Investigation into companies/industry and their target audiences

As part of my work based learning project I was advised to look into companies that work in the illustration or animation industry to get an idea of the sort of place I could end up working once i'm finished college. I have mainly stuck to looking at illustration agencies and studios since that is where my main focus is with my own work. I looked a a lot of companies ranging from studios that do a lot of 3D work and others that focus more on graphics & design. I ended up the most interested in two particular companies:

AtomHawk
Atomhawk is a illustration studio which does freelance work for various companies, usually helping out on larger projects like big budget video games like Mortal Kombat and massive blockbuster movies like the Avengers. Their list of services includes: concept art, production design, motion graphics, UI/UX design and Marketing art. I am more interested in the rough concept art they show in their portfolio than the more finished marketing art. I like the various concepts for individual items or characters more, I like seeing all these different designs for the same thing.

Handsome Frank
Handsome frank is an illustration agency that represents various contemporary artists and illustrators. They work with clients and try to find the artist  that best matches what the client is looking for. The variety of art styles and techniques they offer through the various artists they represent  gives them a lot of potential when it comes to meeting a clients needs. The work that stood out the most was the more character focused artwork by artists Lesley Barnes and Charlie Davis. Both artists work has this very nice graphical appeal and I think their colourful soft shapes would work really nicely as children's storybook  illustrations.



From looking at the clients lists on these companies websites you get the idea of how mainstream their target markets are. They work with some of the largest brand names on the planet, like your Disney's and your Warner brothers but even working with companies like Costa Coffee or Starbucks. this indicates a good diversity in target markets and likely results in a lot of the work they do trying to have this broad appeal.

From looking at Atomhawks job listings I can get an idea of the sort of skills they are looking for in new hires. They look for people who can fulfil lots of different roles like concept and idea generation, Thumbnails and story-boarding, Colour and light studies and finally they look for people who can work well on final polish.