Calling All Human Artists

The robots have had enough airtime.

Aussienaut is looking for cartoonists, illustrators, graphic designers, animators and professional doodlers to help create original artwork for Aussienaut Store merchandise.

We need cartoons, graphics, mission designs, questionable space jokes and the sort of Australian artwork that makes someone stop scrolling and think:

“That’s ridiculous. I need it on a shirt.”

Your work could appear on T-shirts, hoodies, mugs, stickers, bags, mission merchandise and anything else capable of surviving both atmospheric re-entry and a standard washing-machine cycle.

Human-made artwork only

Let’s get this bit out of the way before somebody asks a chatbot to draw a kangaroo astronaut with seven fingers. We are looking for original artwork created by real human artists.

Digital illustration is absolutely welcome. Use Illustrator, Photoshop, Procreate, a graphics tablet, pencils, paint, crayons or the back of a rejected launch permit. What we are not accepting is generative AI artwork.

That includes:

  • complete images generated by AI;

  • AI-generated elements dropped into an otherwise original design;

  • AI artwork traced and presented as human-made;

  • prompting a machine with “make it more Australian” until it adds a kangaroo, an Akubra and six unnecessary Southern Crosses.

AI can produce several hundred astronauts before smoko. What it cannot produce is your individual style, lived experience, terrible sense of humour or inexplicable decision to give a rocket a mullet.

That is the good stuff we want.

What we’re looking for

We are especially interested in:

  • Australian space-industry cartoons;

  • cheeky launch and mission humour;

  • illustrated rockets, satellites and spacecraft;

  • engineers, technicians and ground crews doing clever things in inconvenient places;

  • retro Australian space posters;

  • mission-patch concepts;

  • outback launch scenes;

  • space-related characters and mascots;

  • bold typography and sarcastic slogans;

  • designs celebrating Australian engineering;

  • artwork that looks good on merchandise rather than only on a 47-inch design monitor.

Professional artists are welcome. Emerging artists are welcome. Students are welcome. Hobbyists are welcome. Former graphic designers now trapped inside corporate PowerPoint presentations are particularly welcome. A formal art qualification is not required. Talent, originality and the ability to meet an agreed brief matter more than a certificate gathering dust in a cupboard.

Yes, there is some money involved

Let’s avoid the traditional creative-industry routine where somebody offers an artist “great exposure” and then mysteriously sends them seventeen rounds of revisions. Exposure is what happens when you forget sunscreen at an outback launch site. Selected commissioned projects will include an agreed form of payment. The amount and payment structure may vary according to the brief, complexity, intended use and available campaign budget.

The payment attached to a project will be explained before you accept the work. No mystery. No awkward surprise at the end. No payment in expired discount codes, inspirational LinkedIn posts or half a n eaten packet of Tim Tams. The financial payment may sometimes be modest. Aussienaut is covering the Australian space industry, not digging iron ore out of Western Australia. However, the commitment to properly crediting the artist will not be modest.

Your name stays attached to your work

In an increasingly AI-generated world, we want people to know that an actual person created the artwork they are wearing. Every selected design will include prominent artist accreditation wherever reasonably possible.

That may include:

  • “Designed by [Artist Name]” on the product page;

  • a link to your website, portfolio or nominated social account;

  • accreditation in social-media posts launching the design;

  • artist credit in campaign material featuring the artwork;

  • permission to display the completed design in your own portfolio;

  • an artist profile or feature through Aussienaut channels;

  • inclusion in a dedicated Meet the Artists section;

  • a Human-Made Artwork statement confirming that generative AI was not used.

Where a platform limits the amount of information that can be shown, the artist will still be credited through the closest practical accompanying page or post. We do not want artwork appearing anonymously as though it drifted out of the algorithmic void. A human made it. The human gets named. Fairly revolutionary stuff.

How it works

1. Show us what you do

Send us a portfolio, website, social account or several examples of your existing work. You do not need to create a finished custom design before contacting us. We are looking for your style and ideas—not free speculative work disguised as an application process.

2. We find the right brief

If your style suits an upcoming design, campaign or product, we will contact you with a proper brief.

It will explain:

  • what is being created;

  • where it may be used;

  • the required file formats;

  • approximate dimensions;

  • the deadline;

  • the revision process;

  • the proposed payment;

  • how you will be credited; and

  • the proposed usage and licensing terms.

3. We agree before you start

Scope, payment, attribution, usage rights and timing will be agreed in writing before commissioned work begins.

Because relying on “No worries, mate” is not a complete contract-management system.

4. You create the artwork

This is where you do the clever bit.

We provide feedback without turning the process into a seventeen-person design committee debating whether the rocket should be 2.4 millimetres further to the left.

5. We launch it

The finished design goes onto the agreed merchandise or campaign material with your name attached.

We launch the product.

Possibly also a rocket.

Results may vary.

What happens to your rights?

Submitting a portfolio or concept does not automatically transfer ownership of your artwork to Aussienaut. Unselected work will not be printed, sold or commercially used without your permission. For selected artwork, the agreed licence, permitted uses, payment and accreditation arrangements will be documented before commercial use begins. Artists must submit work they created themselves and have the legal right to license.

Please do not send:

  • copied artwork;

  • modified commercial clip art without the appropriate licence;

  • copyrighted entertainment characters;

  • somebody else’s logo with a rocket added;

  • material that is hateful, defamatory or discriminatory;

  • generative AI artwork;

  • designs “inspired by” another artist so closely that their lawyer is the one who is inspired….

Original work only. Less paperwork for everyone.

Artists from everywhere are welcome

Australian artists are strongly encouraged to apply.

Artists outside Australia are also welcome, provided you understand that:

  • a thong is footwear;

  • a servo is not a small robot;

  • “yeah, nah” and “nah, yeah” mean different things;

  • not every Australian design requires a koala, crocodile or huntsman spider (think outside the wildlife box to cockatoo, frill-necked lizard or bunyip…the last one’s a head-scratcher so look it up…we’ll wait);

  • and “she’ll be right” is apparently still accepted as an informal national risk-management framework.

Most importantly, you need to be able to bring your own ideas and personality to the work.

What should you send?

Please include:

  • your name;

  • your location;

  • your email address;

  • a link to your portfolio or website;

  • your relevant social-media handles;

  • three to six examples of your work;

  • the types of artwork you enjoy creating;

  • your preferred illustration style;

  • your usual fee range or payment expectations;

  • whether you are interested in one-off commissions or ongoing briefs;

  • confirmation that the examples supplied are your own work; and

  • a brief explanation of why Australian space deserves better merchandise.

You are also welcome to include a rough idea for an Aussienaut design. A paragraph or sketch is enough. Please do not spend three weeks producing a finished masterpiece before we have spoken. That is how people end up upset, tired and questioning why they gave a satellite a moustache.

Help put more into Australian space

Australian space is full of engineers, technicians, researchers, manufacturers, launch crews, educators, communicators and enthusiastic people standing in remote paddocks staring hopefully at the sky.

It should have artists in it too. So, if you can draw, design, illustrate or turn a terrible Australian space joke into something people might voluntarily wear in public, send us your work. You may be exactly the human we are looking for.

Submit your portfolio

No generative AI. No unpaid surprises. No promises of artistic dignity. [SUBMIT YOUR PORTFOLIO, HUMAN]

Already wearing something from the store? No? …and WHY NOT?!?!?! [VISIT AUSSIENAUT.STORE] …and work out if you want to be a part of people wearing your art.