The conversation room of the Internal Service Department is not the interrogation room of Scotland Yard, and naturally it is certainly not possible to engage in handcuffs, incandescent lamps, and restraint chairs.

After the fat assistant walked in the door,

I found that there is no essential difference between this place and the common office occasion, except that the wall painting is whiter. There is a round table with fruit bowls in the conversation room, and there is even a pothos potted plant in the corner.

The back office department is not just asking the fat assistant alone.

Deputy Director Schubert was already sitting at the table by this time.

Seeing the fat assistant come in, Schubert just glanced up at him, and then continued to silently deal with the bunch of grapes in the fruit bowl.

"Director Charlie, Deputy Director Schubert, and Assistant Cole, since both sides of the interview have arrived, if you all have no opinion, let's get started."

When Charlie, who was holding a cigar, entered the room and closed the door, an uncle with a Chinese face sat at the table, looking at the three people opposite.

Osborne's rank is so high that unless authorized by the Board of Directors, the back office is not qualified to interview people.

"Director Charlie, do you have anything to say about your submission about the illustrator Detective Cat's disciplinary conduct in obtaining the contract for Scholastic's The Little Prince, which caused significant property damage to the group?"

The person in charge of the national character face glanced at Director Charlie.

"I demand that this project be stopped, that the relevant discipline violators be held accountable, that they be fired, and that they be called to the police."

Now that you have come to the back office,

Charlie didn't want to leave any room to maneuver. He expressed his appeal coldly and ferociously like a lion king dealing with wild dogs running around in his territory.

"As for the detective cat, I ask to revoke the relevant contract, and join the group's internal blacklist of artists, and never cooperate."

The fat assistant shrank his neck in fear when he heard this.

Blacklist!

Director Charlie is clearly determined to put to death anyone who dares to stir up trouble in his territory.

He must have hated this detective cat in his heart.

It's a ban!

Generally, only painters with a bad track record who plagiarize, have a serious breach of contract, or have other intolerable stains on their resumes are added to Scholastic's blacklist.

Being added to the blacklist means that in the future, any commercial activities related to publishing houses will be closed to detective cats, and even a piece of paper will not be handed over to the other party.

And that's not even the worst part.

It is true that the major publishing groups are in competition, but the blacklist of bad artists within the industry is sometimes universal.

It's like Silicon Valley Internet companies are on the blacklist of the HR alliance and it's easy to find any jobs.

If you're not a well-known illustrator and hear that you've been blacklisted by Scholastic, you'll be rejected by other companies as well.

A career path is the equivalent of a direct death sentence.

"Mr. Charlie, do you have any proof?"

Hearing Charlie's appeal, the person in charge of Guozi Face neither agreed nor vetoed, but just asked expressionlessly.

"What more evidence is needed? Isn't that obvious? What level of painter is the Vellein studio, and what kind of bullshit artist is the detective cat. But if there is no insider trading, why would the contract fall into the hands of the detective cat. ”

Charlie stomped his fingers holding the cigar on the round table, and said in a mocking tone: "She also deserves such a big contract?" ”

The Vellein studio is already a first-line illustration studio.

He has designed posters for Hollywood A-grade animated films, and has a long-term cooperative relationship with the Scholastic Group because of Charlie, and has won a series of illustration advertising design awards, including the publishing group's own [Master Award for Outstanding Contribution to Writing and Art], which is considered a top illustration studio.

From the very beginning, the Scholastic Group has operated the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, the most prestigious art awards in the United States.

The history of the publishing house is built around this award, which has been around for 100 years since the first edition in 1923.

This award was originally an art award specifically for teenagers.

On average, more than 300,000 different submissions from students aged 13-18 can be received each year, and the probability of winning the gold medal is only 1 in 10,000.

Later, the publishing group added a master group award for adult artists in addition to the youth awards.

This is similar to many international art exhibitions, but the difficulty of winning awards is not even a star and a half than that of ordinary art exhibitions, and the gold content is also higher.

Cao Lao asked Gu Weijing to win an award at the Lion City Art Exhibition, which was harsh, but it was not completely impossible.

As far as the promise of "becoming a closed disciple of the painting master Cao Xuan" is concerned, if it were not for Gu Weijing's young age, it would actually be a very relaxed condition.

Lion City Art Exhibition, Magic City Art Exhibition, Gyeongseong Art Exhibition, Osaka Art Exhibition, Seoul Art Exhibition, ...... There are more than a dozen or twenty large-scale international art exhibitions in Asia alone, and there are only a few painters who have won awards in each art exhibition, which is quite a few in the whole of Asia, let alone the whole world.

For people who really have the ambition to become a big artist, winning this kind of award is just the beginning of a career.

How many Asian painters who won awards in the master group, even if they just wanted to ask Cao Lao some questions in person, did not have a chance.

But Scholastic's Masters of Writing and Art Award is not a concept.

This is the sanctuary of the Temple of Illustration.

The top of the mountains, the king of kings.

The awards are announced in June each year, and the best writers and illustrators are selected to present the awards.

There are only five places in the world, four [Master Awards for Outstanding Contributions to Writing and Art] and the only one [Master Award for Outstanding Contributions to Writing and Art] every year.

The Master Award for Outstanding Contribution is one of the most important awards in the illustration world, only slightly inferior to the old Hans Christian Andersen Award, but not far behind.

If you really want to compare, the former may not be as serious as the latter.

To take a more general example, there is a slight gap between the Goncourt Prize (the oldest and grandest literary prize) in France, the Commonwealth Prize (the highest honor in English-language literature) and the Nobel Prize in Literature.

For 99% of illustrators, it's just the incredible difference between the incredible and the unimaginable.

Past winners include Andy Warhol, J. K Rowling, Stephen King, Jane Arnold, George RR Martin and other well-known masters of the literary circle.

The [Outstanding Contribution Award] with four places is a little worse, but it is also an extremely valuable art award.

You must know that in addition to senior painters, there are many famous writers competing for these four places.

The Scholastic Group is a publishing group that prefers best-selling authors to award awards to illustrators.

For more than half a century, only five painting artists, including Jane Arnaud and Andy Warhol, have won the Outstanding Contribution Award.

Jane Arnaud was the only one to receive both the Hans Christian Andersen Award and the Masters of Writing and Art Award for Outstanding Contributions.

Even the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Masters of Writing and Art for Outstanding Contribution were awarded to Patrick Modiano (2014 Nobel Laureate) and Heinrich Boll (1972 Nobel Laureate).

This shows how rare it is.

It was also on the basis of more than ten years of cooperation with the publishing house that the Vellein studio won the Outstanding Contribution Award in the past few years.

"Oh? It was the Willein studio that was supposed to take over the project. ”

The tone of the person in charge of the national character face fluctuated slightly, and he lowered his head and flipped through the folder in his hand.

Sure enough, he found a copy of Charlie's pre-communication email between the Fine Arts Department and the Welllein studio about the content of the "Little Prince" project.

These letters of intent have no legal effect until a formal contract is signed, but it is enough to prove that what Director Charlie said is true.

The person in charge turned out to be a detective in the Commercial Investigation Bureau of Scotland Yard, and was later hired by the publishing house to take charge of the group's internal service department.

Even if he is not a professional artist, he has a clear understanding of the gold content of the prestigious "Writing and Art Master Award" within the group.

It is no exaggeration to say that

The resume and experience of this female painter, who is only a little famous on the Internet, and not all of them have a good reputation, is not at all comparable to the resume and experience of the studio of Weillein.

Like children and Hercules, it's not in the same order of magnitude at all.

The behavior of the group's top management handing over the contract to the detective cat really doesn't make sense.

From the artistic attainments alone,

With the endorsement of the Master Award, the Vellein Studio is not even much worse than a top illustrator like Van Doorne, what is lacking is just the opportunity for Van Doorne to break the circle in the fashion circle and make money every day.

"It's really suspicious. Why would the project team agree to give this opportunity to a ...... IMHO...... Is there simply any evidence that she is qualified to take on such a big project as a web artist? ”

The person in charge of the national character face leaned forward slightly, and his tone was hard and cold.

In criminal psychology, such an offensive psychological posture can increase the psychological burden of suspects, so that many white-collar criminals with weak psychological tolerance do not confess themselves.

He forced his gaze at Deputy Director Schubert and the fat assistant at the round table,

Mostly fat assistants.

The internal service department chose the fat assistant as the interlocutor instead of the supervisor, not only because he is the first person in charge of communicating with the illustrator detective cat, but also because these low-level employees who have just joined the company have little social experience and are more likely to be broken through the heart defense.

"I ...... I do not know. ”

Sure enough, as expected by the person in charge, the fat assistant was very nervous at this time, with a circle of sweat on his round face and a shaking of his chin.

He's not stupid.

can make the supervisor and vice president operate in such an illegal manner, and there is no inside information in it, which I don't believe.

"Fat boy, the group's marketing department expects the sales of "The Little Prince" to be 300,000 copies in the first year, and the hardcover price of each book is about 20 euros, which is 6 million euros, which is only the expected sales in the first year."

Charlie stared at the fat assistant viciously: "What about two years, three years, ten years?" One million copies is 20 million euros, and three million copies is a fucking 60 million euros! ”

“Sixty! million! euros!”

The director was word-by-word, and saliva sprayed on the fat assistant's face.

"The expected income of 60 million euros was disturbed by a garbage painter. You can take this responsibility! Think clearly, you have to carry this pot, how many years you have to go to prison for your boss!"

The person in charge glanced at Director Charlie, he knew that the amount of commercial crime was not calculated in this way, but the person in charge did not mind scaring the young assistant.

The fat assistant was obviously panicked, and he lowered his head: "I didn't commit a crime, I just did what my boss told me." ”

"Oh, what did your boss tell you to do?" The person in charge immediately asked.

The fat assistant was silent again, and was fighting in his mind.

"Well, he's just an assistant, don't scare the young man."

Deputy Director Schubert, who had always been silent, suddenly opened his mouth at this time to clear the siege.

"Why Detective Cat, you should ask President Osborne. As for the rest, we just do things according to the company's rules. ”

Charlie turned his head sharply and glared angrily at Deputy Director Schubert.

In response, Schubert spat out a few grape seeds in his mouth at Charlie's expressionless face.

Trouble to the internal service department, or the contract continues, and he has a firm foothold in the art department, or they will get out together, and there is no way out.

The deputy director who was out of the way also hardened.

"From the time the sample was uploaded to the time it was filed, it stayed in the public background for less than 10 seconds, which is also considered compliant. Knife painting? The bullshit knife painting can pass the review of the art department, is this doing things according to the rules? ”

Charlie smiled whimsily.

He originally asked for a test draft of the Detective Cat.

As a result, as soon as the "Little Prince" project team sent the sample to the backstage of the art department, it was taken away by Schubert, a second and fifth boy, with permission.

He didn't even see the fur of the detective cat sample.

Charlie almost blew up.

I only found the external notes of the sample on the history in the background of the system, and the subject category on it reads "Knife Painting".

"How to draw a fool."

How long has it been since the Scholastic Group has worked on knife illustrations?

Charlie felt that even if he didn't deliberately card her, the detective cat would not pass the review of the art department according to the standard.

Seeing this classification marking, Charlie even equated the oil painting level of the detective cat with some half-hung liars in his heart.

As long as it is a knife painting, her work is definitely not much better.

This is also the confidence that he dares to make a big fuss.

A mediocre relationship artist has obtained some high-quality contracts that don't match his ability, which is not news in the illustration world at all.

As long as you don't put it on the table.

"I've been working hard every day, and I just happened to see a reminder from the background message."

Schubert said slowly: "As for knife painting, when did the company stipulate that knife painting does not belong to the category of illustration drafts?" I thought she was very good at drawing. ”

"Work hard every day? Do you play darts at work? Charlie was amused, "It's good to draw a knife?" Don't be funny, there are a few people who can draw with a knife. ”

If only this sample was made by a professional knife artist like Professor Boggs at the Brooklyn School of Art.

Charlie now turned around and left.

Can be a web painter......

"The detective cat is very well drawn, are you right in your conscience?" He scoffed.

(End of chapter)