How to Hire a Storyboard Artist in the UK (2026)

Updated: May 2026 · Written by Seb Antoniou

TL;DR

What a storyboard artist actually does

A storyboard artist draws the shots of a commercial, film, or animation before they’re filmed, so the director, agency, and production team can agree on what’s going on camera. In UK commercial production, the role is distinct from three adjacent ones producers sometimes confuse it with.

A concept artist designs the world, the character, the visual identity. They work before the script is locked. A storyboard artist draws after the script is locked.

An illustrator produces a single finished frame for print or web. A storyboard artist produces a sequence of frames that read as motion. The frames don’t need to be polished. They need to communicate camera angle, blocking, action, and timing.

An animatic editor cuts the storyboard frames into a timed sequence with rough audio, often the scratch voiceover and music. Some senior storyboard artists deliver animatics as an add-on. Most agencies and production companies keep the animatic in-house at the edit suite or post house.

ScreenSkills defines the storyboard artist role as the person responsible for “visualising scripts as a sequence of drawings to plan camera angles, action and continuity before shooting.” That’s the working definition you want from a hire: they translate the script into shots, on the page, before the shoot.

When to hire one, and how early

The timeline depends on which side of the script lock you’re on.

• Script in draft, agency presenting to client next week. Hire for pitch visuals — 6 to 12 colour frames showing the hero shots, used in the agency deck. 3 to 5 working days.
• Script locked, pre-pro meeting in 10 days. Hire for full TVC boards — 15 to 25 black-and-white frames for a 30-second spot, 25 to 40 for a 60. 3 to 5 working days from brief lock to first pass, plus 1 to 2 days for revisions.
• Shoot in 5 working days, no boards yet. Rush brief. Expect a 30 to 50% rush fee. Most senior artists will quote within hours.
• Shoot in 48 hours. Possible, but rare and expensive. Confirm by phone, not email.

A standard 30-second TVC moves through this rhythm:

1. Day 0 — brief locked, artist quotes within 24 hours.
2. Day 1 — first pass delivered end of day. 15 to 20 frames.
3. Day 2 — agency and director review, notes back the same day.
4. Day 3 — revisions, second pass delivered.
5. Day 4 — final flat files delivered, sometimes layered PSDs for post.
6. Day 5+ — pre-pro meeting, shoot prep, optional animatic.

Hire the storyboard artist before the production schedule is finalised, not after. Boards inform shot list, lighting, day order, location selection. Producers who hire the artist after the schedule is locked end up paying twice — once for the boards, once for the re-blocking when the boards reveal the schedule doesn’t fit the shots.

Where to find UK storyboard artists

There are four real channels in 2026. None of them is “good” or “bad” in the abstract — each has its trade-offs.

Direct referral. Ask three producers you’ve worked with who they used last. Two of them will give you the same name. That artist is busy, which is the right kind of busy. The downside is that a referral pool is small and the same six names circulate around Soho.

Agency representation. IllustrationX, NB Illustration, Folio, Big Active, Handsome Frank, MeiklejohnX represent senior commercial storyboard artists. Going through an agent gets you faster vetting and a clean contract, at a 20 to 30% representation margin on top of the artist’s fee. Worth it when the brief is high-stakes and you don’t have time to vet a freelancer cold.

Curated directories. Creative Pool and IllustrationX both list storyboard specialists with portfolio samples. You self-filter. Faster than asking around, slower than going through an agent. Quality varies. Look for production credits in the bio, not just illustration samples.

Cold portfolio search. Instagram, Behance, and personal sites. You’ll find work you’d never see through a directory. You’ll also find a lot of student work and concept art mislabelled as storyboarding. Useful when you’re staffing for a particular visual style — anime-influenced, comic-style, hyper-realistic auto — and the directories don’t carry the look you need.

Avoid Upwork and Fiverr for any brief above £1,500. The matching is wrong. Producers commissioning TVC work need senior visualisers with production credits, not an hourly bid. The platforms don’t surface that distinction.

How to vet portfolios

Three things to look for, in order.

Trophy work in your vertical. If you’re briefing a luxury automotive spot, you want to see frames from an automotive campaign — Bentley, Lexus, Audi, Porsche, Aston Martin. If you’re briefing FMCG with talent on camera, you want to see frames where the artist drew recognisable people. If you’re briefing sport, you want sport. The transferability between verticals is overstated. An artist who’s drawn ten car spots draws cars faster, with better camera intuition for the genre, than an artist who’s drawn ten music videos.

Consistent style. Scroll a portfolio looking for the same hand across 20 frames. Storyboard work is sometimes outsourced or assisted. You want the artist who’ll be drawing your boards, not the assistant. If the portfolio mixes three radically different visual identities, ask who drew what.

Production credits, not just illustration credits. A page that says “I’ve drawn for Coca-Cola” is different from a page that says “Storyboards for the 2024 Coca-Cola × Premier League ‘Make Your Home the Home End’ commercial directed by [Director] for [Agency], produced by [Production Company].” The second one is verifiable. The first one might mean “I once did a colour illustration for a Coke pitch deck five years ago.” Ask for the named agency, year, and director on at least two pieces in the portfolio.

What to ask in a 15-minute call

Seven questions, in this order:

1. Are you available the week of [date]? If they’re not, the rest of the call is informational only — move on.
2. What’s your day rate, and what does a typical project fee look like for a 30-second TVC? Senior commercial visualisers in the UK in 2026 sit in the £450 to £900 per day band; specialists at the top end go higher. Per YunoJuno’s 2026 benchmark, the median is closer to £600.
3. What’s your standard turnaround for a 30 / 60 / 90-second spot? You want a numeric answer, not “as soon as I can.”
4. What format do you deliver? Flat JPEG, layered PSD, PDF deck, Storyboard Pro file. Confirm before you commission, not after.
5. What’s your revisions policy? Industry standard is one round of amends included in the day rate or project fee, with additional rounds priced per half-day.
6. Can you take a rush brief if the shoot date pulls in? What’s the rush fee structure?
7. Will you sign the agency / production company NDA, and are you happy with our standard PO terms? Most artists are. The ones who aren’t will tell you in 90 seconds.

If you’re still uncertain after the call, ask for a paid test frame — one finished frame against the actual brief, paid at day-rate pro rata. A senior artist will quote a test in hours and deliver next day. Useful for high-stakes briefs.

The contract essentials

Seven clauses. None of them are optional.

1. Scope. Number of frames, format (B&W or colour), deliverable file types, named output (TVC, animatic, pitch deck).
2. Deliverables. First pass date, revisions date, final delivery date. With reasonable buffer.
3. Revisions. Number of rounds included. Cost per additional round.
4. IP. Who owns the boards. Standard for commissioned commercial work is full assignment to the commissioning party on full payment, with the artist retaining the right to display the work in their portfolio.
5. Usage. What the boards can be used for. Pre-pro, internal agency use, agency awards submissions, public marketing, social. Usage rights and ownership are separate questions in UK contract law.
6. Kill fee. What you pay if you cancel the project mid-flight. Industry norm is 50% of fee on commission, full fee if cancellation comes after first-pass delivery.
7. Payment terms. When invoicing happens, when payment is due. 50% on commission, 50% on delivery is the cleanest split. Net-30 from invoice date is standard. Agency POs sometimes push net-60 or net-90 — push back to net-30 for freelancers.

The APA publishes a model commercial production contract that covers most of this. BECTU’s freelance rate cards include guidance on day rates and additional usage. Both are worth a read before you commission for the first time.

Red flags

• No published portfolio, or a portfolio without a single named brand or production credit.
• A day rate quoted in dollars when both parties are UK-based.
• Won’t sign your NDA, won’t quote until “we’ve had a proper chat,” won’t give a turnaround estimate.
• Vague language about “deliverables” — won’t commit to a frame count or a file format.
• Asks you to brief them on what a TVC pre-pro meeting is. They’ve not worked in commercials.
• Will only quote after the brief is fully written. Senior artists quote off a one-paragraph brief plus a phone call.

Green flags

• Named-brand portfolio with year, agency, and production company credits.
• Quote within 24 hours of receiving the brief, with a one-line description of what’s included.
• Transparent pricing — a day rate, a project fee structure, a revisions policy.
• Will do a paid test frame on a high-stakes brief, quoted in hours.
• Has worked across multiple agencies and production companies, not just one. Range of relationships = senior.
• Pre-pro meeting attendance offered as standard. Some artists charge for it; most include it on the day of.

What to ask before you commit

• Have I defined the brief in one paragraph: format, length, frame count, deliverable, deadline?
• Have I got three quotes from artists with trophy work in my vertical?
• Have I checked at least two named production credits on each portfolio?
• Have I confirmed availability for the actual production window, not a hypothetical one?
• Have I locked the contract before commissioning — scope, revisions, IP, usage, kill fee, payment terms?
• Have I scheduled review slots for first pass and revisions, with the right decision-maker in the room?

Sources

1. APA — Advertising Producers Association. https://www.a-p-a.net/ (Accessed 2026-05-23). UK commercial production code of practice and standard contract terms.
2. BECTU — Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre Union. https://bectu.org.uk/ (Accessed 2026-05-23). Freelance grade structures and recommended terms for commercial production crew.
3. ScreenSkills — Storyboard Artist job profile. https://www.screenskills.com/job-profiles/browse/animation/development/storyboard-artist/ (Accessed 2026-05-23). Definition of the storyboard artist role and typical responsibilities.
4. Association of Illustrators (AOI) — Pricing guidelines. https://theaoi.com/pricing/ (Accessed 2026-05-23). Illustration and advertising rate guidance used by UK freelance visualisers.
5. YunoJuno — UK freelancer rate benchmark 2026. https://www.yunojuno.com/freelancer-rates-job-role/storyboard-artist (Accessed 2026-05-23). 2026 UK day-rate benchmark for storyboard artists in advertising production.
6. Creative Pool — UK storyboard artists directory. https://creativepool.com/storyboard-artists-in-london (Accessed 2026-05-23). UK directory used by producers and agencies sourcing storyboard artists.
7. IllustrationX — UK storyboard representation. https://www.illustrationx.com/uk/styles/storyboard (Accessed 2026-05-23). Agency representation channel for senior commercial storyboard artists.

About the author

Seb Antoniou is a London-based storyboard artist with 10+ years across Premier League, Bentley, Coca-Cola, Nike and BBC Sport campaigns. He boards for advertising agencies and production companies in the UK and globally, working from script, shot list, or a 20-minute call with the director. About →

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