The Art of Marketing, According to Scott DuBar
Like many freelance artists, Scott DuBar often finds himself putting his own promotional efforts on the back burner to focus on a client’s immediate needs. However, a recent effort to catch the attention of a particular client unexpectedly led to one of the biggest marketing moves of his career.
When a “big potential client” requested a PDF portfolio, Scott went the whole nine yards. In addition to creating a top-shelf DVD of his sometimes surreal (but always insightful!) work, he created a special DVD case design…which wound up serving as Scott’s full-page advertisement for his first-ever appearance in the Directory of Illustration. (He’s Page 527, Scott notes proudly, of the January 2013 directory.)
Based on the design and content of his website, blog and other promotional materials, the DVD cover/full-page ad is actually a collage of nine different images, each intended to highlight one of Scott’s multiple styles and some of his offbeat humor.
“My goal for the design was to showcase a range of style suited to both editorial work and children’s illustration,” he says. “That way, art directors could see the consistency of my work overall, rather than just relying on the strength of a single illustration.”
While Scott’s yet to learn if he captured the heart and mind of that “big potential client,” he’s extremely proud of his Directory of Illustration ad – and he notes he’s “been getting work from other clients since I started using this promo piece.”
“This whole experience was a great reminder of the power of branding,” Scott says. “I’m super-excited about how everything came out!”
Click here to see more of Scott’s humorous and effective imagery.