To manage all work within the agency, we use a nifty little thing called Basecamp, which when combined with clients who are not afraid to use it, has been a lifesaver on many occasions.
Frequently I talk with my artists about developing their own promotional material outside the agency. Sure, its tough to beat the high standard set by our own promos, but why not try :) The one thing that I am constantly impressing upon everyone is that to really get maximum exposure for their promo, it needs to have crossover appeal from print to web. As much as I loathe the term, if something can go Viral on Boing Boing, Drawn, or any other site that Art Buyers and Directors Frequent, even for a day, you stand to gain as much exposure as a targeted mailer, and at a fraction of the cost, especially considering postage from Australia...
We have a special project on the site that we use for all inter-agency communication, and for a time there were a few dedicated threads to rounding up great examples of how other print-based artists and illustrators were leveraging new media for promotion. I figured it could be a greater benefit to the wider illustration community if we rolled this out into the blog as a frequently updated resource.
I have a bit of a backlog of links at the moment, so I'm just going to dump them all here for now. If you are familair with the usual suspects of Drawn, BoingBoing and the like, this might be old hat, but either way, hope you find something of use.
The orphan works bill has been a hot topic over the last few months. To get the 'fair and balanced' view may take a bit of reading around, but this video has a good introduction:
[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=CqBZd0cP5Yc[/youtube]
The Illustrators Partnership of America has more great information here.
Sure, it turned out to be a hoax/manufactured viral, but imagine the attention you would get as an illustrator if you pulled a similar stunt. Great idea!
Great interview with James Victore by a South Australian designer. A must read.
If you don't already read Drawn.ca, now would be the time to start, the following links all come from there.
Series of Illustrations Based on The NYT Crossword.
Draw yourself as a teenager. Wonderful concept.
Those looking to crack the Holy Grail of the New Yorker might find some insight in this Video Tour of a New Yorker Cartoonist's studio:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM1V3QGb7Is[/youtube]
I came across this while doing research for a new promo. Great crossover success from an artist who draws a new moster every day from a splash of india ink. Some mesmerising videos.
This made its way around the blogs for awhile, and is still a genius self-promotional idea: Redrawing childrens doodles as fully rendered illustrations.
We were literally days away from launching a similar promo until we saw the site and then killed the idea. First in, best dressed I suppose.
Whether or not it was designed as a self-promo this series of 'mashup's between friends by a New York-Based courtroom illustrator is simply lovely, and definitely got him some attention... [Via Kottke.org]
Finally, just when you thought it was safe to quit... Smokers of the Marvel Universe
