Communicating with artists

[JonBovi]

So I've been trying to get in touch with an artists whose work I like to ask them to do some formal rather high paying work for a school nearby me and I finally noticed Artists at least the ones I tend to look for don't put an easy method of communication around.

I personally think Instagram isn't an easy method specially if you're a popular artist, you must be getting tons of messages. Twitter is too informal for something that involves money. I think emails are just perfect but I never see them anywhere. Is this something with the community I'm not aware of or am I just looking in the wrong places.

[ben]

People always try to communicate with me saying they can’t find my email but it’s always RIGHT THERE.

But I’ve definitely been approached for work by real professional folks via Instagram and Twitter. It’s not ideal but it works.

[unknown_user]

if you're a popular artist, you must be getting tons of messages

I suppose, this may be exactly the reason why over-popular artists have no easy method to connect with them. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[JonBovi]

I mean an email is for official stuff right? not casual messages

[ben]

Yeah but it still happens! I got a Twitter message from a very good production manager who we’re going to hire for our comics magazine and her credentials were super good regardless of where she messaged me.

It’s kind of to be expected at this point and not uncommon.

[revisionstudios]

I think most people reserve their emails for their professional portfolio, so I would look for a link that goes to a website outside of social media, or try to google their name or handle and see what comes up.

But yeah, overall the onus is on the artist to make themselves available, and if you try to contact them by the only means you can (instagram/twitter) and they don't get back to you, that's on them. They're losing out on work or simply aren't free for any right now. Just try to have some backup artists that you can ask!

[JonBovi]

I think that's it because honestly it's a bit of an annoying thing cause we designed it all around this artist cause they said they were open to commissions but its a 4 digit project cause of size and volume of work and amount of changes. Since they live locally, ah well I'll tweet at them but I will look elsewhere too maybe just call an agency or something

[revisionstudios]

Were you in touch with them before designing it around them? I would think you should confirm they're available for that volume of work before designing the project around their style or their prices--and plus, sometimes prices change based on who the client is and what usages they're going to need. I do think you guys jumped the gun a little if you hadn't talked to them at all before moving ahead. If you HAD already talked to them about this, it is rather unprofessional of them to not respond anymore.

But regardless of that, at this point I would try to private message them on the platforms you know of (instagram, twitter, or facebook page), and if they're local, maybe you know someone that knows them personally who could contact them for you?

I think it's cool you're trying to hire a local artist though, and it would be awesome if you guys looked for another artist in the community before turning to online or an agency. It sounds like a great opportunity for someone.

[JonBovi]

That's a shout maybe I'll try finding if there's some local artists society or something and work from there. Also I'll see if they've got more than twitter and insta but thanks for that advice. I was a bit stumped so this has given me somewhere to work from

[unknown_user]

Oh. I've recalled one site which could help:
https://www.linkedin.com/
It is the social network for professionals of different sorts. I've mostly used it to make HR aware of my programmer resume and work experience via my personal page, so they read it and suggest different jobs from time to time. But I've seen resumes and portfolio of some professional artists here, too. So you can try to use this social network for contact them, if they have pages here.