Creative Business Archives - Lucky Cosmos Creative

Time for a mid-year warm-me-up on this cold design pitch strategy

Ah… Time to share how the surface pattern design pitch process is going… Friends. Foes. I wish I could say how well it goes..

This post is the third of a yearlong commitment to pitching my surface designs to companies I think would be a good fit with my design style.

Here are the first two posts if you want to check ’em out:

Planning a Creative Journey into Surface Pattern Design – January 4, 2024

Surface Design Goals: Patterns and Progress – April 4, 2024

Admittedly, my pitching is not as regular as I committed to in the golden glow of 2024 January promises.. Not great, but not nothing. Here’s how that’s working..

Cold design pitching is a bit.. chilly…

The cold email pitch? Not a winning strategy for me. (although some of that is totally on me.)

I’ve sent about 15 pitch emails that seem to have flittered into the breeze and disappeared. I know, I know, I need to pump up the volume on that… (and dance.)

I’ve started a couple of conversations via email, but haven’t really had much luck building trust or relationships, which is pretty necessary to start work with someone. So I’ve decided to add a little something extra to my follow up strategy. Something more than a follow up email with new design sample; a way to show a little bit more of my personality, and I’m kind of excited about it. 🐌

Do you remember the world 20 years ago where we all received a lot more mail? Well, that has now shifted to email, and as a marketing professional myself, I know that I don’t particularly love getting cold pitch emails either. And I sometimes view follow-ups as nuisances.. I mean – not every one of them, but you know how it goes. Someone has to quickly speak to something I really need, or I have to move on with the more relevant to-do’s and be done with it. The companies I pitch to are no different; getting zinged by a million artists pitching their work is probably sweet and salty both.

So.. how does one make a design pitch more enticing?

To sweeten my pitches, I decided I’m going to do some physical mail follow ups – add some sparkle to an otherwise tedious and ignorable connection process.

I ordered a few samples of bubble mailers with a Sticker Mule special (I’m not an affiliate but would love that) with my patterns printed on them, and I am now working on some custom sales sheets I can send to my favorite companies; places where I would love to license my artwork. These art licensing pitch packs will be follow ups to a few companies I haven’t been able to get responses from also.

(PS – I know this photo is blurry. I’m rebelling against the AI art scrapers, let me just own this moment of paranoia. But you can still see the goods)..

I’m excited to custom prepare a few cute mailers with printed pattern collection sheets, a few of my stickers, and some other relevant little printed doodads. I’m hopeful this patterned goodie pack will inspire some of the receivers to save my sales sheets with my contact info and reach out to me when they come across a design theme or product line that aligns with my patterns.

Another thing I plan to do with these handy pitch packs is to send some samples of the small printed items I sell through galleries and small retailers. Things like greeting cards, stickers, post cards and little product menus showing my art prints, patterned bandanas and other patterned treasures I like to make and print. I’ve only halfway embraced running an inventory based business, but for small, light, printable products, it just brings this rusty old heart a ray of joy to see my art on the shelves of the places. And I’m scooping up all of the joy I can get.

What’s the future of design pitching for me?

In conclusion, cold pitching has turned out to be a little bit burrrrr. And this is my idea to warm it up, Chris. (I’m about to). Making human connections is my superpower, and email just isn’t the greatest avenue for what I have to offer.

One thing is for sure, never changing, and written in the stars. No matter how creatively, fantastically weird I get about this, I’m not going to give up on the art licensing dream that has grown from the seed in the heart of my soul.

And to my big old art licensing dream, I sing to you this bulleted list of sentimental glory:

Never gonna give you up… (never)
Never gonna let you down. (wouldn’t think of it)
Never gonna run around. (unless I’m interpretive dancing..)
And desert you (surrriously.)

I look forward to the next update – the one where I twirl into the scene with a zillion art licensing contracts in clutch and a decaf pistachio latte sitting all rewardingly by my side. Until then, toodles, my brave art obsessed, design pitching friends!

A Design Pitch Strategy with a Little Sparkle ✨