Another artist on DeviantArt recently asked me for promotional advice being an illustrator or designer.  The following is, from the experiences I’ve had, and passed on from other people I know, the best I had to offer at the time.  Hope it helps someone out there!

So,

For getting consistent work as an illustrator you’re going to have to start out slow.  The first misconception a person needs to get over is that if they want to be a full time illustrator and can just dive in and have a ton of work right off the bat.  This isn’t how the industry works, especially for freelance (except for the rare cases where someone is mind blowingly amazing and everyone wants work with them).  A lot of times if a magazine uses you, they use you once for that month, and you may be lucky if they call you again.  So, using that as a template for the rest of the industry, you have to constantly be searching out new work.

The postcard method is a very effective way of getting people to notice you.  Not buy into you, but notice you.  If your work still isn’t up to snuff or doesn’t fit the business or client you’ve sent it to, then they still aren’t going to contact you!  The point of the postcard and business card is to give clients something physical to hold onto.  They go to your webpage or deviantart, and so what?  There’s 100 more tabs open with people just as amazing if not better, and there’s a thousand times more files saved onto the art director’s computer, what’s going to make him choose you?  Giving him a hard copy of some of your work helps!  It has to be something with content, one of your best pieces, both in technical merit and in conceptual.  If they like it, they put it up in their cubicle or on a wall or whatever.  Either way, the point is that they see you first and they can hold you in their hand.  You can print out around 250 or so for $40 or $50 at www.aladdinprint.com which is the best deal I have ever even heard of.  They have free shipping, and I swear by them.  That’s the cheapest advertising you’re going to get.  Then all you have to do is mail them out to different companies or clients you are interested in doing work for.  As for where you get the addresses… you can browse around on the web to your favorite magazines and websites and find the contact for their art director or art department, or pick up the magazine or work in person and see if its been printed in it or on it, or there are super expensive books that you can buy that have addresses in them as well.  I’ve never looked much into the books though, they’re expensive and so many people do it that I’m not as interested.  Send your cards to other people you know when you have extras as well.  You never know who knows who that needs what done for who.

If you make a business card or a postcard the important thing for an artist or designer is to put a sample of your work on the actual card, like I said.  From there, you must have your contact information, and a website where they can see more work.  Deviantart accounts are great for personal use, but in my experience is it considered an industry taboo to send a potential client to your DeviantArt page.  So, if you don’t have a website, that is also very important.

What do you put on your website though?  This place that you should constantly be sending people?  First and foremost, you want an easily updated gallery for your best work (best work only), and a blog which you should try to update as often as possible (which most of us rarely find the time to do).  For gallery software, I find zenphoto to be one of the best, and for blogs, wordpress is one of the most customizable and best solutions out there as well, although a blogger account would work as well.  Zenphoto and WordPress also have a few plugins and dunctions out though that allow you to use them together.  I have heard art directors in person say that when they watch artists on the internet for consideration to do work they will often stop watching the person’s blog and website entirely if they don’t update at least 2 or 3 times a week.  One guy even said he got picky about the person’s work ethic if they weren’t posting in a sketchblog every single day.  From what I can tell, this is potentially just a scare tactic.  It is important to update your blog as often as possible, but the MOST important thing is to practice, practice, practice, and put your absolute best work on your website.  From there, put your website in your deviantart signature, in your signature on forums, on your postcards, on your business cards, at the bottom of your e-mails, and so on.  What you’re doing is making a large network of advertising that constantly comes back to you.

Forums are another big part of not only promoting yourself, but getting better at your craft as well.  Find a couple forums that suit you (note that I’m using forum as a broad term that encompasses deviantart, cghub, conceptart, gfxartist, monkeyslunch, satellitesoda, and everything inbetween) and post some of your work.  The one thing you have to remember about forums though, is do not ever expect anyone to care about what you have to say unless you care about what they say.  You have to take the time to critique other people’s work (always friendly and in a positive way, of course!) and to add your opinion and talk to people.  You aren’t just putting your work on here in hopes that people think you’re amazing.  With all due respect, you need to humble yourself and realize that most people on any given forum are either better or have seen better.

So, why are you posting there then?  First, to get better.  Second, to make friends and contacts.  One of the number one most important things that we can do as freelance artists and designers is to network.  Be amiable, be friendly, be funny, and be memorable as a person, not just with your artwork.  If you start making friends on forums and other places the next time you make a submission for DesignByHumans, Zazzle, Etsy, Blurb, or anywhere else that people can either vote on or buy your work, you’ll have a large network of people willing to either check out what you’re offering or talking about, or to actually vote on it or buy into it.  This isn’t to say though that you should just be on forums, other websites, and networking for the end goal and sake of making money and being popular.  If so, I’d discourage you from starting.  There’s enough egomaniacs and lame-ohs out there.  One of the most rewarding things about networking is making friends or meaningful relationships with people.

There are other things that forums and websites do that you can participate in to get noticed as well.  Things like contests, challenges, collaborations.  All excellent ways to meet people.  You can do things like this in the real world as well, not just on the internet.  There’s usually an art school or atelier near by that hosts workshops, parties, contests, and so on that you can attend to not only get better at what you do but meet even more people.  If you attend a comic con or something like that, go around to all the tables and give people a free postcard with your work all over it.  Not just publishers, fellow artists as well!  You never know who knows who, or who knows what, or what you could gain, or what kind of relationship you could develop by spending 5 minutes to talk to someone new and give them a sample of your work.  Some people bring their portfolios by for artists and publishers to look at, which is sometimes a good way to get feedback, but at the same time they walk away afterward and those people forget about them.  Give them something to hold onto with your postcard and business card, or sometimes even a free print if you’re feeling really good about things.

Another good experience is being published in a local magazine, or others that support artists.  In North America, there’s Applied Arts, CMYK, and Communication Arts just to name a few.  Locally near me there’s even Vehicle Magazine, and I went after our school magazine when we had one as well.  Everything helps, makes you learn, encourages you to develop, meet people, and get out there.

In most countries there are also graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, or general art and design guilds, clubs, societies or otherwise associations that you can also join to help yourself out.  Here in Canada, we have the GDC and CAPIC, most notably.  Communities like this are great for many different reasons.  They give you a standard to work by, for one.  Meaning that there’s a code of ethics that everyone should adhere to when working with clients and other designers but often times people don’t know what those are.  These associations will usually help you figure that out, and the GDC even lets you use their contracts and terms and conditions for use with your own projects.  They will also usually invite you to be a part of exhibitions and other functions as well, which helps, but one of the most notable things that they can provide is an RFP.  RFP stands for Request for Proposal, which is an easy way to find work.  Companies post RFP’s to the association’s website, artists and designers like you get together a proposal, and sometimes the little guys land big contracts and are suddenly on everyone’s radar.  Cool beans.  The only drawback to being a part of an association like this is that it usually costs money to join before you can take advantage of everything they offer.  Luckily a lot of art colleges may offer a 1 year membership to some of them as part of your program or upon graduation.  We were lucky enough at my college to have a local company sponsor our memberships if we wanted them.

Some of the best friends and contacts I made though to date were in that art college.  Everyone helps each other, everyone works late into the night together, and then afterward you never know where anyone is going to end up.  Its been quite interesting to watch where all of my friends end up.  It was an ex girlfriend from art college that referred me to an editor at a publishing company that she knew, that helped me become part of the Popgun Anthology team.  Its not paying work, but its been some of the best advertising and networking opportunity I’ve ever come across.  I’ve continued to work with those people ever since.

So, there’s practical ways of promoting yourself, where you actually send out physical mailers and update websites and all that, but there’s also a very important other method and that is to be an amicable person that gets along with others and is always interested in each new opportunity and possible friendship.  And, of course, you get a lot of work just by practicing and being amazing at what you do.

The cool cat that hit me up for advice was http://jets.deviantart.com so check him out too!

That’s all I’ve got for now!  Some of it I’ve tried and had work, and some of it has been advice from industry professionals, art directors, and instructors that I know.  I hope that helps you out!  If anyone else has anything to add, go ahead!
Feel free to hit me up any time!