How are design clients and illustration clients different?
Illustration / hand-lettering clients are far different to work with than design clients, I find that I have to sell myself less—usually by the time people come to you for work they know they want to work with you. With design you have to sell yourself as much as your ideas. There are just so many good designers (and unfortunately good designers that will work for cheap!), so convincing someone that you are the one perfect for their project can be a challenge. When working on design projects, you sometimes have more freedom to experiment. It’s not about a style, it’s about doing what is right for the assignment. If someone saw my illustration portfolio, they wouldn’t think “let’s hire this girl that works in vector to punch the type out of metal with a hammer and nail”, I would love to do that, and am capable of it, but because illustration is based on mostly on maintaining a style, I won’t get a call to do that anytime soon.
