How an illustration portfolio helps attract customers

Key quotes:

• "Nicholas Nesbitt is a Johannesburg based creative specialising in Illustration, Digital Design and Sound Design."
• "For some “slashes” like me it’s often difficult to decide what it is you want to focus on, so you really need to try concentrate on the work you want to attract."
• "Example: Nicholas Nesbitt is a freelance creative specialising in digital design, illustration and sound design."
• "If you have a blog or Instagram account make sure that these are visible on your portfolio so that clients can see your work in progress stuff."
• "Often some of your best work is stuff from personal projects and it often shows your thought process and inspirations which can be important to clients decisions."
• "If you hate code, get a free template or use an existing platform like Dribble."

Key quotes:

• "One of the topics that comes up in every single workshop we host is “finding your style.” Every artist, illustrator and graphic designer knows that finding your own unique style is essential to building your creative career."
• "Style is important as a visual artist, it’s essentially what distinguishes you from other artists, and what keeps your work looking professional, cohesive, and focused."
• "It is a slow process that looks differently for every single artist, but there are steps you can take to begin honing your unique style."
• "We just launched a new three-day live online workshop that will help you hone your style, attract your ideal clients and grow your career as an artist."
• "This workshops brings together three professional artists who have honed their unique style, and successfully leveraged it to build a career they love."
• "In her other life, Gemma is an architect and visual artist whose work has been featured in galleries throughout NYC."

Transcript: For the last couple of weeks There's been a trend going on and a couple of you guys want me to talk about how to start with illustration or how to start as an illustrator and the truth is there's that's a very very tricky question because if you want to be an illustrator, and you don't know how to start you might just Say hi. I am an illustrator. And that's it. You kind of started being one. But if we define being an illustrator a professional illustrator as Someone who's making money out of it, I'm here to help. So if we pretend that being an illustrator is Defined by you are making money out of it, the first step of starting something is to get a job. And how the hell do you get a job as an illustrator? I don't know honestly where to start Because I feel like there's so many things that I need to tell you and talk to you about So I'm going to do my best to give you the tools that eventually can help you. Not only being an illustrator, but being um independent professional as well, so if you're... See more →

Transcript: Hi this is Steven wheeler from Steven Rios studios I'm here to talk about taking your illustration career your illustration business from zero to first base starting from square one there are a lot of great videos out there on how to get work how to start a business how to start an illustration career there's a lot of great resources out there I may link some of those in the description but many of them are concentrated on people that have achieved something they're somewhere in the midpoint of their career and they're trying to get the best jobs I want to talk conceptually and practically about what it takes to go from you just got out of school and you're trying to get work or you're trying to transition into illustration or you're just trying to start your business and you don't seem to be able to get to first base so some of the attributes that are necessary to get there the step is a three things you have to have are patient's portfolio and people patience it's very frustrating we want the immediate results that's one of the reasons for artists to put the brush on... See more →

Key quotes:

• "Building your career as a professional artist doesnt just happen magically."
• "There are a few phases that every single artist goes through while building their career."
• "This can be the most frustrating phase that an artist goes through, but it typically produces some of their best work."
• "You should have a large collection of work at the end of phase one and an idea of what really makes your designs special."
• "Finding Customers The next phase is figuring out how to sell your work."
• "This is when artists start experimenting with all of the ways they can sell their artwork."

Key quotes:

• "I thought my perspective as a commercial art buyer might be useful to other illustrators."
• "For context, I’m an art director with 30 years experience in commercial design."
• "I’ve engaged illustrators for things like diagrams, infographics, packaging, digital product, wearables, and editorial."
• "Art directors are pretty good at visualizing how your illustration talent can translate to their particular communication or marketing need."
• "As long as they’re commission-based, and they actually end up bringing you some work, you’re coming out ahead: It’s work you otherwise wouldn’t have found — or wouldn’t have found you."
• "Here are a few I know of professionally (although my direct experience with them is limited): Illustration is popular on products like iPhone cases, fashion, etc."

Transcript: Okay so welcome to my portfolio I started off with a self-portrait which i think is pretty common and then after that is my drawing test I probably should have included a table of contents but I didn't um okay so yeah here's a standing figure the figure sitting window view and the still way on this part I got really bad on composition which is fair and perspective which is also fair I definitely should have spent longer on these this was kind of last minute for me and then starting with the pieces oh I had a lot of huge like acrylic painting so I just took photos I emailed them to ask if that was okay and it was so that worked out um here's a project I did okay so they did say no fantasy and I'm kind of pushing it here I don't know why they let me get away with it but they did this is a digital piece and here's some process work oh I also did pretty badly on process so obviously uh I think there needs to be more ideation and like different compositions or I don't know thumbnailing things like... See more →

Key quotes:

• "You need to tell the story behind your work in order to stand out to outstanding clients."
• "If you present your work as a collection of pretty pictures you will attract clients who want a technician who makes pretty pictures according to their liking."
• "You need to tell the story behind your work if you want your client to trust and not micromanage you."
• "You need to tell the story behind your work if you want to come across as professional."
• "If you have examples of branding you designed for a brewery and you never want to work for a brewery again, remove it from your portfolio."
• "There is one possible exception: if you can tell the story behind this project in a way that highlights the parts you would be willing to repeat and downplays the elements you hated you may be able to get away with including it in your portfolio."