Alumni talk: Adam Avery

It was a to my great excitement that today we had a talk from previous NUA student and freelance illustrator, Adam Avery, and to meet the face behind the Suffolk Punch posters that have been on the walls on the uni for the duration of my time here. 

Adam was a real inspiration as his story since university hasn't been an easy one and yet now he is on the path to being a successful freelance illustrator. Leading up to his graduation Adam did an internship at Nobrow and used his degree show and participation in the D&AD New Blood exhibition to network and speak to people about his work. Self-promotional books he produced for his final major project proved to be a useful tool to hand out to people interested in his work.

In the summer after his graduation he was signed with East Wing agency and stayed with them for 3 years, of which throughout he received no commissions and paid around £2000 to the agency in fees. Adam describes this as down to his naivety as he believed that an agency was guaranteed to bring him jobs and wasn't aware that he would need to pay promotional and administration fees despite a lack of commission income. This proves that it is essential to understand any opportunity that arises and be aware of what will happen if reality hits and things don't go according to plan.

Outside of East Wing agency Adam didn't receive any interest on his work for a year which he says was a potentially soul destroying experience of which he battled by focusing on developing his personal irk, online presence and generating interest. This is when he used the contacts he had from his earlier to networking to gain awareness of his work and seek out opportunities for the future. He explains to key is being persistent, polite and asking nicely so that people want to respond and see your work. Adam describes online presence as being key in todays market as it is beginning to overtake the need for a physical portfolio.

After speaking to Wrap magazine at the New Blood exhibition they contacted him a few years after and he created 4 wrapping paper designs for their website. Leading on from this Adam has had several more commissions from clients including The Guardian and has developed his style for commercial illustration, digitalising his process to work quicker and more effectively. 

Adam's key pieces of advice are as follows:

• Be clear on the avenue you want to pursue- is it commercial? craft?
• Work hard on self-promotion to gather interest and create mail outs- people appreciate the time and effort of handmade material
• Make sure to know how to do what might be asked of you- lost out on an extra £200 from a job as couldn't make a GIF that would have taken less than 20 minutes
• Always work on personal work and developing your subject matter- personal work might come in useful later for commissioned work
• Keep textures banks etc that you can call upon in quick turnaround commissions

I have found this talk motivating and the key motive I am taking away is work hard and don't give up no matter how bleak and rough it seems! It has also inspired me to create more self promotional material- first website and online presence, then mail outs such as postcards, business cards and stickers.