Monday, 14 June 2021

[LAUIL602] Task 4: Student Symposium - Self Promotion with Molly Fairhurst and Matt Pettit

 Notes from the Symposium:

• Matt Hodson opens by talking broadly about networking. Who do we want to see our work? Where do we want to be seen? Considering networking and being involved within a community of practice.

• Molly Fairhurst (https://www.instagram.com/molly.fairhurst)  is an illustrator and artist and does a lot of different work involving drawing - includes a mainly editorial work. Accidentally become an animator. What strategies does she employ to make herself visible? By and large Instagram is the main place she posts to and has consistently been doing so for the past 6 years. She has been posting art online for 15 years now, since she was 11 years old. It's a very natural way for Molly to share art and engage with others.

• Because of her high visibility on instagram, with 50k+ followers, she has to assume that's where she gets most of her jobs. She approaches Art Directors with emails. Less visible on Twitter but still has a presence. Who is Molly emailing? Mostly editorial Art Directors because those are the people she knows who are always looking for art. Brand-based jobs approach her.

• Matt comments that it feels counter-intuitive to spend time thinking about promotion because it isn't a creative act.

• Molly feels promotion is just something she does every day. and puts it onto the "fridge of the world". Social media is used with the intent of "showing off her peacock feathers" and trying to attract people who will give her money. (I love both of these analogies!) It has to feel comfortable and natural and for the authentic intent of sharing. Molly's relationship with Instagram is a lot healthier now and she doesn't feel so intertwined with it anymore. She doesn't think about presenting herself a certain way or as a certain type of artist. She shares because she is exciting about making. Molly keeps up all of her posts from 2014 as she believes it to be a time capsule. Has recently started to use Tumblr again as a nice space to observe and share art though is aware that is a dead space for any opportunities.

• Matt agrees that there are different approaches and strategies for instagram and that Molly's is authentic. There is some degree of self-awareness when externalising our actions online. Think of it more as a studio space or a working archive than a portfolio.


• Matt Pettit studied illustration and is now an agent (at Debut Art) of two and a half years. He also runs a printing and publishing company called Friends in the Dungeon. His approach to social media through the printing and publishing lens is very much the same as Molly's approach in that it's an archive and a studio space. With Debut Art there is a difference in posting between the agency and the publishing company and identifying that lens. Documenting artists' work, the intention is not to show anyone's personality unlike Molly where she will have the freedom to do that. When representing to a client, Matt can then perhaps bring the personality of "comedic ideas" into the conversation. Would never want to misrepresent an artist on have them perceived different to what their approach is.

• Matt offers the suggestion of how you promote yourself as a practitioner. Are you offering a product? Are you commodifying a way of making illustration that you can offer as a product? Or are you offering an artist who is able to adapt to projects, briefs, and problems. Illustrators' work is themselves. Your ideas, your thinking, your process, your influences, your inputs. Some agencies and brands are looking for that finished thing. How to promote yourself online: is it about knowing who you are trying to appeal to and what they can see in your work creatively? A lot of big clients aren't creative. 

• Milly: How can you use social media without becoming consumed by it? How can it become a tool and not an obsession? 

• Molly suggests to use it habitually. Often with clients, she feels she has a commercial approach. There is a commercial style they like her to use and she doesn't resist that. Molly isn't hesitant to show everything else she can do, too. 

• Matt P. feels less pressured as he is no longer trying to prove his own work. Definitely seeing more enquiries through instagram. Matt's main perception of personality and what is being shown on instagram, is that agents and art directors still love to speak to a creative. Understand where your work sits. Buying into the brand of the illustrator as well as the work itself being used. 

• Matt H ties in that our relationship with social media, and our relationship with our practice, has a danger of the two things merging. Mr Bingo is a good example. You create a mythology and then you have to sustain it. It can be very damaging to your mental health and impossible to maintain. Marcus Oakley has hard and fast rules. Very little about himself on his instagram. His private life is his private life but there is still a lot of his personality in the work. We are always evolving and you have to know how to balance those things out.

• Molly suggests to just be yourself. You cannot be anyone else as you will be driven to kill it. People like people but avoid doing it in a network business sort of way.

• Matt P. find that getting the most enjoyment out of your work will bear the most internally, creatively and then financially.

• Molly: Making self-initiated work becomes a tool to get other work. People will see you constantly exploring your own practice and will potentially want to hire you for that. I started animating for myself and was then hired to do it, putting 200 pictures together and animating illustrations. It will reward you in taking the time to investigate your genuine work and work that genuinely pleases you.

• Matt H: Wanting to step in on truthfulness. The stuff that resonates with people seems authentic and speaks of something real. Art directors and people who appreciate visual culture are able to parse whether we are looking at something authentic and that's what engages the audience. If you're not maintaining that self-initiated work and chasing style, if you aren't feeding the homogenous, it falls flat. Many try to maintain the instagram feed. Clients and companies are looking for that human tone of voice. 

• Milly: Going back to social media, how can we promote ourself and attract commissions and get the ball rolling?

• Matt P: With Friends in the Dungeon has found the network grows itself organically. People are added all the time. There's an importance of maintaining a professional relationship with someone you're working with and understanding that - making sure you're being paid properly and not taking advantage, for example - but by sharing work, interacting, extending to interacting with publications, or the type of people you want to be working with, start interacting with them. Interact genuinely, not because they can give you something like money. When you have bills to pay it's so difficult to navigate. It's a difficult process that takes time. It's important to maintain the joy in the work that you make and the people that you connect with. 

• Molly adds to not be afraid to share your work. She has talked to people who want to maintain a pristine presence. Some people only contact art directors when they are at this perceived high level. This perceived high level is always going to be a moving target. Send an email to not direct name. Even if they actively don't like your work they are not going to blacklist you forever. They get hundreds of these emails every day. Don't be afraid when you have developed a bit more or when you have create something else to share once again.

• Matt H: "The internet creates this mystique where the people we admire seems to be creating every job for every person but it isn't true and it isn't possible. That's the same about you in something that's local and heartfelt in the early days of graduation as there would be to a massive ad job seven years later because it's still part of your creative journey."

• Molly had a tendency to overthink at university and only began to evaluate outside out university that she enjoy working and making and the process in a physical way. You need to find something that you can do repeatedly that won't drive you insane!

• Milly: What kind of printed materials would you suggest having on you and giving to people? (Pandemic permitting)

• Molly doesn't do physical mailers. She has heard art directors I don't appreciate it that much anymore when you can just email them directly.

• Matt H was keen to swap zines at zine fest and art fairs. (It's very important to make sure your contact details are in them) Lots of follow-on from people who seen something from 2006! Zine culture is very valuable if little comics are your thing. Low cost materials.

• Matt P agrees that agents at his job feel the same about receiving physical ephemera but other agents may love them as they represent something physical. There's no point sending something for the sake of it. Ensure to attach enough stamps for a response! It isn't necessary as part of your marketing strategy as an email does the same thing.

• Matt H considers the nuts and bolts of a promotional approach - the idea of a website, its purpose, function, relevance, and what it should cover. How does it complement an Instagram feed?

• Molly offers that instagram is all of the bits and scraps. The website serves as the professional service. Instagram has changed the way Molly sees work, as squares in a grid, which disgusts her. There is value to Tumblr and a website where the dimensions are bigger. Molly doesn't consider it absolutely necessary but it is good to have. If there is a job that Molly doesn't feel she is suitable for and she doesn't want to do she can recommend someone else and link their website.

• From Matt P's agent perspective the Instagram is nice as the archive. If an enquiry comes in, with reference images of the work to be commissioned, and he represents an artist who doesn't make work like that but has in their instagram from 5 years ago - they can accept that commission if they want to. In terms of a website, showing that you can be professional and represent yourself in a certain way is no bad thing.

• Matt H: The idea of the network, explaining what that is and how that relates to promotion and professional growth as a graduate. What are you experiences of network building in real life, on social media, what have you gained from it and do you think it has benefited your professional growth?

• Molly finds it's beneficial to have friends in the industry. People help each other. People share contacts, pass you onto jobs that they think you'd suit but you have to return that as well.

• Matt P's job is to find new clients, show the artists' work, networking professionally at point of contact but marketing to them and their needs. The network you build at Uni is important, some will become art directors.

• Matt H: Staying creative after graduation is important to maintain. Putting on events and shows, setting up collaborative projects, all of those things that you can self-initiate help you extend your network and raise your profile with people.

• Matt P finds that human interaction, even just a phone call, the more likely someone is to remember you. Don't call art directors out of the blue!

• Molly doesn't have a physical portfolio or business cards. Most of Molly's clients are international. Typically they pitch her and she will hear a month or so later if she got the job or not. She used to have business cards at zine fairs but they would disappear instantly. 

• Matt P adds that living in big cities with physical locations of creative offices of advertising agencies or art directors is very beneficial to research. If you feel you are a good communicator then it is worthwhile to have a printed portfolio. With a portfolio - consider the size and content. Don't have it absolutely ginormous but not A4 either. How to house your work in the best light. His portfolios are generally A2 size. Keep everything considered.

• Molly's point of view is as a freelance illustrator. If you are looking for jobs with design agencies it will be very helpful to have a portfolio. Molly exists on the internet. Anyone can use Google and that follow-on is what people will do. Art Directors and clients want to play that game and see your work for their needs. Business cards are so weird. You do better to engage with people online and have conversations. When emailing art directors and publishers, keep it short and sweet. Make sure to address it to their name. Refer to actual projects they've worked on. Be polite. Leave your links in there, typically attach a few JPEG's of your work. Not big hi-res files.

• Matt P: Be polite, research an art director enough that you can reference a piece of work they've worked on. Don't send a huge file as it will take a while to download it. Assume they have 10 seconds.

• Matt H comments on separating the idea of an audience and a fanbase in social media, and strategically targeting people who are commissioning art. How can that be done?

• When Matt P started working as an agent and had to find clients, he would go to corner shops and take photos of art director credits whenever there was illustration in a publication. Illustrators often credit the art directors they have worked with online. Being regimented and having a spreadsheet that you keep and doing the research is important.

300 Word Summative Reflection:

I have already implemented social media, particularly Instagram, as the core promotion tool for my practice and portfolio asset. I don't have a website yet, I don't feel it is relevant to my practice at this point in time, so I have made my instagram very professional. After this symposium, I should consider loosening my approach to content - considering instagram as a studio space, or a working archive, than just a portfolio. It can be that as well. The two different lenses take the same journey and compliment each other. Painting is messy and isn't a tidy canvas at the end and I should take my audience on that journey with me. Being mindful of social media not informing my practice and the two things merging together which I hade certainly felt sometimes. The pressure to create a piece of work for likes and comments when it should be about authenticity. Considering Molly as a freelance illustrator, where I would like to situate myself within freelancing one day as a painter, she doesn't have a physical portfolio or business cards which has opened my eyes to their relevance to my practice. The comment about thinking too hard about promotion in itself not being a creative act have really stood out to me.  This needs to be organic and authentic. People enjoy networking with others on a human level, not things being sent to them and not a business card without a face. Networking is important to have my name passed along for opportunities and I need to ensure I don't stay isolated in my own page. I need to reach out when the world is safe again and start talking with other practitioners and potential collaborators to build the foundations of something. I need to ensure I am not coming across in a businesslike approach. Human interaction is important. Other professionals are at s perceived high level but it is always going to be a moving target for myself. I need to keep working and putting myself out there presently.

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