For me this module has been a great opportunity to start laying the
foundations for my Business, Boo Dillon Illustration, and an opportunity to
research, locate and make contact with a network of like-minded people in order
to expand. I hadn't appreciated quite
how many different options and choices are out there, particularly online, when
it comes to marketing my work. I want to
select carefully and make sure the calibre of the websites I choose to sign up
to, is equal to the quality of the work I mean to produce. I've done a lot of investigating and
researched a great deal of the Illustrators out there, who I really admire, to
see which roads they've gone down and I'm trying to tread a similar path.
I started with a Facebook Illustration Page last year and have seen its
followers grow to 290 (boosted by The London Book Fair promotional material
giveaway this year). I also have a board on Pinterest on which I upload
my work - this is a particularly great way of seeing how your images are
working publicly as people re-pin them onto their own boards if they like
them. Other people can pin from those
boards and so on ad infinitum - you can see the effect you are having and are
also getting your name spread. I
recently joined Behance and see.me and I've opened both a Society 6 and an Etsy
account. My next move is to attach a Big
Cartel link to my website once my merchandise is ready to go live.
My Future Strategy:
My method of approach, to start off with, will be stealth - I don't feel
that I have a full enough body of work yet to warrant launching myself
explosively. I want to get started straight away and have a number of projects
lined up ready to go. I want to build up
a more varied portfolio of work and make my personal style stronger and more
recogniseable - I need to give myself room to make mistakes. Through my
Facebook page and Instagram feed I've already connected with a number of
illustrators whose work I really admire and I'd like to maintain these
dialogues and chat further to fellow Illustrators, shop owners and keep up to
date with any Illustration type events that are going on. I want to make sure I get out to as many
Art/Craft/Zine/Fairs/Markets as I can and TALK to people, give away free
postcards and ask if I can leave them in cafe's etc. Over the years I've
been watching the career paths of artists such as Sandra Dieckmann, Kareena
Zerefos and Belle and Boo - they started small but with a strong sense of what
their style was. My plan is to make a modest production of merchandise
from my Menagerie Series (you can find my research in the promo/products tab)
and hopefully get it in a number of shops (online and other) that I've
researched as well as on my own page and in Etsy etc. I would eventually like to look at
illustrating more than products, but for now I feel my objective is to get my
name and style up there as a recogniseable entity. To stop myself from 'going stale' and to keep
my mind fresh, I'm going to be submitting work into competitions and into
Magazines such as Popshot, which is a beautiful print magazine for illustrated
poetry.
