Austin Bentley

-I knew Gallows from the music scene back home growing up, they had all been in bands I’d played alongside, and I was in a band with the drummer for a few years too! So when they needed album artwork, they knew I was someone they could ask to help out with it and it went from there really, just helping some friends out with artwork for their first label release, I worked on it alongside Alex White from WeThreeClub who handled the type and layout along with some additional illustrations.

-Absolutely. When Gallows blew up and became bigger it obviously drew attention to the artwork, and I definitely had a few bands and people come to me because of that, and then once I worked with the clients that came from that it was a case of more people seeing that work and so forth. Its a great way for artists to get their work out there, because once you have your art on a tee, poster or album, the band takes it everywhere they go, which is obviously great advertising for the artist!

-Well, I would suggest getting out there and marketing yourself to music scenes that aren’t quite so dead! Bands ALWAYS need tee designs, they might not have the money for it, but if bands want to make money and survive on the road, merch is where it is at right now. The best way to do it is work for cheap with a few clients you know are worth working with and going from there. Unfortunately you have to start somewhere, no one should work for free, but there is no harm working for slightly cheaper when the audience who will see your work is there. Its a balancing act, you have to weigh up the pros and cons.

-I never worked for free bar a few jobs right at the start when I was university, and that was when i didn’t really think anything of it. After a few jobs I started charging what I thought was appropriate at the time, my rates are definitely not the same as they were when I started, but thats because you realise your worth/how much you should be charging for your time. I tend to look at it as a day rate, when working on a piece and work it out from there. As far as working for free now, if its a good cause or friend/family then I have no problem with that, but when its a client or company who should be paying, then absolutely not. Theres a lot of companies taking advantage of young illustrators out there, you get a lot of people saying ‘it will be great exposure for you’, and its generally not. Again, you have to weigh up if it really will be worth working on for free and what you will gain from it.

-Theres really no stead fast rule with this, its more just about pushing away at it, If you keep doing good work that has something unique then people should take notice. You just have to work hard at it and keep going.

-I think its only now that I consider some of my work ‘good’. As an artist you should always be critical of your own work, but you have to know when to stop working on a piece and what it is that makes your work ‘good’. Websites like emptees (now mintees) and bandjob really helped me about 5 years ago, as most of the people working in my genre/industry posted ip on there and it enabled a nice community to talk about work and give critique, websites like that really help as people aren’t afraid to say what they think over the internet.