An Open Letter To My People

My Darlings,

We made it!! Happy 2017!! I don't know about you, but the sun has been BEAMING through my parent's living room window since yesterday morning, and for the first time ever, it really feels like a New Year. I'm not sure why this year feels so different from all the others. Maybe in part because there was such an overwhelming, worldwide, collective-desire to leave 2016 behind. But truthfully, I felt different. Unlike every other family member of mine, my eyes welled with tears when the clock struck midnight on January 1st. I was SO sad to see 2016 go.

2016 was an enormous year for me both personally and professionally. I landed some major dream clients, from Dior to Emirates, filmed a campaign commercial in Hong Kong with DFS (absolute bliss!!), had a gallery show with Gemfields and IMG during NYFW, shared breakfast with the incomparable DVF, and got a mention in the New York Times. I paid off all my student/start-up debt and finally made it safely into the black. But beyond all that, 2016 took me around the world to make peace with my past, in ways I can't quite explain here. I revisited some of my favorite places on earth but also saw so many of my dream destinations for the very first time.

When I write all that down, it feels fairly obvious why I would hate to bid adieu to 2016. But life, and all of its great mysteries, do not allow you to live in the past. We must move forward no matter how hard we try to stay still. So the question I can't help but ask myself is: what in the world comes next? How the hell do I sustain this momentum? Better yet, how, and in it what ways do I want to take my business to the next level? Ok, so maybe I have more than one question for myself here, ha!

You see my friends, one slightly negative thing about Instagram is it tends to become a never-ending highlight reel of all the best moments of one's life. No one, or very few of us, are posting moments of defeat or self-doubts. I never post the frustrations of chasing late payments or navigating difficult areas of running your own business. But it's all there and it's all true. I'm not saying those highlight moments aren't real, because they absolutely are. But so too are all the cloudy, murky moments of confusion. I guess I can't help but feel the tense pull between needing to do what's best for me and my business behind the scenes, and keeping the color filled world of Travel Write Draw alive on Instagram.

Top 5 Tips for Freelance Fashion Illustrators

Happy Holidays My Loves!!

I hope you've all had the most amazing time celebrating with your families, eating delicious food, and catching up on sleep. With 2017 quite literally around the corner, and so many thoughts swirling through my head, it feels like the perfect time to reflect on the past 2.5 years of running Travel Write Draw full-time. I've had so many ups and downs, SO many highs and lows since quitting my corporate design job in NYC, that it feels only right to share a few tips that I found enormously helpful throughout this time in my life. And let me begin my saying as a *disclaimer* that I'm entirely aware that no two lives are the same. What works for me may not work for you. But at the very least, you can use this list as a point of reference as you prepare to kick some serious ASS in 2017!! So here goes it...

My Top 5 Tips for Freelance Fashion Illustrators:

1. Write Your Mission Statement: One habit I picked up while working full-time was goal planning. It was part of our bi-annual reviews with our managers. We had to map out our goals and to-do's from two weeks, to 3 months, to 6 months, to 2 years. It coincides with "defining what success looks like to you" and it is super important. If you don't know where you are going or what you hope to achieve, how can you expect to attract clients who do? When you are direct, determined, clear and purposeful about your work, you are doing 50% of the work for the clients by showing them how brilliantly you align with their brand. For me, Travel Write Draw has always been about (you guessed it) travel, fashion, and illustration; it's about where these three passions of mine intersect. My career mission is defined by these three passions and ultimately all the content I produce and clients I attract fall into this intersection. Start 2017 by defining your freelance career mission statement, produce portfolio work from there, and watch how the clients come to you.

2. A Structured Schedule: This point isn't entirely specific to fashion illustrators, but it is however one of the most important pillars of my "survival guide". When I first left my corporate job, one of the hardest adjustments I had to make (apart from not knowing where my paycheck would be coming from week to week) was not having an office to commute to 5 days of the week. The lack of structure was almost paralyzing. It certainly didn't help that I was living in a shoebox in the West Village where my bed and desk were a half a meter apart. But once I moved to my place in Williamsburg, and gained 3 separate rooms outside my bedroom, life started to become more manageable.

I joined Classpass this year and every Sunday I would book my morning workouts for the week. Monday at 9 AM was boxing, Tuesday at 8 AM was pilates, Wednesday at 8:30 AM was hip hop yoga, and so on...and by the time I finished my workout class and walked home to shower, my client emails were rolling in and ready to be answered. It might seem silly but having the structure of these classes kept me sane. They got me out of the house, cleared my head, made me feel good both physically and emotionally, and ultimately became the framework of my schedule. Whatever it is, be it exercise, walking your dog, meditation, or a coffee run, starting your week with structure will help you to stay in balance while weathering the unpredictable ups and downs of your freelance career.

Not the End. Just the Beginning.

People often ask me what it feels like now to be living the dream, in other words, what it feels like to be working as a full-time fashion illustrator. And to be honest, I really don't know how to answer. I'm not sure if it's because I don't want to disappoint them, or if I'm more scared to disappoint myself. Because guess what, living the dream is not actually a dream, it is hard f**king work. I never thought I would have to worry so much, about so many different things, all at the same time.

It's been 11 months since I quit my corporate job in New York and since then I have had the craziest year of my life. When I got to be a Suggested User on Instagram in September 2014, I was literally catapulted from an up-and-coming illustrator with 8,000 followers, to a whopping 145,000 followers in 3 weeks. Then came the great Instagram purge of 2014, that shaved off 24,000 followers, and I've been steadily growing my following back ever since.

JEFF KOONS : A RETROSPECTIVE

Hello Lovelies,

I can't thank you enough for your amazingly sweet comments you left on my latest post Finding My It Girl. The wheels are definitely in motion and I've been doing a lot of thinking about additional ways I can better serve you all, my readers, here on Travel Write Draw. Ultimately I want to give you access to the very best of art, culture, fashion, & illustration here in New York and abroad and inspire along the way. So today I'm starting with an inside glimpse into what I consider one of the best art retrospectives I've seen to date in New York - Jeff Koons: A Retrospective at the Whitney Museum.

I visited this exhibition a week or so ago and was absolutely overjoyed by the experience. Jeff Koon's work is meant to elicit a reaction from its viewers and it most certainly did for me. There is something really refreshing about standing next to oversized everyday objects, play-doh and the like, that ignites the child in you. I left feeling totally recharged which says a lot considering it was crowded with the typical selfie obsessed attendees. The saturated colors alone are worth the visit. If you are planning to make a visit to New York this Summer, make it apart of your "must see list" otherwise enjoy the snapshots I curated just for you.

Much love,
Meag xx