Once upon a time an illustration agent was simply Cupid. Now, things are altogether more engrossing. Flashing back a few decades the job was casually romantic, about noticing how a particular artist and star-gazing commissioner might marry to create beautiful offspring. The talent pool on both sides was cosy. A bygone print-based era when to have an agent was the routine way to bring illustrator and director together. An exercise in match-making in an era of swingers when, frankly, many partners knew each other already.
We find ourselves in a world drenched to the point of drowning in a rip-tide of self published visuals, so the very first function of an agent is to pan for the gold. To be in an ad agency meeting when an unrelated brief gets slapped on the table with a ludicrous deadline is a laxative experience for the whole room, but most of all the producer who has to find the talent. As curators we can offer an instant edit. A shortlist of artists from a roster of picture and film makers who we spend our days choosing, hunting and inviting. Then we curate those artists’ folios so benefits to the client are manifold.
Because trust and insight are at the heart of everything we do. For the clients we know who our artists are, their passions, their side-hustles, their tolerance levels for feedback… and booze. For the artists we know their commercial worth, the fiscal value of their IP, the intellectual stimulation they need to make this job fulfilling and provide breadth to their portfolios. For the community we have a bird’s eye view of the industry, a capacity to recognise its joys and its flaws and a formal position within education to help shape a visual landscape that truly reflects those who inhabit it.
Because why should our reach be limited to professionals in the business of commissioning artists? There is a multitude of intensely creative groups out there who can benefit from having their narratives represented by our diverse tribe of visual storytellers. This is why we peel our artists’ work away from it’s commercial framework and collaborate with the world at large through festivals, street parties and pop-ups. Why we engage charitable institutions like the V&A Museum of Childhood to work with children and Graeae Theatre Company to offer a new voice for D/deaf and disabled performers, writers and directors. Why our special projects have inspired regeneration initiatives in Ramsgate and Margate and our team have lectured to students from Delaware to Helsinki.
That’s what an agent is today. A CIA agent anyway.