Double Trouble?
or ‘How to Manage Multiple Illustration Folios’
Before we get started, the title is relevant to the article, but I only really used it as an excuse to drop some classic UK hip-hop so let’s get that out of the way…
Right, we’ve all had an education on what 13-year old me was attempting to throw shapes to in my bedroom, now, on with the illustration talk…
If you haven’t noticed I have two illustration portfolios, ‘Ben the Illustrator’ and ‘Ben Draws’, I didn’t plan on this, it wasn’t part of a ten year growth plan, I didn’t even know I could draw like that (points at a Ben Draws doodle) until last year. I’ve actually been here before, 15 years ago, with 2 different portfolios, unfortunately it didn’t stick but I learnt a lot and had some fun, which in the long-run is a win for me. So what went wrong Ben? And why’s it different this time? And is it ‘right’ to have 2 completely different portfolios? But the dusty man at uni said we have to restrict ourselves to one defined style and if you even try and evolve it’s all over! Well, the dusty man is wrong, you can evolve and try new things all you want, that’s creative freedom.
Going back, I became Ben the Illustrator around 2005ish, having worked in animation and jumping between roles I wanted to clearly define who I was and what I did, it’s one of the best ideas I’ve ever had and still works for me now. I wanted to focus solely on creating colourful, graphic vector art, it kicked off my illustration career and I’ve never looked back. I have, however, looked to the sides, I’ve always got other interests, especially in the visual arts, and part of me has a real soft-spot for vintage advertising, especially 1950s advertising. So, aside from my ‘normal’ work as Ben the Illustrator, I started playing with a new style, taking original 50s (copyright-free btw) images and giving them a twist, reconstructing them with new concepts, often approaches that would have been scorned on back in the day, strong independent women? Beautiful people with disabilities? A society where a smart, handsome white man can look like a clown, or be cavorting knee-deep in sewage with his partner. I called this style ‘Twisted Fifties’, some old studio-mates branded it and I built a new website and went out selling it. It was popular with editorial, women’s lifestyle magazines especially, book-covers, album covers, a couple of ad campaigns, I even exhibited alongside the likes of Jimmy Cauty, Jamie Reid and Dan Clowes. (Funny side-story… I once worked on a Twisted Fifties style project with a NY agency, at the same time I was working with the same agency as ‘Ben the Illustrator’, the two teams didn’t realise until I invoiced for both projects). This busy phase was all very well, but sometimes I’d find myself so caught up on where Twisted Fifties might go that I took my eye off Ben the Illustrator, I felt like the years I’d already spent focusing on that, the business I’d built up, could all easily slip away if I didn’t keep nurturing the Ben the Illustrator business I had always dreamed of.
So there I am, a few years into ‘Ben the Illustrator’ and now I’m also managing ‘Twisted Fifties’, two portfolios, double the output, but… double the potential? Double the money? Or Double Trouble? Well, sorry to say it didn’t work out, around 2010 I became very busy with Ben the Illustrator projects, we also had our son, and for maybe 12 months I didn’t touch my Twisted Fifties portfolio, I got out of practice, my brain was out of exercise and the twisted concepts didn’t come. Then, when commissions did come for Twisted Fifties projects, my heart wasn’t in it, it was a good old friend but we’d grown apart. I had focused on Ben the Illustrator so much and for so long, that I just couldn’t perform to a high standard when it came to Twisted Fifties. So it got shelved.
For the next decade ‘Ben the Illustrator’ evolved, played, and grew and all seemed just fine. Then, in 2021, my studio-mate Neil (a branding creative director) started a new business with an old colleague of his, Thomas. Together they founded a new seaweed snack company, based in Copenhagen, called Wavy Wonders. Neil had a great vision for the brand and the packaging, using an elegant hand-drawn editorial style, we chatted and I recommended a handful of illustrators I thought would be a good fit. Unfortunately, every illustrator I suggested was unavailable for one reason or another, so Neil said it, a question I’d actually been scared of hearing…. “Ben, couldn’t you do it?”… ah no way man, I couldn’t, I can’t draw like that, I’m awful at characters, I’m not elegant enough, I’m moving to Winnipeg, my arm fell off, I’m taking up bullfighting. Honestly, every excuse on earth flashed through my mind until I then heard my own voice saying “yeah sure, I’ll have a try”. You’re such an idiot Ben, you told yourself years ago, stick to what you do, don’t try things outside of Ben the Illustrator, stay safe! Stay boring! But no, that’s not me, think about it, what have you got to lose? If it doesn’t work out, fine, Wavy Wonders will easily find someone in the end. You’re a creative and you love new things, forget about your business model for a minute and enjoy some drawing. So I gave it a go, I cleared my mind of sweet, crisp, graphic vectors, I threw my ruler and circle stencils across the room and drew a funny little hipster man, then I scribbled him out, he was rubbish and I hated myself. But I stuck with it, drew and drew until I started to find things I liked, a way of drawing noses that felt completely unfamiliar but I liked the look of it, I worked out how to use eyebrows to express an emotion, I drew nice clothes and dogs and people walking dogs and a woman walking a hot-dog. And finally I drew a funny little hipster man, and I liked him, and myself. Neil and Thomas welcomed me on-board and we developed the first three packaging designs along with some supplementary characters. I loved it all, no more or less than Ben the Illustrator, I found myself loving them equally, in the same way I love salt and pepper, or De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest.
So ‘Ben Draws’ was born, I built up the folio, made the obligatory Instagram account and started selling it alongside Ben the Illustrator. The past year has been very different to the Ben the Illustrator v Twisted Fifties chapter of my career, where I felt like I was battling the two folios against eachother, always worrying I was doting on one more than the other, my time being pulled in two different directions along with my mind and my vision of where I was going. So now I run the two portfolios concurrently, they’re even both here on the same website. I have the same aims for both, to produce great work for great people and wherever possible, great causes. I make time for both my children; when I’m out and about with my sketchbook I’m Ben the Illustrator, drawing cafes and architecture and busy city people, when I’m at home I’m doodling funny little Ben Draws moments, coming up with scenarios from my imagination. Every week I make sure my to-do list involves developing both areas, promoting both portfolios and managing both sets of clients. Perhaps I’m more zen about business and time than I used to be, but now if one area dominates me for a week or two, that’s fine, I’m cool with it, I’ll focus on this current situation, then when that’s complete I’ll treat the other portfolio for a while, we’ll go out for brunch and share a big pastry. And as yet, it’s all good, I’m enjoying both, I’m feeling like this diversity of tasks is stretching my brain for the better, there’s more to be excited about and I’m developing my craft(s) and not feeling like a jack-of-all-trades-and-master-of-none.
To sum up, here’s some tips on managing more than one illustration style :
Make it count… for every new portfolio you’ll be reducing the time you can focus on your current one, make sure it’s worth the energy you’ve already put in.
Make it function… there’s no point in building a new portfolio and distracting yourself if there’s no chance of success, I remember the brilliant Rod Hunt once saying that a portfolio should be “one style that’s very flexible”, ie. a strong defined illustration style that appeals to a variety of potential clients, I agree and feel that every one of your portfolios should follow that rule!
Make it fair… however you prefer to work, balance your illustration styles fairly, give them a fair amount of care and development, don’t let one slip or fall out of favour. Maybe you work better on one in the morning and the other in the afternoon, maybe one style has a ‘Monday vibe’ and the other is more ‘Friday baby!’.
Make it work… plan how you’re going to make both folios successful, maybe you have clients from your original folio who could also commission your new style. Maybe your new style would appeal to a dream client your previous style just wasn’t right for. If the two styles target different industries, ensure you’re making waves in both.
Make it grow… you are always allowed to evolve and develop your illustration style, you’re the boss, one style might evolve more than the other, that’s fine, they might evolve even further away from eachother, that’s fine, they might evolve and cross-over, that’s fine. Your growth as a creative is one key to maintaining a creative career, in fact if your portfolio looks the same today as it did 5 years ago, you might want to give yourself a chance to play and experiment and mostly importantly… grow.
Make yourself happy… your happiness and mental health is the most important thing, beyond anything else. If both styles make you happy, forge ahead, if you’re excited by both, keep at it, if both spark different parts of the brain and satisfy different creative needs, then move ahead with all the luck in the world. However, if you feel torn, if co-parenting is overwhelming or if you just don’t have the time to maintain two illustration portfolios, then there is nothing wrong whatsoever with shelving one, focus on the portfolio that gives you life.
