Welcome to my
monthly interview feature! I’m so excited to be interviewing all the fabulous
artists, illustrators and designers I’ve meet over the years (both personally
and virtually!) and sharing their artwork and experiences here on Bird Meets
Worm. Look for a new interview on the first Tuesday of every month.
This month I’m pleased as punch to be catching up with the
delightfully darling Illustrator, Anne Bollman! Anne
is the illustrator behind Anne Was Here, a studio, which provides art and
illustration for products and publications, designed with humor and style, that
is meant to make you smile. Anne's artwork can be found online and in stores
internationally on a wide range of products including stationery, fabric,
gifts, apparel, home decor and more. Anne is best known for her iconic
illustrations of peeking dogs. You can view more of her artwork here!
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| How much do you love these fancy ladybugs?! |
A: Most importantly my advice would be
don’t let it stop you from sharing your work. Exposure means opportunity. The
more places you share your work online, the more opportunities will come your
way. That being said, only YOU can decide what is more important to you:
reducing your risk and consequently reducing positive opportunities OR being
vulnerable and prolific and enjoying a lot of opportunity! I choose the latter.
Some more practical advice would be to
always include a copyright symbol on your work, wherever possible, and if you
find that someone has used your art without permission let them know it is not ok.
If they refuse to remove your copyrighted work, use a DMCA notification to
report them to whatever platform they are using. I routinely do this with
Amazon, Etsy, Ebay, Instagram, Facebook, Shopify and the infringing images are
always taken down. Websites from countries without strong copyright protection
laws are more difficult to deal with. You can do reverse image searches on
Google to check where your images are being used online. Click here for a YouTube demonstration on how to do this.
In cases where you feel someone has
copied you but it is not exactly the same, I would advise you to proceed with
caution and kindness. It is easy to get heated and upset in the moment of
discovery and want to take it public, but that course of action never ends
well. If it is just similar and looks inspired by your work, it is probably
best to just walk away from it. There is a chance that it was overly inspired by
your work and there is also a chance that it was a coincidence. It is helpful
to get confidential and honest opinions from designer friends about how close
they feel it is to your own work. Make sure to ask people who won’t just tell
you what you want to hear and will truly give you their opinion.
If it is so very similar to your own
work that the icons, details, color palette and layout are all the same, but
just drawn in another hand, you may want to reach out to the other designer and
express your concern. Regardless of their reaction, at the very least they will
be less likely to copy you again.
If it is a large company that has
copied you, and you feel it is a clear case of infringement, get a lawyer’s
opinion. There is also a service that I was recently introduced to and will be
using in the future that can help you without any upfront costs called
Copyright Armor. I spoke at length
with the owner and lawyer of Copyright Armor and they know their stuff!
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| Such lovely colors! Love these teals & pinks & neutrals! |
A: I have been an animal lover from the
beginning. I swore I would become a vet or zookeeper when I grew up until I
realized that those jobs don’t consist of hugging animals all day long! Drawing
animals really makes me happy, and that is the main reason I keep doing it. I
like to draw things without faces too, but if I go for too long I begin to go
through withdrawals and quickly draw a puppy to make myself feel better. I
think my addiction to fat cute little animals got really serious when I got my
first dog in 2012. My parents never let me have a dog growing up so by the time
I got one as an adult I was primed for obsession. My dog, Midji, inspires so
much of my work I should probably start to pay her. When drawing animals I
always start with the face, which is my favorite part. I like drawing faces
that make you wonder what mischief they are up to. I just started teaching a
class on Skillshare that walks students through my entire process for
illustrating a pet. You can check it out here. Midji even makes an appearance!
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| Sweet birdie - chirp, chirp, love! |
A: The Licensing Expo was very exciting
to be a part of! It is very different from Surtex in that the majority of exhibitors
are big brands or big brand representatives. The Art & Design section is
very small compared to the rest of the show, but I thought that made it so much
easier to stand out. Because of the big brand aspect of the show I also met
contacts that I doubt I could have at Surtex, such as executives from major
cartoon networks and publishers. I have several new contracts from exhibiting
and many more exciting contacts that I hope to work with in the future.
The show also opened my eyes up to new
exciting possibilities for my art, such as developing a character with a story,
and how that can expand licensing opportunities beyond just products and into
publishing, gaming and animation.
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| Tree trunk cross-section forest florals! Brilliant! |
A: One of the great joys I have found
in working for myself is that I can create a career filled with diversity! I
enjoy working on a variety of projects and tend to focus my marketing on one
industry until I get a good partnership and then move on to the next. So for
instance, if I want to design for home decor, I would create some art that I
think works really well for that market and then create a presentation
including artwork swatches and mock-ups to show my ideas. Then I send the
presentation out to companies that I want to work with in that market that are
also a good fit for my style. I’ve been fortunate to be able to find great
partnerships this way but I also think that it is partially because I am very
strategic about who I submit to and making sure that what I am submitting is
appropriate for their products. Once I have work in one market, I move on to
the next.
I recommend sending out new work as
much as you possibly can and I need to take my own advice, because like many
artists, it’s one of my weaknesses. One of the things on my to do list is to
start a newsletter so that I can send a sneak peak of my latest work out to my
contact list once a month.
For me the most effective form of
contact is a combination of those that you listed. My top three marketing tools
are probably email, social media and creating a robust online presence. I use
email to directly contact art directors and submit new art, I try to post
creative work to instagram, facebook and twitter daily and I also aim to have
my work
found online in as many places as
possible. This includes my website, client websites, portfolio sites, designer
directories, magazines, blogs, shops, social media, and tutorial sites. It may
seem daunting if you are just beginning, but if you tackle your online presence
one place at a time, it happens organically. Having a good online presence
brings some partnerships to you that you may not have been able to find or
think of on your own.
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| Autumn leaves are forest magic! |
A: Wake up without an alarm going off
and take a walk to the local coffee shop with my husband and my dog. Paint
something for the fun of it (and not for work!) in the morning. Do something
outdoors and active with friends in the afternoon to enjoy the beautiful
Southern California weather. Go out for an ocean view dinner and drinks with my
husband in Manhattan Beach. Watch a movie or one of our favorite tv shows as we
fall asleep.