In this section we answer many of our frequently asked questions. For any questions relating to the World Illustration Awards, please head to their dedicated page.
If you can’t find answers to your question below, please get in touch.
AOI Membership
If you are a practising illustrator working professionally in any capacity, or preparing to work professionally, you are eligible for membership.
We support illustrators at all stages of their careers, working in all mediums and sectors.
We can help in a number of ways, with 1-1 tailored advice, access to our vital resources (including our pricing calculator), contract reviewing, promotion of your work on our channels, exclusive discounts, opportunity to join our free webinars, and much more.
Should you be interested in joining the AOI, all details about membership and costs can be found here.
Our Illustrator membership offers you all the benefits of the AOI membership in a simple package. You can opt to choose an Illustrator + Folio membership if, in addition to all the Illustrator membership benefits, you would like to have your work displayed on the AOI online gallery and gain visibility.
If you are currently enrolled in a period of studies, then the Student membership is the right choice for you. This membership offers great value for money and is even further discounted if your college is an affiliated AOI member.
Similarly, if you work for a Member College or are represented by a Member Agency, you can opt for our discounted rate on your Illustrator or Illustrator + Folio membership respectively.
If you are an Agency, Organisation or College interested in getting AOI Membership, check our options for Businesses or Organisations.
Yes, you can pay for membership monthly if you are based in the UK, EU and Eurozone countries.
Just select to pay monthly as your preferred method of payment and you will be able to set up your direct debit instruction.
Important note: Don’t forget that the AOI Membership is an annual commitment, so the monthly payment option requires 12 instalments.
A warm welcome from the AOI! You should receive a welcome email as soon as your membership is confirmed. This will include more details about how to start taking advantage of your membership, and how to keep updated with further communications from us.
Once logged into your account, you should be able to access your Member Dashboard, explore all our Resources and have the option to contact our Helpdesk straight away.
Of course! Here at the AOI every illustrator counts. We welcome illustrators across the spectrum, including those who are self-taught, students, graduates, mid careerists and beyond, and anyone working across all areas of illustration.
Regardless of your professional activity, members can join any of our events, enjoy our Inside Illustration platform, and share their work to be promoted on our social media platforms (more information on how below).
We wish we were able to support illustrators at no cost, but our many services (advice, promotion, resources, campaigning, lobbying, events, consultations, and more) require time, attention and manpower. In order to operate as smoothly, sustainably and effectively as we can, we must cover our administrative costs and pay our staff, freelancers and consultants.
As a non-profit organisation, our membership allows us to re-invest in our services to further benefit our growing community on a yearly basis.
No, the AOI Membership is an annual commitment. Members are legally obliged to pay the remaining instalments of the yearly membership, and monthly direct debit payments are not to be confused with a monthly subscription.
Membership can be cancelled at the renewal date by emailing us at [email protected] with your request.
To cancel your membership, please email [email protected] with your request and we will process it for you. It is useful to request it around 30 days prior to your membership renewal date in order to allow time for the cancellation of payments.
We want to ensure we can continue to improve our services, so please do let us know your reasons for leaving at the moment of emailing.
Your Account & Payments
Double check that you are using the same email address that you registered your membership with. If you have forgotten your password, you can request to receive a link to renew your password by clicking on the ‘forgotten password’ link.
Please note that if you have tried logging in a few times, the website will block you temporarily for security reasons. Don’t worry, you will be able to try again after 30 minutes but if the issue persists then you may need to contact us to reset this.
For further assistance, please contact our members assistant team on [email protected].
If you are logged in, do check that your AOI membership is active.
If your membership is active but you are still unable to view our Resources, then do get in touch with us via [email protected]. Please include a screenshot of the problem page, this helps us to investigate more easily.
If your membership is not active, then you just need to renew your membership directly from your account page or from here. Do double check that there are no active memberships currently running or wait until after your renewal date.
If you have recently changed your debit card, you can update your card directly in your account.
In the event you want to update your bank account or cannot find the right section to update your debit card, please email us at [email protected] and we can send you a link.
You can use your order confirmation email as proof of purchase, as this includes all financial data required.
VAT does not apply to AOI membership.
If you experience issues with completing a purchase, please check with your bank your card is active.
If you are still having issues after this, please email us at [email protected] and we will do our best to assist you.
We are committed to providing the upmost security in processing our members’ details.
For that reason, we no longer process card payments over the phone.
Using the Helpdesk
Once you are a member you will receive an email outlining all the services the AOI offers, and how to take advantage of them. If you have any queries about your illustration business, client problems, copyright infringements or general business issues, you can submit a question for the Helpdesk from your account via the form or contact us directly. We are here to help you.
For licensing enquiries, please complete the Licensing Information Form.
There is a substantial bank of Resources available to members. We recommend looking through the Resources before you contact the Helpdesk to check if there is written advice available on the subject you require.
The Resources are a range of informative and well researched articles offering practical advice in a substantial range of subjects: Pricing, Finance, Self-Promotion, Business Practice, Copyright and Contracts.
These have been put together to assist members with enquiries in all these areas and include the popular Pricing Calculator and a sample contract available to use, the downloadable Illustrator Commissioner Agreement – the essential document to use with your clients.
If you still require assistance with your enquiry after looking through the Resources please complete a Licensing Information Form (if it relates to pricing your work) or send a question to the Helpdesk from your members’ account.
Members can take advantage of the Pricing Calculator. This is a specially created tool to assist members in gaining a range of guide figures which can be used as a starting point for a quote to offer potential commissioners.
Members input a £ figure into the Pricing Calculator which then adjusts that figure based on the usage of the artwork, the territory of usage, the licence time duration and the size of the client. A range of results are then offered at the end of the process. See the Guide to the Pricing Calculator for reference.
Members are encouraged to use the Pricing Calculator (found in the Resources section) to reach a set of results, offered in GBP (£), to help either select a sum from the offered fee range or to use as a starting point to consider the quote, with room to adjust further if other factors may impact the quote level.
If you are unsure of the figures the Calculator has offered, you can contact the Members’ Helpdesk via the Licensing Information Form (found in the Resources’ Pricing section). Once the form details are completed these are sent directly to the Helpdesk. As an organisation we are not able to give figures for quotes but can advise you on key factors to bear in mind for your fee, and the negotiation process.
We respond to enquires in the order in which they are received and aim to reply to enquires as soon as we are able to. We will inform you by email when we are experiencing particularly busy periods of enquiries when responses may take longer to respond to.
A thorough review of the contracts members receive from clients is one of the many benefits we offer.
We ask for up to 10 days from the date we receive the contract to respond, although we are often able to return our responses within a shorter time period.
Our responses include comments and suggestions on the contract content and also offer clear, specific wording which members can copy to send to the client in their own replies.
Our contract advisors are trained in ethics and the contract advice offered is for members to act on as they feel is appropriate.
Promoting your work
No, we are not able to share any direct links to shops, crowdfunding platforms, or payment portals.
However, you are welcome to send us related blogposts, articles, or portfolio pages, that link through to your shop, fundraising campaign or course.
We promote Folios in the following ways:
- Sharing periodically on our social platforms.
- Showcasing on our e-newsletters to our external list of 17K subscribers as well as our 2700+ members.
- Sending directly to 7K+ UK-based commissioners through curated e-newsletters.
- Inviting UK commissioners to create Curated Galleries based on a theme or subject.
Folios are curated to ensure there’s a diversity of subjects, styles, contexts and mediums in the work showcased.
If you’re a member and recently updated your AOI Folio with new work, you can share these new works with us directly from your AOI account by clicking on Share Your Work. We will share on our platforms in the best way possible.
If you have a Pro membership, this also automatically makes you eligible for a free 10-image portfolio with Directory of Illustration, broadening your direct online reach to the US market. Directory of Illustration will be in touch with further instructions of how to set up your portfolio within 6 weeks of you joining the AOI.
If you don’t receive any communications after this point, please email us at [email protected].
Please note that the AOI is a non-profit trade association and not an illustration agency. As such we work to support and showcase our members, but our role is not to generate commissions or new streams of income.
If you are interested in illustration representation, our resource may be useful to you. You can also speak to our Helpdesk advisors for further guidance.
Events
You can find them all on our Events page.
You will also find other events and exhibitions organised by other great creative organisations, as well as by our own members.
All sorts! We organise meet ups, talks, webinars, courses, panel discussions, portfolio consultations and much more. These are either physical or online, and sometimes we may partner with other organisations to host an event with them.
Check each event’s details for more information. These tend to be open to all illustrators, and AOI members often receive a discounted rate or free access.
If you are an AOI member, you will find out all our new events via our fortnightly newsletter (usually sent on Fridays). If you don’t receive this, please get in touch with [email protected].
If you are not a member, you can subscribe to our external newsletter here to keep in the loop of new events as well as other AOI initiatives and opportunities.
You can see all our current meet-ups, their organisers and where they’re hosted here.
At present most of these meet-ups are UK-based, but they occasionally arrange a few online events and everyone can join them regardless of their location.
Great! You can find details of how to get in touch here. In most instances we can set up a remote meeting to chat further and give more information.
Sometimes we may provide a follow-up recording of an online event depending on demand, permissions and the platform where it’s hosted. This is decided on a case by case basis.
Check the event’s details as it should have a note on whether a recording will be available for attendees.
Our physical events or meet-ups are not recorded unless otherwise stated in the event’s details.
Consultations
You can book a Consultation from the AOI Shop, by selecting one of the slots available from the corresponding consultation page.
Please note that consultations are reserved for AOI Members. You must be logged in to your active account to access the calendar.
If no available dates are showing, don’t worry, these are normally updated monthly as the dates are limited to a set number of days, each month. These dates are usually listed for 4-6 weeks in advance.
We’re more than happy to help any of our Members who may need a little extra advice on which consultation might work for them. Should you have any queries please email us at [email protected].
From time to time we might arrange consultations with new professionals. This can be part of our usual consultations program or included in a program of events.
Please check both the consultations page and the events page for updates.
We charge for consultations to pay freelance consultants, ensure attendance and cover administrative costs.
About the AOI
No, the AOI is a non-profit trade organisation.
You can meet and learn more about our people here.