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As per usual, I'll start !

Because I never studied illustration in Quebec, I never had that many friends in the creative industry, so I joined the local association of illustrators, first as a member and later as part of the board. This was a crucial experience for me to see the ways illustrators could create community through training, conferences and socializing moments. This being said, I was also lucky to live in a big city where a lot is happening, I reckon my answer would be different if I had lived in the countryside for example.

I think this newsletter also stemmed from a desire to connect more widely with my international peers and connect with different experiences.

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Jan 13, 2023Liked by Julien Posture

Since I studied at a design uni, there wasn't really a illustration community, and I felt pretty isolated as an illustrator early in my career (which was around the time the pandemic hit). I've got in touch with a bunch of illustrators since then, with some personally, but mostly via Zoom and E-Mail.

One regular meeting really stands out for me (and it's open for everybody to join!!):

»Illustrators Aquainted«, that takes place every first Wednesday of each month. Illustrators show their work and talk very openly about clients and money: https://illustratorsacquainted.com/

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I struggled with isolation at the start of my career but ended up moving to Hastings and got involved in a local illustration festival. Hifest ran in Hastings for 5 years and it pulled in lots of illustrators - locally and from other cities around the UK. The town is heaving with illustrators and artists. I’m now friends with lots of freelancers but in a way it would be nice to connect to a group or wider community again. Community is so important! Sharing experiences - and being able to swap tips or ask questions about pricing/contracts really helped to grow in confidence as an illustrator.

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Here in Latvia, Riga we have a small community, so artists and publishers are hanging out in the same bars, and going to same events, galleries. Renting studios in the same building is a great way to keep in touch with your community.

We organized zine and small press festival and then illustration pop-up shop to strengthen community ties and to give opportunities to others and for ourselves.

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After giving up my literary ambitions and shifting into writing fantasy novels, I became frustrated with the lack of genre-focused events in my city, so I decided to create my own social group for genre writers that was open to anyone who could make it to one of our events. It's always a challenge figuring out how to get the word out, but I think having those in-person networks is invaluable for both professional and creative support. The pandemic has been particularly hard on our group, but we're gradually trying to figure out how to get the word out again now that people who are generally happy to tuck themselves away from society at the best of times are starting to poke their heads out and look for opportunities to find that local community.

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I used to go to a co-working space when i was working as an illustrator, couple of years back.

- now if you are thinking of a community of illustrators/creatives, then even i haven't had enough luck there.

- but I think you can make a community if you are working out of a physical place for a long time.

other than that i feel the only thing close to community i had was the thing i had on Instagram.

But, yes you are right it's a problem to have no community, and would love to try out if you have a solution.

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Jan 12, 2023Liked by Julien Posture

Bonjour! Joining an illustration-related community as the Illustration Québec organization, allowed me to develop great connections. I have also created small illustration critique group. It is a small group but we meet remotely every two weeks.

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