Magoz: My First Steps in the Illustration Business
Through a poetic language of his own creation, Spanish illustrator Magoz conceives his own way of expression focusing on the conceptual value of the images, aspiring for minimalism and simplicity.
Here, the illustrator shares his story about getting started in the industry and the key steps he took to establish his career – first published on his own blog and republished with permission on inkygoodness.com – part of his new blog series ‘Answers.’
We hope you enjoy the read!
My First Steps in the Illustration Business | magoz.is
Clients: The New York Times • The Wall Street Journal • Scientific American • SCPF • 3C • El País • La República • Wired Magazine • Medium.com • Billboard • Adweek • MIT Technology Review • Financial Post • Pacific Standard • The Chronicle • Money Sense • La Marea • University of Toronto • CACM • Austin Monthly • Datum • Causette • Canadian Lawyer • Art Asia Pacific • among many others.
I went to a modest illustration school and after two intense years of hard working learning how to use techniques like watercolour or gouache, I was more lost than ever. I didn’t even know what being an illustrator meant or how the illustration business worked. But I learned something critical:
I learned the value of the effort, and I got used to it. I spent countless hours per project, and a lot of nights without sleeping to do my best in every single detail.
This passion for hard working existed because an implicit agreement I signed with Miguel Montaner – one of the best illustrators I know and one of my best friends. We went to the school together.
The deal was to establish a non-stop (friendly) competition to see who did the projects better, with smarter ideas and with better results. This competition has been something that pushed us forward. It allowed us to learn and improve two or four times faster since we shared all the things we learned and all the discoveries we made. We were growing, improving, learning and evolving together, challenging each other in any single movement.
Understanding the illustration business
Pandemia Fanzine
It was 2009, and we were in our second year of the illustration school. Miguel and I decided to start our first project together: Pandemia Fanzine.
It was a monthly digital magazine in Spanish where we published our illustrations (and other illustrators’ work), interviewed our favourites illustrators and published useful articles and recommendations.
This period was crucial, but not in terms of developing a robust style or understanding how illustration business worked. It was very important because I learned thousands of things that surround the illustration world and that are very important for me nowadays. Things like learning how to program websites, developing a good teamwork, understanding the basics of creating, distributing and promoting an edition, and much more.
Pandemia fanzine 2
After two years and 18 issues, it was 2011 and Miguel Porlan joined us (he is also one the best illustrators I know and one of my best friends).
Having him on board was a revolution. He introduced us to the conceptual illustration and also added a professional approach. He had already worked on some assignments, and he had professional experience (at this point, not Miguel Montaner nor me had any work expertise).
We redesigned the whole magazine. The only thing that didn’t change was the name, but everything else was re-thought and created from scratch. After three months of intense work, the new project was ready.
The second version of Pandemia was one of the best projects I’ve ever created and one of the most enriching experiences I’ve ever had. For the very first time, I started to understand what being an illustrator meant and also how the illustration business worked.
After one year and 6 issues, our expectations and plans for the project grew, and we couldn’t find a place for the new ideas and projects inside Pandemia anymore.
We needed a bigger boat.
Crean
The idea was simple: we wanted to create the project of our dreams and the ultimate website for illustrators. Something that allowed us to develop our illustrations but help other illustrators at the same time.
It was May of 2012 and after 6 months of exhausting work, our new project was ready to be unveiled. It’s name was Crean (it’s a Spanish word that means to create but it also means to believe).
Crean had amazing features like a digital magazine where we wrote about theory, tools, news, interviews and featured our favourites illustrators. It also had a calendar you could subscribe featuring the most important events, contests and happenings in the illustration world. And finally it was also an independent publishing house, where we published Biombo, our first book.
We did our best in every single detail, and it was a titanic effort, but it totally worth it and the product was wonderful. Probably the best project I’ve ever created.
We even received a Junceda Honour Award from APIC (the Professional Association of Illustrators of Catalonia).
One and a half year after launching Crean, the amount of work to maintain the project alive was unsustainable. Especially because we were only three people, and we started to have illustration assignments. It was time to make a decision between our illustrator’s careers and Crean. Beside that, Crean wasn’t generating any money, and we invested nearly 4000€ on it. But this is another story (I will write about it in other articles). The decision was obvious, and we were forced to close the project.
Thanks to the nearly four years I spent working on those projects, I’ve learned almost everything I know about the illustration business. But it also helped me to create and develop my own way of illustrating. I could say, those projects were the best school I’ve ever gone to. Without these experiences, I wouldn’t know thousands of things you have to know to work on this business.
Having a solid portfolio shows potential clients that you are able to work on a professional assignment.
Developing a solid portfolio
The time I spent at the illustration school, working in Pandemia Fanzine and Crean helped me to experiment with different techniques and different ways of illustrating. I truly believe in the trial and error strategy to learn and improve your work. You always end up working in the way that fits you. You end up finding your way.
In this process, and after a lot of illustrations, my work gained consistency, which in my opinion is one of the most important things in illustration. Having a solid portfolio tells your possible clients your work is mature and you are able to work on a professional assignment. But it also gives you self confidence and familiarity with the process of producing new illustrations.
Creating a professional website and a professional email address
I’ve always been a bit obsessed with my website, trying to improve the usability and the way it looks. I think since I started, I’ve created more than 5 different websites featuring my work. And, believe or not, I’m already working in a new version of my portfolio, even I launched the last version 7 months ago.
You don’t need to be as crazy as I am, but you must have a professional website with your own domain and your own email address. It’s one of the most obvious things that differentiates a beginner from an established illustrator. You can also think that your illustrations deserve to have a great place to be showed.
Nowadays there are a lot of options that don’t require advanced knowledge, so there is no excuse for not having a professional website and a professional email address.
Building the potential client database
When I understood how the illustration business worked and after having a solid portfolio presented in a professional website, I was ready for start working. The only problem was that I didn’t have any assignments or clients, so it was time to develop a strategy.
For me it was clear I wanted to work for newspapers and magazines. I wanted to create editorial illustrations that allowed me to develop a conceptual approach.
My strategy was to contact directly the art directors I wanted to work with. I created a spreadsheet where I wrote down the name of the art director, the media, and the email address. To find the email addresses, I used some email tools and also sent some emails to the media to ask for those specific email addresses.
It took me a couple of months, but at the end I had a huge database with hundreds of contacts of the art directors I wanted to work with. Additionally I started considering the option of having an agent who represented me and got some work. I included a section inside the spreadsheet for agents and agencies.
Contacting the art directors and agencies
When my contact list was ready, I started to contact them individually. I sent literally hundreds of emails and I used different approaches including different kind of messages, with and without attachments, experimenting with different days and times, testing different email subjects, etc.
I didn’t find any magic formula, but with the experience I found that some things work better than others. I will publish an article soon talking about what I learned and what worked the best for me.
Getting some answers and the first assignments
The % of response was very low, maybe 10%. But the important thing was that a few of those responses liked my work and offered me my first assignments. This strategy allowed me to introduce my work to hundreds of potential clients.
I felt extremely happy, the strategy worked and I finally had some assignments to work on!
Being represented by an agent
One of the responses I got was from Anna Goodson, an illustration agency I contacted asking for representation. After a couple of meetings, we came to an agreement and we started to work together.
The day we announced our partnership I got 3 assignments and since then I’ve had regular assignments from clients from all over the world. Some of those assignments are provided by Anna. But some others contact me directly, proving that my strategy of contacting art directors worked better than expected.
Conclusions
It took me a lot of time to understand the illustration business and to develop a solid portfolio. But when I got there, was a matter of a couple of months to start having assignments. I just needed to contact the right people in the right way and show my interest on working for them.
This article is based in my own experience but I believe the different steps are common to anyone that want to be an illustrator (or other kind of graphic artist).
Now, as always, we would love to hear your stories. How did you manage to get your first assignments? Was it easy? Did you enjoy the process?
Share in the comments below!
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