EXCITING TIMES #2

There’s an article about me and my agent here. (in Norwegian)

Aslak from VISP, me, and Rikke Helgesen.
Photo: Silje Stavrum Norevik/Byavisen

I have been thinking for quite a while about getting an agent or someone to help me with landing jobs and doing the administrative part, so that I can concentrate on giving my best effort in what I produce.

In Norway the whole agent buisness is generally looked upon as a bit fishy, and artists end up doing everything themselves and become burned out wrecks at the age of 35. I’m not going there. I love my job, and I see too many talented people within graphic design, music and film industry that work their asses of and get ME or fed up with the whole buisness. It’s sort of expected that to keep costs down we have to be everything from our own cleaning staff to accountant, agent and art director. We spend most of our time trying to balance the administrative and the creative, and when you are deeply concentrated about a certain project for a client there is no room for future planning.

I’m in that situation right now, I have several months intense work ahead of me for Skald Forlag, and it has been worrying me that I have no (paid) plans for what I’m going to work with after I finish in August, before the market season in October-Desember. I can’t rely only on my eplashops because in this period I don’t have time to make much drawings except for the bookprojects, I’ve said no to all other assignments, and the funding we got for the collaborative ipad-book will have to stretch from now until until August since I’m working on the two books simultaniously.

And the fact that if I want to land better paid long term projects, I have to do a little more that just stumble into it, as I have done so far.  I have been very lucky that assignments so far have come to me, but it’s almost always “Hello nice to meet you can you deliver this yesterday please?”. Which means I can never really plan anything because I don’t know if I have no assignments next month or if I’m completely overbooked.

So for my project “A4-life, I want afternoons off", I have now aquired an agent! This won’t mean that I’ll work less, but probably a lot more efficient knowing that another hard working person is helping me deal with the planning. Then I am a bit more relaxed and can concentrate on what I’m supposed to do.

Horray