Hey there, looks like you just wandered in. Why not have a look around and stay for a while, maybe even start your own adventure, if you're into that.

We're Hiring Artists!

HIRING STATUS: Closed

Hello everyone, our expansion of the Artist Team has officially begun!

We are looking for artists who are willing to join our creative team and take on a longterm position and on-site role. The position is paid for on a project by project basis, in which artists will be assigned work periodically to be completed by certain deadlines. The amount of assigned work depends on the site's needs, budget, as well as artist availability. Artists will have the option of being paid in Real Life Currency or Turnips (if a volunteer based position is preferred) at market rates based on their preferences.

The position of Site Artist entails:
  • Signing an NDA, contract, and using our Site Artist Discord server regularly to communicate
  • Hands-on training under our Head Artist for various areas of site development
  • Collaboration with the Head Artist as well as the rest of the team on various projects
  • Artwork created can include (Depending on artist strengths and project needs):
    • Pet Edits
    • Item recolours
    • Items, Clothing assets
    • Pet assets
    • Other Misc Artwork

A member of the Artist Team would be expected to:
  • Work well in a team setting, providing feedback and bringing creative ideas to the table
  • Be accountable, present, and communicative
  • Be proficient in Photoshop or another PSD-enabled program
  • Complete their assigned work within deadlines
  • Represent Dappervolk in a professional and welcoming manner

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APPLICATION FORM
If you're interested in this position, please fill out the application below and email it to [email protected] with your portfolio and resume attached.

Username and ID:
Pronouns:
You consent to providing your full name if accepted:
Type “Yes” to consent. This is required as you will be signing an artist contract and an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) in regards to any unreleased Dappervolk content you may see or create as an artist for Dappervolk. It is however fully confidential and will remain with the site owner only.
Confirm that you are over 18 years of age:
Type “Yes” here, only adults over 18 years of age are legally able to enter into a binding contract and receive payment.
Timezone:
We're looking for team members who can participate in active discussions regarding asset development and participate in the on-hands training process. 
Preferred rates:
Outline the general rate of pay you would like per piece completed. Examples of what you could use are per item, pet, or a general hourly rate.
Asset Preferences:
Let us know which area(s) of art development you're most interested in contributing to on Dappervolk. Ie. Items, clothing, pets, other?
Introduction:
Let us know a bit about yourself and what interests you about becoming an artist for Dappervolk. What qualities do you have that would make you a great addition to our team? Feel free to also include information about yourself outside of Dappervolk too, such as any hobbies/interests! 
Experience on Pet/Avatar Sites:

Please share any relevant experience you may have working as an artist for other sites, or otherwise playing a role as a community figure. 
Username(s) on Social Media: If applicable!
Username(s) on other Petsites/Communities: If applicable!
Any other Details/Information: Optional

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FAQ
Why not have a standardized payment rate?
There is too much variation in experience, skill, and preference in different artists for us to set a standard rate of payment here. Please list out payment preferences most suitable for you when applying. The preferred payment artists receive is at their comfort and discretion, and will not have any weight when reviewing applications.

How are artists selected?
We will be hiring applicants who seem like a good fit for the team based on art style, past experience and skill level. All artists will be joining our team of creatives and taking on work that fits into their own schedule. We're looking to create a great team environment that will boost the creativity and variety of future site content.

What kind of hours are artists expected to work each month?
This is flexible for each artist, we have no minimums for work taken on each month. Essentially, artists will claim what they have time for in each project and manage their time independantly around our planned deadlines.

Will hired artists be drawing turnip-based items such as monthly sets?
No. We will not be hiring artists to draw items or content that directly generate revenue. All site artists will be working on free-to-play content such as new permanent items/pets, assets, and free seasonal content.

Why ask for a timezone?
This is to best coordinate scheduled things like deadlines. If selected, we will be getting in touch to discuss everything in further detail, as not everyone in the same timezone has the same active schedule.

When will my application be replied to?
Due to the potential volume of applications, we may not be able to reply to every application, but thank everyone in advance for their interest in the available positions! We will be emailing with additional questions where applicable.
Applications will remain open indefinitely until we assemble a full team.

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Thank you for reading, and feel free to spread the word about hiring opportunities on Dappervolk! We look forward to hearing from you, and we're so excited to expand our creative team and get to know everyone in the process.

Comments


  • Villager Zelda (#28) 23 Jul 2021, 2:56 pm
    Also, I hadn't even factored in the fact that turnips *aren't even tradable*. That actually makes it way worse.

    I know I would want to be paid in real money, and I'm sure most would, but I still don't see an offense to just giving the option. Idk, I'm probably just really hard to piss off lmao.
  • Villager Caribou (#1287) 23 Jul 2021, 4:29 pm
    Zelda (#28) Personally why I find it so insulting and sketchy is because to me the fact that they think that it would be okay to pay an artist with a currency that 1. can't be traded to other players and 2. is apart of a website that barely gets above 200-250 members daily, is concerning. They're offering it as an option because they think it's either comparable to being paid real money, or they think that it's fair payment for someone's hard work. THAT'S concerning.

    As I mentioned in my post, it makes no sense to offer it as an option. If an artist that they hire truly wants turnips, they can take the money that they're being paid by DV and buy turnips from them.

    To me at least it just screams that they have an option to pay artists that truly would be taking advantage of their love for DV. You should pay your artists with actual money that they can do whatever they want with. Period. If you want to include that employees of the site get bonuses or free gifts in the way of on-site items or currencies, that's great! But in no way should that be primarily what you think is reasonable compensation for work.
  • Villager Zelda (#28) 23 Jul 2021, 5:11 pm
    "They're offering it as an option because they think it's either comparable to being paid real money, or they think that it's fair payment for someone's hard work."
    I don't really think it's fair to make that assumption. I also had a hunch, that if they were to take (even partial) payment, that turnips would have a "better" value - like twice as much as the monetary value. So either $10 or $20 (converted from CAD) in turnips. But I can't make that assumption either. We don't really have much information.
    It's like when artists have USD slots and potato/other slots. And sometimes it's much "cheaper" to do straight USD commissions.

    I hope that the artists hired get paid what they are worth regardless of their preference in payment, and I'd hope most, if not all, will lean towards USD, since this isn't just commissions, it is full on work and employment.

    (Also random side note - the users online counter apparently is very inaccurate since it only shows those who were active in the last 10 minutes or so, and hides those appearing offline. I'd love for an actual counter that anonymously counts users, and does it in like...2 hour periods. Super random sorry about that lol)

    All in all, I truly think people are taking a lot away from very little - honestly, this news post is very scant. We really need more details.
  • Villager Caribou (#1287) 23 Jul 2021, 5:31 pm
    Zelda (#28)

    Even if you're getting more turnips than you would if you purchased them normally, I don't think that makes it okay to offer as an alternative to actual money? Like turnips are so low in value because you cannot trade them. It doesn't matter how much you get of nothing LMAO

    If staff don't think that turnips are a fair alternative to real money than why are they offering it? Like I'm making that assumption because I don't want to assume that they're offering it because they feel that it would be underpaying the artist. Which is why I said they must feel that it is a fair alternative to being given actual money. You know like, just because someone is willing to accept less than what they're worth doesn't mean that you should be okay to offer them that?

    The situation is really frustrating because like you said they're giving next to no details, leaving us to speculate and I really doubt we'll be given additional information anytime soon, lmao. This subject is just very touchy because sites like this are well known for taking advantage of artists, especially those who love the site, and I expected more from an owner who used to be an artist on other pet sites.
  • Villager Lyu (#1422) 23 Jul 2021, 7:04 pm
    Any young artist eager to jump into professional work will likely see the "Turnips or RLC" option and think "Well, I doubt I'll be accepted for RLC, so I'll just do turnips and have a higher chance of getting hired."
    That's really just my main concern. That the people who will gravitate towards that option are people who are already sceptical of the worth of their art.
    I'm not really commenting on whether having the option in itself is bad. I just hope this is considered. There will be people /settling/ for turnips not because they want them, but because they aren't confident in their ability to actually make money. Accepting their work with a fake currency might just cement that idea in their head? I don't know.

    Glad to see new artists are being hired though. I hope people who want turnips can at least get paid partially in RLC, though.
  • Villager Zelda (#28) 23 Jul 2021, 7:27 pm
    Lyu (#1422) - this is absolutely the best argument I've seen against this. Just based on that notion and the fact that there's so little info on this announcement, I feel more support towards taking that option away. Then again...the same thing could happen with just monetary payments. An artist could purposefully ask for les than what they're worth for an opportunity. Unfortunately, that's really all up to the individuals.

    Artists almost never get paid what they're worth since demand is fairly low, and supply is so huge (lots of competition). I'm going on a huge tangent now...buying art is such a big passion of mine, so I have a lot of opinions on it lol. My dream is to be financially stable enough to regularly support artists x w x
  • Villager Promare (#26308) 23 Jul 2021, 10:34 pm
    For applying artists: Dappervolk is a company and should pay commercial rates, not personal commission rates. My artist friend's freelance rate is $95 per hour and she gets regular work. I hear that top tier, professional artists in industry can get paid thousands of dollars per work. Of course, this is probably way more money than a small pet site has. I would NOT actually expect to get paid that highly on Dappervolk, nor do I think they actually have that kind of money. But the quality of art on this site is high and would require skill to replicate. This is just some food for thought for talented artists who might be undervaluing themselves during pricing...your art might be worth a LOT more money than you think it is. Certainly much more than minimum wage.

    I think it would benefit both DV and applicants if DV posted a general salary range they were willing to pay. Then they will only get applicants who match that range and only get the applications they want. Artists who want to get paid higher will save their own time and DV staff's time by not applying.
  • Villager Dakkokki (#23525) 24 Jul 2021, 2:58 pm
    Oof, seeing that you can be paid in turnips - which AREN'T EVEN TRADABLE - is kinda shady. NEVER offer to pay IGC for a commercial job, it's really unprofessional. Also, make sure to state your budget for this kinda stuff beforehand so everyone can get an idea about what you're willing to pay and what quality you're looking for. All around this job ad looks really unprofessional.
  • Villager Dakkokki (#23525) 24 Jul 2021, 3:11 pm
    Like, if you're gonna offer turnips, at least make the stupid things tradable first so they're not *as* useless.
  • Villager Askefise (#1162) 24 Jul 2021, 6:31 pm
    Thank you for the update and clarifications - hopefully this will help put some concerns at ease now.
  • Villager LordMoth (#31432) 24 Jul 2021, 6:46 pm
    The fact that the turnip option hasn't been removed is still a huge yikes to me. Like c'mon, you are hiring artists with most likely several years of skill and practice under their belts and somehow, turnips were thought to be a decent option.

    With a pet site that rarely has 300+ logins per day, I don't think anyone can afford to even begin to OFFER turnips as payment. I feel that maybe this wouldn't be as concerning if the turnips were actually worth something. But as of now, TOS still explicitly says that everything on DV has little to no monetary value including both currencies so still the options are 'be paid, or work for free.' which I'm sure in the long run is gonna start to stir up some legal concerns.

    Overall, to all of the applying artists, don't sell yourself short. Do not go under minimum wage, and please for the love of god don't accept turnips as payment. Sure they get you some cool items, but you're still basically working for free. And that my friend, is a huge no-no. Good luck to everyone applying!!
  • Villager Askefise (#1162) 24 Jul 2021, 6:53 pm
    Although an additional comment to say this won't please the people that hate turnips as an option, but it's clear to me at least you as a company value the rates and hours people put in, and are willing to accommodate and respect those things. No pushing towards turnips is being done. At all. No favouritism, no limited rlc slots. A company that is asking for rates doesn't have the responsibility to make an artist raise them, but without having actual communication via the application process, it's entirely possible that, being an artist, the dev would point out undervaluing. Speculative, of course, but so is the claim that those with a low sense of self value in their work will be taken advantage of.

    Granted, at this point, offering turnips internally as an option for people to take on a project by project basis might be an option to chill the ones that are so against them as a choice out. Not that I feel it should have to be done, but a suggestion to consider if it's something that is concerning the team.

    Maybe chill with the aggressive takes folks, they really don't offer constructive criticism. Wouldn't hurt to put your concerns politely, and not make assumptions without facts. Advice for artists does not need to be delivered with a plate of salt towards an option you don't agree with.
  • Villager Purrl (#38124) 24 Jul 2021, 7:05 pm
    Thanks for the clarification! this puts some of my concerns at ease and makes the process of filling out an application a bit easier for me
  • Villager kemvon (#4416) 24 Jul 2021, 7:12 pm
    Thank you for the FAQ and clarifications! There will be no favoritism and turnips are there as an option for those who may prefer it, or who can't access Paypal or proper conversions. I'm really glad to see you've been responding to questions : )

    Can't wait for new artists - good luck to everyone! If you aren't sure about your rates, I'm sure some experienced artists in this community can help you out.
  • Villager MasterDaye (#16009) 25 Jul 2021, 12:03 am
    c:
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