Challenges and Commitment
Reinventing yourself when life hits you with curveballs
Hey friends,
It’s been a while since my last newsletter, and a lot has happened since then—some things have been incredibly exciting, while others have been quite disappointing. This brings me to the topic of this post: facing challenges and making the best of them.
But first, let me start with something that brings me joy each morning, which was actually born out of those very challenges!
Mirrored Dreams is on Kickstarter!
At the beginning of this year, my good friend Stefan and I founded Gooey Goose, a publishing company for artsy goods and books. We have been working meticulously behind the scenes on our first release, titled "Mirrored Dreams," and the lineup for it is nothing short of incredible. Together, we’ve brought together 12 talented artists whose work captures both your dreams and nightmares through their unique art styles.
Watching these artworks come to life over the past few months has been an absolute joy, and now the time has come—we’ve launched our pre-sale page on Kickstarter! Make sure to sign up for updates so you don’t miss out on the release and early-bird offers.
Here’s a little sneak peek of my own contribution to the project, which was a fun challenge for me, as I had never worked on comics before. Learning the do's and don'ts of creating comics over the past few weeks and finding a style that truly suits me was tough, but I found my way through it and couldn’t be happier with the results!
Client Work: Sometimes Smooth, Sometimes Messy
In recent months it has been a huge struggle to find new client work since the majority of the creative industry is in a turbulent time. You have probably seen the news of massive layoffs in the Gaming and Movie industry all over the place and sadly lots of my friends and also me has been affected by this.
In my last newsletter I spoke about some strategies on how to deal with this and speaking of the devil I had to start applying some of them myself again. After long months of silence in my inbox and no response to a lot of applications, it was time to take matters in my own hands and start building new income streams myself.
This sort of challenges force you to commit to certain risks if you want to keep pursuing your dream of being an artist. It takes time to build projects or even a company like Stefan and I did with Gooey Goose, but on the long run it will benefit the stability of your career.
Something I had to remind myself again of, was that even if things seem to run smoothly, never stop reaching out to potential new clients, come up with fun personal projects or finding new ways of advertising yourself. Sitting in a comfy nest can quickly make you feel to secure and hit you double hard when things take a turn.
That said, take this as a motivation to send that application to the company, brand or magazine you always dreamt of working with and start the project that sat way too long as a scribble in a sketchbook. Trust me it will be great once you get into the gists of things!
ASTRALYMPICS 2024
So, what’s the result of applying my own advice? The answer is: ASTRALYMPICS! In my last newsletter, I shared a few teasers for a sports-themed editorial illustration project. At that time, it only included 3 artworks, but I quickly got hooked on the concept, and the collection expanded to 20 pieces!
With a growing portfolio of artworks, I began reaching out to companies in my network, as well as new potential partners, to see if this personal project could evolve into something more. Before long, I entered into discussions with TRANSIENT LAB, and we decided to partner up for the launch of their new tool, STACKS, using these illustrations.
After a fun and successful launch of STACKS, I wanted to explore another idea: using some of the line art from this project for a coloring book. I had previously collaborated with Lake Coloring to release digital coloring books, and working with them had been a joy.
So, I recently reached out to them with the idea of featuring this collection around the start of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, and they were immediately on board. I was thrilled to see this come together, especially after the tough few months I’ve had!
Thanks a lot for tuning in for this month’s newsletter! My goal is to commit to doing this more regularly again and hold myself accountable, right ;) ?
In my next newsletter I want to talk about other upcoming personal projects such as “creating print products” and “building a youtube channel”.
Sounds exciting? Then make sure to subscribe and leave me a comment on what you want to see in the future!
Cheers, Dominik!