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This is Part 3 of the 4-Part series, How to Educate Your Clients, where we will examine the important role that education plays in your Freelance Illustration business. I’ll be releasing the future articles in the series over the next 4 days. If you’d like to follow along, simply bookmark this page, because I’ll be updating the links in the list below to direct you to those topics as I post them. If you prefer, you can follow updates via email or RSS.

Spec Work

To many Illustrators, these are the two filthiest four-letter words in the industry.

Part of the reason is that every day clients are asking artists to create work without guaranteeing that it will be used, or more importantly, that they will be paid.

The fact is, spec work is never going away.  No matter how much you may disagree with the ethics involved, some clients will still be requesting this lowly form of free work until the end of time.  You can, and in my opinion should, avoid doing spec work like the plague that it is.  Many professionals claim that it devalues the industry, and to those who would debate this, I would say that at the very least, it certainly devalues your own worth as an Illustrator.

There are two main reasons that spec work will always exist:

1.  There will always be Illustrators who will agree to do spec work.

2.  Most clients who ask for spec work don’t know or understand that it is bad, or why.

While all the education in the world won’t alleviate the hunger that drives artists to accept spec work, there are healthy ways to refuse to work for free while teaching your potential clients at the same time.

Some Misconceptions About Spec Work

Some creative professionals will react to a request for spec work by attacking or insulting the person asking for it.  I understand the anger that spec work evokes, but this response assumes that the client is knowingly trying to take advantage of hungry artists.  While this may or may not be the case, I propose that it’s a better idea to give the client the benefit of the doubt.

As Illustrators, we hear the term spec work spat out of each others’ mouths everyday with enough distaste to make our mothers cringe.  Because of this, it’s easy to forget that many of the people who ask for spec work have probably never heard the term before in their lives.  They simply don’t live in our world.

Therefore, rather than persecute them, we can take the opportunity to educate them and maybe even get them to pay for our services.

How You Can Enlighten the Lost

Before I share my own personal approach to educating my clients, I’d like to highlight two resources where you can find more information:

• No!Spec (no-spec.com) – A campaign that takes a very aggressive stance on spec work and strives to spread the word.
• AIGA – The professional association for design shares its position on spec work and offers a sample letter to send in response to spec work.

Now I’ll share an example of how I generally respond to a client who requests spec work via email:

Thank you for contacting me.  I would love to discuss your project in greater detail.  Unfortunately, I am not at liberty to create work on speculation, because my time is reserved for my paying clients.  That being said, I stand by the quality of the work in my portfolio, and if you’d like to commision me to create comps before you commit to hiring me for the overall project, I’m happy to negotiate a reasonable rate.

I look forward to the possibility of working with you.

What I like about this response is that it assumes the client’s innocence, asserts the value of my time, and opens the door to a fair, contracted relationship.  Of course, if they are not interested in these terms, they will simply move on.  At the very least, they will hopefully get the impression that if they want something of value, they are going to have to pay for it, without me having to confront them in a negative way.

More often than not, clients with good intentions will in turn hire me to create comps, and sometimes more.

Assert and Avert

Whatever strategy you use, taking the time to educate potential clients about spec work will help to encourage them to pursue ethical business practices and turn away those who would rather waste your valuable time for no pay.  In the meantime, you can make this task a little easier by asking your fellow Illustrators to do the same.

Escapee has spoken.

Check back tomorrow to find out how to educate your clients about Spec Work.

Now it’s your turn to share.

Do you take the time to explain industry standards?

How do you justify your price quotes?

I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Read more of How to Educate Your Clients.

Read More Escapee Speaks Business.

Who is this Escapee guy anyway?

This is Part 1 of the 4-Part series, How to Educate Your Clients, where we will examine the important role that education plays in your Freelance Illustration business. I’ll be releasing the future articles in the series over the next 4 days. If you’d like to follow along, simply bookmark this page, because I’ll be updating the links in the list below to direct you to those topics as I post them. If you prefer, you can follow updates via email or RSS.

The Creative Process

Throughout your Illustration career, it is likely that you will be contracted by clients who have never worked with a creative professional before.  Therefore it is important to be able to shed some light on the creative process.  In fact, even when working with those who know how to work with an Illustrator, it is a valuable practice to educate them about your own personal process.  As stated in the introduction, it always helps when everyone knows what is expected of them, as well as how the project might unfold.

How Do You Describe Your Creative Process?

A great way to do this right off the bat is at the point of your initial contact, which is often through your portfolio website.  For more about this, read my article on the importance of including a Process page on your site.

In addition to this, I find value in outlining my approach when I first speak with them on the phone or via email.  This lays the groundwork for the project and helps to instill confidence in the clients who are less familiar with how to proceed.  Naturally, your personal style will dictate the way you tackle a given project, but in general it helps to explain such things as how you will gather information and produce concept art, as well as how your client might approach the revision process.

As a further measure, I like to reinforce this knowledge at each stage or milestone to make sure everyone stays on the same page.

Explaining Concept Art

In the beginning stages of a project, most Illustrators produce conceptual sketches that far from resemble the finished product, and this can be difficult for some clients to comprehend.  After all, they’re paying you for something that doesn’t yet exist, and the quality of concept art is generally inferior to what they will eventually receive.

Therefore, it’s important to explain the way that they should look at the first work that you produce.  Try to encourage them to look at the basic ideas that are being represented in the drawings, instead of the level of detail or rendering of form (or lack thereof).  You may find yourself holding their hand much more through this stage, but doing your best to make your intentions clear from the start, and reminding them that the quality of work that they hired you for is still just around the corner, will help them to take the leap of faith necessary to see the bigger picture.

When you make the effort to educate your clients about the ways to interpret the initial concept art, you will decrease the amount of frustration that comes from an unsatisfactory response, or a request to improve small details in particular parts of the drawing that aren’t ready for that level of attention.

One way to get this point across might be to show the progressing stages from a previous project.  This can help your client to see how your ideas develop over time, eventually surfacing as a compelling work of art.

Paving the Road

I encourage you to consider doing this extra work early on, as it will help your client to understand you and communicate with you about their needs.  Anything you do to smooth the road ahead can be seen as an investment in a successful outcome that exceeds the expectations of your clients and makes your job more rewarding along the way.

Escapee has spoken.

Check back tomorrow to find out how to educate your clients about Industry Standards.

Now it’s your turn to share.

Do you take the time to explain your creative process?

How do you approach concept art?

I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Read more of How to Educate Your Clients.

Read More Escapee Speaks Business.

Who is this Escapee guy anyway?

Follow EFII updates via email or RSS.

This is the introduction to the 4-Part series, “How to Educate Your Clients”, where we will examine the important role that education plays in your Freelance Illustration business.  I’ll be releasing the future articles in the series over the next 4 days.  You can read Part 1 here.If you’d like to follow along, simply bookmark this page, because I’ll be updating the links in the list below to direct you to those topics as I post them.  If you prefer, you can follow updates via email or RSS.

Why is Education Important?

In order to increase your chances of a successful working relationship with your clients, it is crucial that everyone understands what is expected of them, as well as how the project will likely unfold.  Taking the time to educate your clients will help to make them more comfortable with the process of working with a creative professional and smooth out any potential bumps in the road ahead.  Illustrators should consider the sharing of knowledge to be an integral part of the services they offer.  After all, we are more than just artists.  As contractors, we are often required to provide project management, and even consulting, to help ensure the success of a project.

It’s important to point out that each client will require varying degrees of this type of education, and the more seasoned clients, such as Art Directors, will likely require none at all.  The key is to always operate from the mindset of a professional who is willing to share knowledge in order to enhance the experience of the creative process and maximize the potential for a successful outcome.

First, Educate Yourself

Naturally, the idea is not to assume that you are smarter or more experienced than your clients, and it is equally important to remain open to the opportunities to learn from them as well.  The purpose of this series is rather to help to bridge any knowledge gap that lay between you and a successful collaborative experience.

Part of this is making sure to educate yourself on the various aspects of Illustration.  This will be a constant endeavor throughout your career, and will make you an increasingly effective artist, consultant, and project manager.

Also, if you are ever faced with a question that you don’t know the answer to, try to be equipped with ways of finding the knowledge you may lack by making education a continuing part of your life as an Illustrator.

So, What Knowledge Should You Be Prepared to Share?

To begin with, it will be valuable to have the ability to educate your clients on the creative process, industry standards, the concept of spec work, and any further knowledge that may be of use to them now or in the future.

Click on the links below as they are made available over the next 4 days to learn how to educate your clients in the following areas:

The Creative Process

Industry Standards

Spec Work

Further Knowledge

Be sure to check back over the next 4 days as the further parts of the series are released.

Read More Escapee Speaks Business

Who is this Escapee guy anyway?

Follow EFII updates via email or RSS.

Today I’d like to explore the lessons that we can learn about marketing from the world of fast food restaurants, and how you can apply it to your Illustration business.

Stay with me.

After all, it’s a good idea to draw inspiration from everywhere you can, both for your Illustrations and your business.  The fact is that whether you eat at fast food restaurants or not, they are doing some things very right to grow their business.  There wouldn’t be so many of them if they weren’t.  In the future, I’ll be looking at the things that they have done horribly wrong, so that you can avoid the same mistakes.

So, for those who stuck around, let’s take a look.

Would You Like Fries With That?

The Concept

I don’t know about you, but I would ALWAYS “like fries with that.”

Fast Food restaurants know the power of upselling.  When a customer is already ordering a meal, this simple question can potentially add a couple of bucks to every sale.  Multiply this by billions of customers and you’ve got quite a profit.

How this applies to your Illustration Business

At any point in a project, it’s a good idea to offer further services to your client.  For example, in addition to Illustration you could offer to help them with layout design, printing, website design, and even how to market their new product or business.  These are all things that you might have some degree of knowledge of by virtue of running your own business.  Don’t offer something that you can’t deliver, and don’t bludgeon them with suggestive selling, but let them know about other services that they might have looked elsewhere to get.

The Dollar Menu

The Concept

We’ve all been there.  Stuck in traffic with a rumbling in our tummy and 2 dollars in change in the ashtray.  But wait!  Burger Czar has a Dollar Menu!  Salvation is here.

How this applies to your Illustration Business

Sometimes a client’s budget is way below the price you’ve quoted.  Rather than go your separate ways, try slimming down your services to cut their costs.  For example, suggest a black & white version of their full-color Illustration idea, offer less revisions, or extend the deadline.  Chances are the client never considered these options, and it can help you to get more work without compromising your rates.

The Drive Thru

The Concept

The invention of the Drive-Thru made it easier for people to buy fast food.  While you may question whether or not that has been good for our health, it’s hard to deny it’s effect on increasing sales.

How this applies to your Illustration Business

Consider taking steps to automate certain aspects of your business to make it more convenient for your clients’ busy schedules.  Some examples of this might be including a contact form on your website, accepting payment through PayPal, or using online invoicing services.  The time you save them might make them more likely to hire you for “rush” projects in the future.

Marketing Tips To-Go

Obviously, there are tactics that you wouldn’t want to glean from fast food chains, and I’ll be talking about some of these in a future post, but there are always sources of inspiration to be found in the world around you if you’re paying attention.

Escapee has spoken.

Now it’s your turn to share.

Can you think of other marketing ideas to borrow from fast food chains?

Where do you find inspiration?

Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.

Read More Escapee Speaks Business

Who is this Escapee guy anyway?

Follow EFII updates via email or RSS.

This article is part 7 of the series entitled 7 Elements of an Effective Portfolio Website, which aims to encourage Illustrators to consider some crucial features when building or refining their portfolio websites.  You can find the rest of the series here.

In previous parts of this series, we’ve focused on how to approach the design of your website, image gallery, and About page.  We’ve shown a proven record of successful projects, given them the opportunity to dig a little deeper with a blog, and even educated them on how we work.  So how do you get them to take the most crucial step of all?

The Call to Action

We’re going to assume for the purpose of this post that you’ve maximized the potential of your portfolio website and instilled in your visitor at least a faint interest in contacting you.  The best way to throw it all away is to leave out any means of doing so.  This may sound silly, but I really have seen some Illustrators fail to have their contact info in a prominent location on their site.

It’s important to remember that up to this point the potential client has been operating in a mostly passive state, taking things in and looking for reasons that they should not contact you.  Once you’ve gotten their attention you need to make it as easy as possible for them to switch to the more active state that is required to initiate contact.  That is the only thing that will move you towards your goal of closing the deal.

The least you should do is make your contact information visible.  This part is easy, but you can do so much more to inspire action, such as create a contact page and link to it from the other pages of your site.

The Importance of a Contact Page

It’s a wise business move to have your contact info on every page of your site, as long as you’re not being obnoxious by throwing it in front of your visitor’s face.  One thing to keep in mind, however is that people are conditioned to look for a contact page, especially Art Directors who look at a lot of online portfolios every day.

Another great reason to use a contact page is to have a place to post multiple means of contacting you.  If you are active on social media sites, for example, you can include links to your profiles elsewhere online.  The benefit of this is that different people are more comfortable with different forms of communication. Also, a potential client may not be ready to hire you right away, but they may want to connect with you through social networking to initiate a relationship and keep you on their radar.

Here are the forms of contact that I list on my contact page:

Phone

Email

Twitter

Facebook

LinkedIn

design:related

Biznik

If I posted all of these on every page of my site, it would have a negative effect on my overall design. The contact page, however, is made just for that purpose.

The Contact Form

The absolute best thing that you can do to increase the chances of your visitor contacting you is to include a contact form on your site.  People live busy lives in this day and age, and by inviting a potential client to fill out a form right then and there instead of having to login to their email account, you are making it as quick and easy as you possibly can for them to start a dialogue, which is the point of all the effort that you’ve put into your website.

Inspiring Action

There is nothing in this post that is rocket science, but by providing an easy path to initiating contact, you are increasing your chances of connecting with your visitor on a human level and potentially landing a project and building a lasting relationship with a new client.  The small steps outlined here can have a big impact on the effectiveness of your site.

The Effective Portfolio Website

The goal of this 7 part series has been to help you to maximize the potential of your portfolio website.  After putting so much time, energy, and hard work into your beautiful Illustrations, you deserve to show them off in a flattering light.  Your website should be something that you are proud to lead people to, and that gives you the best possible opportunity to reach your target audience.

I hope that these articles have encouraged you to revisit your approach to your marketing efforts.  Thank you for taking the time to read them.  Please tell me what you think about this series in the comments below.  It will help me in my efforts to provide useful content in the future.

Stay informed about the next series on EFII, How to Educate Your Clients, by following updates via email or RSS.

Now it’s your turn to share.

What do you include in your Contact Page?

How do you encourage your visitors to contact you?

Is there anything I’m missing here?

Read more of the 7 Elements of an Effective Portfolio Website.

Follow EFII updates via email or RSS.

This article is part 5 of the series entitled 7 Elements of an Effective Portfolio Website, which aims to encourage Illustrators to consider some crucial features when building or refining their portfolio websites. You can find the rest of the series here.

In previous parts of this series, we’ve focused on how to make the most of your website design, image gallery, and About page, as well as the benefits of including testimonials and a blog.

Now we’re going to explore the reasons that you should consider using your site to educate your potential clients on your creative process.

The Process Page

In addition to marketing your portfolio website to seasoned Art Directors, it’s a good idea to cater to potential clients who may have never worked with an Illustrator before.  This second group of individuals includes self-publishing authors, business owners in search of a logo design, musicians in need of album cover art, etc.  These types of people may be uneasy about trusting an Illustrator with their project, as well as uncertain about how the process works, how much it will cost, and how long it will take.

While you may not be able to answer every question your visitor has about their particular project, an outline of your creative process can help to make them more comfortable with the idea of working with an artist, and possibly even more likely to hire you.

A Transparent Approach

The idea here is to start a dialogue with the potential client by lifting the veil of mystery while sharing some vital insight about what it might be like to work with you.  The fact that most Illustrators don’t take the time to do this will automatically help you to stand out from the crowd of other professionals that they’ve been considering.

By shedding some light on the steps involved in working with an Illustrator you can win points with your visitor because you are already providing a valuable service for free.  Education is an aspect of the Illustration business that is often overlooked by most, partly because we spend so much time in our own little worlds that we tend to forget that the Illustration process isn’t necessarily common knowledge.  You may remember that before you started out, you probably had no clue yourself as to how this industry works, or what an Illustrator actually does.

What Should Your Process Page Say?

It’s important to keep things simple when outlining your process, remembering that you can go into much greater detail when you meet with your client for the first time in person or over the phone.

In general, you should share the basic steps that you take in order to nurture a project from concept to completion, such as the initial meeting, creation of concept art, revision stages, completion of final artwork, followup, etc.  You can of course take your own personal approach to the way you want to share your process, and you can include it in your About page or designate a specific place for it on your website.

Here are two examples of different ways of sharing your  process:

My Process page at ThomasJamesIllustration.com

Holly DeWolf’s About page at HollyDeWolf.com

You can see that these are two different variations on a theme, but the intent is the same.  On my website, I have even chosen to go a step further by beginning to write an educational series called How to Work with an Illustrator.  This is because I feel that there is a lack of this type of information available, and because I consider educating and consulting my clients to be a major part of the services I offer.

Greasing the Wheels

Including a description of your creative process can go a long way to presenting yourself as a professional, increasing your chances of landing more projects, and smoothing out the experience of working with your clients.  When both parties are clear about what to expect from a working relationship your job as an Illustrator will be much easier, and the potential for a successful project will be far greater.

Escapee has spoken.

Now it’s your turn to share.

Do you have a Process Page?

Is there some other way that you reveal your creative process?

Is there anything I’m missing here?

Check back tomorrow to read Part 7 of the series – The Call to Action

Read more of the 7 Elements of an Effective Portfolio Website.

Follow EFII updates via email or RSS.

This article is part 5 of the series entitled 7 Elements of an Effective Portfolio Website, which aims to encourage Illustrators to consider some crucial features when building or refining their portfolio websites. You can find the rest of the series here.

In previous parts of this series, we’ve focused on how to make the most of your website design, image gallery, and About page.  We’ve even gone a step further in making our case as a seasoned professional by including a list of recent projects and testimonials.

Now that you’ve proven your worth as an Illustrator, how do you get your visitor even more invested in your work and present yourself as a prolific, motivated, and dynamic artist?

The Blog

Let’s face it.  No matter how awesome your portfolio website is, for all your visitor knows everything they find there may have been created 5 years ago.  Your website is a static, timeless environment that offers no clues as to your continuing activities as an artist.  Also, if a potential client bookmarked your site last year only to return to find that nothing has changed, how do they even know that you’re still alive?

This may be a dramatic way of putting it, but the fact is that a blog can add a dynamic layer to the more rigid format of your site, while providing a forum to update your followers on your recent news and developments.  It can also be a place where you can loosen up a bit, write in a more casual way, and even inject some personality or humor.

Without diving too deep into the topic of search engine optimization, it’s also important to point out that since blogs are generally updated more frequently than websites, they will rank higher in search engines like Google, making it easier for people to find you online.

What Should You Blog About?

Your blog posts should primarily be about your current events as an Illustrator, such as recently finished projects, collaborations, interviews, new personal work, new studio space, etc.  The idea is to present yourself as a working artist who is constantly creating, evolving, and hopefully making waves in the Illustration community.  If something exciting happens, take advantage of it by sharing it with your audience.

Another great use of your blog is to promote yourself as an expert in your field by writing tutorials for your fellow Illustrators.  This will not only show a level of mastery of your style or medium, but will also help you to connect with other artists who find your content useful.  A similar approach is to create a post outlining your process on a particular project.  Opening a window to your creative methods can have the combined effect of educating and entertaining your audience, which will increase their chances of coming back for more.

Your blog can also be your place to post work that you wouldn’t normally include in your portfolio, because you’re not trying to blow anyone&