15 insider secrets for industry success
12 The Professional Photoshop Book
- PURSUE PERSONAL PROJECTS
It is important that you keep doing personal projects, as well as commercial work if you
want to become a success in your industry – it is the best way to develop your skills and
build your portfolio. This is something that works for graphic designer and digital artist
Nikita Gill (www.nikitagill.co.uk): “The most important thing as a creative is to keep
yourself inspired. This is imperative to the way you create both on a professional level, as
well as a personal level. Creating for fun purposes, or just because you feel inspired, is how
you keep your ideas fresh, new and prevent your skill set from getting rusty, and add more
to your quiver of metaphorical arrows of creativity. A lot of the skills I have acquired were
from experimenting with colours and ideas in software just because I liked the idea.
Implementing them in client work was then easy.”
10. SELL MERCHANDISE
There is an array of websites that are aimed at giving designers the chance to
sell their designs as t-shirts, without having to source the products or deal
with the sales procedure. This can be a good way to make a little extra
money from your personal work.
Freelance illustrator Ben White has a store through the popular Design by
Humans (www.designby humans.com/shop/nvlnvl/): “These sites are
really a massive win for artists and designers, offering a way to both
showcase your work and sell a range of products without the complexity and
overheads. If you have work suitable to these products and a little time to
spare, there aren’t really any reasons to not set up a profile and potentially
earn some extra money.” However, there are so many designers and
products that you are not guaranteed to make money, so it’s best to be
aware before jumping in.
“There are no assumptions for success. There are a couple of sites
where I have maybe ten designs, but the overwhelming majority of sales
come from one or two. These got picked up on somewhere like Tumblr or
Pinterest and I think there is an element of luck in that, which you can’t
engineer! There are people who can very successfully promote and
market their products for online stores, and if you’re looking to generate a
serious revenue stream then investing some time in promotion (and
networking) is going to be essential to making it happen. Keep your
designs up to date and make sure you add new products when the sites
make them available to maximise your sales too.”
© Nikita Gill 2013© Ben White 2015- CHOOSE AND WORK
WITH THE RIGHT AGENT
You don’t have to have an agent to make a success of yourself within the industry, but it is
something that could be worth considering, especially as you build up a strong client
portfolio. Mélanie Delon (www.melaniedelon.com) talks about the benefits of having an
agent (she uses one for Europe and one for North America): “I don’t think this is essential;
you can find contracts and clients without an agent. This implies additional work –
agencies generally have a large address book and it’s quite long and difficult to build it
alone – but it’s possible!
“The positive thing is to work as a team; as a freelancer you’re often alone behind your
computer, so having an agency can break this solitude. They also facilitate dialogue with the
customer, knowing exactly what they want. Some contracts are not easy to achieve and the
agency provides support and advice. Finding a good agency is not [an] easy task; some offer
exclusive contracts where it is no longer possible to accept your own contracts, and some
others are more flexible. I would say that it is better to choose one where there are not too
many artists, as these agencies have more time to give to each illustrator. The main thing is
to feel good about it and develop a great relationship [and] teamwork.”
© Mélanie Delon