Is It Time To Reinvent Your Career?

   I took a break from my work early this evening and headed over to Mass College of Art in Boston. There was an illustration event moderated by Ed Shems titled "Reinventing the Illustrator." The three other participants were Donna Berger, LIsa Graves, and Lauren Scheuer. The four creatives were offering their insights as to reinventing their careers so they could continue pursue their creative interests. I think we can all agreed that there is less illustration assignments in such areas as editorial, magazine and children publishing. So what does one do besides scratch their heads? There are still illustrations being commissioned but these avenues are probably unavailable or in different directions such as video game, animation and multimedia video fields. The four moderators started the discussion by offering there own interests and new projects they are working on. Once the moderators described their projects the discussion was opened to the audience for there own input. This is where the event became very exciting because everybody was offering ideas freely. The audience members mentioned how the illustration field has challenged them and what they were doing to meet this challenge. All kinds of professional levels were in the audience so new ideas were discussed such as connecting with friends and creating work for their bands, working on free samples for start-up businesses or just posting samples on websites such as CafePress or Etsy.
   
  My commissions are not what they have been in the past so I have personally been giving some thought to new directions worth pursuing. Where does one start? First of all I have considered artwork created in the past such as posters, different editorial work maybe more animation work. Some of my other interests include comics. I like the idea of creating a portfolio of character designs. I am also seriously considering writing and creating a new children's picturebook. Nothing is really stopping me except the idea I have not attempted this sort of project before. What the heck nothing is really stopping me except making the time and doing it. 

   

  Ed Shems offered a number of creative ideas such as creating posters, books, advertising, stickers, character design, art prints, cartoons, t-shirts, web comics, greeting cards, licensing,self-publish, video games, tattoos, packaging. These are just some ideas that were mentioned throughout the evening. Lauren Scheuer mentioned her new found interest with starting a chicken blog. She has been amazed with the response from bloggers and is actively coming up with new characters and new found stories, possibly for a children's book. Donna Berger is actively pursuing her interest with new portraits and receiving an interest from potential clients. She has noticed a drop off from her children's work and feels that her portraits offer an exciting new direction for her. Lisa Graves main interest has been design work. Some of her clients feel confident with her professionalism and offered her new assignments in new directions. Lisa mentioned she has no experience with some projects but has the opportunity to try something new and challenging. Lisa brought one of her printed cook books that she illustrated.

  I am glad that I stepped out this evening because it was worth the time and effort. Many new ideas were generated from tonights illustration event. I feel so much more excited about returning to my studio and pursuing my creative projects. I met some really nice people who were very open about their own creative interests and I offered to stay in touch. I would like to hear from you about your new directions.  What are you pursuing that that you feel will make a difference with your illustration career. Send me a message and lets talk about it.