One of the perennial
problems of being an illustrator is how to let art directors, designers and publishers
know about you and your work. I have my own website and a portfolio page on the AOI website to showcase previous projects and use Instagram and Twitter to
highlight sketches and work in progress. Still, trying to get seen by commissioners
is always a challenge. I have sent out postcards in the past but thought it was
time to up my game.
I’d seen
other illustrators like Owen Mathers and Willa Gebbie make their own
promotional brochures to send out and I thought it might be good to try
something new myself. I decided to work with a designer to produce a promotional piece
as I thought they could offer a fresh insight.
I chose to
work with Julia Woollams from the design agency 31% Wool. Julia is one of the
founders of ‘Croydonist’ and I always love seeing her work. We had a meeting to
discuss what type of mailer I could send and she went away to create some
concepts. I really liked one of the ideas she came up with which was for a
small notebook, with my illustrations throughout but leaving enough room for
the recipient to write notes in too.
I made a selection
of some of my drawings and Julia produced a layout for the notebook, which
after a couple of revisions, was ready to go to the printers. Julia also
suggested sending it in an interesting envelope so I researched a few different
samples and decided on my favourite. Here are some of the spreads:
I sent
about half of the notebooks out just before Christmas to existing and former
clients. They seemed to well received and I had some lovely thank you emails. With
the rest, I am researching a few new possible commissioners each week and posting
a notebook to them.
Be good to
know if you have any experience of sending out mailers or any advice about
contacting creative commissioners. Or if you are a commissioner, let me know and I'll put a notebook in the post!
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