Three year’s later hey!

So a lot has happened and I wanna share it with you.

I graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BA (Hons) degree - yay! I got a job in marketing to gain some experience and learn a new skill for two years in a family run business not far from me. Knowing that marketing wasn’t something long term, my ever growing passion for illustration and design was becoming hard to contain. With working a 9-5 job I found the struggle of trying to pursue my dream of illustration tricky with trying to cram it in at the end of the day after work for a few hours. By the end of every day i’d be exhausted yet ready to go again the next day. For two years I tried this yet it became harder and harder to maintain. Yes, it was great having the steady income and being able to work a small amount on my brand and draw lots too! Kinda the best of both world’s I guess but… I knew something wasn’t right and I needed a change.

After nearly two years of marketing I decided to end that chapter and start something fresh. With my love for travel and exploring new places, I got on a plane with two of my friends and headed to Thailand. I thought this was the breath of fresh air I needed and oh yes, was I right! It was a dream! From spending a month in Thailand and then a month in Indonesia (on my own) it certainly gave me time to reflect on the last two years and to look forward and plan for my future. Being in such beautiful surroundings and met with amazing people whilst I was travelling for those two months opened my eyes to lots of possibilities. Life’s too short. Why not? Were two things that kept coming up in my mind.

From this, I flew home with such excitement to give my illustration my best shot!

My first step was improving my social media presence. I took Instagram and TikTok more seriously with posting multiple times a week,. Whilst I added Facebook and Pinterest to my task list and now I post on there all the time too which I am very pleased with. My audience has grown so much in the past four weeks of building my social media presence which show’s how much putting the work in gets you. With fun days of content creating mixed with exciting research sessions I am slowly building my confidence and community with it!

Whilst I was away in Thailand and Indonesia I got approached by a fanatic worldwide company which I was very fond of and familiar with. I can’t say too much about this just yet but it’ll come soon so keep an eye out. Anyway, my point is, from being in the warm sunshine in Asia to landing in cold London my days were filled with drawing for this new and exciting project.

When I got home from being away I made he big decision to buy myself my own A3 inkjet printer. After lots of research and deliberation, I settled on a Canon Pixma IX6850 which I absolutely love! Now that I can print up to A3 this was a serious help in growing my product range. Now I can proudly day that all of my products at this moment in time are printer in-house by yours truly.

In addition to these things I have mentioned, Etsy was a big new venture for me too. I have had my Etsy shop since 2023 but never took the time to work on it which didn’t actually get me anywhere at all! From this, I conducted many photoshoots for my collection of about 50 A4 prints, worked on my SEO and defined my target audience. I am still figuring things out with Etsy as it is ever changing which intrigues me. Two weeks ago I launched not only A5 prints but A3 prints of my illustration collection. On Monday, I will be launching 21 brand new A6 greetings cards on my Etsy shop which I cannot wait for ...eek!!

One of my goals this year as a business was to attend a market as a stall holder and I am over the moon to be able to say that I ticked that one off at the weekend! What a wonderful day it was. I met some really awesome people and I was so pleased that my stall came together in the end. After long hours working with my Dad to make some of the stands by hand, not forgetting printing and packaging all my products professionally it seriously paid off. I felt extremely proud of how far I had come in three weeks of taking my small business seriously. From this, I have booked a small number of local markets and craft fairs which I will be attending throughout the rest of this year and I cannot wait to attend them.

All in all, I have had a big change which only started four weeks ago yet I am overjoyed of how far I have come and how much I have learned too. With commissions coming in, Etsy sales sending off and and an amazing community being built on social media I can see the momentum building for Emily Palmer Illustration and I am so here for it!

Emily

Find me on social media:

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