Identity Crisis!
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Looking for some thoughts from others regarding where I even want to go with my illustration. I would describe myself as a chronic and enthusiastic dabbler, and the question of which specific industry suits me best causes me considerable anguish. Some background: I did not go to school for art or design, but I wish I did because I might have had things figured out by now (in my early 30s). For a few years I worked as a cake decorator at a fancy bakery, and this seems to have influenced my aesthetic. A lot of work I have done since then is decorative and incorporates calligraphy and lettering. I've done a lot of wedding stationery and enjoyed it, but am not sure I want to pursue that as a full-time business because I would like to experience working with professional creative directors on more diverse and impactful projects. I sort of see my work gearing toward the stationery and licensing world, but I'm not necessarily the type of person who is always percolating with random ideas to send out into the void, as I understand that industry works. Rather, I get a lot of energy out of someone else coming at me with an idea they want to bring to life.
I've been poking around on agency websites, and what resonates with my personality the most are the artists who are listed under multiple categories (i.e. children's, gift/stationery, etc.). I would love this to be my situation! But how does one pursue that from the ground up? Should I focus my portfolio on one thing only when approaching agents, then come at them with new categories of work once signed? Or do they like seeing versatility upfront?
I'm currently trying to strategize how I should fill out my social media (www.instagram.com/patricialamasdesign) and website (www.patricialamas.com) with more pertinent work, but am having the WORST time trying to focus my nervous energy around the question. What would you do in this situation? Any thoughts on where my current work seems like it might have a good market, or what you might do to push it in a more marketable direction?
Thanks for bearing with the very long post!
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Additional info: my dabbling has also included a whole lot of graphic design including logo design, and traditional sign painting. I enjoy designing but also want to do the illustrating, therefore would have a hard time just being a designer and needing to seek out others' illustrations to suit the jobs. I do not super-much love logo design. I absolutely love sign painting but don't have a great space for it right now.
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@patricialamas I have been (possibly still am) in the same position as you I think regarding identity. I did graphic design at uni and worked in and for design/advertising agencies since then (nearly 20 years). I had always wanted to do illustration but life took me down the graphic design route instead so I’m not professionally ‘trained’ in illustration. I don’t think you need to worry about art school.
I’m not sure if this is how you feel but I found that combining design and illustration for clients meant you end up creating lots of different work in lots of different styles and formats to fit the clients needs and brands. This left me feeling lost and losing my own art identity. I ended up doing jobs because they knew I could create THEIR style, they didn’t want me for MY style.
I started doing the SVS prompts as I wanted to see if I could follow an illustration brief just like a graphic design brief if I was at an agency. It was to test myself and I have found it really helpful. I have discovered that I really love making imaginary worlds with lots of little details, I didn’t know that when I started. If you like following a brief then perhaps seek out other online art comp briefs to follow, even if they are old ones. You do not need to actually enter the comp, it’s just practice to put your own spin on problem solving.
For licensing work it’s good to have collections. For example you could create a halloween or Christmas collection. Or you could create your wedding designs as templates and resell the same design just with the customer adding their own names/details to pre-set areas. They could then just download the print files to get printed themselves.
There is a SVS course focussed on licensing if it helps. It may help with the multi-use/discipline designs you have seen at agents that you would like to create. It is possible to repurpose the same design in different formats.
And
https://courses.svslearn.com/courses/take/your-art-on-products/lessons/3106387-introduction
Your work on your website is great, and it’s looks very professional. I would suggest having a portfolio review as they will suggest splitting it into sections so people know what they are looking at. You could have a page for illustration, a page for your wedding/typography so people are not confused what you do/want to do. You will eventually find one section decreases and another expands as you start to create more of the work you love.
The main point that is normally mentioned in a review is only show what you want to do. If you love sign painting then you could create some mock-up ones digitally in the absence of being able to put real paint on real surfaces. Belinda Kou has some really fun stuff https://www.belindaskou.com/portfolio-of-work
I have had a couple of portfolio reviews and have just completed a 3-month mentorship with Giuseppe Castellano and have altered my website to follow the advice I have been given. It now splits the illustration and design up into different categories. I still have to remove some of the work on there when I have something new to replace the weaker pieces with, but that takes time.
It is possible to combine illustration and graphic design yourself on jobs, I have done this a lot. I only keep any illustration-led graphic design work on my site to show that’s what I can do (with minimal logos, as I feel after all these years I have no more logos left in my brain!
).Sorry this has been very long-winded, probably confusing and a bit of a random life-story about me but I just wanted to see if this was the same kind of experience you are having. I don’t think you are alone with feeling a little lost.
By the way, don’t worry about not knowing what you want by your 30’s. I’m 42 now and I’ve still got no idea!
Im very sorry if you are even more confused after reading this!
Website: lizardillo.co.uk
IG: instagram.com/lizardillo -
Your calligraphy is so lovely, and I love the sophistication of your palettes. I think your work would also lend itself well to patterns. Handlettering and design work could also be applied to book covers. Your work seems applicable to different areas and like @lizardillo suggests maybe it just needs some categorization. One other thing, if you are scouting out agents, I am guessing you are already aware of Lilla Rogers' studio. They deal with surface design, board games, books, you name it. To me it is like a candy store with so many different avenues. My style isn't "commercial" enough to fit their needs, but maybe yours might be, especially with your experience.
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@patricialamas Andy J Pizza has this great little book on helping creatives figure exactly this sort of thing out. I highly recommend it!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/630662716/the-creative-career-path-handbook-ebook?click_key=27a757fb6fb94cf4ed70886b317603cfcae9825b%3A630662716&click_sum=66b16026&ref=shop_home_feat_2 -
@lizardillo Your very long and thoughtful response is so appreciated! Definitely the opposite of confusing. It sounds like your situation is indeed very similar to mine, and looking at the categorization on your website helps make some sense around what might work for me, too. I wholeheartedly agree about that struggle that comes along with doing illustrative design work for clients and losing your identity to fit what they need. Your page of illustrations for brands was a great way to deal with that problem. Most of my design work never makes it onto my website because it doesn’t fit my brand, but at the same time I don’t want people to think I know nothing about design! Have any of the illustration-design combination projects you’ve done felt like they were truly based on your personal style? If so, what kinds of projects were they? I see a lot of this kind of illustrative design work being done by very high profile creators who are well-known and sought-out for their style (e.g. Jessica Hische, Louise Fili, etc.), but finding this type of work as a relative nobody is still a big mystery to me.
Also same as you, I started doing the SVS prompts as a way to test myself. I will definitely start working from older prompts because I do work better with some external direction guiding my work! For some reason the publishing world has always seemed very intimidating to me, and it wasn’t until I started binge-listening to 3 Point Perspective that I began thinking I might actually fit in somewhere.
How did you have your portfolio reviews done? My local graphic arts organization (AIGA) has an event every year but it’s only for current students and isn’t specifically illustration oriented. The idea of doing mentorships is also new to me, and I will look into that!
Thanks again for the huge response!
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@jenn and @Griffin Thank you, and thanks for the recommendations! I’ll check these out! I only know about a little about Lilla Rogers through one of her online classes, so I’ll take another look at her agency. Book covers do seem like a great fit for the intersection of illustration and design, and something I’ve been meaning to try for a while. Thanks!
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You work is really wonderful! I think if you just compiled it properly in a portfolio as you talked about with Liz you could definitely get some gigs.
I would do a page of personal illustration in your own style, and a page with brand illustrations if you have that and/or a page of graphic design or typography (not sure what you have). It's beneficial to see you can do different styles if you are trying to get design gig work for brands or companies that will want you to match their style. (not sure if you still want that kind of work though). It's a bit different than getting children's illustration work as that is more focused on your particular brand/style rather than fitting in with a company.
Have you thought about greeting card design? I know companies like Halmark hire graphic designers for roles like that and you would be working with a creative director etc like you mentioned.
In my experience you actually have more doors open to you because it's highly valuable for companies to have a graphic designer that also has illustration skills, especially if you wanted to look for a full time position. And when I've looked for illustration jobs on linkedin they often list graphic design as a necessary skill with it.
Also sharing how I break my portfolio up so it's clear when I'm showing something in another brands style
https://thecarli.wixsite.com/kidlit/product-art -
@patricialamas Glad it helped and made some sense!
I had a couple of portfolio reviews. One with the AOI (it was the business one, not just illustrations) and another with Inkygoodness (in the UK).
I have just finished a 3 month course with The Illustration Department and that was good. They do portfolio reviews too. I would suggest having a search as some seems to be more graphic illustration based and some more children’s and some a bit of a mix. It’s like illustration agencies, there are some that I would not be a match for nowadays.
As @jenn has mentioned, book covers may be a good mix of skills. I have heard that recreating existing book covers in your own style is good.
Like you, I don’t want to hide all of my old work as it was a big part of my life, but after a good few years I have learned that I don’t really want to be so corporate any more. I have been very selective with what I have shown and separated it from my new direction of drawing things (like dolphins doing their shopping) but not abandoned it. I would not actively look or pitch for that line of work but would consider an enquiry.
To answer your question about finding work, I started being able to do work more in my own style once I had left working at an agency (advertising agency, not an agent). I worked at McCann (formally named McCann Erickson) so I built up some contacts there. When I left I was working freelance with my old creative director from McCann who left too and a lot of the jobs in my ‘illustration for brands’ are jobs we worked together on. I recommend collaborating with others if you can find anyone who would like to. Going into companies as a freelance graphic designer helped me meet lots of people too.
I just made these design jobs illustration-based whether they wanted it or not!
I didn’t charge properly for them though, I did know anything about licensing at that point. The jobs are all different styles/techniques but that was my choice, I was still in the ‘corporate’ way of thinking but I just did whatever style I fancied doing at the time and whatever fitted the job. I’m trying to be more coherent nowadays. -
@carlianne and @lizardillo Thanks so much! I’m feeling a lot better about where to go from here. It has been kind of tough to find the right resources to help with these questions especially since it seems like most professional organizations are either all about graphic design or a very specific type of illustration. So many people here at SVS seem to have a very broad view of the creative world, though, and I think I’m finally starting to find my people!
