From Illustration to E-commerce: Turn Your Art into a Business

Being able to live off your own art is one of the greatest feats an illustrator or any creative industry professional can achieve. Designer Paola Yuu Tabata, better known as Papoulas Douradas accompanies you on part of this journey by showing you how she transformed her colorful and vibrant art into a business by creating products including clothing, stationery, and illustrations.

In this course, learn to commercialize your art and set up an online store. Using her own illustrations, Paola teaches you how to develop a business plan that can be applied to different products and platforms. Discover how to launch your first collection and pave the way for a life sustained by your true passion.

Start by hearing a little about Paola Yuu's career so far, how she became an illustrator, and how she expanded her business by opening her online store and diversifying her sources of income. She also talks about her main influences and tells you more about the course's final project.

Discover the different ways in which you can make a living through independent art, focusing on your public and positioning within the market. Design a project and define which products you want to illustrate based on the theme for an entire collection.

Now get straight to work developing your products! Decide on a concept and see how to apply it. Then Paola explains all the details you should take into account when preparing your file as well as the importance of mock-ups and prototypes and building a good relationship with your supplier.

With your products at the ready, it's time for the postproduction phase. Paola talks about the importance of building a visual identity and how your choice of platform can either attract or drive away clients.

To finish off, learn about the different elements of an online store, such as inventory management, pricing, packaging and shipping, as well as how to create a unique unboxing experience for customers to help increase sales. Paola shares some final tips for unveiling your brand and first collection to start reaping the financial rewards from your illustrated products.

Create a collection of three to five different products using your signature illustrations.

Illustrators, designers, and anyone interested in creating a diverse range of products to sell on an online store.

Some experience with illustration is necessary for this course as well as basic notions of editing software.

In terms of materials, all you need is a computer installed with the editing software of your choice. Your teacher uses Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. A graphics tablet would also make your work a little easier but is not essential.