Lesson 1:

Introduce yourself! Upload a piece of your work or a picture of you and let us know what phase you're in.

 

 

Hello! My name is Sarah and I am a german freelance illustrator and designer.

I've been painting for as long as I remember, but never considered having a career in illustration until early 2018. In the summer 2018 I took
the leap and started my own illustration business - while being in sprout stage as I now know looking back at this time of my life. As I produce
illustrations that look alike in style and quality, I consider myself in the grow stage at the moment. Currently I am in the rebranding process of my own business, because I expanded my main focus to offering design work and branding for small businesses as well, mainly in combination with my illustration work, acting as a small one person branding agency.

 

https://www.instagram.com/sarahjanser.design/

 

Lesson 2:

Use the reflection questions above to identify an industry-market-niche, and whether you’re a B2B or B2C artist. Share what you find out from the questions in your class project and any additional thoughts.

I consider myself as a B2B artist as I work mainly with small business owners who need packaging design and a branding solution for their products. I provide all the illustration needed and combine them with a branding tailored to the product so that the client gets a cohesive look throughout their products. I am currently working in the lifestyle/foodpackaging niche.

Lesson 3:

Pick one of the pricing scenarios from the course PDF and come up with your own price (take into account your base fee and the value that the work will bring to the client). Add your pricing schema to your class project.

I usually have a value based pricing model. So my main focus is on the value my illustration/design work provides to my client.
In Germany this practice is not very common. Almost all of my colleagues do hourly rates. In Germany we do have a different liscensing system, as we work with license factors and multiply them with the hourly rate. I personally like to offer my client a value based fixed price, that already includes the needed liscensing.

Lesson 4:

If you do have a website, give it an audit. Evaluate it based on the 10 general criteria. Where can you improve? Add your findings to your class project

 

 

https://sarahjanserdesign.com/

I currently work on my new website that incorporates design and branding to go along with my illustrations. Note that this website is still under construction and
will contain a lot more portfolio pieces very soon, as well as some examples of the graphic design and branding projects I did.

During the next weeks I will be organizing my portfolio work into different main categories, so that clients are able to click on the kind of illustration category that is needed for their projects. As a divider I will be showcasing some
branding projects and case studys of my design work. I will review the 10 principles from this class to build this website in a way that my clients can find some examples suitable for their products very easily.

Lesson 6:
Find the contact info for an art director you’d like to work with, using the techniques we discussed in the lesson. Draft the email using the template in the PDF. Share your email draft (and the images you would attach) in your class project.

I will rephrase this assignement to be the draft for my client, as I don't work with art directors on a regular basis but more often with the small business owners directly. Usually I attach some example illustrations that would fit into the
clients market niche to showcase my style of illustration. Also I would include a set of questions for the client to figure out how the product needs to be designed, ask about preferred color choices for the branding and what the overall look of the
brand should be like. I ask wether the client already has a logo, if not, I will offer to develop one for them during the design process. But more often I would go into the details in a personal meeting or phone call.

Lesson 8:

Reflection Exercise

Imagine your ideal client project. Who are you working with? What are you making? What is the assignment?
Now, imagine that you are the client. What are your goals? Why have you chosen you as an artist? Biggest concerns? How can the artist proactively address these concerns?
Share your thoughts and reflections in your class project.

My ideal client project would be a rebranding/new branding for a food or drink product containing my illustrations and design work. I would be working on the brand strategy with the small business owner and visualize the brand identity. I would provide my client with a couple of design choices and illustrations and
create all the brand visuals for the company. The clients goals are a good visibility of the new product in the store shelf and in online presentation and marketing. The client chose my work because I am able to povide all the design and illustrations needed without the need to work with a big agency.
I would be approachable for the client and he would be able to talk to the designer directly and in no need to hire a big branding agency.

Lesson 9/10:

I only have german contracts and drafts at hand at the moment. I will be including the international/english ones as soon as I finished setting them up during the next weeks.

Bonus Lesson:

I usually scan my illustrations and remove the background so that they are displayed with a plain white background.