For the past 30 years Robert Pizzo has been one of the country’s leading, nationally recognized illustrator/designers. His client list would make any creative the envy of their peers and he has garnered awards for his illustration in nearly all the major creative competitions, including Print’s Regional Design Annual, Graphis, Society Of Publication Designers, Society Of Newspaper Designers, Creativy Awards, Annual Report 100, Desi Awards, Ozzie Awards and more.

But as anyone who knows the illustration industry will tell you, just being talented is not enough to make it for the long haul. The talented illustrator must equally be the talented businessman. You need to constantly stay before your existing buyers while you reach out to generate new leads.

One of Robert’s best promotional methods has been email marketing, so we are happy to share some of his thoughts on how to use the medium properly.

Robert: Are you looking for cheap “enhancement” meds in your inbox? Maybe a phony degree from a prestigious college? How about a can’t-miss scheme to collect millions from the government of Nigeria? I didn’t think so.

If you’re anything like me, you find this common email spam a daily annoyance. It’s something we dismiss out of hand like the latest Lindsay Lohan news while we sort out the more important correspondence.

Which is why, as artists with something to promote to an art buyer, we never want to end up in that irritating category. But what are the rules governing email promotions? What’s the etiquette here? I’m reasonably sure Amy Vanderbilt never wrote a book on the subject so I think we have to tread carefully lest we wind up annoying the very people we want to work with.

Why is it up to me to take a crack at what the proper manners are regarding email promos, a guy who still doesn’t know (or care) what side of his plate the dinner fork should reside on? Well, because I get asked about my email promos quite frequently from other artists, I’ll give it a shot.

On Direct Mail: I had always been pretty good about promoting my illustration work at regular intervals throughout the year but sometime ago I was faced with the reality that some of the traditional methods were yielding diminishing returns. The big directories were still costing big money but it seemed like art directors were recruiting mostly from their computers these days. Plus, in this instant electronic age it felt like a lifetime waiting up to a year for a directory to be published. By the time it came out the pieces I had chosen to represent my current work weren’t even my favorites anymore.

I started making what I call “Instant Custom Promos.” These were simple 8.5 x 11 directory style pages, cleanly designed, with my name, phone number, email and website along with space for 3 to 5 images. “Instant” because I could drag and drop any one of thousands of my digital images into the promo at any time and “custom” because I could tailor it to a specific prospect or client. If I saw a great looking magazine about finances I could grab a few financial themed illustrations and drop them into the promo, print out one copy on a nice glossy stock and mail it off to the art director. Since I even live across the road from our town’s post office, it couldn’t be easier. Or could it?

On Emailing Existing Clients: What if, instead of printing and mailing I simply fired the promo off to an art director’s email address? Easy, but would that be OK? And what if I sent it out to a few art directors, or a few dozen, or a few hundred? Did that make me a dreaded spammer? Technology made it simple to mass broadcast via email but was it polite to?

I’ll never forget a Pre-Email Era day way back in the late 1980s. I was in the offices of Business Week magazine frantically working on a sketch that would soon have to be approved by editors on the spot, while the art director ran to take care of some business in another room. This was right around the time that consumer fax machines were first becoming available to the public. I would soon get mine down on the lower east side of Manhattan for the “bargain” price of $1,000. I say bargain because this meant that you’d now be able to fax in your ideas instead of commuting to the magazine to personally deliver sketches – an amazing breakthrough. As I was penciling, the art director stormed back into the office looking really ticked off. I asked her what was wrong. She replied, “I am trying to send a letter out but the line is tied up by some illustrator faxing us his unsolicited 30 page portfolio.”

Ouch. I didn’t want to ever be that guy.

So, for my first foray into email I assembled a custom promo that was generic enough for anyone and sent it to a handful of good steady clients.

Since these were all people I had a long, great history with there was no spam factor to worry about. I took my Illustrator document and “saved a copy” as a PDF, which made for a really small file size – around 100k. A JPEG or GIF would’ve been fine for screen viewing but I was gambling that some people might actually want to print the piece so I wanted better quality if that was the case. In the subject line I simply put “Pizzo Promo” and I attached the PDF with a short list of my instructions:

Instructions for “Pizzo Promo”:

1. Click tiny attachment to view

2. Print

3. Staple to forehead

Finally, I made sure to include my website link in the signature.

The reaction I got was pretty good. Most people sent back a simple reply like, “Nice piece” or made some other positive comment. Some said, “It’s now hanging above my desk”. I immediately learned a little etiquette when one art director said he loved the promo but asked to be blind copied in the future so that others wouldn’t see his email address. A few started longer conversations that volleyed back and forth for a couple of days and then even lead to assignments.

Naturally, the whole point of the promotion is to get some work but there’s more to it than that. In a business that can be very isolating for an individual toiling away in a remote home studio, email promos are a great way to keep in touch with the good clients you’ve worked with over the years. It’s just a way of strolling down the virtual hallway, gently tapping on their virtual office window and holding up a little virtual example of what you’re working on. “Hey, look at this!” Otherwise, clients tend to only see the art that you’re working on for them. “But don’t they see all the new pieces you regularly post to your website to keep it right up to date?” you ask. Answer: “Um…well, I’ve been meaning to. Pretty soon, pretty soon!”

These days a lot of people like Roger J. Greiner, Art Director at Shostak Studios in New York City, prefer getting email to regular mail. “If I like the style I see in the email promo, I will click on the link in the email, and go to the artists’ web site, and at that point, if I really like what I see, I will bookmark their site in the appropriate folder,” he says.

I’ve found that events on the calendar like “Spring Ahead” or “Fall Behind” are a good excuse to whip up a timely promo. This way, they feel fresh and current like little public service announcements.

Mary Zisk, Design Director of Strategic Finance magazine & IMA Marketing in New Jersey, told me “I like your promos because they celebrate a season and have something clever to say.”

So the email verdict for good regular clients is: no problem. I believe this holds true for anyone who’s ever given you an assignment more than once. Generally speaking, if they keep coming back to you it’s reasonable to assume they like your work and chances are they’ll eagerly look at the promos you send them, even if they’re not particularly fans of email promos.

That said, even with good steady clients I wouldn’t push it. The art directors I talked to seemed to agree that, like the cable bill, once a month is enough. Roger adds, “Once a week/fortnight (is) really annoying!!!” An extremely favored client of mine just told me outright that when it comes to emails, “Bottom line: I don’t like ‘em except for yours. They feel like a violation.” I’m not exactly sure but I think that’s a compliment and a warning. Hey, don’t shoot me; I’m just the messenger.

Jane Firor, principal of Jane Firor & Associates, a Washington DC firm specializing in strategic and creative services for magazines had some unique insight regarding email vs. snail mail. “I prefer the email, perhaps because they come from some of my very favorites, plus a B list and new folks come in every so often. I print the images and stick them on my wall. When the one piece of white tape gives out, they fall down and make room for others. Super selects get two pieces of white tape and stay up longer. Sometimes I print them out and put them in a plastic holder in our co-op’s elevator; if they are winners they stay until I replace them and if they are losers they get turned upside down or backwards usually within 12 hours. I don’t know what to think about the ones that disappear,” she said. Talk about letting the marketplace decide!

On Emailing New Prospects: Now, when it comes to people you’d like to work with, the etiquette shifts a bit. What’s the rule for prospects?

I cringe when I think of how, when I first started out, I tried cold calling.

The conversation usually went something like this:

Me: Hi, this is (I’m withholding my own name to protect my dignity. No fair peeking at my credit.)

Art Director: Uh, yeah. Who can I transfer you to?

Me: Um, I was wondering if you had any assignments for me?

Art Director: (click)

Me: Hello? …hello? …I’m gonna take that as a “no”.

There’s no way I’m going down that path again with email so I came up with a very simple strategy, and I think if there was only one rule to follow this would be it: Be extremely discriminating when collecting emails in the first place. Yes, you heard me.

Strict adherence to this guideline will save you embarrassment while ensuring that the target of your promotions can forgo that restraining order on you. All of the art directors I spoke to said it was OK to approach them for the first time via email but you have to be careful not to be a pest. Remember, these are busy professionals who are subject to a daily bombardment of Inbox Inundation. Mary Zisk summed it up: “To be fair, if an illustrator is being too persistent, I can ask to be taken off their list.”

When it comes to people I’d like to work for, I’ll start by checking their website. If I see that they’ve listed their email along with their name then I’m guessing they’d have to know that someone might want to get in touch.

It’s the reason I’ve got my email on my site. Still, the prime directive is always in effect: Never Intentionally Annoy.

I’ll very carefully approach an art director I’ve never worked with this way: First off, I only send to one at a time so I’m literally never spamming. In the subject line I’ll write something like “Got Illos?” to at least let them know this is not junk mail about increasing their um… girth. Then I’ll introduce myself as a freelance illustrator in two sentences or less and invite them to see my work by clicking a website link or an attached PDF. The PDF will be a one page custom promo or a mini PDF portfolio (about 20 pages in one document) but in either case the file size will be small, under 2MB. Many art directors echo Jane Firor’s wish that things are kept simple. “I don’t like it when the attachments open to something huge or something tiny and I have to fiddle with the image,” she says.

I’m sorry to be the one that breaks it to you but after that initial introduction it’s in the hands of The Almighty. If the art director contacts you to say they love your work and would like to use you in the future that’s great. Drop their email into your address book and email them a promo every once in a while. But if they don’t contact you to say they’d love to hear from you again it is of my opinion that you walk away, electronically anyway. Without permission it’s (Soup Nazi voice:) “No email for you!” Back to snail mail for that prospect, my friend.

Have I put forth The Gospel of Email Etiquette? Probably not. But these are some things I’ve learned from trying to refine the process and I hope I can be of service by passing it on. If you have any ideas don’t hesitate to let me know, especially if you’re an art director who’d like to see what it’s like to get a few of my promos now and then. I sincerely hope they’ll be worthy of two pieces of white tape.

Robert Pizzo always tries to mind his manners. To see more of his work (and without receiving one of his emails), visit www.robertpizzo.com

The difference between B2C (business-to-consumer) and B2B (business-to-business) language is night and day. And not knowing the difference can make your nights awfully long. Glad-handing and cajoling may be a part of the relationship between a salesman and a client. But in B2B copy, it’s all business. Here are five keys to make sure your B2B copy gets read—and acted upon.

Be an Expert. In B2B copy, you must position yourself as a credible expert. People don’t want to be sold; they want information that is relevant to their business. If you talk with authority about the subject you’re writing about, people will read with interest.

Be Real. Don’t be cheesy. If the copy gets an employee excited but he’s afraid to show it to his boss, you’re never going to get the order.

Be Believable. If you’re selling to engineers, accountants or lawyers and you over-promise, you’re dead meat. As soon as you say something that’s not believable, they stop reading. Consumers will put up with hype; business people won’t.

Be Rational. Business people will buy on emotion, but not on pure emotion. They need to justify their purchases to each other, so your marketing materials must give them sound reasons for it.

Be Factual. In B2B, you have to back up everything you say with hard facts. Otherwise you will be perceived as a blowhard.

When Dave first asked me to write about my approach to logo design, I thought it would also be an opportunity to discuss my thoughts on the current state of such a valuable craft. With the rise of crowdsourcing, websites that claim $99 logos and everyone with a Mac trying to be a designer, creative logo design has the possibility of becoming compromised. This has however created an opportunity for good designers to re-affirm the value of their expertise to clients.

However, just being a good designer isn’t enough to get viable work anymore. As designers we have to constantly plead our case that good design = good ROI, which is easier said than done. One of the ways I’ve been able to separate my skills from low-ball logo designers, is by educating my clients concerning my design process. Much like a math teacher sharing their process for an algebraic equation, so I believe the designer should lay out the route from which the successful logo design is achieved.

Here are some steps I use when creating a new logo/identity:

1. Get a clear objective of what the logo needs to accomplish. Understand who the company/brand is:  past present and future, mission statement, etc.  Whenever possible I like to have the client fill out a “creative strategy” form, to help guide their vision and minimize development time.

2. Market Research: After reviewing the client’s needs and objectives, I study competitors’ logos, and industry trends in general, both past and present.

I’m always surprised by how many clients neglect this step when considering their corporate identity. While as a designer I’m not technically hired to be a business consultant, a good designer owes it to the client to understand the market for which they are designing.

3. Preliminary sketches/brainstorming: I always take a typographical approach to creating a logo, be it a logotype (a logo that includes a graphic) or wordmark (a type-only design). For at least 30 minutes I’ll sketch on paper all the ideas that come to my mind: words, illustration, whatever.

4. Take the best 5 sketches and continue to refine. Then I bring the sketches into digital form. I prefer to start logo projects in Adobe Ilustrator. I try to find a typeface family close to my sketched concepts, or I’ll create a font from scratch.

5. Even when designing a multi-color logo, always make sure the logo will reproduce successfully in black and white.

6. Present 3 good options for first review. It really depends on the client, but I have generally found that showing more than 3 options can be problematic.

7. Testing: Finally I make sure the client’s logo will translate well into all types of media including print, web, corporate identity, etc.

Over the years I’ve refined this approach and applied it to many other types of projects as well as logo design. It can be sometimes be tempting to skip a few of these steps, but I’ve learned the hard way that my end product is a direct result of adhering to my process.  Weak process = weak work.

I’ve often heard excuses from fellow designers that “I’m not getting paid enough to be really creative,” or, “It’s up to the client to do the market research.” From my perspective, if a client isn’t going to compensate me to do my job thoroughly, it’s not a project worth taking. In the long run a designer’s reputation is more valuable than a quick payout. It’s important we always view our work as a valuable business asset for our clients, and it’s equally important that they too see our value as well. I think the famous designer Primo Angeli said it best: “…time and money. Without them, design is mere decoration. Neither good design nor fine art.”

To learn and see more, visit http://www.denherderdesign.com/ or visit Jesse’s blog at http://www.workingclassdesigner.com/

Hello all! Greetings from chilly St. Louis, Missouri. When Dave asked me to contribute a guest blog post to this space and discuss my work, I thought about the ongoing recession and how it mirrors the one during which I got my start. I decided to take a brief look at the early experiences that shaped my style, and detail how the skills I was forced to learn in a recession contributed directly to whatever success I may have eventually found. Hope you enjoy.

In 1995, fresh out of college and eager to become fabulously wealthy doing little more than doodling Wolverine in the margins of my notepad, I instead found that my hometown of St. Louis featured a creative industry centered around beer and little else. Never much of a drinker, and more naïve and snobbish than I realized at the time, I held my nose and accepted a role in a digital imaging group at a mid-sized sales promotion agency. Due to the recession, senior workers were being snubbed in favor of eager young (read: cheap) talent, so in retrospect it was a fabulous and rare opportunity to break into an industry that usually required years of experience. But, green as I was, I didn’t realize it at the time.

As a confident pencil artist but a terrible painter, I wondered at some point what would happen if I scanned my sketches and began to apply the Photoshop skills I’d been learning as a coloring technique. I had an opportunity for one of our larger beer clients who wanted to save money by eschewing the usual photo shoot, instead pursuing illustration. The subject matter needed to feature figures in kinetic motion (most beer promo involves sexy women, sports, and/or music), somewhat similar to the action-packed superheroes I’d been drawing forever in emulation of my favorite comic book artists like Art Adams and Jim Lee. I combined all of these experiences and the result was a signature style that has received strong positive feedback and led to a slew of new illustrative opportunities.

For the purposes of this post I elected to outline the process using a Corona case card I did after I’d left my original agency and was taking on a lot more freelance. This is how it generally works:

(Click on each image to enlarge it and read Tim’s comments.)

I sketch everything out roughly to get an idea of my composition and how it will fit into the dimensions of the piece. The layout may change radically throughout the process, and usually does, so keeping everything well-organized allows for greater flexibility down the line. (Fig. 1)

I overlay sketch paper and create an individual line drawing of each character, thinking ahead to how I will need to mask off each area for coloring later in the process. (Fig. 2) Each sketch is then scanned.

I create an individual path for each section of color. Anything that will be sectioned (e.g. different strands of hair) has to have its own path. This is where the hours of drawing paths for retouching come in handy.  Kind of my own “wax-on, wax-off” experience. (Fig. 3)

I usually start by filling flat colors for each layer of the character (skin, torso, front leg, back leg, etc.). Then I make a selection with each path and brush in my details with the painting tools. It takes some concentration but it’s probably the most fun. Using this technique also enables maximum contrast between hard edges and soft gradients. You might notice that after I’ve finished drawing a path over the “live” part of the figure, I just kind of sloppily wrap it around and close off the endpoints. This can lead to some fun little happy accidents when I’m painting in the details, especially with my particular cubist/futurist-inspired style that involves shapes in motion or blending into other shapes to flatten out the overall look. (Fig. 4)

I finish brushing in my shading and highlights, making tweaks to the original shape as I see fit. The finished color version almost always looks different from what I envisioned, but since I keep everything layered I have plenty of freedom to rework the piece at every stage. Additionally, all the old retouching tools like Curves and Channel Mixer layers (color adjustment) and dodge/burn (metallic clothing accessories) become useful. (Fig. 5)

Repeat with all necessary characters and background elements. It may seem time-intensive, but a piece like this is generally finished in fewer than five working days. (Fig. 6)

Now it’s time to put all these pieces together in one layered file and make them work together. I’m a huge fan of the illustrator Gary Kelley, and I think his method of flattening the illusion of perspective through color and shape is nothing short of ingenious. My humble tribute to his work is to try to achieve a similar kind of flatness by letting the shapes intermingle. The pool shape is behind the figures, but on a separate layer above the figures I used the pool’s paths to brush some of its shape through them. You can see a similar technique used throughout the other shapes, like the rooftop and the intermingling background buildings. (Fig. 7)

After laying in the product, logo and type treatment, I’m dissatisfied with the flatness. Feels like I’ve taken it too far, so the faces are falling into the background and it’s really flat, not just distorted perspective.  (Fig. 8)

Bringing in some shadows and glows allows me to control the flatness between shapes and define the space on my own terms. Now it’s got a lot more pop, which is the name of the game in POS. (Fig. 9)

Using the square/oval selection tool and the airbrushes, I apply the signature flourishes of this style on a new layer. The placement of each shape is very important; they reinforce my flattened perspective goal while adding motion to an action-oriented theme. On this particular piece they’re more subtle than usual; if you’ve seen the St. Louis sports mural on my website you can see that the style can easily become the dominant aspect of the piece and still allow the other elements to work effectively. It all varies depending on the piece and, often, the client. (Fig. 10)

Speaking of clients, this one decided late in the game to nix the afro, much to my chagrin. But, since I illustrated each character individually it’s a pretty easy fix. (Incidentally, separate working files also help keep this file’s size low, which is significant since it’s 16”x 23” at 300 ppi resolution. This could easily become a 2GB file otherwise). Additionally, I decided that the flat buildings in the background were killing the dance vibe, so I applied a Wave filter to allow them to join the fun. (Fig. 11)

It’s a pretty fun process, and in the end I’m grateful to some very generous people from those early days who shared their talent and knowledge, allowing me to blend it with my own particular skill set and create something uniquely my own.

What about the current recession?  The St. Louis creative community has been hit hard by a combination of the economy and the Anheuser-Busch buyout. In the past year alone I’ve learned more than I ever thought I would about Adobe Flash, Actionscript, Dreamweaver and a score of other tools that may come in handy in the coming decade. I couldn’t tell you whether they’ll allow me to keep up with the young talent coming out of college (!) but I can say that they’ve changed the way I think about certain challenges, which in my opinion is gold to a creative mind.

Tim Murphy

Like what you see? Visit Tim Murphy’s website to view more of his work.