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To Art Directors out there... I'm tired of starting jobs too soon without negotiating a proper contract between both parties, especially because we're on a time sensitive deadline. I also hate that I feel uncomfortable with asking for my contract to be looked at first.
Not only that, it's often very one-sided where only the client's contract get signed with rights that allow them to use the image in perpetuity worldwide. Having the ADs promise that it won't be re-used again isn't enough and this bad practice is starting to become commonplace.
I've done way too many assignments where that's been the case. Luckily my images haven't been re-used and I understand the likelihood is very low. But technically as illustrators we should be charging WAY higher if we're agreeing to waive so many of these usage rights.
Art directors you NEED start standing up for us. We literally have no one else who will have our backs. The only tools we have are keeping other illustrators informed or using Twitter to raise awareness. We don't have a HR to file our workplace grievances to.
The longer I stay in illustration hoping things will improve the more I see how big companies just continue to exploit us. Artist exploitation needs to stop. Also please stop assigning things mid-week with Monday deadlines too.. I have so many complaints!!!
Another reason why contracts are important are to limit the rounds of revisions on sketches and finals. ADs, we don't have all the time in the world to keep working on your piece. We have other obligations too. The more hours spent on one job, the more money we lose from it.
To illustrators, what can we do? Push back. I need to start doing this more too. Don't feel pressured to start right away until a GOOD contract made. More often times I find out that there is actually more 'invisible' buffer time that's available to figure these things out.
Change doesn't happen until MORE people start putting their foot down. Otherwise they know they can continue to keep getting great work for conditions that favor them. Some people don't care about the image being re-used after. But then at least charge higher if that's the case.
