I pitched!...And?

Hi friends,

I sent not one, but three pitch emails this month!

I’ll be honest, it wasn’t without spending a lot of the month hesitating, convincing myself (i.e. getting in my own way…again) that I should improve the portfolio that I have, try to whip up at least one more collection with a motif that I do not yet have in my body of work.

But no. I stopped all that jibber jabber, double checked my spelling, added back some illustrations onto my website, typed up the emails, and pressed “send” 3 times.

And?

I’m expecting silence and rejection! But instead…I got an automated email response.

So?

This company who auto-responded were kind enough to include 2 hints:

1. They choose their next designs based on the volume of suggestions they receive (I’m assuming of the same or similar ideas)

2. That they spend a lot of time on Spoonflower looking for art work

Honestly?

🔥THIS IS SO GOOD.🔥

Thank goodness I stopped fussing over nothing and just pitched. Because now I actually KNOW what needs to be finetuned and worked on:

• Keeping my Spoonflower updated

• Staying aware of trends and honing the skill of trend forecasting to better guide what designs to make

So, that’s the good news, friends. The hard part of starting is over with. On to the grind!🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

That’s not all!😯

The next day I checked stargremlinstudio notifications on Instagram and saw that one of the other companies I reached out to had followed me!

So I checked my email and found a reply from the art director! They’ll be following stargremlin’s Instagram and reach out again if they see anything that will work for a collection.

The takeaways

• Keeping my Spoonflower updated

• Staying aware of trends and honing the skill of trend forecasting to better guide what designs to make

• I have to actually update Instagram 🥲 I was hoping to escape needing to be active on Instagram and use the direct email pitching approach, but alas, this is another game I’ll have to play, assuming this company is not the only one using Instagram as a means to find new artists to collab with

I’m relaunching my YouTube channel next month!

Recording 2 videos in one day. Taking off my sweater does count as a costume change!

In case you didn’t know, I have a YouTube channel!

I guess grief has a way of revitalizing creativity because I’ve started to record videos again — not just daily life snippets, but also talking-head-with-a-script videos.

The first video of my comeback is already uploaded, listed as private until it goes public in late December.

Wait, what?

Yeah, late December because I want to ensure that I can upload consistently, so prior to release of the first video, I’m building a buffer of at least 4 complete videos.

The intention is to upload every other week. I think every 2 weeks will let me focus on my actual priority (illustration and art licensing) while still being frequent enough to make videos of me talking about things I’m good at talking about.

Here’s a Preview of Topics!

For now, I’m branding my channel as being about “expat and art life.”

Since being on the JET Program for 6 years is a pretty unique experience, there’s a lot I can talk about regarding my experience in Japan before I bring things up to date with my life in New Zealand and as an emerging professional artist.

So…have I missed anything?

👀 Is there anything about Japan or the JET Program that isn’t already on this list that you’re curious about or want me to talk about? 👀 Let me know!

I may be able to include that topic in the line up…or at the very least, I’ll try my best to answer you in the comments or in private. 🙌✨