Professional Practice Report

Rebecca East

Professional Practice Report.

Throughout this module, and over the past year or so outside of study, I have spent a lot of time developing not only my practice as an illustrator but also the small business I have recently started. I began making prints of my artwork alongside small handmade accessories last year and selling these at events like art fairs and conventions across the UK, I’ve found a decent amount of success with this so far and intend to continue this into the future.

My main focus professionally has been on marketing and selling my handmade works online and at events. I started quite small with this, taking part in a few small local events alongside other students, and from that I grew the confidence to start selling as an individual. Over the past 8 months I have sold my work at over a dozen events across the UK, including CMYK Festival, Bath Craft and Flea, Brixton Create Showcase and Outertown Festival, and I have more, larger events upcoming like Bristol Alternative Market, Animecon at the NEC and Cardiff Film and Anime Con. These events have been invaluable to me not only in the revenue they bring in, but also the professional skills they’ve helped me develop from talking to customers and potential clients in person, and presenting myself as an established and appealing trader when applying for events online and through email. 

Although my business is still in it’s very early stages, I’ve begun to carve out a nice little niche for myself; I focus on cute and creepy aesthetics and source my fabrics from popular Japanese designers, using a zero-waste approach to patchwork these rare fabrics together alongside repurposed fabrics taken from vintage clothing and upholstery. I make this process a focal point of the descriptions of items I post online and tell interested customers about this at events to make it known that each piece is unique. 

As for online retail, as of right now I’m selling my pieces through Etsy and Depop; I chose these platforms as they already have a large existing customer-base and so would give my work a wider reach than if I were selling through my own website. However I do intend to begin selling through my own channels in the future once my online presence has grown somewhat. 

There’s a few creators and brands I follow that I’ve taken some tips from and really admire; one is Cat O’Brien, a fashion designer in Brighton and an old friend of mine from UCA Epsom. She started her brand during her final year of university, after her pre-graduate collection gained some traction online and people showed interest in buying her work. She interned with a few brands like Dilara Findikoglu and Mary Benson while selling small runs of handmade corsets and accessories on her website. This became successful enough for her to run her own business full time, releasing full scale collections of clothing bi-annually and opening her studio in Brighton where she employs assistants and seamstresses. Cat has always been excellent at social media marketing, making full use of the instagram algorithm by consistently releasing images and videos not only of her clothing but also the process behind making the pieces and day-to-day life in the studio. This is an area where I know I need to improve massively, I think instagram and TikTok would be ideal for me to post videos detailing the processes behind making my pieces. 

Similarly, the brand Fennuala Belle is another I admire. Fennuala Butterfield graduated in Fashion Design from the University of Westminster in 2019 and founded her womenswear brand Fennuala Belle in the same year. I’ve been following her progress from very early on and something I found she’s done really well is the gradual upscaling her business in both the quality and elaborateness of her clothing and the operations of her business. Since her brand’s opening her work has been featured in London Fashion Week and Vogue; something I find incredibly inspiring since she started by making small amounts of clothing in her bedroom and selling them on her Etsy page. Her work is very historically-inspired and has an immediately recognisable aesthetic, this strong brand image is something I think is really important when trying to build any kind of clothing brand.

I’ve put a lot of work into my own branding, however I’m still in the very early stages and have a lot more I want to do. I built my website initially as a rather basic presentation of myself as an illustrator, and have since redesigned it to better focus around my brand’s ideas and aesthetics, as this is the area of my work I’m most interested in pursuing. I want to work on my physical branding like packaging and promotional materials soon. I’ve recently redesigned my business cards and intend to design and print price labels, logo stickers and wrapping paper that all represent my brand better so my work can have a cohesive and professional appearance. 

As for my plans after graduation, I intend to continue working my full time job as a bartender; as I’m completely independent financially and have recently moved out of student accommodation and into my own apartment with much higher rent, I can’t really go without the financial stability of a full time job. I would love to be able to throw myself into my artwork and my business full time however that isn’t an option for me atleast for a while, so I intend to continue working on my practice part time. My focus is going to be on growing my online presence through social media and also improving the imagery for my brand; over the summer I intend to do some styled photoshoots showcasing my accessories, and I’m currently working on my own fabric print designs to create some custom textiles. I’m also constantly applying for events across the country and I’m very optimistic about the larger events I have coming up as I feel that these will be a great opportunity for me to engage with my target audience.