Markets + Self Promotion
Market Catalogue
First Market - Cropped @ LOCAL.
My first adventure into marketing was half a table at one of our degree show fundraisers. With artwork printed through the uni and stickers printed at home and cut with my Cricut machine. I also made display boards to show what the sticker packs contained as it was a little hard to see what was in them through the packaging.
Second Market
- 1/2 table @ UWE Christmas Market
After the success of the first market I decided to invest in buying sticker sheets from a third party, StickerShop. For 100 sheets it set be back £63, for 5 designs. But they are more resistent to wear and tear than my home printed stock, and at o.63 per sheet it was worth the improvement in qulity.
For my second market I kept to half a table, but edited some of my display techniques. I notcied that people found it difficult to navigate the boxes, so I removed one and made the remaining box a little more informal, by assigning it the B-Tier title.
The B-Tier box consisted of a mix of the lower quality stickers- and sold very well. Seems as if either people are willing to sacrifice quality for a lower cost; Or potentually after seeing higher priced options, will go with a lower quality/priced option as it comes off as a ‘good deal’.
Third Market - Valentines/LGBTQ+ UWE Event
Overall my top sellers have been the cat+fruits a6 prints and the fruit a4/5 prints. With the btier stickers being the most popular and the sheets being sold a little less than the prints. No original character prints have sold, but a couple fanarts have been bought. This has been a great process to go through to figure out how the illustrations I like to make fit into the wider world. I find the markets helpful in the fact that it’s an event I have to prep for and it gives me the energy to make new works. I’ll most certainly be continuing to table at markets once I leave university.
Buisness cards:
Hand printed, decorated and written. A mistake I will never make again. Will be scanning and reprinting through a third party printer with updated logos and website in the future.
For this market I changed a few things up based off of the sales of the last two.
made a5 editions of all a4 prints (apart from fruit medly, the elements got a little too small)
made an Arcane fanart print with shimmer metalic elements
made 3d clay trinkets, all sardines in 2 shapes: one smooth and one ridged to act as a paintbrush/small tool rest.
Also yes. That is a Schlankett that I am using as my table cover. Unprofessional? Maybe. Will I ever use it as a market table cloth ever again? God no. Very funny to people who recognised it and drove more sales? Yes.
Market Maths:
So I do these at every market to take stock, figure out what I’m going to sell, what to bring based on previous sales.
Self Promotion
Social Media / Online Presence
My online presence is split between Twitter/X, Instagram and Twitch.
Instagram I use to post polished presentations of my work, as well as engage in the wider community of illustration through challenges and trends, such as Peachtober.
Twitter has a less professional air to my work, posting in process works and sketch content. A little bit more humanising- but depending on traction I may end up posting finished pieces there.
My twitch is to track my digital work and progression, (and eventually traditional process aswell once I get a overhead camera angle set up of my desk). Unfortunatley I haven’t been able to stream recently due to my living circumstances.
