Art Lead

Basic Department Description

What do you do for the convention/What is your purpose?

• The art lead is meant to be the direct line from the convention to its artists and is responsible for filling our visual art needs for the year.
• Please remember to keep a list of who completed art as part of the art team for your year and provide this to registration for basic reg comps for the following year.

What skills are handy for those in this position?

• Communication skills
• Photoshop/Basic editing skills
• Understanding how to edit for physical prints
• Time management and organization skills (project management)

What is your staff email?

• You will use your personal VF email. No staff job email is needed since the job is mostly you directly contacting your art team and fellow staff. The public does not contact you.

Yearly Responsibilities

What do you need to do during the year for your department to function before con?

• Recruit artists

• You want to look for people who will have time to do at least one project, who can work professionally/adhere to due dates, has a style that can mesh with others if they choose to work on the conbook cover. (Or just simply choose the people who will likely mesh together better for the cover. There are usually a few people who don’t like collaborations and won’t participate so always expect to have to reach out to others or to be able to step in yourself, to help complete it.)

• Go over the artist agreement and update any art lead sections that have a name/last years dates.
• Get artists to sign artist agreement
• Get art for the following basic needs (remember, they don't have to be different pieces! Fliers/ads/banners/etc can be the same artwork! Re-use what you can! Also remember some artwork will need to be made for specific theming projects so communicate with other staff!)

• GOH portraits (website/conbook)
• GOH Flier artwork
• Banner ad/ad trade artwork (For marketing)
• Website Banner artwork
• Merchandise artwork (Constore/publications)
• General purpose ‘clip art’ (used for website, sign shop, etc)
• Tshirt
• Conbook Cover (Tradition: Usually a collaboration between 5-7 artists)
• Badge artwork
• Drink Menu for Carvers/Tivolii’s/Ceilies (richmond hotel)
• Menu for GOH Dinner (If applicable, once Hotel Lead gives you the menu items.)
• Welcome Letter ‘pretty-fying’ for chairs/hotel lead if asked

• Send all artwork to conbook/publications for use in the conbook!
• Make sure to get or send all badge and promo art to publications (or do it yourself) to be printed, 1 copy of each, for the charity auction in the art show.

Are there things you need to order during the year?

• Possibly, though publications usually does this. Ask!

Do you need a function space map created for your department?

• Nope!

Any other projects you would suggest doing?

• Banner contest. (done in some previous years. Gets content for conbook and smaller pieces so it’s less stressful for those participating. Alternatively, Conbook/Art lead has tried to get a “design a conbook page” contest up before but it wasn’t completed on time to happen. Perhaps try this again too, if conbook is willing.)

• FA banner size, minimum
• All entrants get put into the conbook
• All entries get posted on VF’s galleries (Art Lead will either have the access to do this or Social Media Lead will do this for you as its their job.)

• Include a link back to the artist in all posts! Always credit!

• Can have more the one winner. Winning images get made into an advertisement banner that will get put up on websites we purchase ad space from. (Through the Marketing Lead)

Art Book/Anthology

• Collection of yearly VF guest art, stories, comics, etc. (may not be feasible every year but who knows!)

What do you need to do during the year to function AT CON?

• Luckily, other than signing in charity prints, Art Lead doesn’t need to do anything at the event!
• This also means you do not need any volunteers for your department! Feel free to look for a 2nd if needed, though. (Two heads can be better then one!)

• Make a note of which updates/prompts should be sent to Social Media. (Remember, they can send out notices for more volunteers, due date reminders, opening dates, etc!)

• Looking for artists (If you need it. Always contact previous year artists as they are usually pretty loyal to the cause and willing to help out or fill in, in a pinch.)
• Looking for art book/contest entries
• Due dates too!

Your Department on the Website/in the Conbook

Do you need a website/conbook page/blurb for your department/event? What information do you need on this page/blurb?

• Yes! Please make sure that the Website Lead has any contest/project information on the website! (You may share a page with conbook/publications even!)
• Make sure conbook/publications has a writeup about the banner contest and has all the entries for one of their pages!
• Make sure to have someone look over the information before sending it to the respective lead.
• Send it to the respective lead.
• Make sure to test the contact page (website) that the form sends an email to you IF APPLICABLE! (Feel free to use a google doc form instead of email contact to receive incoming responses for your contests/projects.)
• Make sure that your email is listed on the contact page (website) outside of the form.
• If you have any future updates, make sure to send them to the Web Lead!
• If you spot any mistakes in your blurb for the conbook, make sure to contact them ASAP about it!

6 Months before con, what do you need to have done?

• WEBSITE BANNERS AND AD TRADE ART SHOULD BE DONE IN THE FIRST FEW MONTHS AFTER GETTING A GOH. (And should have previously been made from the first promo art, if applicable and sent to marketing for use!)
• Make sure the Conbook cover has at LEAST been sketched and is in progress! It’s a long project.
• Make sure the Tshirt design has been sketched/chosen and is being worked on!
• Make sure that you have artists assigned to badge art and any other art needs by now and it is underway.

3 Months before con, what do you need to have done?

• T-shirt should be done and in the process of being ordered (This is usually done through chair, con store or publications. It changes but check with chairs.)
• Conbook cover should be finished or close to it and sent to publications/conbook for printing.
• Badge art should be finished or very close to it and sent to publications/conbook for printing.
• All artwork should be sent to conbook/publications as it finished so they can include it where needed.
• Merchandise art needs should be finished or close to it and sent to Con Store for printing.
• THINGS NEED TO BE READY TO ORDER VERY QUICK SO GET IT DONE!

1 Month before con, what do you need to have done?

• Tshirt art should be done and ordered through whomever Chairs advise to do so.
• Conbook Cover should be given to publications by now.
• All artwork made from your team this year should be given to conbook/publications by now!

After the Convention/Before the Firing Party

• Make sure all your volunteers (and yourself) got inputted into the system for their hours.
• Update your guide with any new/relevant information/changes.
• A staff feedback survey will be emailed out and sent into the staff chats. Please fill this out ASAP!
• Make any staffing suggestions to the next years’ chair. (If you want to work again, staff who excelled and where, etc.)
• If VancouFur owes you money for department spending, PLEASE PLEASE send your reciepts to [email protected] & [email protected] and then fill out the budget form they provide.

Break down of contacts

• Publications/Conbook (conbook cover, badge insert art, all art for internal conbook layout, etc.)
• Your executive (staff responsible for the branch of departments you are in and your first contact for questions) is the Media Executive. (New email coming soon.)
• Chairs, for Tshirt specifics and ordering.
• Social Media for all postings needs. (Adverts to get artists, banner contest reminders, info on posting incoming artwork to galleries.)

Do's and Don'ts of the Department

What worked well/Would suggest doing again?

• Give the GOH/Spotlight artists first dibs on what they want to do
• Give the other artists a couple options to choose from but be ready to doll out tasks if people are not responsive as some artists would rather be tasked something then choosing.
• Give basic guidelines on the theme (simple dos and donts) and let their creativity take it from there.
• Try to have at least 6 artists available on your team, including an Artist GOH and the community spotlight. There is a lot of art needs each year and not having enough stresses people out but having too many means you may have to cut people. Each year will be different

What didn't work/would suggest to avoid?

• DO NOT post full/Final badge art to the VF galleries until AFTER the event! (If its a larger picture and the final badge insert is a crop, posting the full thing is fine. We just dont want the final crops/badges to get posted as people may try to create fake badges. Small facial crops for use in ads/marketing is fine, however.)
• DO NOT post the full conbook cover to the galleries until after the event. Crops/snippets/teasers are fine, however! But it is a surprise usually.
• DO NOT post the full tshirt art without some text on it saying “Preview only” or something similar. It is usually teasered closer to the event, however.
• Starting the conbook cover too late in the year usually makes it hard to solidify willing artists on the project and also makes it frustrating to complete ontime. Mae sure it starts before the fall season!

What would you suggest to be done for the future years of your department that aren't already in motion?

• Expand on the visual projects! Art books, year specific goodies, contests, etc.

Other Resources

• Time management can be a pain in the butt. So make sure you have a system in place to organize yourself and your artists.

• Trello makes a great space to host the yearly art projects where all artists can see what needs to be done and contribute.
• Google docs (Vancoufur materials) is a great backup for final data and to upload final images for publications/conbook/website/etc.

PLEASE REMEMBER

• Always respond to emails/contacts, even if it is just to say “I recieved your email and will get back to you soon!” / “I don't know the answer but I am looking into it for you!”
• Be sure to contact the Chairs or Admin to make sure you have access to the materials you will need for the year like your Staff Email, Access to any folders/sites with materials, etc. (Be on the lookout for invites or emails to these things and check your junk mail too!)
• Make sure you TEST your new staff email (if any) and report problems immediately to the Chairs! (if you haven't gotten any emails in a while, do another test!)
• Make sure you keep all of your information up to date with the convention staff! Contact the volunteers lead to update your information if the volunteers spreadsheet is not available for direct editing!
• Do not WAIT for someone to contact you. If you have a moment to reach out, do so! Depending on who you are working with, the communication road may not be a 2 way street and you will have to do a lot of poking. Please be proactive!
• Do not edit any staff members’ documentation without permission!
• Keep all VancouFur related documents INSIDE the VancouFur Materials folders. Keeping things on your own gdocs and not inside the VancouFur specific folders makes it incredibly difficult to find needed information for all parties without hassling a lot of staff.
• If you need to make something private in the materials folder (Googledocs or wherever it moves to in the future) Make sure that the Chairs, Admin and Executives CAN STILL SEE IT. We need to know where you are and if your files are all hidden we cannot proactively offer help, guidance, or corrections. Otherwise, just keep things public/view only to prevent people from messing with your info.

• Make sure you know who your Executive is! They are there to help you and oversee the branch of departments you are in. Contact [email protected] / [email protected] to check or check the contact page on the website! You can also use the contact sheet for the year