Hi illustrators, I'm wondering if anyone tried the AOI membership and, if so, were there any benefits? Reach, leads, legal help?
AOI membership
Replies6
- Hi Mihai, I wanted to present a different viewpoint; I changed career from textile design to illustration around 7 years ago and becoming a member of the AOI was pivotal for me in the following areas; Getting confident about how to price my work and back up that pricing. Understanding contracts and asking for amendments to protect me as an illustrator or knowing when to say no to a job because the contract / fee didn't work for me. I used to regularly email them contracts to check for me until I got more confident. I also attended lectures they gave which I found inspiring as well as full of useful tips. I now rarely use them but continue to pay for membership as I would argue that they raise the standards across illustration by asking illustrators to expect more form clients in terms of fees and contracts / rights. So I'm happy to support that work as someone who has benefitted from it and wants to see illustrators protected in a competitve industry. They also have a mentorship program which I've been a part of and it's great. I hope that helps :)
- Tom, I agree with you on AOI. Everything that matters as a service is paid extra and I don't see enough value for the money. But Twine was a complete waste of time for me.
- Hey Mihai. Don't waste your time. They are more interested in growing thier membership and collecting fees than anything else. Google legal adviceif you need it. It's everywhere. Their site is very ugly and very awkward. Loads of amateur illustrators struggling to make anime images! Twine is a somewhat better investment. But not AOI.
- Hi Luke & Gavin, and thanks a lot for the info.Legal help is not something I'm really looking for; maybe networking would be a plus. I was interested to know if that 20image folio has a good reach towards clients. I suppose not.
- Hi,Whilst I'm not a member of the AOI I'm a member of its sister organisation the Association of Photographers (AOP) and I can agree with Luke on legal issues, templates to use to run one's business etc, including an excelent members forum/discussion board. It's very much a professional members organisation with a searchable database of members for prospective clients.It's not set out to be a tactical lead generation tool. The AOP also keeps well clear of pricing recomendations, it does want not look to be setting prices and thus fall foul of competion legislation and accusations of creating a cartel - as happened with the big modelling agencies association in the UK some years ago who eventually found themselves in court and lost.Gavin
- Hi Mihai, Yes I am currently an AOI member. There are quite a few benefits such as getting help with pricing and legal issues as well as networking opportunities. It's not going to help with generating leads but should help with a lot of the other behind the scenes stuff :) Hope that helps!
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