puffer fish & portfolios

The joy I get discovering and commissioning artists from all over the world is still, 20 years on, the most rewarding aspect of my job. However, a few years back, as my inbox was becoming filled with submissions at the tune of 10 a day, I had to accept that I no longer had the time to review them. To find new artists, I relied on some Instagram exploration, universities lectures and portfolio reviews.

A couple of weeks ago, I was looking for a specific style and decided to go on a 'hunt' on Instagram. The algorithm - clearly on steroids these days - kept serving me reels of 'what I eat in a day as an artist' or 'how I made £1,235 this month'. All useful but personally, all I wanted was to look at static images of happy drawings. 

In a moment of clarity and madness, I posted a call-out for submissions on our feed, featuring the random image of a friendly puffer fish. I had counted on adding maybe 50 new artists to our roster. Well, well. 48 hours later, we had received a staggering 874 portfolios!! 

After the initial WTF shock, it made me realise that:

  • creativity is well and truly alive. It warms my heart to see so much talent out there. 
  • there are lots of you out there. Competition is real. 
  • puffer fishes are popular.
  • it is possible to drive engagement with a static image, a puffer fish, without having to do a reel about your breakfast habits. 
  • anorak is a magnet for illustration. (I sort of knew that but that was one helluva reminder.)

I have now had to close submissions again until at least the end of the year, as we currently have enough portfolios to fill 23 years worth of Happy Mags. Also, because we need time to go over them. (Puffer Fish, I can confirm, has kindly offered to help.)

Our pledge is that we will absolutely review every single portfolio. We will be in touch with the ones whose work we really like. It might take us a while, as at the time of writing, we still have 575 in our inbox and one of us is a puffer fish. 

We will do our best to come back to you swiftly, and if there are any art directors reading this in need of inspiration, do get in touch, we will happily share. Maybe not 874 of them! 

Stay tuned for less puffer fish headlines, but some (hopefully) useful thoughts and tips on catchy portfolios next week. 

x

Cathy 

PS - shameless plug: we are fully self-funded. we don't have generational wealth nor have we got friends in high places. So, if you'd like to support us, you can become of our patrons here. thank you x

Back to blog