Building Your Surface Design Portfolio - Get Started Licensing Art!

What's a surface design portfolio and what goes into one? We're breaking it all down in today's video so you can learn how to get started in one of our favorite income streams for artists - art licensing! Whether you design patterns, lettering, illustration, or something else entirely, we'll show you how to get your portfolio ready for sharing with clients and booking jobs.
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An Introduction to Art Licensing for Beginners (RUclips video!): • An Introduction to Art...
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About Goodtype:
Welcome to our channel! We're Katie & Ilana, two self-employed artists who find joy in sharing what we've learned about running our businesses with you! In our videos, you'll find all sorts of tips and tricks to help you turn your artistic passion into a real, sustainable biz.
#artistsmeanbiz

[@katehollomanart]

This is amazing! I think that art licensing is absolutely the way to go, but I have so much more to learn about it. I’m subscribing and heading over to check out more videos!

[@Goodtype]

So happy to hear that, Kate!! Let us know if you have anything specific you'd like for us to cover in future videos! :)

[@KedgeAnchor]

Thank you for this video, it helped clarify and simplify things for me and made this not so overwhelming. In this seasoned stage of life I need simple.

[@Goodtype]

so glad we could help!

[@mikeuffman4941]

Thank you for sharing this! Is there a program or type of file you recommend using to create portfolio?

[@itsdaksha]

Thank you so so much! Would love so many more videos on this!

[@Goodtype]

can do! Do you have specific licensing questions we can cover? :)

[@itsdaksha]

@@Goodtype 1. How long before there's some steady source of income coming in from royalties (perhaps your beginner's story)
2. How much and what time frame should we pitch to clients in order to avoid overlapping of designs being licensed.
Thanks Katie and Ilana!

[@BethAnderson06]

Ok, question about showing your artwork. On my website, should it be a password protected page? I’m in the stage of building my portfolio. I’ve mocked up a few dream projects (stationery and home decor) that are posted on mr Surface Design info page. Then I was going to password protect the thumbnails of all my work available for licensing.

[@Goodtype]

@@BethAnderson06 great question! We don't password protect our portfolio pages because most of our clients request industry exclusivity, not full exclusivity, meaning we can continue to show the work! If you have work that isn't released, you can always remove it or add a protection, but we want ours to be as easy to find as possible!

[@liveandlearn8854]

loving this vid... unfortunatly... the link is no longer working

[@Goodtype]

Thanks for bringing this to our attention! We've updated the link above, but here it is, just in case 🙌 goodtype.us/builder

[@BrendaBird]

Thanks for this info! When art directors look at your categories how do they tell you which ones they’d like? Do you name/number them or do they just screenshot? Do you have additional filters you add like Christmas and snowman? I’m using the blog option for my portfolio on squarespace and I don’t think it’s working for me. Any advice on a good format?

[@Goodtype]

Great question! Usually they send screenshots or download the thumbnail from our site, but on our backend we have a spreadsheet with the names/numbers, descptions, client and more. We also name all of our files with the appropriate artwork number, category and collection so it's easy to find! We organize by category, but it would be great if you can add tags to look for things like "snowman". That might be available in artonomo, but our categories are small enough that we haven't felt we needed that!

[@karenmattiazzo6639]

Thanks so much for the tips! Straight forward and quick!
I have on my portfolio 4 collections, each has around 6 to 10 design variations.. is that enough to start? I'll continue designing and uploading but Im already pitching and imposter syndrome is already nagging me hahaha let me know what you think :) thanks again!

[@Goodtype]

Yes! That sounds like a perfect amount to start with. We recommend 15-30 pieces, so that's a great range. Don't let that imposter syndrome get you down, you got this!

[@LoriKnutsen-lf6de]

Does my portfolio need to be my website? Can it be a pdf or links to my work?

[@Goodtype]

We definitely recommend a website because it'll be searchable and accessible. You'll also be able to put your most recent work on your website so people can check it out to see if you've added new work. A PDF is great for a pitch deck, but I'd also include a link to your website on the last page.