From Illustrations to Merchandise: Market Your Artwork

From Illustrations to Merchandise: Market Your Artwork

“Thank you for taking this course! I really hope you enjoyed yourself and had fun with it. You should now have the basic principles of how to put your art into a product. Think about your brand values and what you want to make for your Final Project. You don't have to make a tote bag, but make sure that whatever you do it's something that represents you and your brand. I will do a quick overview of the main steps you should have in mind when making your own products and starting your brand. First, finding your voice. Remember it is very important to do your research in order to get a strong visual style and brand identity. Also, to be aware of what else is already on the market and what your competition might be. For this purpose, I like to use a sketchbook to write down or draw anything that I find inspiring around me.

When planning your design for your first product, it's a good idea to use an illustration that you already have and that's proven popular. That way it will be recognizable as your art and not such a big risk. But if you don't have one at this point, make sure that you are really happy with the design you choose for your first product. Trying out this with mock-ups, and sharing it with your friends is a good way to start and prove you are on the right track. Each product has a different printing process so it's very important to ask the manufacturer for their specifications and to get your artwork ready for print. You have to plan how many of these you will be producing, and for that, it's important to factor in your budget. Before you commit to having the product made, you need to decide how many to make. Start small to make sure that it will sell. You can always make more! You don't want to be stuck with hundreds of items that you can't sell. When applying your design to your product, you need to get the artwork ready. I have shown you how to do color separations in Photoshop so you can apply this method to other screen-printed products. I have shared some marketing tools to create excitement around your product and attract potential customers. This will increase awareness of what you have created and help you to sell your product. Create content around your product, it's about quality over quantity when posting on social media. You've already done all the hard work on creating the product, show the process of how it was made and the inspiration behind the design. Your customers will be interested in your story, so keep them in the loop. Also, it's important to think about how the customer receives your product once they have purchased it. I have given you some packaging ideas that don't have to break the bank and will help to create a personal connection between you and your customer, encouraging them to buy from you again. As an artist, it is really exciting to see your designs being applied to products in the real world and there are so many different types of printed products out there. I have shared with you some examples of products to get started with and some that you can aspire to make once your brand is more established. Once you have some finished products and you have created a strong brand, it's time to get selling online! I have shared with you my best tips on how to run an online shop and how to keep organised. As I said a couple of times, you need to create a user-friendly selling platform with your logo clearly placed at the top. Make the user experience as easy and simple as possible! Don't forget to share your project in the forum. Click on the "Create your project" button above and include images and descriptions of the main steps of the process, as I did. You can also post your work on Instagram using the hashtag #LouiseLockhartDomestika. I know this looks like lots of information, but I really hope my experience in design and making, selling, and sending my products, help you throughout your journey. I will be in the forum answering your questions as soon as I can, be patient! I'm a one-woman operation and a mother. Thank you so much again for taking this course and I'm looking forward to seeing what you create. Bye! ”

Partial transcription of the video

“Final Project Thank you so much for doing my course. I hope you enjoyed it and had fun. Hopefully, now you have the basic principles of how to apply your design to different types of products. Think about your brand values and what you want to make for your final project. You don't have to make a tote bag, but whatever it is that you want to do, make sure that it represents you and your brand. I will do a quick overview of the steps we have covered when starting your own brand and creating your product. First of all, find your voice. It's important to do your research into finding the thing...”

This transcript is automatically generated, so it may contain mistakes.

Course summary for: From Illustrations to Merchandise: Market Your Artwork

• Level: Beginner
• 97% positive reviews (455)
• 11677 students
• 4 units
• 11 lessons (1h 36m)
• 5 downloads

• Category

  Illustration, Marketing & Business

• Software

  Adobe Photoshop

• Areas

  Business, Digital Illustration, Graphic Design, Marketing, Traditional illustration