#approvals

Routed means going through a chain of approvers. For example, when a piece of art comes in, your Art Director sees it. Then it’s usually given to a designer to put in a template of some kind. Then that template is given back to the AD to approve. Then the Creative Director might need to see it. Then the Editor. Then the Publisher. Then maybe the author, agent, copy check, etc. 

Each pass through all of the necessary approvers is called one routing pass. 

—Agent KillFee

Coronet D’Honneur 

So many colors..... so much fur!!!! 😮😮😮

1.) I think maybe, Nonny, you might be reading a tone in the text that isn’t necessarily there? 

2.) We need to talk about the word “approval”.  The approval COMES from bosses.  Approval isn’t a please-dad-say-you’re-proud-of-me, it’s an official “Yes, this may officially be [sent to print/ given to coders/ utilized in such a way that it moves the project it was commissioned for forward/ paid for].”  The whole point is to make a piece that gets Approval, because that is when the job is done.   It’s the AD’s job to find the artist that can accomplish this and then set them up for success, and then shepherd that approval as efficiently as possible.  

Are we a little focused on getting approvals done?  Well, yes.  That’s the point, and that’s the point of EVERYTHING we convey to the artists we hire.  The point of this blog is to give you information as directly as we can.  An AD’s job is to MOVE THE PROJECT FORWARD.   Good ADs nurture relationships with artists and work within the parameters of the project they are given to give as much flexibility and voice to the artist as possible, but at the end of the day, this is about the art, and not about YOU.  It’s not school.  Both the illustrator and the AD are professionals.

People who are easy to work with make for good relationships, and good relationships make for better art.  Better art makes things go way more smoothly.  If you want a fun, lasting relationship with your art director, be a professional, and do good work.  Which goes for BOTH sides.  

Your art director is not your Professor, or your Fun Aunt.  They are, temporarily, your boss, and they’ll do their damnedest to manage you and the 5-60 other people on their current plate with empathy and patience while also doing you the courtesy of assuming that you are a pro. 

-Agent Critique

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