Linkedin not acknowledging illustrator as a trade, a profession of its own?

Okay, it might sound like an untrue statement to claim that LinkedIn is not acknowledging Illustrator/Illustration as a trade. They probably do, but they don’t allow illustrators to choose this profession in their LinkedIn Profile. And it is kind of important we can. I am an illustrator myself.

There is Arts & Crafts ( konst & hantverk in swedish), and design, Graphic design and animation one could choose. But Neither is actually correct, In my view.

I use Linkedin and log in often. I use it to interact with others and doing research to find new clients, its a great social networking site. If I was looking for an employement, I would use it too. Even as an illustrator. For me as a freelance self employed illustrator and graphic designer of 21+ years, its a great tool and resource. Many illustrators from just starting out, working in fields like commercial, editorial, book illustration, concept and digital illustration and art. To just name a few. For tons of various media, publishing to concept illustration professions for such giants like Disney, Marvel and ILM hang around there at Linkedin. Because an illustration is a profession of its own,  with many layers of what type of illustration you work with we need our own categorie to choose in the Linkedin Profile.

This is usually a common mistake among most online services out there – excluding our profession. I don’t think people who originally made these lists for their databases and algorithms understand this. Because if they did, this wouldn’t have been an issue. Kind of disrespectful to the trade.

Maybe they just do the copy & paste routine from other sites when they first start out, building their sites.

But probably just ignorance and lack of knowledge, or interest. Or that people in general just don’t understand what an illustrator does.

To call an illustrator an artist is okay, we are,  I am also a traditional artist, painter (and a graphic designer). But to place us all under Arts & Craft, or the other related sections are just wrong. Anyone can be an artist, according to Duschamp, but not everyone can be an illustrator.

Point is, LinkedIn is missing an important professional section. And they should asap change this, and add it for us illustrators to choose in our professional Profile. And allow maybe even multiple choices. Me for example, I’m first an illustrator, but also a Cover Artist and Graphic designer, who also make creative writing, tutorials. As a Freelance professional this is nothing new. Some of us even make websites now and then. Freelancers multitask.

Stefan Lindblad 
Illustrator
www.canvas.nu
www.stefanlindblad.com