Innovative CGI and Animation, Vector Characters from American Artists

Blackbook Interview 7/24/07

The Changing Landscape of Illustration: An Interview with Michael Mendelsohn
By Mike Longo

Thank you for your time today. Please tell us a bit about yourself and how you got into illustration

I guess you could say I have illustration in my veins. My great aunt Celia Mendelsohn founded American Artists some 80 years ago, and was soon joined by my grandfather Sidney Mendelsohn. My father, Richard, took a sabbatical from the Navy, to help Celia when Sidney came down with throat cancer. He beat the cancer, but both he and Celia retired soon afterwards and Richard took the business over. After working many summer and winter vacation breaks in a support role; answering the phone, delivering packaging, mounting transparencies, collating mailings, etc.   I joined the business after college in 1984. In 1995, my dad retired and I felt that I needed to gain some broader business experience. I decided to enroll myself in the Executive MBA program at the Zicklin School at CUNY. Getting my MBA, in conjunction with running American Artists was a difficult juggling act, but in the end it was extremely rewarding and offered me a completely different perspective on business, that I continue to use nearly every business day

In your time in the industry how has the industry changed?

Looking back, I think the first commission I landed was an airbrush gradation background for a vitamin package, what we viewed as a simple “bread and butter” rendering for our airbrush artists. Back in the mid to late 80’s, retouching was still an art form done by hand; with ink, paint, and dyes. It was nearly impossible to reproduce layered photographic imagery. Complicated, realistic, layered airbrush renderings and line and wash montages became the mainstay of our business. By the mid 1990’s these techniques quickly disappeared as Adobe added layering and other sophisticated tools that made it ubiquitous in our industry.

Funny looking back in hindsight, as even a novice could do our “bread and butter” airbrush backgrounds in a minute in Photoshop CS. This is not to say that technology has killed illustration, but it has significantly altered the illustration landscape; transforming airbrush talent to digital or CGI artists, cartoonists to vector artists and the like. This is not to say that there is not artwork being done traditionally. We still see a lot of demand for artwork in specific disciplines such as oil and pastel that by their nature cannot easily be replicated digitally.

Has technology also changed the industry on the client end of the spectrum as well?

Technology has changed the client side of things indirectly. When I started in the industry some 20 years ago, it wasn’t anything formal but there was a sort of apprenticeship; where senior creatives, account management and clients would have the time help mentor their subordinates, the result was a sharing of valuable knowledge and experience throughout the creative process.
Now, because of technology, each day begins with markedly increased expectations, and compressed timelines, leaving little room for mentoring, and placing more responsibility on less experienced people. I was at an industry seminar a few months ago, and one of the speakers made an interesting insight. McKinsey Consulting spends an average of $10,000 per year on training for their employees, the average corporation spends $500 per an employee, while the average media company spends less than $100.00.

What are some of the challenges you face, as you work with those people who are unfamiliar with buying illustration?

   “Illustrators are hard to work with…”

   “You never know what you’re going to get with illustration.”

We’ve all heard these comments before, and the challenge we face on a daily basis is how to provide clients a clear path of understanding of the illustration process and the value it can add to their creative executions.

What factors are considered when pricing a job?

Overall, I’ve found that being thorough in the initial stages of the estimate process is crucial. This often requires spending some time reviewing the layout and breaking down what work I think needs to be done.

After an initial review of the layout where I’ll put together a list of questions to gauge the scope and complexity of the project, depending on the project this could include:

   Size of the work and required file size (for digital work)?
   Timing?
   Style & Complexity of the artwork?
   How will the artwork be utilized?
       Audience- Consumer, Trade, etc.
       Vehicle- Magazine, Packaging, OOH, Web, etc.
   Are there any other particulars or requirements?
   Who is the client?
   Are there other bidding parameters such as a triple bid?
   What is your relationship with the client?

Once I had an opportunity to review my list of questions with the client, I’ll then forward the layout to our talent. By this time I have a final “punch list” that I can use to brief our talent, as well as a pretty good idea of how we should price the project.

Is there a set number of revisions the client gets or do they get unlimited revisions?

This is a tricky issue. In general, we try to set some limits on revisions (1 or 2 rounds maximum), but we’re in a creative business and our talent is hired by clients to graphically represent a concept or theme.   Often this requires a number of different people or groups to add their input. For example, a typical agency project could include the involvement of three or even four different groups (Creative, Account Management, Planning, and Client) in the creative process. Therefore, I think it’s the inherent responsibility of the rep/agent to understand the expectations the client has for the project and to clearly inform the client on the process your talent will go through to achieve the final creative product. This could be as simple as gathering all of the project particulars (per my bidding example) and providing a detailed statement of work. Other, more-complex projects may require a discussion upfront about what could go array, and their potential contingency plans.   Experience clearly helps, and I often can sense off the bat how a project will go, and how closely I need to monitor things.

Michael Mendelsohn lives in Larchmont, NY, with his wife and best friend, Suzanne, and their beautiful six-year old daughter Cara.