Developing Your Portfolio for Fun and Profit!

Recently I was asked by a reader if I had any tips on creating a portfolio. Says they:

“I guess my main concern right now is my diversity in styles and subject matter. I’m trying to compose my portfolio but not sure if I should stick to one style/medium, or show a range in techniques and styles. I’m not sure if diversity will work for or against me. I do understand to stick to a certain genre pertaining to whom I’m approaching though.”

I definitely understand the concern! Making a showable body of work, whether web or print, is very important. This is what I’ve learned so far….

-If displaying for the web, try and keep your portfolio manageable, easy to load, and easy to come back to. If an art director spots your stuff but can’t backtrack to find it if he wants to reference it to you, that will put a damper on things. It’s best to be direct and let the work speak for itself.

-An illustration portfolio is like a house of cards; if you layer on too much extraneous matter, it might crumble. Save your life drawings and such for another portfolio; chances are, your art director wants more to see what you can do if he gives you an assignment, not that you specifically can draw well. (Granted, it helps, but art directors might consider you ‘too fine art’, or just get tired of sifting through to find the gems.

-An art director gave me a lot of advice once when he critiqued my web portfolio last year: he mentioned that he expected to spend at most thirty seconds on my work, though he wound up spending closer to twenty minutes in the end. But consider that! 30 seconds! In this day and age, if your target will spend on average 30 seconds on a portfolio, you’ve got to be certain to wow them or to keep them there. So look at your work, figure out what’s the strongest, and go from there.

-More on that point: I would take all your work and look at it. Divide it into three sections: Yes, No, and Maybe. This is like a organization show I watched last year, but still it works. Pick out everything that feels like it sticks out from the body; fine art, things that feel unfinished, etc. Does it look to you like you could see it published in a magazine, a book, a newspaper, etc? If not, put it in the No section. If it feels like it meshes somewhat well with your strongest work, put it in the Maybe section. Then look through your Maybes again, and see if they fit well with the Yes section. By the end of this, you’ll hopefully have a body of work that feels like it has a connecting thread: not everything will look the same, but it’ll feel strong with that connection.

-Multiple styles is NOT a black eye, but…the key thing to remember is that you should organize well and keep things simple. By which I mean, don’t mash up thirteen styles at random and mixing it all together into a folio. This makes art directors reluctant to hire you; they’re not sure what you’ll provide, or if you’re just flipflopping around. It’d be best to show a few examples of each style, grouped together and made more obvious that you’re exploring two or three different ranges; this way, if Art Director Bob likes style 2 but not style 1, he can hire you and explain he’d rather the work look like style 2, so you don’t worry about miscommunication.

-Consider making a pseudonym. I’ve seen a few illustrators do this and succeed at it; if you treat each style like it’s its own entity, that might let both styles flourish. However, depending on how much time you have, it might be difficult to upkeep two different illustrators in one. Personally, I find a lot of time within just one style to experiment and grow, so I don’t really think I’d do this, but if you’re afraid you might be pigeonholed as a children’s book illustrator and want to do some more mature edgier illustrations, it might be the way to go. However, I can’t say I know anything about how the finer points of handling a pseudonym work (phone calls, taxes, etc) yet.

-What if you don’t have any published work to share what you can do as an illustrator? Perhaps consider finding a local weekly or music magazine that can’t pay, if you can afford to do the pro bono work. I had some good illustrations come out of the now-defunct Rockpile magazine, although I didn’t get a dime. Or, make some illustrations. Take a newspaper article at random and illustrate it. Find a magazine that has an illustrated section and redo the illustration the way you’d handle it, but in the same dimensions as the one that published. Of course, this isn’t published, but you can treat it as a good exercise and personal work to put in your folio. Supposedly also good to do is to make some work of some ‘named faces’– celebrities, etc– so that art directors can see that you can do that. (I haven’t done a ton of that though, bad me!)

-Etc: If you’re going analog, whether for an art director, a rep, whatever–give them a strong taste of what you do, but don’t go overboard. People are busy, and they just need to see a good sense of what you’re all about. Did you apply to art school? It’s kind of like that. 10-20 images are good, if you can vary the subject matter, that may help as well. The packaging is important too, don’t let that fool you; they’ll get a better sense of you if you create your own packaging rather than just use a manila envelope. This can incorporate illustration as well, and can be rather fun. Don’t send or bring in originals: this is about printed work. An original can be lost, plus it can look incredibly different in the printed version. Your target wants to be able to envision the work in a publication: make the job easier on them. Find a good printer who will reproduce the work the way it needs to be.

That’s all for now; tune in Tuesday, when we’ll be chitchatting about creating promo pieces, starting with postcards!

PROMO: Art directors redux

First off, I must thank EVERYONE for the super enthusiastic response I’ve gotten. With just one day’s blogging, I’ve gotten great support; I’ve been on WordPress’ list of 100 most popular blogs, been linked up to the other great illustration resource sites, and gotten a slew of really positive and helpful comments. So thanks must go out to the fine people at Drawn!, Illustration Mundo, and The Little Chimp Society for linking me up and giving me some support in this early stage of the game, but I’m really grateful to everyone who’s reading! It makes me feel good to know that this is actually an idea that might help people out and help me learn about some things in the process.

Not to belabor the point though. I planned to start a new topic today, but after the last post I got some really insightful ideas and remembered a few other things I can mention that might also help your search for clients. So, without further ado, a sequel!

1. Check your peers. Hopefully this will not be unkosher to mention, but illustrators can greatly benefit from illustrators, just with common knowledge. If you’re like me you know a slew of hypertalented and successful artists, or at least know of them. Most illustrators make mention of their client list for art directors, either in their bio or a resume. But that list can be used for illustrators as well! If I feel like I could see my work being fit into a somewhat similar category as theirs, I’ll seek out their client list if they’ve got one posted. While sometimes it takes a bit of searching, I utilize altpick.com in this way, because I notice a lot of illustrators post their client list in their profile. After I seek out the clients, I start googling and find the websites and art directors as before. I’ve found a lot of potential clients I never heard of this way; especially some of the smaller industry magazines. If you have friends who are illustrators, they might like to share sources as well; if I work with an AD I think could really like a friend’s style, I’ll mention to the illustrator that source, and vice versa. I suppose in some way that’s giving other people an edge, but despite this being a business I know it can have payoffs in the long run.

2. Don’t underestimate Adbase. In my last post, I mentioned I don’t use it because I don’t have the money to lay that down right now. But as people commented, they’re actually useful and great if you want to save time and get clients all in one swoop. If you don’t have the time to deal with managing your mailing list, it’s a good service. At this stage in the game though, I actually enjoy seeking out new clients and it helps me let my brain take a break from drawing, so I am fine with the more DIY methods!

3. From Stan Shaw: “Ask for referrals from Art Directors. If you contact one, you can ask for the name of a few others. This has a few hidden benefits as it starts a network of who you know and who you know that you know that knows you. Plus, you may find that certain AD’s are sort of illustrator hubs and turn out to be great resources.” This is really key and something I definitely never considered, but art directors don’t hide in the dark; they have professional clubs just like illustrators do, and so there’s a good chance your art director can help suggest someone else who might like your work. I’d bet this would work better on an AD you start cultivating a good working relationship with; and this is also why it’s important to do your best work and stay on top of the game– besides giving you names, that AD might recommend you to others. Stan also has a great post on his blog entitled The Rules of Art Direction; I highly advise you to read it and get some perspective on how your art director works.

4. Sugar of the Lint Museum suggested a really cool resource I hadn’t heard of til now: mastheads.org. They collect mastheads from all sorts of magazines (the count is 325+, which is more than my mailing list entirely right now) and for a small fee you can access them. But the part I like best? If you submit a masthead they don’t have, they give you a month’s free access! Since I typically update my mailing list every few months, this works perfect for me. From what I can see of the couple of sample mastheads, this is really useful for all people seeking to get work with a magazine- illustrators, writers, editors, photographers, etc. They also have a nice set of tips for submitting to magazines; although it’s written for writers the lessons are still pretty key. And if you feel like being a little more luddite, they have a book with all the listings in there (but given how art directors seem to change often enough, I think I’ll stick to the screen version).

5. Ask your friends with degrees. My first big paying job was from Brown University; but I didn’t go to Brown. Their alumni magazine hired me for a quite fun assignment, which leads me to this point: college alumni magazines can be well paying and have some really fun art direction. I have more trouble seeking out art directors online for these magazines, but you probably know quite a few people who went to college. If they did, chances are they get a magazine (I know my alma mater sends me a slew of ‘em) to tell them what’s going on and all. Not all use illustration, but quite a few do at least for one feature) and if your pals are willing to hand over an issue or two instead of tossing them in the trash you’ll be much better off.

That’s about all for now, but check in on Thursday; the topic will be about putting together portfolios (if you have any tips you’d like to share, as always please drop me a line!). Stay awesome.

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!