LINCOLN UNIVERSITY LECTURE

This Tuesday I was back at Lincoln Univeristy, where I studied for my illustration degree. I was a guest lecturer with James Grover, an illustrator I met at a networking event (we later found out we studied the same course at the same university but he graduated two year after me) and we thought it would be a great idea to share our experiences with the current students. We got invited back to do a lecture a few months later. We names our talk 'Life After University with an Illustration Degree' and spoke to over 40 students.

I started the talk with 'What do I do?" and explained my role as an Art Director, which lead through to how I got to where I am today through my story. I mentioned how important networking is and how I knew I wanted to become an Art Director from a networking event that Blueskies (a creative recruitment company) arranged. I spoke about how I managed with the isolation of freelancing as an illustrator as this was a big concern of some of the students we spoke to before our talk. I then finished my section from 'An Art Director's Perspective' (a commissioner's perpective) showing some good example of illustrators contacting me through Direct Mail and emails and why I might commission them one day. I then set a brief at the end of my presentation to do an illustration for Palmer Hargreaves's office.

James then talked about his story after university and more on a illustration career (as he works a s a full time illustrator). We then handed out a resource sheet for the students with some helpful sites for them to follow up afterwards.

It was a successful talk which developed my presentation skills and it's always nice to pass on my knowledge to help people out. If you would like to find out more or like to see the presentation contact me and I can send it to you: henry@henrybillington.com