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“Your work has to be of a certain professional level to be good, but that’s maybe 30 or 50% of what you need to bring to the table to be a successful professional.“
~ Fred Rambaud
Why being a successful freelance concept artist isn’t just about painting awesome pictures…
In this week’s podcast, we speak to Fred Rambaud, a freelance concept artist who’s worked on many projects, including the hugely popular game, Assassin’s Creed.
These days, his diary is fully booked with clients who want to use his services, and he’s developed a great reputation in the industry and a stable career with a great income.
But it wasn’t always this way. Fred’s career path didn’t follow the traditional art school route…and he didn’t even start making art seriously until the age of 25.
And it wasn’t until his wife looked at his resume one day that things finally started to take off for him…
So, if you want to learn the key steps you need to take to develop your own fulfilling creative career, you’ll find all the answers in this week’s podcast…
How Fred Rambaud Became a Successful Freelance Concept Artist
Fred didn’t start his creative career as a concept artist. Growing up in Latin America, there weren’t too many opportunities for becoming an artist, so he moved to France where he took a course which taught him how to use Photoshop and other programs.
He started to pick up various graphic designs jobs, and found work in an architecture studio, where he worked as a rendering artist.
During this time, he carried on making the kind of art he loved in his spare time, such as character concepts and monsters. This led him to think about pursuing a career as a video game artist, but there was just one problem….
He couldn’t find any work.
He says: “Year after year it was just this grind to find work.”
But that all changed when his wife offered to help him one day and applied her knowledge of the business world to Fred’s job hunting.
Why a Good Resume is so Important for Artists
Fred laughs: “She said: ‘Show me what you’re doing’ and and at first I was like: ‘But you don’t know, you’re not an artist!’. But she wasn’t talking about my work – she was talking about my resume and cover letters.
“And she told me something I’ve always remembered. She said: ‘Your portfolio is not going to be reviewed by anyone. Your application will be received by HR – probably by an assistant or an intern – and they’re just going to be checking your resume and your cover letter.
‘They’re going to be reading these really fast, and picking up on any key phrases in there, so you need to include these if you want to get accepted.’ So, using this technique, I applied to the same studios which rejected me 3 months before using the exact same portfolio of work. And, I kid you not, they answered back!
“Since that moment, I’ve paid close attention to my cover letters, resume, LinkedIn profile etc, and it’s really paid off. She also told me to really read the job offers closely, because you’ll be able to pick up on the keywords or phrases in these.
“Because the people who will be interviewing you aren’t always artists – they’re producers, managers, or HR people. They’re not going to ask you about your portfolio, so you’d better be ready to be something more than just an artist.”
So this was the first revelation that helped Fred launch his creative career at the age of 29. And, in the rest of this podcast interview, you’ll hear more amazing advice like this that will help you develop your own lasting career as a successful freelance concept artist.Here are some of the huge insights from Fred Rambaud in this week’s podcast:
- Why your skills as an artist are only 50% of what you need to be a successful concept artist and build lasting relationships with your clients
- Why your resume and cover letter could be holding you back
- Why developing good relationships and networks is crucial
- Why what most people say about freelancing isn’t true
We hope you’ll be as blown away by the incredible advice from Fred Rambaud in this week’s podcast as we were.
And, most importantly, we hope this gives you what you need to become a successful freelance concept artist.
If you enjoyed this podcast, why not leave us a comment below?
People on this Episode:
Links From This Episode:
- Fred’s website
- Fred on ArtStation
- Fred on LinkedIn
- Fred on Facebook
- Fred on Instagram
- Fred on Tumblr
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Thanks for listening to our show! We’ll be back next Wednesday morning 8AM EST.
Cheers,
Mitch
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Great Interview. Very helpful information….Thank you Fred and Mitch