Tuesday, 10 December 2019

Contacting Professionals

How to do it:
  • Choose your subject.
  • Research is key to a good interview, makes you understand how accessible (or not) they are.
  • Get in contact as soon as possible, make sure you have a back up plan.
  • Aim to have the interview confirmation before Christmas and completed the interview by Jan. 
  • Check out their social accounts to get an idea of their availability and interests - if contacting their social media find the one they're most active on and approach them through this media.
  • Look into previous interviews and make sure your questions are different.
  • Do everything you can to gather a lengthy, interesting response.
  • Let your research inform how you initiate contact with the professional. 
  • Move the conversation to face to face meeting if possible (worst comes to worst an email thread). Always try to get a phone call.
Hunting them down:
  • Contact details on website or social media.
  • Google the contact details.
  • Carrying out a phone call interview or face to face is much more effective as you'll get a more lengthy response - better for a publication.
  • hunter.io - use for domain searches
  • Can guess an email address and see if it bounces back, put guesses into Bcc (they can still see you've tried one other email address). 
  • Consider using motion in the emails you send (as all emails look the same), such as a professional email and an email signature (can set this up in templates). 
  • Contact them on social media. 
How to Proceed:
  • If sending an email get to the point quickly and have a clear ask, direct and to the point.
  • Having as many questions they might have answered in the first email to avoid them needing to ask anymore questions.
  • Propose dates and times for interview in first email.
  • Follow up with a calendar invite.
  • Conduct the interview in person, over the phone or video call.
  • Always a good idea to mention in the email about popping over to their studio with a photographer, sounds good.
Conducting the Interview:
  • Make sure you've carefully prepared the questions - think about you motivations for the project.
  • Be adaptable, but keep things on track - this will be easier when you've fully researched as much as possible.
  • Ask permission to record the conversation (this can be done over the email, but make sure to remind them during the interview) - DON'T MAKE NOTES
  • Always follow up and thank people for their time.
  • Send the recording over to them and ask if there's anything they'd like you to leave out. 
  • Share the finished report with them -they could share it on their platform, gain visibility. Also allows you to build a professional relationship with someone in the industry. Make sure the images of your report are of high quality.
  • Follow them on their socials.
  • An opportunity to get in.
Write up and Design:
  • Be creative - make it tell the story of the people you're interviewing.
  • Think carefully about each design decision, make sure it's relevant to the medium you chose to present the report in.
  • Proof read it - download gramarly.
  • Get hold of some quality images - could maybe collaborate with a photography or illustration student. Ask them for any images they could send you that they are okay with you using. 
  • The wider a range of images you have the better you can pair them together.
  • Having a photographer go with you to the interview is always a good idea. 

Action Plan:

Find a list of freelancers, studios, and galleries to interview.
Send them all the same email, aim to have 4/5 responses to carry out.

Freelancers
Totally Okay http://www.totallyokay.co.uk/
Alex Birks https://alexbirks.co.uk/portfolio/

Galleries/Magazines
Site Gallery
Millenium Galleries
Graves Gallery
S1 Artspace https://www.s1artspace.org/
Now Then Magazine

Studios
The Designers Republic
93ft https://93ft.com/project/eroica-britannia
Side by Side http://side-side.co.uk/


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