AOI Discusses: Maintaining Your Spark

AOI Discusses continues with a session considering what's beneficial for an ongoing career in illustration.

Whether you've been working as an illustrator for a few years, or are now into your mid career, we can all benefit from considering our flexibility as an artist and how we maintain our interest and relevance over time.

We will be in conversation with illustrator and calligrapher, Jill Calder and illustrator and comic artist Alé Mercado, talking about what was successful initially for them when they started illustrating, if they felt they settled into any ruts along the way and where they may have acknowledged a change in focus or expansion of skills would be useful.

We'll also reserve time for questions from the audience, so do join live to take advantage of this opportunity.

Our Speakers

Jill Calder is an award winning illustrator and calligrapher who loves drawing, ideas, colour, ink, typography, stories, books, dogs and deadlines.

Jill blends traditional and digital image-making methods creating whimsical illustrations with broad appeal. As a result, her workhas been commissioned for children’s picture books, hospital murals, financial and scientific reports, branding Scottish beer and whisky and global advertising campaigns.

Alé Mercado is an illustrator and comic artist living in Ireland who was recently Highly Commended in the World Illustration Awards. He has created videos for Spanish musician José Ignacio Lapido and designed the poster for his 25th anniversary solo career concerts.

Some of his other clients include Bank of Ireland, Musgrave, TBWA/Dublin, Facebook, Google, Kilkenny County Council and Barnstorm Theatre Company. Ale took part in the AOI's Mid-Career Residency in 2022.

NOTE FOR AOI Members: We have a limited number of FREE spaces available for you for the live event. Please sign up as soon as possible to avoid disappointment (details of how can be found in our latest newsletter). We will open a waitlist once these spaces are filled, at which point you can sign up to it directly via Eventbrite.

A recording will be sent to all booked attendees.

AOI Members also have the opportunity to watch past AOI Discusses recordings when logged into your membership account, via our exclusive 'Recordings' section.

Limited General Admission tickets are also available.

Accessibility:

The AOI would like to make events accessible to all, where possible. Please let us know your access requirements at least one week in advance by emailing info@theaoi.com