Name: Randi Fiat
Background: Fiat, 34, has a bachelor`s degree in marketing and psychology from Northwestern University. As an agent for commercial photographers and illustrators, she presents their work to her clients, mostly advertising agencies. Fiat, married and a Chicago resident, has her own Chicago agency.
Years as a photographers` rep: 9
I got into this work because I was a corporate art consultant. I`d sell moderately priced prints to corporations for their offices. I`d really work hard to sell these prints, and then it was over. They had the art they needed. That`s when I decided to go into representing artists and photographers in advertising, in the commercial-art arena. In this area, once you develop a client base, there`s always a continuous need for artwork for magazine ads, catalogs, billboards, TV commercials, whatever.
So I made the switch from fine art to commercial art. What I do is take fine artists and work with them to create another market for them, which is advertising. All the people I work with have a very strong fine-arts side to their work.
My job consists of several things. In addition to knowing which advertising agencies or graphic design firms or corporations are producing which accounts, it`s my job to target those markets for my artists. If I know that a particular ad agency is going to be working on a cereal account and I represent a still-life photographer who I know would be great for cereal, then I call the art director at the agency and show this photographer`s portfolio. So my job is to know where the work is, put together a portfolio of appropriate work for the talent, show the work and communicate with that client-the advertising agency-on an ongoing basis.
In addition, I`m responsible for promotional activities on behalf of the artists and photographers, in the appropriate directories that the clients would look at when they need someone to do a specific job. I help the talent to come up with an image or a look for their presentation and work with the graphic designer to design it. Also, it`s important that I give the talent the feedback that they need and that together we establish what their work should be marketed toward.
A lot of illustrators come to me for advice, and I can tell them what I think their strengths are. I view one of my most important jobs as editing their portfolios and picking out the strongest pieces and putting it together to make them look like the best illustrator or photographer they can be.
I represent eight people, and I have an ongoing relationship with them. I`ve represented some of them since I started nine years ago.
Chicago has a strong food and beverage orientation, so food photographers do very well here. In California, car photographers do very well. I travel all across the country for my talent, and it`s my job to know which market buys what kind of work. There are trade publications and directories that keep me informed of what is going on. It involves a lot of research, including going to the grocery store and flipping through the magazines for an hour to see what kind of ads are being done. I see who`s doing interesting ads; then I find out who`s producing those ads and call the advertising agency to get the name of the art director who worked on the ads. Then I send them my promotional materials.
There are at least 10,000 prospective clients out there. I try to hit 5,000, through direct mailings, phone conversations and cold calling, which can mean three hours at the phone to get through to four people.
A typical day starts for me at the office at 8:45. I will review the jobs that are in progress to find out what I need to do and who I need to contact to facilitate the jobs. Or I might need to work on estimates from the day before or send portfolios out or call clients. The next part of the day is spent making phone calls to clients that I would like to schedule appointments with. During the lunch hour I usually go back to paperwork till about 1:30, when people get back in their offices. Then I see people until about 4:30, when I return to the office and pull together portfolios that need to be sent out that evening. Research is usually done at night.
I was attracted to this profession because I always loved art. And aside from the fact that I could open up a business of my own with no capital investment and be my own boss, there was something very exciting about starting at the beginning with each artist and then building to create a successful career. It`s exciting to give artists and photographers who might otherwise be struggling with the fine-art gallery scene a way to make more money and still stay with their art.
What I look for in a new talent is someone with a great imagination or unique vision or style. I believe advertising is based on trends and that having a unique point of view is very important to make it to the top. And it`s absolutely essential that they be very professional and very responsible. I enjoy going out on appointments and interacting with the people out there. The selling part of the job is very exciting to me because I`m not really selling, I`m helping art directors solve creative problems by offering talent as the solutions.
The difficult part of the job is that advertising is a very volatile industry. You can be booked on a job and be shooting tomorrow and at 4 p.m. the day before, the job is canceled. Things are always changing on the set. You might have to phone the client to get more money; the deadlines are short. There`s a lot of pressure. I am the middleman between many egos. I have to represent my talent`s best interest and also give good service to my client.
Ninety-nine percent of the time nothing goes wrong on the set. When something does happen, it`s usually a result of changes in the schedule or changes in layout. Or an illustrator`s pencil layout might be approved by the client and the illustrator will finish it exactly as specified and then the client doesn`t like it after all. Or film might get lost somewhere in the process, and that`s really frightening.
If a client doesn`t like the finished product, for whatever reason, we`ll go back and we`ll fix it. I feel very strongly about providing excellent service to the clients who buy the work of my talent.
