[CartoonScott]

Here are some recent designs of mine

[Pugsley]

The two non cartoon ones are great. Have you approached any tv/animation companies with that style of work. Bet they are always looking for characters for projects.

[CartoonScott]

Actually yes, the Sid one is being considered by a US production company this week. Doubt anything will come of it, but we'll keep coming up with ideas and putting them out there. The cartoon logos are for small businesses, the 3D ones are concepts for books firstly, but I had some contacts and past them on and the Sid one was liked a lot.

[CartoonScott]

This is how the monster one originally started out

[moz]

Very nice. Wish I could draw as well as that - mine look like they were drawn when on acid.

[sub]

Looks like you'd be better off in character design than cartoon logos which, to me, cheapens your highly skilled illustration work.

[calder12]

Agree with everything that's been said, particularly sub's comment. I get having to make a living, but you're too good to be doing cheap logos for clowns. The chinchilla and the monster below it are absolutely brilliant. I'd be flogging my work to Pixar or the like if I were you because your quality is right up there with theirs.

[CartoonScott]

Thanks. The clown stuff pays the bills, the problem is that I get so busy with those logos, I dont get time for the other stuff lol. However, this year my design partner (brother) and I have been talking to some publishers and we have some things in the pipeline.

I would love to get into character design, but its just finding an in.

[sub]

Time exhausted on the crap projects taking away resource to work on the good one — this is the problem most of us have/have had.

Try approaching logo game/animation studios with your portfolio.

[CartoonScott]

I'm just about to start on a game with a game studio, so that is something new. I have contacted some agencies before, I thought my style of designs might be useful for brands targeted at kids, but nothing really came of it. At the moment all my business comes from small businesses that like having a design on their posters, ads, vehicles, that makes them get noticed. It pays the bills, but as they are small businesses, I don't make a big amount off of them.

[Pete Nice]

What's the name of your company? Can't seem to find any reference to it....

[moz]

Don't let clowns stop you from reaching your full potential!

Been telling myself that for years...

[CartoonScott]

Anyone got any suggestions where I could advertise to find more mascot/character design work?

[sub]

Approach logo game and animation agencies.

Find networking groups, eg Devon Artist Network Ltd - Home

[technics]

Scott,

How about something like this?

1. Take out some PPC ads on Facebook and target to keywords of interest.

2. Register a few different domains that showcase different illustrative/cartooning styles and build out a microsite for each one (different copy/illustrations). PPC ads point to microsite. Set up mirror micro site pages on Facebook.

3. Set up google adwords for remarketing. Remarketing are basically the ads that follow you around after you leave the site. The problem with Facebook is that people are there to Facebook, not browse the web the remarketing gives them another change.

You could also do google adwords and just play around with some keywords like Sports team mascots, web site mascots, company mascots, etc.

[calder12]

Unfortunately all of which are going to keep him doing the small jobs that pay the bills and keep him from doing what he should be doing which is showcasing his work to clients that can actually pay for the quality they're getting.

I remember vaguely seeing what Scott charges and thinking it was way too low, but understanding that pricing has to take into consideration the client.

What you need to do is real networking and finding the people you need to talk to, I can't give any advice on that but I am relatively positive Pixar, Disney or any game studio isn't looking at Facebook or Google ads for their new hires/contracts.

The one place you can consider though is LinkedIn and trying to get connections with the people in the companies you want to target.

[sub]

Originally Posted by technics

How about something like this?

Or save yourself the bother and simply burn what money you do have.

How will PPC and building more websites help a relative new comer trying to get into character design going to assist someone looking to contract character designer? Do you think agencies just Google search their resources?

[CartoonScott]

I think a blitz on Linkedin is the way to go, to start with anyway. I have done the facebook ads, and google. I did the facebook ads recently and got over 600 new 'likes' in a week, but it didnt make any difference, its just facebookers who like looking at cartoons, its not people who are going to commission jobs

[bennyboy]

Did you do anything about your pricing? I remember it being way too low for what you were doing.

[CartoonScott]

I did move my prices up. I use to do a flat fee for £69, regardless how big the design was (e.g 5 characters in a logo). Now however it is £89 for a single character cartoon logo, plus £45 extra per added character. For the market I do most of my work in, its the best Im gonna get.