I love hand-drawn typography. There’s definitely something organic and refreshing about it, especially when used in an advertisement or on a book cover. Unfortunately, the demand for such traditional type is not as strong as my admiration towards it.

Michael Perry’s Hand Job: A Catalog of Type explores various treatments of hand-lettering by various typographers and illustrators including, Andy Smith, Tyler Askew, Matilda Tristram, Luke Ramsey, and A.J. Purdy to name a few.

Michael Perry has done hand jobs, oops I mean hand type for clients such as Urban Outfitters, American Eagle, MTV, Rome SDS, Ployvinyl Records, Amelia’s Magazine, and so on. You can visit his website at http://www.mikeperrystudio.com

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In order to be successful as a freelance artist, you need to map out marketing plan and be prepared to execute a series of promotions throughout the year. So, grab your calendar and let’s start planning!

There are several things a freelance artist should be doing to promote their work to potential clients. The key is to be current and consistent.

I often get asked by freelance artists,

“How can I promote myself to art directors and publishers, without being too aggressive?”

Well, unless you’re standing outside their office, painted like your favorite artwork, you have little to worry about. Art Directors, Publishers and Marketing professionals are always on the lookout for new talent. But the ones they want to work with are not only talented, but they are organized, punctual, passionate and easy to work with.

Once you have created a plan, you’re going to be so busy doing everything on that list, that you will only have time to get in touch with everyone once every 2-3 months. There needs to be more than one thing on that calendar of yours.

If you have a “promotional or marketing plan” in place and follow it, the end result will be favorable. A lot of artists don’t understand that marketing and self-promotion isn’t a once-a-year occasion. I’ve spoken to many artists who will tell me, “I just spent all my budget on an ad in XYZ Magazine. I have nothing left”. And I feel for those artists, because they didn’t “plan” their marketing out for the year. If you only have $1500 for the year to spend on marketing, spread it out so that you can try several ways of getting your name out there.

Some artists are really good at budgeting and planning their marketing strategies. A majority of them play it by ear. I will cover more on budgeting and making a plan in separate post. For now, here are a few very important things to do:

- Get on 2-3 professional online portfolio sites, like Creative Source. Some other great sites are the Ispot, Black Book, Creative Shake, Children’s Illustrators and for the UK – AOI.

- Create 2-4 online and/or print postcard campaigns

- Attend 1-2 industry conferences where you get to learn more about the industry and network at the same time

- Cold Calling/Booking face to face appointments with business owners, the Director of Marketing, Art Directors and Publishers and Editors to show your work

- Enter Contests and Awards

- Know your Target Client and Research them!

You should also always be updating your portfolio, even if it’s concept or spec work.

And ALWAYS be looking for various ways you can incorporate your art work (advertisements, marketing collateral, textiles and apparel, packaging, etc). This is always my favorite thing to think about!

I will go into more depth about each of the things I mentioned above, in the near future.