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.

JOURNEYMAKERS

Travel is transformative. Seeing the world, and discovering new cultures and ways of life, has been the greatest privilege I have ever known. It is when my spirit feels most alive and when I feel most inspired to create my art. I have learned so much about myself by traveling outside my comfort zone. And though I have observed many differences in the way we live around the world, from South America to North Africa, Southeast Asia to the Middle East, I can confidently attest that human kindness and compassion is deeply universal. More often it is the people, not the places, that have made my journeys across the globe.

That is why when American Express Travel approached me this Summer to partner with them on their Journeymakers campaign, I leapt at the opportunity to contribute. I want nothing more than to honor the people who made my journeys so life changing and who irrevocably touched my heart. In the words of Maya Angelou "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." The exact words and actions, the chronology and order of events, might get a little muddled in memory, but the way these following individuals made me feel still stays with me today:

Jeenah Mari-Rose - Thailand, Laos, & Cambodia (March 2015)

My journey to Southeast Asia this past March was a big undertaking. I joined a 14 day live tour across Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia to discreetly cover the experience through Travel Write Draw. It was my fourth time touring with this company but my first time being hired to do it as an influencer. And as I quickly came to know, there are some things in life you can never quite be prepared for. Southeast Asia is a feast for the eyes but often draws people who are undergoing personal transitions. It is a region marked by many hardships but a great deal of hope too.

When I met my guide Jeenah in the hallway of our hotel in Bangkok, I was immediately impressed by her calm, collectedness. She struck me as someone who had seen a lot in her young life. She was vivacious and bold, having recently returned from a surfing trip to Morocco on her own. I felt a natural ease with her from the get go and our bond was quickly formed with her being the only person on the tour who knew I was there as a member of press. She was eager for me to see and experience the best, making sure I had the right art supplies and best views, to illustrate my journey.

5 Key Lessons I Learned This Year (and taking with me into 2015!!)

We made it darlings!! I hope you all had a spectacular New Years Eve. I couldn't have been anymore low key than I was last night. I spent the evening eating lobster and steak with my Mom and Dad at home and watching reruns of the Kardashians lol (not even a glass of champagne was had). I hope to god that isn't a bad omen for 2015!! I only have 4 more days of holiday in the Canadian countryside, so I'm keeping myself on cruise control deliberately until I land in NYC again this Sunday, and life once again goes full throttle.

Anyway, I really hope you enjoyed my Top 10 of 2014 Recap yesterday. It was a really great exercise to pause and look back for once. What I've come to realize, while parking my tush in the country for two weeks, is just how quickly we get wrapped up in wanting more and not really appreciating what we already have. I have found more happiness in the past 4 months simply by practicing gratitude on a daily basis. Which brings me to this post, the "5 Key Lessons I Learned This Year (and taking with me into 2015!!)". Before we start piling up our 2015 to-do list, take a moment to recalibrate with this list. You might find yourself goal planning in a different way this year after you do: 

5 Key Lessons I Learned This Year: 

1. When In Doubt, Ask Why Not Me? 

Before I quit my job back in August 2014, I found myself sitting at my desk daily starring at my computer screen with a Starbucks coffee, scrolling through Gary Pepper Girl, Tuula Vintage, Song of Style, and Zanita, and thinking Why Not Me??!!!! It didn't take long to realize that I had no good answer to that question. These girls were/are NO different than me...I mean yes we all come from different places, we all look different, probably have different advantages and disadvantages in life, but at the core, they were all just LIKE ME....human.

Travel Write Draw's Top 10 of 2014!!

The Next Step...

Good Evening My Loves, 

I have some BIG news to share with you all and I couldn't be happier. On Monday I officially resigned from my full-time job. I have finally, after half a decade, opened my own illustration and creative service company in New York to pursue my fashion illustration career here full on!!!! I am passport stamped, visa approved, signed, sealed, delivered in NYC and for the first time ON MY OWN TERMS!!!! I finally feel like the sky has opened up and is ushering me into a life I could only dream of for years. I am finally, finally, free.

It saddens me to let go of a company that I truly adored, and I am eternally grateful for everything they have provided me. But any great employer can recognize when their employee needs to go and follow their heart, their passion, their truest calling. Fortunately for me, my employer does.

Life right now is going at the speed of lightening. I have major collaborations planned for New York Fashion Week in a few weeks plus loads of fun commissions that I can't wait to share with you all. AND the best part is, I'm going to have all my time to give to you and my illustrations. I'm going to sign off for now but I assure you that the best is yet to come, for me, for you, for us together.

Sending so much light and love into the world tonight and leaving you with this final thought - "stop asking for permission to do what you love and just f$$cking DO IT."

Much love,
Meag xx

Top 5 Things I've Learned While Living in New York

Hello My Loves,

How have you been?! I hope you're all feeling refreshed from your weekend. I for one am over the moon while writing this post because this weekend marks my 5 year anniversary of living in the Empire State, New York City!!!! This is truly a joyous occasion. I feel like I'm honestly celebrating my birthday. For those of you who have followed my journey on this blog the past four years, you know that I'm a Canadian citizen, and that life as a legal alien living in NYC has been anything but a cakewalk. That said, my heart could honestly burst when I think of all the wonderful experiences I have had while fighting for my dream here in the Big Apple. I feel so incredibly fortunate everyday that I have had the opportunity to pursue my greatest passion, fashion illustration, in the city that never sleeps.

Moving to New York undoubtedly changed the course of my life forever. It marked my decision to leave behind comfort and convention for the potential of a life filled with passion, purpose, and creativity. It was proof to myself that I believed in something greater, that I had a burning fire deep down within me that believed I could live the life I so badly dreamed of. This post, however, is really for all of you lovely and loyal Travel Write Draw readers. So many of you write me beautiful emails asking questions about my career as an illustrator and what it's like to live in New York. Well here are my answers out in the open for all of you; a comprehensive Top 5 of what I've learned, and what you can expect as a creative in arguably the greatest city on the planet.

1. Dream big, start small, expect nothing: When I first applied to attend FIT while still living in Toronto, I had a million ideas of what my life would look like when I moved to New York. I expected to be embraced wholeheartedly by the glamourous world of fashion the minute I moved here. I thought I would be given the key to the industry on a silver platter. I imagined I would have my own company straight out of my associates in illustration, making my own illustrated accessories, coffee table books, and absolutely killing it financially. Needless to say I had BIG dreams and even BIGGER expectations and that often led to HUGE disappointment.