Specialization in Illustrated Brand Creation

Introduction

An illustrated brand begins when an artist dares to dream beyond the sketchbook. What starts with creativity grows through purpose, strategy, and consistency. Over time, applied art has opened new paths to professional freedom—from handcrafted prints to global collaborations. Today, you can license your work, launch your own label, and reach audiences across lifestyle, fashion, and digital markets. This journey requires the mindset of an artist, a designer, and an entrepreneur. This is where you start turning your unique style into a brand with meaning, impact, and authenticity. You will discover how to turn your illustrations into a brand with purpose and global reach. You'll explore the history of art licensing, how to apply your work to products, and what it takes to balance creativity with business strategy in today's illustrated markets.

1m

Influences | Ana Blooms

Normally all our work, especially the creative one, has been influenced by something or by someone. Here I share a summary of what has influenced mine.

14m

Influences | Vania Bachur

In this lesson I'm going to tell you about my main sources of inspiration.

10m

Influences | Allison Cole

These are a few touchpoints that I always return to when I feel stuck creatively or need to embark on a new project and feel inspired.

3m

Influences | Adam Katz

Art and design is all about drawing from influences! In this lesson, I’ll share my influences and hopefully allow you to start thinking about yours.

6m

Influences | Ilustrata

Now, we're going to bring you some of the biggest influences we've had in our work and how each has shaped us.

12m

Introduction to the world of branding

Working a few years in branding, I learned very valuable brand tools that can enrich, structure and shape every project before starting, especially if it is a brand project. In this lesson we will do an exercise where I seek to get a little closer and in a clear and simple way, to what should be the heart of your brand. We will learn about different key aspects and how they all become our core.

10m

Conceptualize a collection

Since we have clearer some aspects of our brand, we can start looking for the concept and inspiration for the first collection. Here you will learn a method of inspiration through a written fragment and the construction of a moodboard. This will be the navigation map that will guide us in our creative process.

10m

Color palette

One of the aspects that I consider most important to create remembrance and brand unity in our products and our prints, is the color palette. In this lesson I will share with you knowledge about color theory, and how you can create your own palette. This way we will ensure that wherever people see your work, they know that it is you!

5m

Types of prints

When I started designing prints it seemed very difficult for me not to have all the same composition, unconsciously they were all very similar. Then I decided to make a personal classification of prints in terms of their distribution and composition, this helps me a lot when creating a collection of prints because it allows me to insert them in different products. I hope it is as useful for you as it has been for me!

7m

Manual illustration techniques

I love the analog illustration because I feel, it allows me to print my footprint and my essence. In this lesson I will talk about the three main techniques that I use: acrylics, watercolors and speedographs; I will tell you what I love about each one, how I can mix them and how in the end they give me unique results.

4m

What is a module or rapport and how is it done?

When we design prints there is a key piece that helps us in its construction and large-scale reproduction: rapport. I will explain what it is, its use in textiles, its advantages, and the way it is composed.

4m

Illustration of loose elements part I

I love to illustrate loose elements and create small banks of personal images because it allows me to combine them in many different ways and keep them in force for a long time. Since I shared with you my favorite techniques, now I'm going to teach you how to use them. I did a step by step so that you can understand it better, but the idea is that you take it as a basis to give it your touch and your essence and appropriate it as much as you want.

17m

Illustration of loose elements part II

We continue to learn different techniques to illustrate loose elements and build a composition.

12m

Digitize and build your rapport

We already have the loose elements and now we must pass them to the computer. Here I will teach you to digitize them, clean them, and adjust the color, so that they are radiant and ready to be used in the construction of your rapport.

16m

Choose the product and its materials

There are many ways to choose on which product we will apply our prints, here I share the one that I like the most. Based on this we will choose 3 products to which we will apply our 3 prints from the same collection. I will also talk a little about the types of materials we can print on, some of the properties and uses.

10m

Mockup mount

The digital assembly in mockups allows us to preview our designs in real products without investing money or time in their production, this helps us to adjust size, color, and composition, before printing a fabric or surface. Here I will share what a mockup is, what advantages it has and how we can use it. I will assemble the 3 mockups of our traveling kit; seeing thus, how flat and simple objects come to life through prints. In additional resources I share a video if you want to build your mockup yourself.

14m

Share your work!

In this lesson, we will talk a little about my process by sharing the work in networks and how I have gradually managed to build community around my brand. I will tell you the importance of teamwork and, I will also give some tips on social networks, communication, interaction, and strategies, which I feel have worked for me.

9m

Search for inspiration

In this lesson we will review my drawing supplies, my types of markers, wood colors, pens, and inks. Also the sketchbooks I like to work with and my favorite papers.

18m

Sketch 1

We will start by looking at basic anatomy for our characters, it is important to know even a little the essential rules and then break them!

15m

Sketch 2

Let's continue sketching.

9m

Character psychology

It is important to give a personality to each of our characters, what things they like, what things they hate and their character, this will help us to refine the sketches we have made previously and add elements that can help us with their narrative.

8m

What is a style guide?

In this lesson we will define what a style guide is and I will show you some examples to analyze the parts that compose them.

6m

Digital illustration 1

Now we will focus on digitizing our sketches that we have previously selected.

15m

Digital illustration 2

Let's continue with the digitization process of our sketches.

9m

Integration of a style guide

In this lesson we will work on integrating our sketches into the style guide that we have made for our final project.

19m

Product Design

We will talk about the types of products that can be adapted to our characters and which ones we should exploit.

15m

Use of mockups

We will see the best way to change mockups to be able to visualize our products in a more realistic way.

13m

Presentation of a product

In this lesson we will see the idea of one of our products materialized.

6m

The Malvatips

Let me share my wicked tips or malvatips to move on and find your own style.

2m

How to sell your brand on social networks SC

The best thing you can do for your brand is to find the appropriate channel that you will use to make it known, you live in a digital age with many opportunities and different means that will allow you to do it, here I share how I have done it.

11m

Tips to stay creative

It is important to maintain a broad visual culture, learn and know about almost everything, even knowing very well what we do not like and what makes us wrong, I will give you my best recommendations to keep you in a productive state.

5m

Introduction to illustration for products

In this class, we're going to deal with some important questions about the types of illustration for products, such as characteristics, comparisons, technical aspects and, more specifically, the universe of prints for t-shirts.

5m

Platforms to market your art

In this class, you will learn about some examples of online pages that allow you to publish artistic works and apply them to different products. It is a very accessible form both for those who are starting and for those who are already in this market.

1m

The importance of author work

What are the differences between a fanart and an authorial work? Of course, one does not exclude the other, many artists transit through both worlds, including ourselves for a long time. In this class, we will explain in more detail these two types of art and the importance of finding your own voice.

3m

Print-on-demand and Daily Sales stores

These are the two main types of platforms we operate on, and it's important to understand how each one works. In this class, you will learn about the main possibilities that these two business models offer.

2m

generate an idea

In this class, you will learn a method of generating ideas for your illustrations.

5m

search for references

Now, you will get to know our process of researching references and setting up a mood board.

16m

thumbnail production

With the references and mood board ready, the time has come to get the idea out of your head and put it on paper. Here we will start drawing.

11m

drafts

The goal here is to polish the draft to get as close as possible to the solutions for the final version. In this class, you will walk through the process of developing a draft.

16m

refined draft

In this step, we are going to design and redraw the idea, apply some textures and solutions, leaving everything ready so that the sketch is fully configured for finalization.

18m

linear art

With the draft finished, in this class, we are going to make the final lines of the Illustration. It is the beginning of the project finishing process.

16m

colors and painting

Now, we are going to explain how to choose the best colors for the piece and how to get the most out of it in order to enhance the illustration. Ready to start a color study?

21m

texture and finish

Texture is the final touch, it's how we differentiate objects and styles in the illustration. In this class, you will learn how to make different types.

14m

Closing the files

In this class, we are going to start thinking about the post-production of art. Let's separate the colors and close the file for the websites in two different ways.

19m

Publication and dissemination

Now that we have everything ready, let's explain how to publish the design on Redbubble. In addition, you will understand the importance of the Daily Tees in the dissemination and publicity of your arts.

13m

Art Licensing to Grow Your Business

In this lesson, you'll see how you can grow your business with art licensing.

2m

Licensing Terms and Definitions

Advance, royalty, copyright? Start to understand the definition of what licensing is and what terms you may encounter.

8m

Markets and Research Tips

Here, you'll learn about the different markets for surface design.

10m

Reflection and Pattern Design: Inspiration

Now you will learn strategies for taking your marketplace research and reflect on it to determine the types of markets you might be interested in creating art for.

15m

Repeating Patterns Explained

In this lesson, you will learn the design considerations for making a repeating pattern.

3m

Pattern Design: How to Make a Repeating Pattern

Now that you know better how a repeating pattern works, in this lesson you will learn how to make a repeating pattern in Photoshop, taking into account the design considerations of the type of repeat, directionality, and layout.

21m

How to Make a Presentation Print

Here, I'll teach you how to create a Presentation Print for your pattern to showcase your work to clients cleanly and professionally.

7m

How to Promote Your Work

In this lesson, you will learn different ways to promote your work online and in person.

8m

How to Present Your Work to Prospective Clients

I will talk about smart and effective ways to pitch and present your work to potential clients and buyers.

5m

Selling Your Designs: Best Practices

Lastly, I will go over best practices once you have sold a design to a client, contracts, and how to price your work.

5m

The Value of Research for Your Idea

Research is essential to building a brand. You can’t make a compelling brand unless you’ve become familiar with and as close to an expert as you can be about what your client does, why it exists, who its audience is, and who its competitors are. Now you will learn research methods and how to create a user journey map for your audience.

13m

How Does Your Audience Interact with Your Brand?

Once you understand who and what brand you’re building, you need to start building a plan for how your brand reaches your audience. To do that, you will learn to make an understanding of your audience’s journey with your brand from start to finish and get creative with how you reach them during that journey.

11m

Building a Strategy

Once you have learned to understand how your brand reaches your audience, you will learn how to make a strategy from which all of the creative work you create emerges.

7m

Building an Identity

A brand’s identity is core to how it introduces itself to its audience, resonates, and becomes memorable.

7m

Typography

Typography is integral to building a unique brand that stands out. Typography should fit the brand, draw from references and express a feeling to its users while being, of course, always legible.

9m

Color

Color is a core element of any brand! When you think of Coca Cola you think of red, Twitter is blue, and so on. Choosing your brand's colors shouldn’t be just a guess. You will learn to build your brand colors to help express the emotion and message you want your brand to exude.

6m

Art Direction

Art direction encompasses how your art, photo, video, illustration, and or pattern to your brand. Excellent art direction can shape a brand and be a catalyst for how it communicates to its audience through advertising and marketing communications pieces.

7m

Tone

An effective tone of voice can be as instrumental to building a successful brand as the visual identity of the brand (think about Geico). When developing your tone of voice, always think of your audience. What are they seeking when encountering your brand, and how can you break through to them and communicate effectively?

8m

Creating Your Brand Guidelines

The first step in developing the guidelines is creating an outline for all the pieces that will comprise it. In this lesson, you will learn how to make the outline for the brand guidelines.

9m

Finalized Mock-ups

Once the guidelines are set you need to craft the deliverables or final mock-ups to share on your portfolio. Once again, referencing the user journey map, you will see how to develop your finalized mock-ups for a site or book.

10m