Client work VS Personal projects as a Fashion Designer + Illustrator – Pros and Cons

What’s best, focusing solely on working with clients or focusing only on your personal projects?

In my latest video/post, I talked about the importance of doing what’s most exciting to you first, and I mentioned I’d focus on my personal projects as a fashion creative and on growing the community around FSBS and my own brand as Karen Avila the artist and illustrator. And in this video, I want to dive deep a little more into the pros and cons of doing client work VS your own personal projects.

Wanna know my thoughts on this?

Let’s dive in!

You can watch the video or read the post, whatever you prefer 😉

Client work

Okay let’s focus on client work first because it’s one of the main reasons we want to become fashion illustrators and designers, so we can work with clients, gain experience, explore with our skills and talents, gain exposure, and make money.

So, the Pros to work with clients are:

You do the work, and you get paid. Clearly, the biggest pro is that clients give you the money.
Every time you finish a project with a client, they can give you a testimonial, you can use the work you did with them in your portfolio, and that gives you credibility to keep landing clients. It’s like a snowball effect; one client brings lots more with them.
But also, working with clients give you experience on real-life projects, they give you the ability to solve problems, create for a necessity, or simply know how a process works in real life.

For example, when I was in college, I had to design and create the sample of a pair of shoes as a final project for one semester. So I designed it, loved it, and I found someone who could make the patterns and produce the sample of that pair of shoes because I didn’t have the tools to follow and do the process myself. My learning experience finished as soon as I gave my design and materials to the footwear maker.

But, during my first ever freelance project, I had to design and produce the samples of a collection of women’s footwear. Here I learned all about:

Material sourcing
What materials work best for shoes in the outside, inside, for the sole, insole, heels, etc.
How patterns are made, and how sometimes an idea must be rethought, so the design is feasible
The whole process of making a pair of shoes.

Of course, working with clients isn’t the only way to gain such experience and knowledge. You can learn and experience through your personal projects as well, but sometimes we get short by thinking that we don’t have the resources, tools, or people to make them happen, and we finish the project once the design stage is done.

Now let’s see the cons of working with clients

Sometimes your creativity is restrained. You must create according to your client’s requirements + guidelines + aesthetic. Sometimes, most of the times, clients have something specific in mind; a certain style, look, or product. And you must do your work according to that. Some illustrators and designers, like Frannerd mentioned in one of her videos, have a style for freelance work or client work, and another style for their personal projects (if they have time to work on personal stuff).
Some clients are a pain to work with. Yeah, sorry to break it to you, but working with clients, sometimes, isn’t a dream come true. I’ve worked with tons and tons of clients for over eight years, and as some of them were delightful to work with others left me drained + broke + needing a 2-month vacation or more.Over the years, I’ve become more selective with the kind of clients I work with, and I’ve also been lucky enough to find and be found by some amazing dream clients. But, at the beginning the difference between a dream + a nightmare client it’s pretty blurry or inexistent; we believe that everyone is a dream client because they’re willing to pay for something we love to do. So that’s another con.
And as a third disadvantage is that client work can absorb all your time not allowing you to focus on personal projects. This has been so true for me during my whole time in business, and for me, it happened because one client brought another or a couple more, and I didn’t want to say no or disappoint anyone. It’s the snowball effect I was telling you before.

Great, now let’s cover the pros and cons of personal projects

First the Pros:

You have the freedom to create whatever you want, however you want. If you’ve had an idea of a design or an illustration forever, but you haven’t been able to work on it, now you can. If you want to create a collection in your own style, now you can. If you want to follow a trend or not follow it. Or if you want to use certain art media, this is your chance.
Your personal projects also allow you to explore and experiment with your skills + techniques + your authentic style + your whole work to discover you as a fashion artist or fashion creative.When you’re creating your own personal projects the restrictions are set by you, so you can feel completely free to keep learning and experimenting in an intentional and purposeful way.And now that a set of requirements does not restrain you, you can get to know what are the tools and materials you love the most, what features can be part of your authentic style, and what matters the most to you as a fashion creative. While at the same time you can learn something new with every new project.
There’s no ceiling on how much money you can make with one project. Personal projects are not destined to leave you broke or give you no money.Actually, personal projects have the biggest potential to bring in the money because you’re making them with passion and love, and passion and love move people. Passion will move you to explore all the possibilities and do things you never imagined you could do. And people getting in touch with you will be moved and infected with your love and passion that they’ll be eager to be part of it.Maybe you start small and decide to create your first postcard collection featuring your illustrations and sell it through your Instagram. Maybe you just want to create as many illustrations as they come to your mind and sell them as products in RedBubble. Or maybe you want to go bigger, and you decide to create your first fashion collection and sell it through your website and social media.
There’s no ceiling on how much money you can make. The amount of money will only be determined by you, what you think is possible, and what you make happen.

Wow, I’m so pumped by these pros, it’s exciting to know all the possibilities you have when you embark on creating some of your personal projects, but now let’s see the cons.

Well, I really couldn’t think of any other con than this:

If you don’t turn your project into a product or don’t sell it in any way, you won’t make money from it.Personal projects take time and sometimes money, those are the main reasons most people don’t focus on personal projects. And as I mentioned in the last point, you can shift this by making your project sellable. But, if you’re not willing to put the extra work that that means, then you won’t be able to see any monetary return.It’s up to you if you want a personal project to bring you money or not, and it’s also up to you if you want to give the necessary effort + time + work to make it happen.
If you decide your idea and your personal project is worth taking the time and doing the work to make money, then it’s time to show up, share your project with the world, and shout it from the rooftops.

To finish…

For many many years I focused on client work, my main goal was that they were happy with my work, so they returned or referred me to other people. I liked what I was creating with clients, I liked my business model, and I enjoyed working with clients, but something was missing. I left myself aside.

Every time I wanted to create something personal, I told myself ‘once I finish with this client’s project.’ All the experimentation I wanted to do, all the things I wanted to try, all the things I wanted to create had to wait. And that made me feel drained + passionless about my work.

There was a point where I didn’t enjoy to do the things I was supposed to enjoy; the things that were the reason I started my own business became meaningless.

So, I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t work with clients anymore and that you should only do whatever you want and be happy. Well, yes, you should be happy and hopefully do whatever you want, but I’m here to tell you that you must find a balance between client work and your own projects, so you get the best of both worlds: the experience in real-life projects, the credibility and trust from new clients, the fulfillment + freedom of doing what you like, the ability to explore + discover yourself as the artist and creative you are, and the money.

But, if what you want is to focus purely on your own projects, then go ahead. Go for it because there’s nothing better and more meaningful than making your dreams + ideas happen, and see how you evolve + improve as an artist and as a person along the way.

That’s why I’m eager to explore and experiment with my own techniques + style. That’s why I want to keep growing and exploring like an artist and creative. And that’s why I want to help you do the same.

Hope you liked this video/post! IF so, please give it a thumbs up, share it with your friends, and subscribe to know when more videos are coming. Bye!

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(With LOVE!)