HAY GUESS WHAT
I GOT A JOB.
AT A DESIGN STUDIO.
AS AN ILLUSTRATOR.
AND THEY LIKE ME.
A LOT.
YAY.
So I was checking my business e-mail on Wednesday morning before getting to work for the day on my new piece for A-kon, and I had a message sitting there with the subject line "concept/caricature work needed". Now, a lot of times I get e-mails like this but it's from some kid working out of a guest bedroom or something who wants me to do something for free or for peanuts and it isn't really useful to my resume or career in general and I'm too pricey for them anyway.
This wasn't one of those e-mails.
It was a guy named Mike (which is also the name of the guy I work for at Brown Cow Productions as a colorist, oddly enough) from a company called Smoking Mouse Design Studio in Ft. Worth. He said they were working on a re-branding for a client with a restaurant who was in need of a cute armadillo character but since they didn't really have the illustration skills in-house to create something like that, they started searching for local artists. They apparently found my website and after looking at several portfolios they picked mine! So that was a YAY already.
They were in need of three concept sketches for an armadillo mascot in cowboy gear. The client already had an armadillo character but it wasn't cute and was more edgy with a six-shooter in one hand and a sandwich in the other. The client wanted a new cowboy armadillo mascot that was more "welcoming and friendly" without the gun or sandwich. And as Mike said of course they would compensate me for the sketches and then pay me again for the final image. If they liked my work then they would possibly keep me on at a freelance basis and give me work every so often.
Frickin' hell, yes. A credible design studio that actually knows and understands that spec work is a no-go and not very cool. Not only that but when I asked what kind of price they had in mind, they gave me a quote that was absolutely sufficient and actually accurate to the value of illustration work which is something I have rarely come across thus far.
Everything sounded good as far as legitimacy, the job sounded fun, so I accepted. They even paid me in full for the sketches up front instead of just the deposit! Again, frickin' hell, yes. I sat down the next morning and put together these concepts and fired them off a full day before they were needed (it was a crunched deadline as it was):
Let me tell you, when you send off the first sketches of something to a new client or employer for the first time and the first line of their reply is "Oh my god! You are awesome!", that feels really freaking amazing. Mike said he loved the sketches, I exceeded his expectations, he thought they were perfect, the client was going to flip, thank you for such a quick turnaround, and I nailed it.
That's a one-way ticket to cloud nine, man.
He called me later that afternoon after he had shown the concepts to the client and they loved them as well. They chose the second concept but without the teeth, both eyes open, and with the bandana and star from the third concept. This is the exact reason why I do professional concept work digitally -- so that kind of stuff can easily be done. The final concept looked like this:
I haven't heard back about it yet, but he did tell me more about the client while on the phone with me.
This is actually for a truck stop in Bowie, Texas, called Star Travel Center. They have the standard truck stop amenities but they also sell high-end western wear and have a restaurant called The Armadillo Grill. The Armadillo Grill has pretty good food because they said people come from 20 and 30 miles away just to eat there. They've been there for a while, too, apparently. They'd never had a website or real marketing campaign before, so they contacted Smoking Mouse to have it done. They're combining all three aspects of the place into one cohesive brand, and my little armadillo dude is going to be the mascot for all of it. Advertising, signage, website, pretty much everything everywhere. I'm really hoping that it'll be on a billboard, too, since you always see those advertising upcoming travel centers along the highway. How awesome would THAT be? The owners are even considering having a COSTUME made of my character! That is mind-blowing to me.
Mike told me that they are SO thrilled with me right now and that they will probably be giving me work on at least a monthly basis! They do a lot of logos that need little characters like that, but as he said "I can manipulate and edit images in Photoshop but when it comes to drawing, especially animals, I suck." He also said I'm just the kind of illustrator they need, and right now I'm their favorite.
So yeah, I've been pretty jazzed about this for the last few days. It's my first "big" job for something that will be so widely seen as a mascot/brand, and now they're keeping me on as one of their illustrators. FINALLY! I'm finally working for a real company that does big projects. Don't get me wrong; I still love working for "my other Mike" over at Brown Cow, it's just nice to be employed as an ILLUSTRATOR and not just a colorist. It's nice to have the variety.
Working for Smoking Mouse has the potential to open some doors for me if for nothing else than having them on my resume alone. In any case, they've said that they're going to give me plenty of work in the future and they pay WELL. I SO needed this not only financially but for my mental/emotional state as well. This combined with the Wellbutrin has me feeling pretty good as of late, so I hope things will finally start looking up again.