#dreamclients

What did Frugal Fred get?

Go to a game store. Check out the games they have from smaller companies. Find some that are currently using art that feels like your style and your level of skill. Write the names of the companies down. Go to the interwebs and get your research on! Find those Art Director names & contacts (or at least the emails/mailing addresses of the main company).

Alternatively, check out ArtSourcing.org, a new project by Zoë Robinson (who has worked for Fantasy Flight, Blizzard, and USAopoly) that is all about connecting clients in gaming and publishing who are too small to have an art department with upcoming artists who fit their budgets. She’s always adding artists to her roster.

—Agent KillFee

What do you want to do? It sounds like you’re kind of sitting still, waiting for jobs to come your way, or at least reaching for the ones that come close. It’s not enough to say “I want to get paid to do art” you have to be more specific. It sounds like you’re getting some hits but not connecting them into steady work. Which industry do you want to work for? What kind of style art do you make? What are your dream clients/jobs? I would recommend making a list of the top 20 clients you most want to be commissioned by and taking a day to do nothing but research them. Find all the contact info you can for the art directors there. Look at the last year of things they’ve released (aka art they’ve commissioned). Does your work look like it can fit there? If so then keep them on the list. If not then put them aside for now. At the end of this you should have a list of dream clients AND a pretty good knowledge of what kind of work they’re looking for. Start writing them emails once every 3-4 months with your new work attached. Maybe even make a cool mailer/promotional piece and send it to them. Let them know you’re a) making great art b) really want to work with them and c) doing your research on them and they’ll start biting. Do this for 6 months and see where it gets you.

—Agent KillFee

No one is saying to promote yourself to JUST 20 clients. That’s your DREAM LIST, which you obsessively research and personally tailer your promos and emails to, and perhaps go to cons and events to see personally. Absolutely round out your list, being careful all the while that you are making sure what you do lines up with what they hire as far as target audience/age of audience/industry/genre line up in general. Can your work be used by multiple age groups or genres or industries at once? Sure, but you have to do that research. Adding random ADs and clients to your list without knowing what they do is just wasting everyone’s time.

If you need some quick pointers on best practices in self-promotion, check out Drawn + Drafted’s free art business onesheets.

—Agent KillFee

Want DREAM clients?

It's not what you get from your clients.

It's how you SERVE your clients.  

It's not about you.  

It's about them and what value you provide, what solutions you solve, and how you give them exactly what they want.