We have picked the brains of our favourite designers to get their advice and wisdom on self promotion. We hope this helps uncover those artitists that are hiding themselves away. Pass it around. Spread the knowledge.

“There can be short term quick fixes to generate buzz but often those things are equally as forgetful.”

“Be open, be honest, be interesting, be novel, be bright, be different.”

- Jon Burgerman

“Make great work, then you have every right to approach whoever you like”

- Scott King

“Don’t give up, it takes at least 2 years to get a decent client list.”

- Michelle Thomas

“It’s part of being a designer, we’re communicators, its our job to sell ourselves, sell our own services but do it in a clever and interesting way.”

- Anthony Burrill

“I have found that just aprroaching people in person is a great way to show people or agencies your work. I usually will set up a meeting and then leave them with something physical of my work. It’s a nice gesture and people like that.”

- Jack Taylor

“If I could give any advice, it would be to be persistent. Recognition for your work doesn’t happen over night.”

- Jack Taylor

“Don’t be gimmicky, and don’t be the same as everyone else. Take the time to really understand who you’re talking to and why. They’ll either like your work or not, and if they do, you certainly don’t want to put them off , just be businesslike and available.”

“When we graduated, a group of us sent around boxes of goodies to all sorts of companies, but it was definitely the end of year show that made the difference. And the thing that works incredibly well for me now is word of mouth, companies seeing something you’ve done for someone and contacting you through that. I do have a brilliant agent, but I didn’t start out with one.”

- Sarah Maycock

Luke Moran-Morris

Photographer, Filmmaker & Designer based in Brighton.

Is it easier to be working un-der a brand identity or your own name when promoting your work?

I have tried to turn my name into my brand identity. Luckily my parents decided to keep both of their second names and combine them for me and my sister so i am 'Luke Moran-Morris' as op-posed to the very common 'Luke Morris' or 'Luke Moran', this has helped as it was easy to secure my domain name and email address etc and as i am the only Luke Moran-Morris, when you search on google pretty much everything that comes up is about me, this wouldn't work with a John Smith for instance, so perhaps a piece of advice would be to make your name weird or memorable (if it isn't already, like a stage name, you know Madonna, Seal, Sting, haha). Companies may take you more seriously if you come up with a brand identity as it doen't seem that they are just dealing with some guy/gal in their bed-room but i don't mind that, i like to keep it honest and friendly with my clients and i think that using my name works well for that.

What mediums have worked best for you when promoting your work? and why?

In terms of getting new work and new clients, word of mouth and knowing people has often been a way in. Its an age old screening process of choosing someone, if they already know you or have herd good things about you from someone whose judgement/taste they trust then you are instantly put above the competition. So, don’t be a networking whore, but be nice to people, go to gallery openings workshops etc and don’t be afraid to talk about your work and what you do. I’ve also decided fairly recently to become much more ‘un-precious’ with my work; for instance i had a few photography books that i had self published and had only ever been seen by a handfull of people, this frustrated me so i decided that i would upload the PDF’s of them to my website so people could flick through the whole thing. In one sense im giving away my work (not great financially) but the rewards to be gained from more people actually SEEING it are greater in my mind, since ive done this i have had much more interest in my work.

Is it easier to be working un-der a brand identity or your own name when promoting your work?

I have tried to turn my name into my brand identity. Luckily my parents decided to keep both of their second names and combine them for me and my sister so i am ‘Luke Moran-Morris’ as op-posed to the very common ‘Luke Morris’ or ‘Luke Moran’, this has helped as it was easy to secure my domain name and email address etc and as i am the only Luke Moran-Morris, when you search on google pretty much everything that comes up is about me, this wouldn’t work with a John Smith for instance, so perhaps a piece of advice would be to make your name weird or memorable (if it isn’t already, like a stage name, you know Madonna, Seal, Sting, haha). Companies may take you more seriously if you come up with a brand identity as it doen’t seem that they are just dealing with some guy/gal in their bed-room but i don’t mind that, i like to keep it honest and friendly with my clients and i think that using my name works well for that.

If you could give fearful freelancers one piece of ad-vice on self promotion what would it be?

Go for it! set aside proper time for it (days or half days) and just use everything at your disposal, don’t be scared that people wont like it, the worst that can happen is they don’t respond (which will happen 99% of the time, haha). Go to the galleries that you want your work to be shown at, as favours of friends, really put your work out there and someone will notice it.

good luck!

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