The Good Ship Illustration

Get more illustration work: A pep talk, some tips, and a tiny rant

• The Good Ship Illustration • Season 10 • Episode 21

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Errrr, how do you find illustration work in 2025? Pitching? Instagram? Postcards? SEO? 

In this nice an' juicy episode we’re answering the 'Heeelp, how do I find clients as an illustrator?' question.

  • What works
  • Why we don’t “hunt” clients 😅
  • SEO tips to help the right people trip over you
  • How to be pals with art directors
  • Pitching can feel YUCK (but it doesn't have to)
  • Old-skool stuff that still works
  • SHOW YOUR WORK, PLEASE

Timestamps, for people who like that sort of thing:
 00:00 – Listener question: “How do I find clients?”
 01:00 – Why “hunting” clients feels weird (and what to do instead)
 02:30 – Laying out your stall: making your online presence irresistible
 04:30 – SEO tips to help clients find you
 05:15 – The rise and fall of illustration directories and annuals
 06:45 – Do postcards still work? (Short answer: yes!)
 08:10 – Instagram, visibility and staying top of mind
 10:00 – DMs and the etiquette of messaging clients
 12:00 – What not to do when reaching out
 13:30 – Building genuine relationships over time
 15:00 – Do you need an agent or gallery?
 16:00 – How to sell your own work (without a gallery)
 17:00 – Strategic competitions and why they matter
 18:00 – Cards, shops and flinging mud (yes, really)

Links we mentioned:


Byeeee for now!

x The Good Ship Illustration (Helen, Katie & Tania)

Come and say hello!

✏️ @thegoodshipillustration
🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com

p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

How to get illustration clients
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​[00:00:00] 

I've got a question. Go for it. Hello. Good ship. Loving the Good Ship podcast. Thank you all so much for your valuable insights. You hear that valuable insights valuable.

Mm-hmm. I just have a question for you all regarding clients. I know you've covered this a lot, but I'd love to know the actual process, the hunt for clients. Where do you go to find them? What resources are available such as directories, websites, socials? Also, what is the etiquette for adding messaging clients on social media?

And that's from Emily Hayne studio. That's a two-parter, isn't it? Oh, that's a good question. My first thing would be, I know you probably said this [00:01:00] is a joke, but hunting clients. Mm-hmm. Not hunting them. You like to lie down in their way and they find you. I like clients to illustrate a hunt and then they can find me.

Yeah. I think maybe that's a, but it's quite important, isn't it? Like the energy of how you find clients. 'cause if you, if you're pitching to people, if you slide 'em to their dms or whatever, and you have this like, Hey, I'm hunting you, I need you, that I think people can really pick up on that. So it's worth checking in with yourself maybe before you start hunting clients.

You definitely want your stall laid out to look absolutely amazing first, don't you? Because even if you're gonna reach out to clients, you're gonna point them at your website. And if that's not looking lovely, top, top, then no. So yeah, you definitely need to lay out your stall and then hopefully people will find you.

But there's ways of helping people find you. Tell us how you lie down, Katie and get found. Well, like, like Helen said, making sure my shop front is nice. My lights are on. It's warm. Cushions are plumped. Yeah, cushions are [00:02:00] plumped. S-E-O-S-E-O. The kettle's on, yeah, so SE like the, the, the Google things like, I need an illustrator for this.

Then you pop up. So if you know what you're doing, which you talk about in the business course, and, and it's about, you know, figuring out what you wanna do. So that then you can optimize all of the words on your website so that if somebody wants somebody who illustrates whales, for instance, not the country, the animal mm-hmm.

All the country, all the countries up to you. Yeah. Then you are gonna pop up. And that means they're really, they've got really high intent 'cause they're looking for that specific thing and you, you're answering that specific thing. So they're not, they're not comparing you based on price. They're not comparing you based on style or you're in London.

Like, you wanna get quite specific for SEO to work in your favor and then. Yeah, people just really wanna work with you. And if your website lovely and it encourages people to know, like, and trust you, that's really helpful as well. 'cause then it means by the time they message you, they're just like, take my money.

When are you [00:03:00] free? Let's work together. Which is the energy that I much prefer to pitching because it's never worked for me. Pitching's really difficult. I mean writing pitch letters to clients, say I'm, you know, I love your brand. I'm ready to work with you. That's how I think. There was a midway point and a lot of people used active pitching at one point, but prior to that, the world was a bit like the dinosaur world of illustration in the nineties was, as Emily described, um, Emily, I'm not calling you a dinosaur, I'm actually, 'cause that's the world we grew, we grew up in, into, I'm calling myself a dinosaur.

That's what we were told here. Have a look at these annuals. So we'd get these. Big illustration, annuals that cost a fortune to advertise in. And I remember at college with the work we were doing, we'd lay the annuals out on the table, we'd all look at each other and think, these people aren't even related to us.

Look at all this airbrush work. And it was nothing like the work we were doing. It was horrible. 'cause your work could, you would pay a fortune to be in an annual Yes. And then your work might be right beside something absolutely dreadful that made your work look. Bad. The [00:04:00] colors were all around the palette and the whole page was like, hurt your eyes.

So you pay all that money and be put beside some other illustrator whose work was absolutely terrible. You'd just disappear into the pile of Oh, you just would. It never worked. I think I did it once. I think the context would be wrong, wouldn't it? Yeah. Just the entire context of it wasn't your work. Oh, it weren't good.

But then those annuals were all sent out for free to art directors in advertising agencies, and they probably still are. That model does work for a lot of people. Do they still, do you still see those directories? Um, not directories, annuals, I can't think of any except for the fantastic bologna one. But nobody pays to be in that.

They just feature lots of incredible illustrators in there. But I can't think of another annual, but we wouldn't know because they're not sent us. I wonder if there's anyone out there, any art directors that are receiving these big annuals. Will you let us know if that model works anymore? And did you get work for, like, were you both in No, I did it once.

No, I didn't get any work. Oh, hang on. No, no. Maybe I, I think I maybe got a piece for L Magazine. [00:05:00] Wow. Yeah. Horoscope. Woo. It probably didn't cover the cost of being in the annual. No. And the other one was like, people used to use lists, but I mean, they still exist. I don't know anyone who uses them. I remember before I learned about SEO, I was looking at, I think it was bikini lists.

Yeah. And I nearly spent, I think it was like 700 pounds. This is years ago, like 10 years ago. 700 pounds on. Yeah, that's like two months of my rent and bills. I was like, is this gonna be worth it? And in the end, I didn't go for it. 'cause it felt like such a, you do wonder who makes most money out of these lists and annuals?

I'm sure the person making the annual and the list makes more money than the illustrators. Yeah. With that level of subscription, I mean, no wonder you've gotta pay a lot to get into either of those. Mm-hmm. But then what do you do when you're given that information? Here are the names. I mean, we did use to send postcards and that's still a good way because in a digital world people are really excited to receive snail mail with some And postcards nice and easy though.

I think in picture books, I, I used to send out postcards and they really worked. And they're [00:06:00] easy because you're not pitching the idea of pitching, writing a letters in. I love your brand. And I would, I would fit in there and, and oh gosh, the I That sounds so difficult. No. And kind of false enough. And would it work?

I don't know. Maybe it does work. I have no idea. 'cause I've never done it. But a postcard that shows you a best piece of work with something very cheery and low pressure on the back. Yes. Like, um, I'm gonna be in London and on around then it'd be nice to meet up, blah, blah, blah. Bye. No pressure. No pressure.

That's easy. I'm up for that. And I always used to do that and that worked. Um, but yeah. But those were, were the days Yeah. When people would go and take their portfolio. Mm-hmm. I'm sure nobody takes their portfolio anymore. If I'm wrong, let me know. I know a lot of American illustrators say they will do that kind of thing and say Hi, I'll be in New York.

Be lovely to meet up. But the pressure on people, now we are so, um, in theory we're hyper productive because of this digital world, and we can, you know, we can do everything much faster. I can't imagine [00:07:00] art directors have an afternoon per week where they can look at portfolios, they're looking online and on Instagram, well, they be, their emails going, delete, delete, delete.

Publishers are definite. Children's book publishers are on Instagram looking for talent on Instagram. I mean, if they like your work, they will get you in to see your folio. But I don't think they have a folio. Well, they don't have a folio day. Yeah. But if they love your work and they've seen you on Instagram and maybe had a bit of correspondence back and forth, then they would get you into chat.

Yeah. I think if it's some, some kind of, and then you think, well, how'd you build that relationship? How do you get that back and forth to begin with? But there's definitely a space for sending post postcards with just a, hi, this is my work. And if they like it, they're gonna call you up. No amount of persuasion in a letter.

It's gonna make someone doesn't I agree. Connect with your work, ask to see more of it. It that isn't gonna happen. So you might as well just put, hello, this is me, but it will get end up on their desk. I feel like if they see it a certain number of times, like feeding a toddler a new meal, I think if the publisher has seen your [00:08:00] work in different environments a few times, this is assuming your work is lovely, lovely and publishable.

If they see a postcard and then they come across you on Instagram and then somebody mentions you, I think that's the kind of thing that builds up to them saying, will you come and see us? So I think it's worth frequently. Posting on your Instagram, maybe have a little chat on their Instagram page about something they've published.

You know, A little low pressure. I love what you're doing or, yeah, I think if they come across you in different ways, that's a really good way to get in. And there's easy ways of doing that that are not right in a big, long pitch letter. You know who's really good at that? Who? Joe Over end? Yes. Yes. Because she's just quietly going, hello.

She's good fun. Just low pressure. She's always posts on Instagram a lot and they're really good fun. And they're people like chatting about what she posts up. 'cause it's silly and it's, and it's never like, hire me, hire me now. No. It's just like, here's my work. Let's having a good time. Mm. That's it. I mean, [00:09:00] illustrations have got that benefit.

There's something visual and precious to show, even if it's just a quick drawing you did while a doodle, while you're on the phone. You know, all those different levels of Here's just a scribble. I did. Oh no. And here's a full illustration. You can keep yourself visible 'cause you're not having to use someone else's visual material to sell whatever it is you're selling.

You already have the kind of gold dust of being an image maker that's a content maker. So if you keep reminding people you exist. I was listening to this really good Mel Robbins, um, podcast a couple of days ago where she was talking to someone from Harvard who was like some professor of employment and marketing.

That sounds like totally the wrong name, but that's, that's how I remember it. Mm-hmm. And she was just saying, if you do things and people don't know. That you do them. If you're not externalizing what it is you do, how on earth will anyone know? So even if you're a non illustrator, you have to find ways of talking about what it is you do.

And that's that big crux, isn't it? It sounds like bragging and being boastful, but there's no way anyone's gonna know. So [00:10:00] you keep showing your work. And then that little bit of, a little bit of hunting. Can you allow us a tiny bit? Can A tiny bit. A tiny bit. I'll let you, okay. Go on LinkedIn. Look for some names of people.

Use whose you know, products you like that you would like to be part of. Find out who's the art director and then you can send them just a postcard or even follow them on Instagram. So that makes a kind of light collection. Mm-hmm. Connection with them. Chat to them about what they're posting. I think if you want to get into picture books, it's a really good idea to go in a bookshop and just see who's publishing the stuff that you like.

So. Which publishers are doing what and send them a postcard or follow them on Instagram and then have a little chat with them. And I was gonna say following's good. 'cause we've had people ask us in the past like, what's the etiquette about following people? Oh, that's, yeah, of course you can follow them.

If they're public, then to be honest, they probably won't notice whether you follow them or not. Yeah, exactly. I would just definitely press follow, but then if they post something interesting, then be in the chat. Yeah, yeah. Follow 'em [00:11:00] on Instagram and LinkedIn so that you've got those kind of connections there.

Mm-hmm. Um, oh, what else did, did she ask something else about the etiquette of messaging? Yeah. Also, what is the etiquette for adding messaging clients on social media? Yeah, I think you've gotta be careful not to be harassing them. Yeah. I think if you've chatted, okay, so this is just instinct. If I've chatted with somebody a few times on their feed and they've replied and then maybe it's gone into messages like, oh, I saw this thing we were talking about the other day.

You might like it. Yeah. That's a really nice low pressure way to get in. 'cause then they're gonna have a look on your Instagram feed and as long as you've set your stall out nice. And your work is a, you know. Publishable lovely work. Let's assume then, yeah, they're gonna stumble over you, but it's not a good idea to go into messaging on any platform and say, Hey, will you come and look at my portfolio?

It's here. No, I get really annoyed. I sometimes get people say, [00:12:00] um, but just a, a message saying, follow me. Yeah. They might say a bit more like, I followed you. Let's keep up community. Follow me back. I'm like, no, I'm not even gonna look now it's up to me. Don't tell me what to do. Don't like that. It's, it's really hard to give clear, direct advice on that.

How do I find clients? It's definitely, but I think what we've said is how it is. It's like building friendships and relationships. Um, and it's kind of a little bit touchy feely, a mixture of digital SEO and printed work and put yourself in their shoes. If a random person you'd never met appeared in your inbox and said.

Here's my work. Like, what do you think? And you, what do you think? Yeah. You'd be like, oh God, that's such a big question. I'm not even gonna click on that. Mm. Or, or like sending somebody a voice note out of the blue. Terrifying, I think as a client, because firstly, voice notes take pages to listen to. You've gotta stop what you're doing.

It'd be like, [00:13:00] what's this? So, and then also LinkedIn is, if you've ever had a cold pitch on LinkedIn, you'll know how horrible it's, it's like being slapped with a whit fish. Mm. Like, oh, you are interested in building your marketing skills. Like you say, ah, go away. It's go away. Get outta my inbox. So many people, you, you know, you must do one of thousands when they've copied and pasted that generalized thing, which is also like emails.

What do you think about emailing clients with? I think like you say, the per, if you personalize it and show that you actually do care about what they're doing and you are watching and you, you know, what was it? We were just talking to somebody saying I'm a long time fan of the Good Ship, and turned out they really didn't, they weren't doing a good job of pretending to be a long time fan because, because we couldn't find them on any lists of any of our social media.

Yeah. They weren't on any email list or any social media or like, are you really? So like little things like that, it sounds really obvious if you're gonna say you're a big longtime fan or you really like somebody's work. Maybe follow them first. Make sure you're connected in some way. I mean, it's funny, the old rules of how you found a client are [00:14:00] changing because the whole kind of online world is changing so much.

So there's always, there's always gonna be new ways of trying to connect, but at least we can market ourselves and we're not bound to agents and being the only way to, to get a client. That said, I think agents are more important now than they they have been. Because if the, if, if the annuals aren't there and people aren't using those lists, how do you find.

Art directors in advertising agencies or design agencies who are dealing with all the juicy stuff like packaging and well-paid advertising work, really that route to those art, um, art directors is still through the agencies unless you wanna do all the legwork yourself. I was just gonna say there's never been a better time to be an illustrator and that you don't really need an agent. 'cause it's like there's no, I think so too. You could do what you want. Like, like we've been saying, you can follow somebody who you find out as an art director and quietly Yeah, humanly befriend them.

I think so too, and I think the [00:15:00] same for selling your work through a gallery. I don't think you really need a gallery anymore. It's really sad because galleries are finding it hard to survive, so they're having to put their commission up. They put, it's already difficult to sell your work through a gallery on commission from 20 years ago.

Now it's so expensive. Half of, you know, when you take the framing costs off and then the commission for the gallery, but you don't need that anymore. It's so easy to sell your artwork online with a private view on a website, with a really great website and social media and build up your email list. You don't need a gallery.

Yeah. Where, where would you, what online platform would you use for selling your work? I. At this point Shopify. Well, um, well what we've done with Jerry with his lovely whale screen prints is build up a email list. Yeah. Tell people there, he's made some prints. It's a print run of 10, 15, whatever he usually does.

They're gonna be on this weekend. They usually sell out in a weekend. So get on there quick and we just stick them all on. We've always been doing it on Squarespace, so it's not [00:16:00] even a shop. And people just email us and say, I'll have that one and pay for it and then we'd mark it. So I think we're about to just put them in a shop, but they'll only be in there for a weekend.

Yeah. That's how we do it. They go in there. That's such a good point as well. The, the mailing list thing. 'cause mail that is so handy. Yeah, it can, you own the list. So if social media went down or everybody left Instagram or whatever, you keep your people 'cause they're on your mailing list, which is really important.

So a good way to get clients by building up a network so that people are kind of aware who you are is entering competitions or mentoring competi. So within the world of picture books, um, I know publishers will speak to picture hooks who run their competitions and mentoring.

They speak to me. Often publishers and agents will ask me, and, and the people who stay in my mind are the people who've applied for our one-on-one mentoring. You don't wanna pay money to enter these competitions, um, and you don't wanna give you copyright away, but some, some are, some [00:17:00] strategic competitions are really good.

Yeah, I think so. A lot of the illustration ones, you do have to pay fees to get in, but I think to it's worth it to get the eyes the a I charge, don't they? But that's a good that Yeah. The World Illustration Awards. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but it's a good competition. There's a few others. I think if you enter in those and the people organizing the show know who you are and people who've been to see the show, know who you are.

So yeah. If it's a traveling show as well and your work carries on, um, being shown around the world, like the World Illustration Awards, which is a touring exhibition. Mm. That's a really good way to show your work. I have a, um, a range of cards that I sell in Hong Kong, so I still have a lot of Hong Kong clients, so having cards.

Overseas in a shop. Mm. Is also like having a calling card present somewhere. So it's free advertising as it, and the only people who buy cards are people who like the cards and they send them to people who they think will appreciate that card because they have the same aesthetic. So okay. You might be sending them around to non design people, but you never know.

They might be someone who's interested in commissioning [00:18:00] you. So cards are a really good way to keep yourself circulated. Yeah. You never know who's watching. Yeah. I think I'm getting lots of information there. All the different versions of getting your work out there, so hope it's useful. Emily. Yeah. Fling some spaghetti against the wall.

See what sticks. I was in mud. My dad was a car salesman. He used to serve. Fling Fling. Mud. Bit against the wall. It stick. Yeah. There you go. Have some mud flinging. Okay, byebye. Bye.