Deciding on Placements

When initially deciding on the kind of placement I'd like to get involved in, I considered specific things I wanted to learn more about in the Illustration Industry. To start with, I researched a variety of agencies to see how many of them were interested in taking on interns, quickly to find that they book up fast as they are high demand. Dutch Uncle and Big Fish Designs were two such agencies, because even though they advertise placements, they were closed due to too many applicants.

After looking into agencies seemed unsuccessful, I considered a variety of possibilities like a tattoo apprenticeship, organisations like the Welsh Museum and Art Gallery, and specific types of illustration like botanical or medical but none seemed appropriate. When lead to the realisation that I would like to gain experience becoming a self employed Illustrator, whether that involved creating the stock, packaging, working out budgets and pricing, and  interacting with not only people within the industry but also the customers and consumers. I already had some experience selling some work at the Cardiff Creative, which is craft shop made up of 45 independent artists who create a variety of things.

Reaching out to Cardiff Creative about working with them was easier then I'd anticipated and they were happy taking on placements. It's a great relief that it went well as I had previously been quite anxious about meeting with people in a professional setting like that, and can feel a bit intimating. So finding them nice and friendly helped me then talk to others in the future. Finding somewhere that offered the kind of experience I was after, like Cardiff Creative, didn't take too long thanks to the prior work I'd done with them in the past. I think this showed me how useful it is to find contacts with people where you can.