My first yes

I had drafted the title of this blog post for quite some time and I figured this would be the perfect first official post (aside from the introduction).

I often get asked how I’ve managed to work with some of the brands I’ve worked with and to be honest, sometimes I’m still amazed by the things I’ve been able to accomplish in the two years I’ve been in business and truthfully, I sometimes forget 😅.

For this particular post, I’m going to share my very first project as a freelance artist (this was pre-Almonte Studio when I was still trying to figure things out).

It really all started after I got laid off from my corporate job working as a concept designer for Gap. Like many people who were laid off during the pandemic, I kind of felt like I lost my sense of purpose especially when you have a job that takes up so much of your life, that feeling tends to happen.

After I wallowed for a few weeks and played countless hours of video games (shoutout to The Witcher), I started to draw a lot and shared my work on social media. I, for whatever reason, was determined to get a thousand followers by the end of the year (seems silly when you think about it, but for artists and small business owners, growing your following is kind of important when it comes to brand collaborations, we’ll get into that in another post maybe).

• I want to preface by saying that in between all this, I was freelancing in whatever way I could during the 8 months I was unemployed. I really took advantage of this time because I managed to live off of what I was given and anything extra was an added bonus + took some of the pressure off of maybe not making enough with freelancing gigs to pay the bills.

Because I wanted to grow my following, I did a lot of instagram searching, looking at other artists, people who I admired, and reading random articles and blog posts of tips to grow a following. In my hunt, I had stumbled upon this company called “The Women’s Collective” which was a subscription box service dedicated to sharing only women owned businesses with it’s subscribers and I immediately loved their brand, the mission and how much she supported women owned businesses and the way she worked with a different artist each season to create the designs for her box. I honestly had never seen anything like it (until I literally saw it everywhere). I was in a place in my life where my motto was “Fuck it , I have nothing to lose” so I sent her a DM and asked about working with her and sent her a link to my website.

• I also want to add that I had been DM-ing people left and right, I was determined to get creative jobs and make being a full time artist my reality since it seemed like the universe didn’t want me to find another corporate job. I got many “not at this time” or just straight up no answer at all which is probably the worst kind of response.

I was so happy that she actually responded (don’t ask me how long it took, because this was around mid 2020 and I really don’t remember too well) but all I know is that I actually got a response and I remember being sooooo happy about that. She was very nice and told me that she loved my work but that they had already lined up their artists for their next 2 seasons but that she’d stay in touch.

To some people that might seem like a "“okay let’s give up here” but for me, I just saw it as a “not yet” and I was determined to work with her, so I kept her on my list of people to follow up with and I basically stalked her instagram (lol not really but I did check in on her posts from time time) until I felt it was an appropriate amount of time to follow up. When I had originally reached out it was basically like 2 months into the pandemic, so I reached out again mid Summer but still no luck. She had responded with kind of the same answer so I kept working on side gigs and even did a creative class called “Creative Lady Collective” (I attest a lot of my branding success to this class actually but that will have to be another post for another time).

And then……

The Women’s Collective sent ME the message saying she was happy to let me know that I could design her Holiday 2020 box!! and y’all I was freaking out! This was the first ever brand collaboration and biggest opportunity I had since being laid off so I was over the moon with excitement!

What did this collaboration entail?

• Designing the whole exterior and interior of the box (she provided the box file from the company she worked with and I was able to just do my thing) I use illustrator all the time so for me it was a pretty simple process.

• Illustrating portraits of all the featured brands for her instagram and website.

• Designing the stickers for the packaging, sticker giveaway and booklet with the featured brands.

• She paid I think it was $350 (she was a small business that had only started basically when the pandemic hit). I know this doesn’t seem like a lot of money for the amount of work but I was just starting out and to me I saw this as the first door to many more opportunities so I agreed to the terms and did it.

This box not only turned out to be the best selling box at the time but I went on to designing the Spring 2021 box as well and gained so many followers, made future partnerships, and met some really cool ladies. After that whole experience I more than surpassed my goal of 1k by the end of 2020 and gained so much more in the end.

Moral of the story folks… Don’t give up just because it’s a not right now. Sometimes the universe has a way of sending you what you need when you actually need it.

Don’t give up friends. I mean it.

✌🏽👩🏽‍🎨

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