Join our illustration community!

The Association has four types of membership: full membership, supporting membership, student membership and pensioner membership. After reading our membership criteria, you can apply for membership here. If you are applying for a full membership, you will need to include attachments and make other preparations before applying. Please do this carefully. To be a member one should either be Finnish or live in Finland.

Membership applications are processed three times a year. The application deadlines are 30th April, 31st August and 31st December. The applications are processed, with the help of staff, by a peer review team made up of board members who take turns processing the applications. Decisions are made and the applicants are contacted by the end of the following month.

The Finnish Illustration Association has four types of membership:

1. Full member

Full members of Kuvittajat ry are professional illustrators. The membership fee is 140 euros per year, which entitles the member to extensive and valuable benefits. The annual fee for new members applying in April is €85 for the current year and €35 for those applying in August. For December applicants, the annual fee is €140, as the fee will be invoiced the following year. You can apply for membership if you meet one or more of the following criteria:

• Self-employed illustrator who has created at least 25 individual illustrations for several clients
• Employed illustrator who has created at least 50 individual illustrations
• At least one labour-consuming illustrated book published by a commercial publishing house or at least two smaller illustrated publications. Self-published works are also acceptable if they are professionally made, printed and distributed.***
• Illustration work around your own web store or social media site that brings you at least half of your annual income.

The different criteria can also be combined if your experience consists of, say, publishing one book and several individual illustrations. You must describe your professional work in your application in terms of the selected criterion/criteria both in writing and with an image attachment. The image attachment must contain at least five samples of recently published works (no more than five years old). We prefer attachments that are combined into one PDF file. In addition, your application form must include a link to your website or online portfolio (a comprehensive Instagram portfolio is also acceptable).

Along with the amount of work samples, the jury will also evaluate the illustrator’s professional activity comprehensively. In this case, professional activity refers, for example, to the recognition and importance of clients and publishers.

If your experience in illustration does not come from the main areas of the field (literature, journalism, communication and PR, advertising, brand illustrations, packaging illustrations, animation), you can add a recommendation from a member of the Finnish Illustration Association or someone else in the illustration industry (such as a book editor, art director) to your application. This will help us identify professionals from the fringes of the illustration field.

*** One can apply for the full membership with experience of at least three demanding book projects or at least five less demanding ones. Member application based on self-publications are handled case-by-case – please tell in the application about how the books are professionally made, printed and distributed. If one applies with only self-publications the books should create most of the applicants annual income, be publicly recognized with for example a prize or media attention and/or have a wide distribution.

2. Supporting member

A supporting member wants to keep track of what is happening in the illustration industry. Most of our supporting members are new illustrators who do not yet qualify for full membership, but are building their portfolios as members of the illustration community. Some of our supporting members are interested in the field in general or work with it in one way or another. The supporting membership fee is 75 euros per year, and entitles you to Kuvittaja Magazine and many other benefits.

3. Student member

Student membership can be applied for by students studying a suitable field who are planning to pursue a career in illustration. The annual membership fee of 35 euros gives you access to many benefits and allows you to become part of the community while you are still studying. Illustration can be studied in the degree programmes in graphic industry in the following higher education institutions: Aalto University and the University of Lapland, Metropolia UAS and Xamk. Students pursuing a further vocational qualification in the field are also welcome to become student members. This concerns students from the following institutions, among others: Pekka Halonen Academy, Muurlan Opisto and Ikaalinen College of Crafts and Design. You can also apply for membership if you are studying in some other, non-listed school, provided that you explain in your application why your degree is suitable. We do not accept student members from general upper secondary schools or folk high schools. Student members are required to inform us annually whether they are still continuing their studies; failure to do so will cause the membership to end automatically at the end of the year. After completing their degree, student members must separately apply for full membership or supporting membership.

4. Pensioner member

Pensioner membership can be granted to a pensioner who is at least 65 years old and has been a full member of the Finnish Illustration Association for at least five years without interruption. The membership fee is lowered to 60 euros per year and the benefits remain the same. Pensioner membership can be applied for with a brief, free-form application where you state the year you became a member and the year you retired. The application should be sent to info (at) kuvittajat.fi.

Any questions about applying for membership?

We are happy to help! Please contact:

Membership Secretary Emilia Alm, tel. +358 44 987 9257, emilia.alm (at) kuvittajat.fi