Internships.

[Frito]

I'm currently studying at university and I've got my year in industry coming up. I'm in the process of looking for internships and I really want to go to an illustration based studio/agency but I'm having trouble locating some to apply too. I've found a few but I could really do with more just in case the ones i've applied to aren't successful. I was wondering if anyone knew of any that might be offering work placements?
Any info would be greatly appreciated, cheers!

[Inkthinker]

Hm. You could maybe intern at an advertising or marketing agency. I don't know of many illustration studios that require interns, since most of them are decentralized associations of artists who may not even live near each other.

How many "studios" (in the classic sense, a single location where multiple artists gather to produce as a group) really exist anymore? I work for one, of a sort... of late we make storyboards for horrible commercials, mostly. Comics sometimes, animation when we can get the work. And we take on interns (though we're full up to the summer, I think). But as time goes on and the economy continues to suck, more and more artists are working remotely and using the net as a networking and communications hub (rather than a location). And while we can teach how to efficiently flat colors and show you the process of production, it's not exactly a mentoring environment.

I will say that on-the-job experience beats just about anything a school can do for you.

[Frito]

Inkthinker, thanks for getting back to me. Well yeah that was my thinking, illustration seems to be very much a freelance field of work. I have managed to locate a couple of illustration related placements, not many though - mainly magazines and stuff. Maybe thats the way to go though, magazines and publications or as you say, animation studios. I was looking at game developers too, a few offer art internships but I think you need experience in 3D which I don't have sadly, so that might be a no go. Anyway, I'll keep searching!

[Frito]

Oh also, if anyone knows of any design/art related placements in Germany that'd be awesome. I'm studying German along side my design degree and have managed to acquire a basic grasp of the language. I'd love the opportunity to further my studies of that by spending some time there...

[jaal]

I'm currently getting my AS in Graphic Design and I'm gonna be doing my internship in the fall. So I've been thinking about the same thing. The list of choices offered by my school was not that great but I'm hoping that by next there will be some better options