The Association of Illustrators (AOI) has partnered with the European Illustrators Forum on a new campaign that hopes to put an end to low and unpaid work across the industry. Price it Right has been launched by the two organisations, who collectively have a membership of over 14,000 illustrators, agents and students, to build on the work of previous campaigns tackling issues around fair pricing.

While problems such as fee erosion certainly aren’t new in the world of illustration, AOI’s managing director Ren Renwick is hoping that the initiative will help to reinvigorate the movement. “Across the industry this issue is fairly well known, and when you’ve heard things a lot you stop listening to what [people] are saying,” she says. “There was a feeling that we needed to change the campaign.”

WHY NOW?

Renwick adds that the AOI has decided to act now due to an increasing number of its members reaching out for help on pay. “At the moment we get over 4,000 calls a year to our helpline and we know that pricing is one of the areas people don’t feel confident,” she says. “There was a sense of urgency to address this now.”

Price it Right’s three key aims are to increase illustrators’ understanding of the licence-based pricing structure; stop the devaluation of illustration by unpaid copyright assignments where the commissioner owns the rights to the work and blanket licenses instead of individual ones; and make pricing negotiations clearer for illustrators and clients to leave more time for the creative process.

HOW TO GET ADVICE

The AOI is currently running an accompanying survey of its members, which addresses questions such as how confident they feel in pricing their work, how much they earn and if they have been asked to work for free. It will then ask members to fill out the same survey at the end of the year-long campaign, to see if it has made any traction.

The association is encouraging members to use its helpline and website for guidance on pricing, and has created a Price it Right logo that illustrators and commissioners can download to support the campaign.

Find out more about Price it Right here