicting popular travel destinations, then illustrate them in plan view to show how you “you could build your own holiday”. Clever huh?
Mike who has been represented by Advocate Art for 4 years pitched for the job by working through the night to show what could be done and so wowed the advertising agency so much that they simply could not refuse!
His reward was a massive undertaking in typical Ad World ‘break neck speed’ – well with the fee perhaps he can go on holiday!
Washington Green, famed recently for Bob Dylan prints, have also purchased over 40 original works by our very own Bill Bate.
Bill’s stunning semi-nude compositions of underwater swimmers have been some of the best selling works in our Art Gallery for a number of years.
Richard Yates Gallery manager comments “Bill is an artist fuelled by the feel of colour and the use of dramatic light in his atmospheric work. Paint is given a life of its own, exacting an emotional response to the body in movement, as light dapples the twist of the human form through water. An artist of rare insight.”
Jonathan Moore & Ian Weatherby-Blythe confirmed the signing at a recent launch of new works at the Advocate Gallery attended by Bill, his entourage, many of his patrons and many of the good folk of Wimbledon Village.
Advocate Art have much experience launching artists into the Publishing world, past successes includes Gavinder Nazeran and Rob Hefferan.
Lovely morning in Central Park - having a well deserved break after setting up the stand at the show! Next up is... t.co/DoIrVShgopTime ago
4 Daysvia Facebook
Just arrived at hotel ready for Surtex 2013! Doing a few emails before setting up the stand! t.co/fVo3yJtfX9Time ago
5 Daysvia Facebook
![To the homepage [Logo Advocate]](http://blog.advocate-art.com/wp-content/themes/advocacy-art/images/advo_logo_a.png "To the homepage"){kind=logo}
