An application is a vital way for the applicant to engage with, and introduce themselves to, the commissioner.
It can be viewed either as a foot-in-the-door or a way of sealing the deal (depending on the requirements of the brief and the style of the application), and so, even though we have made the process as efficient as possible, we advise that each applicant spends a few extra moments to read the brief fully as it's the best way to present a strong case for being commissioned.
The two most common errors which we regularly see on CC (and which have the lowest success rate for a commission) are: when applicants copy-and-paste a generic, broad written application and send the same application to all briefs without any tailored response; and secondly, when applications feature only a written paragraph, omitting embedded videos and images or attaching files or projects, which can result in the application having less of an impact on the commissioner versus those which do include these items.
Therefore our advice for submitting better applications is as follows.
Top tips
- Be professional, concise, warm and friendly with your written approach
- Tell the commissioner about you, your work and your experience
- Demonstrate you have read the brief and know about the artist in question
- Convey a balanced sense of excitement and competency to execute the job well
- Underpin your application with strong, relevant examples of your work
- Go for impact and make full use of adding videos, images, files and projects
- Don't go for everything: keep your creative energy up for the briefs you really want to go for