How to get your work SEEN by Industry Creatives online
If you're 'Ready for hire', this post is for you
This post is for you if you consider yourself at the stage in your creative work where you are ‘ready for hire’. You have a solid portfolio, strong projects and case studies to share online. You want your work to be seen by Senior creatives in the Design Industry who are looking to commission artists and illustrators for brand driven work. You want to know where you should focus your energies for sharing your work online, so that it actually gets seen by the right people. If this is you, read on. If you’re not quite there yet, this may still be useful.
Note: Instagram ranks low!
Senior Designers, Design Directors and Creative Directors are ALWAYS searching for inspiring illustrators and artists to collaborate with for their brand projects. Literally every single brief I get in, that has an opportunity for any illustrative elements, has me spending a full day scouring the internet for something fresh to add to my moodboards and concept sketches. Particularly as a freelancer, the stakes are always high. With each job, I have to demonstrate that I am connected to exciting new trends, talent, work that feels modern and contemporary but also fits the brief and brand.
One or two days to generate ideas around a mood board is not a lot of time. I need to find work FAST.
How I find illustrators and Artists online
Here’s my ‘focussed’ search pathway:
Step 01 – Pinterest
The visual search engine
My first port of call for finding inspiring work. This is the easiest and most effective way in to building moodboards. I can type in broad key search words such as ‘food illustration’, and get a whole range of examples instantly. I can then refine down to more specific searches that may relate to style: ‘silkscreen food art’, or ‘food pattern’ or ‘woodcut style food illustration’. Pinterest’s tags and algorithm works well to help me find things quickly. The joy of the site is the ease of navigating lots of single images from different artists and illustrators all under the same theme in one place. It is a brilliant visual search engine and has taken over from all the previous sites that used to be the go-to. The trouble with Pinterest is that everyone goes here first. You would not believe how many times I see the same reference images appear on mood boards across agencies. It is a great place to start, but should not be the only site for discovering work. Pinterest is only as good as the ‘pins’ that are added. I continue my search.
Step 02 – Behance
The Portfolio website
A place to find entire projects and case studies. Now, it can be a bit hit-and-miss, purely because it feels as though the whole world is on here, and it can feel quite ‘student work’ heavy. However, you can see the cream rise to the top - there are a lot of excellent professionals who do take the time to have a presence on here. The search function on this has improved a lot recently, so I find myself using it more than I used to. The key words and tags are helpful and work well. It is especially useful to be able to see a series of images that make up one case study: it helps to show how an artist’s work might be used. When I ask my industry peers where their go-to sites are for talent search, Behance came up very high on the results.
Step 03 – Illustration agency sites
The process of scouring individual agency websites is a little more labour intensive, as usually the sites are not searchable under style or subject keywords, but by illustrator’s names. So I usually spend time going through each illustrator and familiarising myself with their whole portfolio. I love doing this, but it needs more time. I have about 5 favourite agents who tend to be my go-to, but you can imagine that going through only 5, and scouring the whole site across multiple illustrators is quite a task. I can contact the agency directly with a brief, and have them suggest suitable people for a job - although this tends to be later down the line of the project. I tend not to bother them if I am still at research stage. The great thing about going straight to agency sites is that they have done the ‘discovering’ for me, and I can find top notch talent all in one place that is of the same high calibre. I can also feel confident that they are familiar with how to work with design agencies and brand-led briefs.
Once I have been through steps 1-3, I usually feel confident that I have a good range of inspiring work at my fingertips. There is one notable absence from the list: Instagram.
Instagram is not to be ignored. However, it is not the go-to for a FOCUSSED search when I am time poor. It is far too distracting - the search is too heavily influenced by an echo-chamber of visual styles and it is rare that I will find anything unexpected, not because it is not there, but simply because Instagram makes it too hard for me to see any of it. I simply see the same stuff over and over, plus a few huge accounts, followed by cute dogs - and I’m instantly distracted. I’ve fallen down a scroll hole of adorable animals and I have wasted my time. I simply DON’T BOTHER if I am given the task of finding great work for a project. Sure, when I’m throwing out a page from my sketchbook onto my own profile, I may encounter something in my feed that makes me want to bookmark it - but that’s an entirely different thing. For this post, I want to focus on where people can FIND YOU EASILY - and let’s be honest, NOTHING about Instagram is easy anymore. Instagram continues to be significant for creatives, there is no denying that, but I want to make sure that you do not prioritise it over other places online.
So how can you make sure YOUR work is easily searchable and found online? Where should you invest your energy?
1 – Your Website
I’m stating the obvious, so bear with me. If you don’t have a good site, you won’t be seen to be professional. This is your home, the only place you truly control. It should be a beautiful place, easy to navigate and should clearly tell people what you can do. The examples of work should demonstrate the type of work you want to attract. Everything online should come FROM your website and link BACK TO your website. Especially if you are not yet represented by an agent. Discoverability is all down to you. Start with ensuring that all your images are SEO keyword optimised. This will ensure a google search will find you. I’m no expert on this topic, but recently I have seen Women on Illustration on instagram share some GEMS of advice regarding websites.
2 – Pin everything to Pinterest
Ensure you have multiple images across each project showcasing the range of work in one case study. Perhaps its 4 different colour versions of an illustration + 2 images of the illustration in use on a pack/billboard/magazine (you get my drift) but the more ways you can showcase the work, the more ‘pins’ you have for Pinterest. I cannot stress HOW IMPORTANT PINTEREST IS for getting your work seen in the industry. Literally everyone uses it all the time, so if you are not pinning your website images to Pinterest, get ON it. This great article by Helen Reynolds gives you a brilliant place to start if you don’t know how.
3 – Create a portfolio on Behance.
Behance: The ‘Portfolio review open house’, but online.
Sharing your work here is like: Being at a recruitment fair, where global industry people and peers get to peek into the pages of your portfolio all in one place. The catch: it really is saturated! The quality of work varies, from students through to established freelancers. There is genius AND a lot of sameness, so your work has to work hard to stand out.
What you need to do: Make sure your projects tell a clear story of how you solved the brief, if that’s relevant for your work. You can think about each project as a narrative, what is the best way to communicate the work? What problem did you solve? The ‘money shots’ should be a beautiful and striking as possible. This post by Brian Edward Miller is a great example of how the process and development of a project has been explained.
Do you need this AND your site? Behance can feel like double the work if you already have spent ages on your website. However, remember this is a search engine for PROJECTS. It is worth thinking about your website as the place for your freshest, best work - you don’t want it to be too heavy to trawl through. You can place your website projects on to Behance, but also add more - perhaps some older work that you still love but don’t want on your main site anymore. Create multiple projects and case studies and tag them with various keywords so they are searchable. Industry insiders WILL search here, so if you don’t have a presence, you’re missing out on eyes on your work. Again, pin it all on to Pinterest.
The other important platforms
Ok, lets now assume you have a great site, all linked to Pinterest, a Behance and a great body of work all making sense. What else can you do?
LinkedIn. The Design Industry water cooler moment.
Sharing your work here is like: Having your ‘smart suit’ on and sharing your latest proudest work to the grown ups. They all whisper ‘oooh, hmmm, interesting….I can see ‘so and so’ brand might like that….’
What you need to do: Share case studies and real life work to attract the top interest. Present your work in a concise professional manner. Think market relevance. If you have been commissioned for work in the past, share it here. If you have a dream project that you want to attract, create your ‘concept project’ and showcase it here. The brand you’ve always wanted to see your artwork on? Create that project, find out who the brand manager is, or which agency is responsible, and tag them, send it to them, invite people to comment. This is not Instagram - avoid outrage, be in respectful dialogue and speak to the right people.
It’s a no-brainer: If you are looking to connect directly with Design Directors, Creative Directors and Senior Designers who are the people actually trying to find YOU and your work, then why not just go directly to them? I get illustrators connecting with me on LinkedIn and I REALLY appreciate that they found me and I didn’t have to find them. I enjoy seeing the beautiful images of their work in my feed, alongside the boring shares of ‘marketing week’. LinkedIn NEEDS you, trust me, we are hungry to see beautiful work there.
Examples: Creatives who do this really well are Vic Lee, Niki Groom, İlker Türe.Creative collectives. Seek out the company of other creatives you admire, and join or form online and/or in person collectives. I often head to the Print Club London site to see the latest work from brilliant talent. Inky Goodness champions new and emerging talent an showcases great work. Join the AOI for an opportunity to have an portfolio online with them and access the brilliant support they provide. By being adjacent to other creatives who are doing similar work to the work you want to attract, you are more likely to be seen. I’m aware these are very UK based examples - please do share similar or alternative examples that are based in other parts of the world.
Asia Orlando for Brewheart Coffee Instagram. The Wild West
Sharing your work here is like: Imagine walking to the edge of a forest with your sketchbook. Now tear out a page, throw it into the wind, do a little dance for no freaking reason and hope that someone on the other side of the forest catches the page and says ‘that’s nice’ before letting it land in a muddy puddle and never giving it another thought.
What you need to do: Use your account to showcase your projects, images, however you want to but make it work as another portfolio. Perhaps throw in some work in progress, sketchbook stuff, more ‘realness’. But bear in mind that it is still to function as a portfolio. As for ‘what works on IG’…honestly? Who the hell even knows anymore. Try anything. Let me know what sticks. I rarely find artists here as a first port of call. If I’m looking for ready-to-hire professional artists and illustrators, I rarely encounter them with ease on IG. It’s usually because someone has sent me a profile to view, not via my own algorithm search.
I am not saying Instagram does not matter. IG is a noisy, complex, annoying place. THINK about what it needs to do FOR YOU. I’m talking to you as a professional artist / illustrator that is looking for work. Be strict about your boundaries with the app, be strategic with its use, and consider it another shop window for your online presence. Get all the foundations set: Website, Pinterest, Behance and LinkedIn, THEN go crazy on Instagram all you like. Just don’t make it your everything.
All of the above is a lot of work. A LOT. But that is where your focus should be first and foremost. If you’re faffing about with reels on instagram and you don’t have a solid website, Pinterest and Behance, delete instagram OFF your phone, forget about it, and get the basics down. Controversial, but essential. Once the foundations are set up, by all means, go crazy on IG and give it all the focus you want to.
What have I missed out?
Where else do you live online and share your work?
Is there another platform where you have success with visibility?
Where do you like to show up?
Let me know in the comments!
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Coach Raj with another inspiring pre-game pep talk! 🤗💖✨
I've re-read this three times now! Thank you so much for sharing your insights. My plan for June is to start pinning my illustrations... and to stop feeling guilty for failing at Instagram 😂