Commissioning illustration for a heritage project: a practical guide
What to think about before you contact an illustrator, how to compare them, and what shapes the cost, the files and the licence.
Most people who commission illustration for a museum, historic house or heritage project do it rarely. It is a small part of a larger job, such as an exhibition, a new visitor route or a funding bid, and there is no obvious place to learn how it works. This guide covers the questions I am most often asked, and a few that are worth asking even if nobody does.
Before you get in touch
You don’t need a finished brief. It helps, though, to have rough answers to these questions:
- What does the work need to do? Help visitors find their way, explain a process, introduce a family, promote a season? “Make it look nice” is a legitimate part of the answer, but rarely the whole of it.
- Who is it for? Families, school groups, specialists, people who have never visited before? Different readers need different levels of detail.
- Where will it be used? A panel, a leaflet, a website, a shop? Think about where else it might be used later, too.
- What do you already have? Research, text, archive images, site plans, brand guidelines and a subject specialist willing to check drawings are all useful.
- When do you need it, and who has to approve it? Include committee dates, funder sign-off and your opening date.
- Is there a budget, or is it being planned? Either is fine. Saying which helps the illustrator propose a sensible scope.
Choosing an illustrator
Style matters, but it is the easiest thing to judge and rarely the most important. Look for evidence that the illustrator has solved a similar problem: not just a pretty map, but a map that had to work for visitors; not just characters, but characters that had to be historically plausible. Case studies that explain the thinking behind the work are more useful than galleries.
It is also reasonable to ask how they handle research and accuracy, who checks the content, how many rounds of changes are included, and what happens to copyright. Professional bodies such as the Association of Illustrators publish guidance on commissioning that is worth reading before your first project.
What affects the cost
Illustration fees reflect more than drawing time. The main factors are:
- the number of illustrations and how complex they are
- the amount of research, and how much specialist checking is needed
- how and where the work will be used, and for how long (the licence)
- whether design and layout are included as well as illustration
- the timescale, especially if the deadline is tight
A set of drawings for a temporary exhibition is usually priced differently from artwork that will be used on permanent interpretation or merchandise for years. If budget is tight, it is often better to reduce the number of illustrations than the care that goes into each one, and to plan the work in phases.
Licensing and reuse
Commissioned illustration is usually licensed rather than sold outright: you pay for the right to use the artwork for agreed purposes, and the illustrator keeps the copyright. The licence should say where the work can appear, for how long, and whether merchandise is included.
Think ahead. Visitor maps often end up as postcards, prints or tea towels, and exhibition posters get reused for touring versions. It is usually simpler, and better value, to include likely uses at the start, but a licence can be extended later. One window illustration for an Oxford arts centre was later re-licensed for a sign and a leaflet.
Files and formats
Ask who will use the files. A printer, an exhibition fabricator, a web developer and a marketing officer all need different things. A good illustrator will ask about this at the start and agree the formats in the proposal: typically print-ready files at the final size, vector artwork where it needs to scale, web-ready images, and individual assets that can be reused.
Timelines and approvals
The most useful moment for a curator, historian or other specialist to comment is the pencil-rough stage, when changes are quick. After colour and detail have gone in, even small content changes take time. Put the review dates in the timeline at the start, and agree who gives the final word. One person collecting feedback from a committee saves everyone time.
A last thought
The best briefs I receive are honest about what isn’t known yet. If the content is still being researched, or the funding isn’t confirmed, say so. Planning around uncertainty is part of the job.
For how I handle all of this in practice, see How I work. If you’re planning a map in particular, commissioning a freelance map illustrator goes into more detail.
Commissioning illustration
I work with museums, heritage organisations and universities on maps, interpretation and illustration, and I’m happy to talk a project through before the brief is fixed.