Last week’s challenge was a tough one for all of us (me included). It asked some hard questions and forced us to think about that scary word that most illustrators don’t like to think about…business.
However, it was great to see so many of you in the clubhouse, comments and on your own blogs embracing the concept of the OGSM and even…shock horror…enjoying and being inspired by the process! See, the business side of illustration isn’t so scary after all 
I’m afraid I jumped the gun a little in my excitement to get creating and said that week 3 would be about creating illustrations, but I have taken it on Lea’s advice (I have learned not to argue), to delay that for one more week while we address a few more important business decisions.
Another reason I decided to delay the illustrations for another week is that I’ll be interviewing Tara Reed (the queen of Art Licensing) on Tuesday (via phone) to put forward your questions and get an overview of Art Licensing.
As nearly half of the participants in the challenge are interested in this area, I didn’t want you to rush off creating portfolio pieces until you’ve heard what Tara has to say as it is likely to change your approach. The call will be recorded and I’ll do my best to get it live on the blog for you guys to listen to by Thursday at the latest.
So, what are this week’s tasks?
1 Decide upon your business structure
This may not be a vital task for those of you whose illustration income is a sideline, but for those of us who are planning to make it our sole source of income, it’s important to set your business up right from a legal and tax point of view.
So, the first task this week is to research what business structures are open to you as a solopreneur or small business in the country you reside in and work out what best fits your needs and your goals.
While it’s not vital that you set the wheels in motion on this just yet at this early stage, it pays to have done the research now and know your options for the future.
2 Lay the foundations for your marketing strategy
After completing weeks 1 and 2 of the challenge, you will now have narrowed down the area of illustration that you will be focusing on, have a main illustration objective and have a roadmap (the G, S & M parts of your OGSM) of how to get there.
But before we jump into creating work for our portfolios, we still need to clarify exactly who our target market is. In fact, you very likely have 2 audiences to impress:
- The art director or agent
- The end user/viewer of your illustrations (eg, it’s parents who buy children’s books, not the kids)
Here’s why it’s important to consider this now…
- Your time is precious. You want to make every illustration count - trim the fat and make sure each piece in your portfolio has the potential to get you a job
- If you don’t know exactly who you are trying to impress, what they like and what speaks to them, how can you create work that will push these buttons?
- If your work is pretty much the same as another illustrator currently on the books of an agent, you could be wasting your time
- If the Agent/Art Director doesn’t use the type of work you do, you could be wasting your time
Putting in the research hours now, will give you the best chance of making an impact when your portfolio, promo card or website lands on an Art Director’s desk.
There are a number of ways you can do this research…
You can read books like the Writers and Artists Yearbook or the Children’s Writers and Artist Yearbook, but I find the most fun way of doing this is getting out to the shops:
- Visit book stores and see what covers are popular or showcase the type of work you’d like to be doing and note down the publishers contact details.
- Look at magazines that are commissioning the type of editorial illustration you’re interested in and note down the Art Director’s details.
- Walk round departments stores to see what products have licensed art on them and check who the manufacturers are.
Once you’re back at home, you can then use the web to do more specific research based on the information you have found. By getting out there, you not only get to see first hand the trends in the market, it may just broaden your horizons as to where your illustrations could be applied.
It may sound a bit backward to work on the marketing before you have something to market, but by doing this you will ensure that your portfolio is targeted and suitable for the illustration contacts you’ll be hitting.
The Tasks:
- Based on your research, I’d like you to gather a targeted list of 10 Companies, Publishers, Art Directors or Manufacturers that you will be contacting when we get to that part of the challenge.
- Armed with everything you now know about your list of contacts, plan out 6 portfolio pieces that you will be creating in the next 3 weeks of the challenge (see, I told you we’d get to the creating illustrations part soon
I’ll leave you with a lovely quote I found this week from writer Zora Neale Hurston…
“Research is formalised curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.”
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Oooo… Research is fun, tends to reduce your chances of flailing around in the dark. I’ll get to work as soon as I get home
Oh cool!! I will make a list of all the things I need to do ^_^!!
Good luck to everyone!
I am very excited about this part of the challenge, as nothing inspires me more than looking at other artists. My illustration will not be my main source of income, so the first part of this challenge, doesn’t really apply to me just yet (I want to test the water before I quit my job..it pays pretty well)
Planning out 6 pieces sounds like a lot of fun, I have never planned for so many pieces in one go, most of my work starts off as a doodle..perhaps this will work better for me.
Looks like this may not be as scary as last week! I’ve already done some research the last few months, now done to tweaking - thanks Jonathan and Lea!
ps - Glad you’ve learned not to argue Jonathan, some husbands learn way too late!
Yes! this was on my ever-increasing ‘to do’ list for this week- i.e. ‘research and compile mailing list of publishers’. Now, I’ll be sure to get it crossed off the list!
just found this, so kinda late and need to catch up
I love research, so I’m looking forward to this week’s challenge. I’m also looking forward to your interview with Tara Reed!
Great task! I’m actually working on some promo cards at the moment (don’t worry - they’re all carefully considered with my OGSM
) so this will be very useful for me to start sorting now.
The tax and legal part sounds a bit more daunting, but it has to be done!
These challenges are so fantastic. You’re really breaking it down into more manageable pieces and I look forward to the day when I have time to go through these challenges one by one at my own pace. I’ll be sure to let you know when I’ve caught up!
I feel like a naughty boy who’s very late with his homework. I found the whole OGSM thing quite challenging but reading all the entries for Wk 2 has been a great help. Will upload tonight when I’m back from work, and crack on with Wk.3
The OGSM was great, because I finally put down on paper all of the things I wanted to accomplish. (Although nailing down income still feels tricky to me. Ah, with experience I suppose.)
Researching is one of my favorite things to do, and I have a list of target companies compiled. Now I just need to update it and the policies for each place before next week.
And the six portfolio pieces? In three weeks? Hmm…this should be interesting, verrry interesting.
I want to join!! definitely! kind of late but like some others said, I promise to catch up!
Thinking about the fact that all of you will be working on this pushes me forward. What a strange thing groupal behaviour is. Very encouraging! Thanks!