Summative Position Statement

To summarise myself as a practitioner; I am an illustrator that is part of the brand BOW DOWN. I will formally be known as ‘Adele at BOW DOWN’ and create work for the website. The website specialises in illustrated commercial products. As the founder, I will be in charge of orders, emails, the creation of the illustrations, and any PR and marketing. As I am not actively looking for freelance work, I am not currently engaging with clients that may require commissions. I intend to expand the website further during the course of the year. It will start off selling greetings cards and prints as they are easiest to produce while getting my head around the business. After the first year, I will explore how the designs can be taken across onto further products; as well as producing new designs.

I will continue to research into becoming self employed, setting up a business and how to market a brand. In order to do this I intend on contacting various marketing agencies and contacting local businesses for advice. I have given myself a deadline of having designs completed for the site by July. I will also need to further research how to enhance the website to make it easier to access and pay, without using my current etsy account. I decided to take on the website full time instead of having a part time job running alongside it as I really want to focus on creating the designs this year. If I had another job running alongside this, I would not be putting 100% into making the business work. In order to do this, I will need a business or graduate loan to support me whilst being out of work, and to buy any relevant equipment needed.

To conclude, my full time job is the founder of buybowdown.com, creating the products for the site, managing the business, shipping out orders, as well as marketing and PR of the brand. If the business fails, I will re-establish myself as a freelance illustrator actively looking for work under the name ‘Adele Pierce illustrations.’ In order to do that I will get an agent, and send out my portfolio to relevant companies and design studios. However, until then, I will focus on establishing the brand and researching how to set myself up as a self employed business. My career goal is to sell funny products that go global, and expand BOW DOWN into a brand that has no ends i.e it could become a clothing line, a stationary brand etc. I would like BOW DOWN to be the new Ohh Deer, Paperchase and Threadless. I would also like it to become a collaboration one day taking in submissions from other artists.