How Do the Holidays Affect Your Illustration Business?
(Illustration by Mikela Provost)
Escape from Illustration Island will be taking a break for the holidays until Dec. 26th, but things will be back in full effect during the final week of 2010. In the mean time, we’ll be working on some things behind the scenes and tightening up for 2011, which promises to be an exciting year.
We thought this would be the perfect time for another Weekend Forum discussion (or Holiday Forum).
How do the holidays affect your business?
Do you get the chance to take a much needed break?
Do you find yourself continuing to work right on through the holidays?
Are you distracted and thrown off course by all the holiday madness?
Do you lament the seasonally slow business for Illustrators around this time?
Do you send out holiday-themed promotion items?
Do you prepare for the coming new year?
We’d love to hear from you, and we’ll be hanging around from time to time during our “week off” to join in the conversation. Please feel free to share your experiences in the comments section of this post.
Happy Holidays!
Thomas
Special thanks to Mikela Provost for providing the artwork for this post.
About Mikela Provost:
Be careful. Mikela Prevost is watching you.
People are Mikela’s greatest source of inspiration. funny, weird, gross – it all amuses her.
When not stalking people, she endures Arizona’s 100°+ while playing with her two girls and little boy or getting freelance encouragement from her amazing graphic designer husband Cameron Smith.
Or she’s taking a nap.
Related Posts:
- Taking Stock of Your Illustration Business in 2010
- Setting Up Your Business for the New Year
- How to Recover from a Holiday and Get Back in the Groove
- 9 Ways to Run a Smart Creative Business
Hi Thomas,
I’m always enjoying your podcasts.
As to your questions concerning Christmas time. Being a freelance illustrator I don’t actually have any holidays. Also I’m just doing a Christmas special on my homepage which consists of 24 different postcards and I still need to finish two of them.
After that, I will spend my time between a much needed cleaning and tidying up of my appartment, a meeting with fellow illustrators in a nearby town, preparing some decoration for Christmas lunch with the family – and (of course) a little bit of idling around…
I’m certainly not distracted and thrown off course by all the holiday madness. Instead I’ve rather integrated it into my work (the Christmas special) which is also the only kind of promotion I’m doing this year. I’ve included the hint to this special site on my homepage into every correspondence with potential clients and told everybody I’ve met within the last weeks about it.
As I’m still new in the business, which up to now is still lamentably slow, I’ve not noticed any further slow down.
My preparation for the new year consists partly of listening to as many of your podcasts to learn from them as much as I can regarding portfolios, art reps, clients and how other illustrators approach the market. I’ve also listened to the episode with Stephanie Levy who actually lives in Germany and who I intend to contact. I want to work on my style too, who (in my opinion) is much to conservative and not really expressing what I want to show.
And last but not least, in preparation for the next year, I really have to make up my mind as to which clients I want to approach. A thing I should have done much earlier, but only now am I beginning to realize how many different kinds of options there are and whether they are paying off all the effort.
With sincere appreciation for EFII and your work, I hope that you will find the time to enjoy your Christmas holidays.
Heike
Hello Heike, and thanks for your comment. It sounds like you’ve given a lot of thought to where your business stands, and where you want it to go, which is great. It’s also really good that you’re doing what you can to make the most of the holidays with a special promotion. I hope it works out for you.
As for me, I’m sneaking in as much work as I can get away with to get ready for the new year, but it’s never as easy for me during the holidays. Hope you enjoy yourself and feel refreshed for 2011!
Working straight through with the exception of xmas eve and xmas day. Who needs time off when you’re doing this for a living? Can I get an amen?
Amen indeed. Whenever I start to feel at all burnt out, I remember how much I never want to do anything else. It’s worth every bit of work, in my opinion. Enjoy the holidays!
Personally, I must work as much as I can during the holiday season but still fulfill all the family + friend obligations. I also am trying to not be so hard on myself for not reaching all my 2010 goals. I achieved many cool things that weren’t even on the list! I’m planning my 2011 marketing and next year I have the very exciting opportunity to finally pursue my BFA in Illustration! It’s a little backwards doing so after 7+ years of experience. Still, I take classes anyway and want to advance my skills. Why not?
If the clients and the work are there, we try to mix it in with hollyday activities.
We never know when the will be at quit week, so it is difficult to say no, unless we are over-floated with work. That is, I think, the price for working freelance.
Merry Christmas to all – have a look at our christmascard here :
http://www.gekkographic.dk/christmas/christmas_2010.php
Hi Thomas,
When the holiday season arrives the illustration work begins to slow down and I gear up for the New Year. Obviously, I will complete any projects not finished because my clients always come first. The month of December is a fine time for me to think about the upcoming year and what goals I need to achieve. This involves thinking about purchasing new computer equipment and what promotion strategies I need to complete.
I try to send out promotion cards with a holiday theme to refresh my clients memory so that they will keep me in mind for next year’s projects. I try to have fun with my promo card because it gives me a chance to be creative and show off my skills and what I can create for potential clients. I don’t just send out a holiday promo card but also send out e-mails with an attached art piece. This is important because the publishing field is constantly changing and I need to know who is gone and who are the new people making creative purchasing decisions. This keeps my database fresh so that I have a foundation to build upon for the upcoming year.
I try not to let the holidays get to me but do feel the constant pressure and try to handle it as best as possible. I realize I will encounter pressure situations with family and friends and make time for quiet moments so I don’t to loose control.
The Best this Holiday Season to one and all.
Paul
Happy Holidays and thanks to everyone for joining in on this impromptu conversation. Great to read your thoughts. Cheers.