Self Promotion - Choosing the Right Piece
How do you choose which pieces of artwork to use on your promotional materials?
When you're sending out a promo with several images, it's not such a tough decision, but when you're sending a small postcard with room for only one image, your choice becomes much more important. It's a one shot deal, and you want to choose just the right image.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. Do I feel this is one of my best pieces of work ever?
2. Would I put this image as the first piece in my portfolio? Because that's basically what you're doing with a postcard...you're saying, "Here's my best piece, now come to my website and see what else I've done."
3. Is this piece representative of the type of job I want to do? It could be the best piece of work you've ever done, but if it took you two years to complete it and forced you to wear a brace for carpal tunnel syndrome, you probably won't ever want to do this style again.
If you answer "yes" to all three of these questions, THIS is the piece!!! If you answer "no" to any of them, you should probably select or make another piece.
Those look fantastic Janee! How inspiring!
Posted by: Paige Keiser | January 22, 2006 at 09:35 AM
I love this. It's a straightforward way of figuring out what to include and what not.Defintely going to keep this in mind for myself.
Your samples look adorable btw!
Posted by: roz | January 22, 2006 at 11:16 AM
Thanks for the great info, Janee! Your promos look terrific!
Posted by: patrice | January 22, 2006 at 12:13 PM
Really great info Janee! Very useful way to get to the heart of it. Samples look beautiful!
Posted by: Laura | January 22, 2006 at 01:55 PM
Janee, you are such a genius! I'm glad you've posted this info. it helped a lot when I was choosing my image. Your samples look great by the way.
-heather
Posted by: heather | January 23, 2006 at 08:41 AM
Those are some fantastic looking promo pieces! I love the design and of course the illos themselves are excellent, as usual. You're bound to get some work out out of this! Good luck!
Posted by: Einar | January 23, 2006 at 09:02 PM
This is so true. I'm about to send out samples soon, and after that it's postcards. Very exciting.
Your samples looks great. I see you have several samples on each sheet, is this the usual way to do it? I'm new to sending out samples, so I don't know how many illustrations to send or if I'm gonna use one sheet for each illustration or not.
Posted by: wynlen | January 24, 2006 at 10:33 AM
Thanks for the nice comments, y'all!
Anette - As far as samples go, it's really up to you. I like to send several images at once and then invite them to look at my website for more. I probably wouldn't send one image per sheet these days just because it's expensive to print that many sheets. I would save that for those potential clients who ask to see more.
I'm sending both of these sample sheets in my current mailings because I'm promoting two styles right now (one with a black line and one without).
I'd love to see your samples when you get them done!
Janee
Posted by: Janee | January 24, 2006 at 11:30 AM
Thanks for helping with all this great advice you post.
Posted by: violetismycolor | January 24, 2006 at 10:39 PM
whew! You just helped relieve some tension! I was worrying about my postcard image for the conference in NY...then I saw your post, answered your questions...and voila! All better! Thanks so much for giving out the free advice. :)
Posted by: Dee | January 28, 2006 at 09:07 PM
Great advice Janee, helped me pick my NY showcase piece. :)
Posted by: Courtney | January 31, 2006 at 01:05 PM
Just wanted to say hi and to let you know that I found your blog and your work interesting as well as inspirational. It's colorful and the characters are great.
I am a fellow designer - I have a stationery line and I do a lot of custom logo & illustration work. I think it's so neat to see other people's art. Thanks for sharing!
Please keep up with your work!!
-Colleen
www.ticklebellies.com
www.coolbabygraphics.com
Posted by: colleen | February 05, 2006 at 01:40 PM
Hi JAnee, Great posts! I am about to do some promo pieces and I saw the mention of Barb and Ilene! I love Jack E. Davis too! Keep posting!
Posted by: Monicalee | February 17, 2006 at 08:15 AM
Excellent advice. Thank you for the wake-up call.
Posted by: kathy weller | May 24, 2007 at 04:10 PM
Save a little money each month and at the end of the year you'll be
surprised at how little you have.
-- Ernest Haskins
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