The Typecast: Grow Your Art Business
Dear hand letterers, designers, and artists of all sorts—despite what your grandma thinks, we know there’s a whole lot more to what you do than just “drawing pretty pictures.” This podcast, hosted by Katie Johnson and Ilana Griffo of Goodtype, is about what it *really* means to be a working creative. From finding clients to pricing your work and nerding the heck out about kerning, we’re covering everything that goes into building a successful and sustainable business around your passion.
And we’re not just doing it alone! We’ll be tapping some of your current (and soon-to-be) favorite artists for inspiration, insight, and laughs. We’re big on giving takeaways that you can actually put into action, and we’re even bigger on having a good time while we do it. Tune into the Typecast twice a month for a tittle-ating time (yep, we’re gonna type-pun your face off), and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review so we can show our moms how famous we are!
The Typecast: Grow Your Art Business
What If Taking On One Project Could Change Your Whole Career with Amber Asay | The Typecast Episode 58
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What does it look like running your own design studio that works with names like Rosie Huntington-Whiteley? In this episode, we sit down with Amber Asay of Nice People to discuss the winding path that led her from scrapbooking experiments and show choirs to launching a successful design agency and a creative podcast.
Amber shares the reality of landing big-name projects (and why you sometimes have to view them as long-term investments), the pros and cons of building a flexible studio model, and how she has learned to adapt her business during challenging times in the industry. (yes, everyone is feeling it, you are not alone!) We also dig into creative experiments, from launching a podcast to Airbnb hosting and the importance of slowing down, setting boundaries, and choosing sustainability over hustle.
If you’ve ever wondered how to navigate client pricing, keep your creative spark alive, or find balance between parenting and running a studio, this episode is for you.
All that and more when you listen to this episode:
- The inside story of working with high-profile clients
- Pricing challenges: balancing opportunity with sustainability
- Building a flexible “expand and contract” design studio model
- Why overhead isn’t always the dream (and how flexibility keeps you resilient)
- The slowest freelance year: adapting to industry shifts and diversifying income as an artist
- Starting a podcast as a creative side quest and what it really gives back
- How planting “seeds” years ago is still paying off today
- Rethinking social media and marketing when you can’t post every day
- Why slowing down, setting boundaries, and working shorter hours can actually help creativity thrive
Connect with Amber Asay
Website: https://nicepeople.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amberasay
Nice People’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nicepeople/
Women Designers You Should Know Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/women-designers-you-should-know/id1741408177
Mentioned in this episode:
- The Kernference https://thekernference.com (use code TYPECAST!)
- Ralph Tyndall Designs https://www.ralphtyndall.com/
- Poosh Project https://nicepeople.com/Poosh
- Prisma Markers https://www.prismacolor.com/markers
- Royal Talens Pantone Markers https://www.royaltalens.com/pages/talens-pantone
- Baseline Shift Book https://www.amazon.com/Baseline-Shift-Stories-Graphic-History/dp/1648960065
- Women Designers You Should Know Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/women-designers-you-should-know/id1741408177
- Dribbble https://dribbble.com/
- Adam Vicarel https://www.instagram.com/adamvicarel/
Connect with Katie & Ilana from Goodtype
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Learn from Katie and Ilana
Grab your tea, coffee, or drink of choice, kick back, and let's get down to business!