PROMO: Art directors’ contact information

The most common question I get is: do I need a mailing list? How do you know who to send promo material to?

There’s a variety of things you can do; you can drop some money down on a mailing list; there are places like Adbase that give you a bunch of addresses. I hear they’re helpful, but at this point I am on a tight budget so I haven’t gotten to test it out for myself more than a test trial. My methods are more guerrilla, but they’re free and effective– I do mailings of about 200-300 different art directors, record companies, and ad agencies, and that number’s always growing.

Option 1: Scour!
If you can find a library with an art/design section (colleges are good for this) or an art supply store that doesn’t frown on you reading their material, try and pick up the most recent edition of Print magazine’s regional design annual. Inside is a treasure trove of graphic art from magazines, design firms, and newspapers (among other things), listed by region, with art directors and client names. They don’t do all the work for you though; you’ve got to plug in the clients or art directors into google or phone around to get the addresses, but this is a great opportunity to find a lot in one place. It’s especially good for finding ad agencies and design firms, which I’ve found pretty tricky to find otherwise.

Option 2: Loiter!

Your local giganto-bookstore, while perhaps a blight against mom and pop bookshops, are actually pretty helpful for illustrators. Why? Their magazine sections are very handy, and you most likely will not get bothered about sitting and not buying an issue. (Seriously, I’ve spent two or three hours in their section without spending a dime, and the most I ever got a was someone asking if I needed help.) All you need is a notebook and some paper (or some digital method I suppose); sit down with some magazines, flip through and see if anything looks like it’d go for your style of work. If so, find the masthead (in the front usually) and find the address and art director. Easy!

But what if you’re stuck in front of a computer all day? You can still find names!

Option 3: Google!

The internet is especially handy for getting addresses for local and foreign publications. Start at your city’s local culture weekly site– most of these have mastheads online, usually under the ‘about us’ or ‘contact us’ pages, though sometimes they have a masthead link. After you find one, look on the bottom of the site– often these papers are linked together– the Village Voice owns many other papers, for example. Same with daily papers, just look for their websites and try and find the mastheads. You can also look for magazines you know off the top of your head, though I won’t guarantee they post their mastheads online.

Option 4: Etc!

Any time I see a paper or magazine, I instinctively pick it up now. If you’re at a friend’s house, check out their coffee table. If you’re at a hair salon, check their reading/waiting area. And if you’re flying, check the inflight magazines. Many of them use some really great illustration!

That’s a pretty decent start, but you get the idea. There are tons of places to go, and you don’t need to throw down a lot of money to start sending promotional materials out. I suspect when you can afford it, those services can be pretty useful, but don’t think you can’t start promoting yourself because you can’t afford to yet! Just don’t forget to keep your list up to date– call art directors, check magazines.. otherwise you’ll be getting a few return to sender mailers!