We discussed a few things that I thought it would be great to get his input on and then thought…why don’t we just have a chat about a few topics and record our conversation.

We kept it pretty informal, with the main topics of conversation based around ‘Illustration Communities’ – how to use them, be part of them and how they can help your illustration career, along with the always hot topic of ‘Time Management’ (something Thomas and I have really had to work hard on this past year, since both becoming new fathers around the same time).

I hope you enjoy the conversation and find it helpful.

[See post to listen to audio]

Thanks again for your time Thomas

Related posts:

1. An Interview With Illustrator & EFII Mastermind Thomas James
2. The zero2illo 12 Week Challenge: Week #8.5

Branding is all about you. It involves the way you write about yourself, the way you talk about yourself, and the way you promote yourself. Often it is hard to imagine illustrators as a brand, but they are. Your name, style, marketing method, and online presence say a lot about who you are in the creative corner of the world we call illustration. Your voice and persona help you stand out from the rest of the creative pack and makes you unique as illustrators. You need to approach things differently then say a company or corporation. Allow yourself to have creative freedom, it’s a must in this industry. You may all be freelancers and work for yourselves but you still need to make yourselves recognizable and promote yourselves the best way you can. Some of us work very simply, some have small budgets and others are quite content to stay in our studios all day while marketing online. It all depends on what works for you and what is important to you when it comes to your marketing efforts.

Simply put, it’s your approach plus your creative package that makes you marketable. Your icon/logo, website, blog, style of work, networking, and the ability to talk and write about yourself is what sells it. Things to consider when approaching your branding and promotion are:

Your Image

Make yourself memorable. Your promotion efforts are a good start when considering this. In order to be recognizable you need to make sure you are covering all your creative angles. Many illustrators have a unique distinctive style that sets them apart. This can be achieved by how you display your work online on a website portfolio and the type of work you do. If style is something that you worry about then start with a theme. Often this is the quickest way to create similar work to promote yourself. This theme can be determined on what market you would like to advertise. There is no sense in having images of animals in your portfolio if the market you wish to work in is fashion illustration. Remember your style helps folks remember how you want the creative world to see what it is you create.

Your Target Audience

The best way to pin point this is to ask yourself these questions:

• Who is your ideal client?
• Who is your dream client?
• Who would you be sending your work to?
• Who would be interested in what you do?

Once you have determined the answers then compose a list of contacts. This information should include their contact name, their email, their mailing address and phone number. Add to it and update it often to keep on track.

Your Online Presence

Having an online presence is one of the most important ways to get yourself out there. Despite the risks of having your work online, it’s still important to make your portfolio accessible while making sure you keep it safe as much as you can. Your website can spotlight a portfolio, your biography, contact information and other important information that prospects want to see such as; a client list, education, spotlights and the markets you work in.

Your blog is a great way to illustrate in a journal style where you can highlight your latest projects, spotlights, works in progress and entries that involve your thoughts on what you do and the business of illustration. Community sites such as Illustration Friday, Escape From Illustration Island and Sugar Frosted Goodness helps you stay involved. These sites can motivate, keep you informed and lets you get involved.

Other networking sites such as LinkedIn, Jacketflap and Facebook can also be used to promote yourself. If you are on these sites as a way to promote yourself be as professional as possible. Remember to keep your brand memorable and make sure you are portraying yourself as your best creative self. Best not to post those pics from last weekend’s party just in case!

Your Marketing Slogan

If you could sum up what you do in a quick sentence, what would it be? A good approach is to go online and look for like-minded creative’s who have great branding styles. Good examples of brands that are recognizable are:

• Holly DeWolf illustration: a handmade experience
• Claudine Hellmuth: Hip art for playful hearts.
• Jeff Fisher Logomotives engineers innovative graphic identity solutions in helping businesses and organizations to get, and stay, on the right track.

Your Title

Do you have a title other than ‘Illustrator’? You can get creative and go beyond the obvious. One way to approach it is having a creative nickname, something that says you in a distinct way or add something that interests you. Some of my favourites are: Ilise Benum is the Marketing Mentor, Colby Nelson is also known as Colby Sunshine, Jannie Ho is also known as Chicken Girl.

Your Logo

A logo or avatar online helps you stand out. Your logo can be placed on business cards, stationary, your website, postcards, and invoices. When online having a recognizable avatar of a professional photograph or illustrated image will be a great addition to help get you recognized on online groups, forums and blogs.

Your Talking & Writing Approach

It’s really important to be able to describe what you do especially in those ‘on the spot’ moments. Sometimes life throws you questions at the oddest times. You maybe in an elevator but questions have a way of filling in space when we are not always ready. Rise to the challenge. There are times when you will need short explanations of what you do. Other times you may need a longer approach. Look at it as educating someone on what you do. A little information can go a long way.

Your Networking Approach

Often we need to escape the confines of our studio spaces to see the light of day. Its nice to surf online for business sake but it’s also nice to surf the real world too. An escape to consider is networking with other creative like-minded souls. This is where you can practice your verbal skills and talk about yourself and what you do. The nice thing about doing this is the more you do it the better you get at it. Look at it as practice. They don’t have to be strangers for long. It all comes down to changing your perception.

Your Expertise

If you love illustration, then write about it, talk about it, talk about the good things, write about what interests you, and contribute. Many feel they have no voice or they have not been in the business long enough to contribute. If you are in it, studying it, working in it, love it then you have a voice. This not only helps give you a professional voice but also establishes you as expert while helping you make a name for yourself.

Lastly, it’s up to you on how you add personality to your product plus the creative experience you bring with it. Over time, your brand or image will develop and change. Keep in mind, you are creative. So that means you are always going to be in a state of creative reinvention. Branding can be looked at as creative promotional play. Step out of the norm, step out of your creative shell and enjoy the process!

About Holly

Holly DeWolf is an illustrator, author, teacher and mentor. Her work is a whimsical mix of colour and detail that works well in the editorial to children’s publishing markets. Holly recently released her first book Breaking Into Freelance Illustration: the guide for artists, designers an illustrators published by How Books. She currently resides in New Brunswick, Canada.

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The following post is from professional cartoonist Carlos Castellanos >>>

It can’t be overstated how important defining your purpose, values and mission are in developing and maintaining a success mindset.

Don’t think Purpose, Mission and Value statements are only for large businesses either.

‘WHY’ you do what you do, and the results and benefits clients will get from working with you versus someone else will be key in determining your value to your clients.  Sure, they may hire you based on your unique artistic style alone. But I suggest you couple that with a value centered message your target clients will connect with on a deeper level.

Chances are your prospective ideal clients have purpose, values and mission statements of their own. Read what they are and reflect that in your communications with them, but be genuine.

How do you find out this information? Visit their website.

Beyond deciding on the kind of work you want to produce and the market or clients you want to produce it for, how do you feel about the work you do?

You are Not Just Selling Art – My own experience:

When I first started freelancing, my target market was local ad agencies and design firms.  While I didn’t have a specific art style or subject matter that I worked in, my focus was to offer as many illustrative services as I was competently capable of delivering to the lucrative advertising market.

My value centric reason for my choosing this market?

• Purpose and mission -I took pride in being a visual problem solver for clients working in challenging environments, who could count on me to deliver quality work, under tight deadlines and would value and appreciate my services.
• Value – I enjoyed great satisfaction making sure that my clients experience working with me was a pleasurable one. I took an active interest in their projects, asked the right questions, delivered what was expected, when was expected and went the extra mile whenever possible to make their work life less stressful by working with me.
• The money – This one is part of my own personal value system. Not a popular motivation some creative types would want to hear me state, but it’s the truth. Fees were much higher in this market than say editorial or publishing work. If there was going to be any chance of my succeeding and making a go of this full-time and cover my bills, this was a no brainer for me.
• Project diversity – As an illustrator, I was quite versatile and enjoyed working on a wide variety of work, from story boards, product illustrations, airbrush, humor illustration and cartooning. Again, a no brainer for me.

Working under pressure suited my personality. I worked well in the demanding, fast-paced advertising environment.  That versatility gave me the advantage to prosper as a freelancer in my LOCAL market.

While I no longer just work locally, and I now specialize in humor illustration and cartooning, can you see how this approach clearly helped me in attracting the quality clients I most wanted to work most?

The better you are able to identify your potential clients mission and deeper purpose and show them how it resonates with your own, the more likely you are to make connections, experience success and satisfaction in your working partnerships.

Here’s a few more questions you may find helpful in developing your own mission and value statements.

• How much money do you want to earn? Be specific.
• What about your work makes you the happiest?
• How important is balancing work and family?
• At the end of the day, what benefits do your clients REALLY get from working with you?
• What benefits can you offer that your competitors don’t?
• Of all the competitor in my field, what do I offer that they do not?
• What other personal or professional experience do you bring to the table that may be of value to your client?

Note: Even if you assume that most of your competition offers the same value and benefits as you. You’ll find that many don’t bother to to mention them. So even if you offer the same advantages and benefits, if they aren’t mentioning them, and you are, you’ll be ahead on the connection game.

“Your compensation is directly related to the size of problems you can solve or emotional void you can fill”.
Unknown

I believe there’s often a perception among artists that you have to wait around for others to recognize and approve your work, to grant you opportunities. The limiting and even debilitating belief/mindset that your career and your life depend on waiting for others discovering your greatness is something I strive to correct.

Ultimately it up to YOU to identify the deeper value in what you offer, locate the most responsive market for your work, and market your ass off to get your work in front of as many of them constantly and consistently with the right work, the right message and a solid reason for using you versus someone else.

I look forward to the many success stories that will surely come out of this 12 week challenge.

Bio

Carlos Castellanos is an Illustrator/cartoonist with over 25 years of creative services experience working with Ad agencies, book publishers and editorial clients.

He is co-creator and artist of the nationally syndicated newspaper comic strip ‘Baldo’ America’s favorite Latino comic strip. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate to over 250 daily and Sunday newspapers. Author of two ‘Baldo’ compilation books and executive producer of the ‘Baldo’ animated television series and expert on Hispanic Marketing.

He also has a profoundly passionate about helping ambitious freelance illustration artists discover how to attract Better Clients, charge Higher Fees and discover their bigger purpose via his web site. You can also follow Carlos on Twitter.

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5: Ask Questions

It’s easy to be intimidated by those illustrators whose work and careers you admire – thinking that they wouldn’t give you, a lowly aspiring illustrator, the time of day.

Don’t let this put you off – all of the established illustrators I have approached so far have been warm, friendly and only too happy to answer my questions. Some of the illustrators I’ve approached have also been kind enough to give me a thorough critique of my work too.

Not everyone will be super helpful and you may find, as I have, that on social networking sites like Twitter, Illustrators sometimes band together and can be a little cliquey – but don’t let this put you off, for all those people I’ve encountered I’ve also connected with 10 times as many illustrators that are only too happy to share their experience.

(NOTE: Asking questions is great, but be sure to give back too – platforms like Twitter shouldn’t be just about what you can get. Sharing the tips and experience that you’ve gathered on your journey with other aspiring illustrators is just as important.)

Remember, it’s also always a nice ego boost when someone likes your work and values your opinion enough to contact you for advice – your email may just make their day!

6: Illustrations Commissions Aren’t The Only Way To Earn A Living From Illustration

For a long time I’ve been of the mind set that to make it as an Illustrator you need to be at the mercy of Art Directors and land a steady string of commissions, but this isn’t the only way to make a living as an Illustrator.

There are many avenues to sell your work directly to your target market through sites like Red Bubble, Etsy and Cafe Press.

You could also look into licensing your illustrations for use on greetings cards, wrapping paper, clothing, jigsaws etc. There are lots of opportunities out there to build a steady stream of passive income, allowing your illustrations to continue to earn you money long after they have been created.

Recently I’ve been looking at ways to take control of my career and income by creating my own markets for the illustrations I produce. I’ve been working hard on some custom illustrations and will be launching this new venture via a website next month.

I’ll be following the website launch with an in depth article on this blog discussing my approach, including the ’1000 true fans’ principle (more on this in the article).

The lesson to learn here, is to be creative and think outside of the box to find an audience and market for your work in this modern digital age – consider all of the options available to you.

7 Network:

If you, like me, are a bit shy about blowing your own trumpet and marketing yourself and your work….GET OVER IT!!!

This isn’t easy and I’m still learning, but through this blog, using twitter, setting up a Facebook page for my work, creating tutorials for other websites and approaching other illustrators, I’m starting to get my name out there.

It’s amazing how many of our website design clients (the day job) think that as soon as their website is live, thousands of people will flock to their website, which in turn will lead to thousands of pounds/dollars of business. But if no one knows your site exists, no one is going to visit it.

I’m not going to lie, this networking lark is hard work and not something that you just do once. Networking is something that needs to be a core part of your marketing efforts, but in time, if you put the hours in – it will pay off.

8: Collaborate With The Right People Or Just Do It Yourself

Collaborations can be great when you have a shared vision, you are both highly motivated and both parties bring equally to the table. Unfortunately (or fortunately, as I have now learned this lesson) when these things don’t align, it can be an energy draining experience and a big waste of time.

As the life of an illustrator is a solitary one, it’s easy to get swept away in the excitement of working on a collaboration, but ask yourself one question: Is this collaboration taking you closer or further away from your ultimate goal?

I learned this the hard way and wasted countless hours before decided to severe the cord and focus solely on reaching my own illustration goals.

I hope that through sharing the lessons that I have learned so far, it might help you guys avoid some of the mistakes I have made – and of course, if you have any lessons of your own to add, please do share them in the comments

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This is something that has been in the pipeline for a while now, but have only just heard from the author when the official release date will be.

Website addresses will be featured along side each illustrators work, so it will be interesting to see if the exposure results in any commissions – I’ll be sure to keep you updated.

You may be interested to know that I was approached to be featured in the book after the authors researchers found my work on Illustration Friday, having illustrated one of their weekly topics.

Taking part in weekly challenges like those on Illustration Friday is not only fun, a great way to practice and create new portfolio pieces – you also never know who else is watching!

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