What Does a Commercial Illustrator Do?
A commercial illustrator creates artwork that helps businesses sell products, explain ideas or strengthen a brand. The work can appear on product packaging, advertising, websites, displays, games, books and promotional materials.
Unlike fine art, commercial illustration is created with a specific purpose. Every assignment starts with a goal. It may be introducing a new product, updating an existing package or creating artwork for a national advertising campaign.
Many projects begin with a creative brief from an art director or marketing team. That brief explains the audience, the message and any technical requirements. From there, the illustrator develops sketches, makes revisions and delivers finished artwork for production.
Commercial illustration is a collaborative process. Art directors, designers, marketing teams and clients all provide feedback along the way. Good communication keeps the project moving and helps everyone work toward the same result.
Experience becomes especially important when working with established brands. Existing characters and package designs often have detailed style guides. The new artwork has to fit seamlessly with everything that has come before it.
Professional illustrators also understand production. They prepare files correctly, meet deadlines and create artwork that reproduces well whether it’s printed on a cereal box, displayed on a website or used in a national advertising campaign.
When you hire a commercial illustrator, you’re hiring someone who understands both art and business. The artwork has to look good, but it also has to work in the real world.
Related Questions
- How do I choose a commercial illustrator? Choose an illustratator based off of the style or styles of illustration that they do, similar to what you have in mind for your project. Don’t base an illustrator just on price. The saying, “ You get what you pay for” is very true. However, some budgets just cant afford a higher priced illustrator. It never hurts to ask them if they will do it for your budget, but please done offend them by a very unreasonable and unfair price,
- How much does commercial illustration cost? Prices vary from illustrator to illustrator, but price is reflected in an individuals level of talent, years of expertise, and much also to the use of the illustration. Price fluctuates depeding if the illustration is for global use or just for a small local distribution. If global, the SAME art cost is much more due to the exposure and use. If the art will be only used on a product for a short limited time, such as a holiday, the cost will be lower than if the art will be used on a product or service indefinitely. Keep in mind and auto tech working on your car gets over $75 per hour, expect to pay double that at least for a talented illustrator, quadruple that number for a well experienced and known illustrator. Most illustrators price per project, but this hourly range would be a good start. Knowledge of how the art is created and how much time is actually needed plays a huge part in determining costs.
- Can you match an existing brand character? Absolutely! I personally can mimic most styles of other art, which I can do since over my 30 years as a full time proffesionl illustrator I have done lots and lots of styles and looks over the years. Obviously the style of art that an illustrator does on a daily basis will be the strength, but a talented artist would be able to mimic the look of another piece of art, within reason. Specialized techniques and looks, such as more painterly or very stylized forms of illustrations are much harder to replicate.
- What industries do you work with? I mostly work with very large food and retail companies where I create custom characters, realistic or stylized food illustration, or an environment to showcase their product. Many of my clients are small and large toy and game companies globaly where I create the images on the packaging featuring their toy, enhancing the toy making it look in action or more energy, or images to describe the game or toy to be played inside
- How long does a commercial illustration project take? That is not a question that can be answered very well, as each project is different as well as each illustrators work style, experience, and drive as well. The complexity of the technique or style of the illustration will make the time different. A simple line art illustration compared to a very detailed illustration with textures will take a much longer time. Remember that the price for an illustration isn’t dependent on the style or complexity of the project, it is for who or what it is for,distribution, and time used. For an example Coke Cola needs a new logo for the entire company and the final art is a simple one color flat graphic CC. The cost for that will greatly be much higher than a very complex and involved poster illustration that took weeks to complete for a local one store restaurant in a small town.
Want to know more? Contact Stephen Bailey:
If you’re planning a packaging, branding or advertising project and need an experienced commercial illustrator, I’d be happy to discuss your goals and how I can help.
