![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9ea479_15038d3e11a042e38a07302997a1047a~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_500,h_500,al_c,q_85,enc_avif,quality_auto/9ea479_15038d3e11a042e38a07302997a1047a~mv2.png)
Notes from the lecture:
Marketing
Business card research:
I have chosen these designs as good designs because I think they attract attention but for the right reasons, they are not boring but are still simple and effective. I like the pop of colour in them, which makes people remember you.
These business cards I think are 'bad' designs:
Some are so bright it hurts your eyes, memorable in a bad way, they are too much. One of them does not look very professional with not good text choices and hearts on the design. The orange one is not clear, the colours they have chosen do not work together.
These are my business cards and postcards, which are designed to be taken away and put on a fridge so that they remember me. I chose to use my logo design for my Instagram and website, which is simple but beautiful. I do like to keep things simple in style.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9ea479_076c1f7788eb4a349414a1fd20fcbaee~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_560,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/9ea479_076c1f7788eb4a349414a1fd20fcbaee~mv2.png)
Below is the link to my website. This is a Shopify store which is set up as an ecommerce shop, with my artwork available to be printed on products of their choice. This is done through print on demand using an integration with Printify.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9ea479_1ef3c77b0b32450898bfd71c155484ea~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_465,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/9ea479_1ef3c77b0b32450898bfd71c155484ea~mv2.png)
This is the QR code to scan to take you to my website:
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9ea479_12313982d22b49afb22fc35e524cef88~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_980,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/9ea479_12313982d22b49afb22fc35e524cef88~mv2.png)
This is the QR code to scan to take you to my Instagram:
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9ea479_a38ecc77889746ca83485a392a382b09~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_980,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/9ea479_a38ecc77889746ca83485a392a382b09~mv2.png)
Portfolio link:
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9ea479_25674f8cdd024f96b01d119b4613aafb~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_493,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/9ea479_25674f8cdd024f96b01d119b4613aafb~mv2.png)
This is the QR code to scan to take you to my Portfolio:
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9ea479_716d63bee232423b998a7a9b10e47d22~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_1270,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/9ea479_716d63bee232423b998a7a9b10e47d22~mv2.png)
Self Employment Task:
Review 5 self-employed Individuals, Brands or Businesses: Freelance Illustrators that I found by searching Google:
What is the aesthetic?
Simple white backgrounds, with his artwork being the focus, the images are bright with lots going on.
Does it work?
Yes, it is effective and looks good.
Info about them?
Haydn Symons is a freelance Illustrator & Designer from Hampshire
A freelance illustrator trusted by worldwide clients
Creating bespoke illustrations and fine art creations for worldwide clients. In his studio, you can often see Haydn painting or drawing or commissioned projects or personal creations in his sketchbook. His favourite projects are portrait illustrations and map illustrations, with an online illustration shop to boot!
Haydn Symons is a freelance illustrator for hire. Working within many fields of illustration, including editorial illustration, book cover illustration, to publishing illustration. Haydn has built a vibrant portfolio of work with worldwide clients. Including Bloomsbury, Londonist to the UKScouts. Clients also approach Haydn for design commissions, including typography, logo design to branding to name a few.
With a passion for art and painting, drawing from an early age he has developed his skills and knowledge to become a sought-after freelance illustrator and designer. He incorporates both traditional and contemporary elements to form eye-catching illustrations, often using gouache as his starting blocks. Clients often commission him for his striking, engaging, and lively illustrations, which you can see within his dynamic illustration portfolio.
Alongside his love of illustration and design, he also creates bespoke fine art creations. Including canvas artworks, portrait paintings to landscape artworks. Alongside these many fields, Haydn also sells premium greetings cards, art prints to original paintings on his shop. It’s a lot to keep him busy that’s for sure!
Experience?
Portfolio is separated into sections; Illustration, Fine Art, Sketchbook. He also has the logos of the brands he had worked with at the bottom.
Does the website work well? Navigation?
Yes, it is easy to navigate. He has an Etsy shop linked as well as a blog.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9ea479_250bc95c52ed4763ab74c9795fc2d4b0~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_460,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/9ea479_250bc95c52ed4763ab74c9795fc2d4b0~mv2.png)
What is the aesthetic?
White background, simple, with a feed of her illustrations.
Does it work?
Yes it is simple, yet effective.
Info about them?
Cat Finnie is a freelance illustrator, living in London, UK. She enjoys creating colourful digital illustrations in a decorative, conceptual style. Her work often brings in an element of the surreal as she is interested in creating images with a dreamlike quality - a sense of ambiguity and the mysterious.
Cat is interested in illustrating for a wide range of topics, but particularly for anything related to philosophy, psychology, literature or film, language, fresh perspectives.
Cat attended Nottingham Trent University, receiving a First Class BA(hons) in Graphic Design; she has worked in illustration and design since then, and has freelanced since 2011. Her clients include: BBC Science Focus, Medium, Longreads, Culture Night Belfast, Tortoise Media, Which? Magazine, Macmillan, and The Guardian.
Cat's design for animation clients include: Nexus Studios, Animade, Future Deluxe (LA), Made By Radio, Shotopop, Like Minded, and Finger Industries.
Experience?
Portfolio is just the front page of the website, a constant scrolling feed downwards. No section.
Does the website work well? Navigation?
Yes, it is very simple, the simplest of them all. Easy to navigate.
![](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9ea479_2c0a34ccb9e54fb3b53b5ab9849085a7~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_980,h_427,al_c,q_90,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/9ea479_2c0a34ccb9e54fb3b53b5ab9849085a7~mv2.png)
What is the aesthetic?
White, but the focus is on the large scenes of artwork he has created. He likes to draw storyboards.
Does it work?
Yes, it is a lot of different styles for the eye to look at though.
Info about them?
I have over 15 years’ experience as an illustrator, storyboard artist and graphic designer. My work includes children’s book illustrations, editorial illustrations and web illustrations as well as film and TV ad storyboards, logo design, brand design, poster design, concept visualising, cartoons, infographics, caricatures and live-event visualising. I tend to work in digital media such as Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop because most briefs dictate this but I really like to get my teeth into the more traditional media such as watercolours, acrylics, gouache or oil paints and the simple 4B pencil. I work from my home-based office as well as on site nationally and internationally.
Experience?
Portfolio is separated into Paintings, illustrations for children’s books and storyboards. He also runs creative workshops.
Does the website work well? Navigation?
Yes, it is easy to navigate. There is a lot of information on there, he does have a blog, but only one post on it.
What is the aesthetic?
Children's book illustration style, crayon effect. Simple white background. Text hand drawn style.
Does it work?
Yes, I love the hand drawn style of the text, she has catered the website to include her style of drawing.
Info about them?
Hello! My name is Antonia and I am a freelance illustrator, specialising in children's books, typography and design. And in the words of Mary Blair to her husband: I "live to be happy and paint to express our happiness!"
Hello! My name is Antonia Woodward and I am a children's illustrator and author.
I love children’s books. My love began in childhood with A.A. Milne and E.H Shepard, was awakened by European illustrators in university libraries, and continues to grow daily with my two little girls and their overflowing bedroom bookcase.
Children’s books are an art form that will forever hold wonder for me. Distilling tricky subjects for small people is something I love to get my head around - the dance between words and pictures, sound and sight, getting deep into the heads and hearts of a captive audience. Especially if they’re in their pyjamas - what a privilege!
Experience?
Her portfolio is separated into the following sections; Board Books, Picture Books, Design, Personal Projects and Sketches.
Does the website work well? Navigation?
Yes it is easy to navigate. She has an Etsy shop linked as well as a blog. She has all of her social media links in several places on her website.
What is the aesthetic?
Nighttime illustration scene that she has vectorised. It covers the who front page.
Does it work?
I think this looks really effective, with all of the information over the top in white.
Info about them?
WHO IS HELEN?
A creative problem solver
Graduated from Goldsmiths University in 2016 with a BA in Multidisciplinary Design.
Based between Bristol and Oxford.
Lover of mountains, woodland, cold water swimming, bumblebees, tomatoes, world cooking (and eating!). Song writer and music fanatic. Animal lover.
Easy going, empathetic and friendly. Creative, expressive and reliable.
Experience?
A portfolio divided into sections, music artwork, graphic designs, document design, festival branding, websites and illustrations.
Does the website work well? Navigation?
The website is simple and easy to navigate.
There is also reviews from people she did a projects for throughout the website.
My Approach
I would approach self-employment at the end of my foundation degree course as a part time self-employed job. This is because I have children to look after as well and a house to run. Hopefully I would be able to build up the business/es enough to be full time in the future. In the mean time if I am not making enough money to live on, I would have to take on some part time work as a day job.
So, I started a business a long time ago, dying yarns, and I had that for several years, so, I have some experience in self-employment. But now I'm going in a different area.
I already have an Instagram page called Emily's Design Studio where I design patterns in my style and sell them for exclusive rights, often for small businesses to print onto fabrics in a digital watercolour style.
But I am adding in different styles now as well and it's not just going to be patterns, it's going to be illustrations of all kinds now.
And I'm also going on to doing children's book design as well.
So, I have Instagram, I have also recently set up a website with big cartel so that I can do print on demand for my designs.
So, my artwork will be printed out onto products or as art prints through Printful I went with after lots of researching what would be the best to use.
So, people will go to the website that is Emily's Design Studio dot com and they will choose the design they want, what they want it on.
When they buy it, the order goes straight to Printful.
They will print it out and ship it to them without it having to come to me first.
So, this works well because I can carry on doing other things whilst running this at the same time.
I also need to work on my SEO, so search engine optimization to get seen on the internet more and I need to work on my social media marketing, that's the area that I'm not strong on and I need to be more consistent with social media as well to get the views to get them to go to the website.
Previously, when I've been good with Instagram for my previous business, when I posted regularly it got more people and then people would buy so it is a big part of the social media.
I particularly want to be at least part-time self-employed because I want to have my hands in lots of pots and doing lots of things.
It works better because for me, because I can work around the children, I can work from home, so I do a remote job and still work on my own things at the same time.
I also have set up an Etsy shop as well so that will get traffic from Etsy searching for things so the same listings that will be on the website will also be on Etsy to help to grow my brand.
I have redone my logo so I've done a beautiful new design that was made in Canva for Emily's Design Studio.
I do sometimes struggle with being consistent and having the motivation when I'm at home all the time.
I find I'm much better when I go out and be more sociable so I may well have to get somewhere to work from or go to somewhere or share a space to work from so it feels like I have going somewhere for a job just to help my motivation.
I do need to decide on the best way to sell my art prints at shows and things, like how to package them, whether to frame them etc still because I might do some small stands like Totnes show and Devon County Show for example.
When it comes to the finance side, I have Stripe set up to accept card payments and I have a PayPal account which the money can go through the website and go into the PayPal account which keeps things separate.
I don't think I need any finances in the form of business loans because I don't really need any start-up costs, I'm just paying a monthly fee for the website.
I do need to start using Google or QuickBooks to start balancing the finances and the ins and outs.
I have a spreadsheet at the moment which says how much each item that I'm interested in is and then I have to decide how much profit I want to sell them for.
The product cost, the price point and the return on profit I get from it.
I don't need any equipment or facilities. Or facilities. I do pay for ads on Instagram sometimes so that's part of marketing.
There is the possibility that I could teach a workshop in the future on how to either dye yarn or use Procreate or Photoshop or other.
I also want to set up a Behance and Fiverr and Upwork profiles so that people can find me on there to do freelancing jobs for illustration.
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