Approach by letter

My purpose of doing work placement is to learn process of producing publications in a professional team by getting involved in the team. I sent letters and CVs to OKIDO, Tara Books, Jonathan Cape, Macmillan, PHAIDON and Penguin, whose publications attract my interests a lot. Especially OKIDO and Tara Books, I had a strong desire to be involved in them so wrote a passionate letter like a love letter and sent it with my zines. Tara Books is based in India. I post the letter to London office but the letter was returned. Maybe they have moved or the office is no longer in London.

The content of cover letters and emails is below.



To Whom It May Concern: (or specific name)

I am a second year student at Camberwell College of Arts studying at BA Illustration course. I am writing to ask if you would consider allowing me to spend some time with OKIDO team.

I love the magazine OKIDO. It is filled with various playable things such as games, handicrafts and easy cooking recipe. They are very enjoyable rather than just reading and that sort of elements in magazines has been fascinating me since my childhood. Also another good element of OKIDO is that it is more like zine than other major magazines for kids. So I feel warm affection from it and it is artistic as well. And the artworks are just nice, especially Rachel Ortas’s and Christie Li’s. I am a fan of Rachel Ortas’s works because the ‘happiness’ I feel from the pictures seems to be similar to what I want to do in my works.

If I was to have the opportunity to spend some time with you, I believe it would be an excellent opportunity for me to learn from artists and about publishing. In return I believe you would be able to make good use of my skills and I would add value to your team. I would like an opportunity to show you my website below to demonstrate the works that I have done at both university and my spare-time.

www.zhibit.org/soju

Thank you very much for spending your time and I look forward to hearing from you.

Best wishes,

Soju Tanaka



Bold section varies depending on the publisher.