Phyllis Dobbs,
Zazzle shop owner and illustrator, has created over 2,000 designs and patterns for various product lines. She started out by self-publishing her cross-stitch designs, then ventured into designing quilts, and eventually found her way to painting. Today, she spends the majority of her time creating art and using Adobe® Photoshop and Illustrator to enhance, manipulate, and format her designs for various product lines.
In this interview, Phyllis shares why Zazzle can help up-and-coming artists find representation, how it can create additional income for successful designers, and what constitutes a good design.
How did you hear about Zazzle?
I have a good friend who licenses her art. One day, during a trade show, we began talking about the business and told me about her own Zazzle store—how she had opened it a few months earlier and was already doing very well with it. She suggested that I open my own Zazzle store, and I hopped on board.
You're a professional designer with 25 years in the business and several licensed images on products from textiles to gardening to books. What drew you to Zazzle?
I love that the product range is very broad. Zazzle gives me the opportunity to put my art on so many additional products. It allows me to coordinate products to match the images I have licensed. In other words, if my artwork is licensed to be used on fabrics and flags, I can create coordinating images on greeting cards, magnets, shoes, and tote bags.
Another aspect that I absolutely love is that I don't have to manufacture or ship the products! Zazzle completely takes care of that. To me, using Zazzle is the perfect answer for artists.
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I've heard several artists scoff at the idea of putting their artwork on any type of print-on-demand product. For some reason, they feel opening up a print-on-demand store—even with an entirely different genre—would hurt their chances for obtaining lucrative work as a licensed artist and cheapen their professional image. Based on personal experience in the industry, can you share your take on this?
I disagree with this thought process. I, too, have been involved with artist discussions on the pros and cons of using Zazzle and personally, I feel print-on-demand allows me to test my designs for marketability. I can create a design, test it on Zazzle, then go to a manufacturer and tell the company of my positive results for a particular design.
As for conflicts of interest, the products I place on Zazzle do not conflict with the types of products I license. If a manufacturer does want to license an image for a product similar to one in my Zazzle store, I can easily pull that design from my Zazzle store.
I don't believe all exposure is good exposure, but if the exposure shows your abilities, then I think it can only help. Plus if an artist can build a following with Zazzle, that is one additional step in becoming an recognized artist, which can then help with that artist's chances of becoming licensed.
Another thought on this is that manufacturers do look online for artists, including on Zazzle. An online presence may result in an artist getting licensed, so what is there to lose?
What inspires your designs?
I love whimsy and humor as well as flowers and animals. I also have a passion for color so I combine all of this in everything I create. When I paint animals, I like to infuse them with personality and a story line. I am told frequently that my art makes people smile and that makes me smile.
Over the years you've learned a lot about designing a product worthy of the consumer's money. Can you share a few tips on creating a good design?
This is a tough question because "good design" is in the eye of the beholder. That being said, here are a few tips off the top of my head:
- To create a good design that sells it needs to have a broad appeal. It needs to be original and have something unique about it. Don't follow the crowd with your design but be true to yourself and what you love and your passion will come through.
- Sometimes it's easy to be caught up in the creating phase and forget about the overall design of you project. Take a step back and look at what you are doing with a critical eye; instead of loving eyes.
One of the most important things about good design is knowing when to stop and when to keep going. This will be determined by looking at your design with a critical eye to determine the balance.
- Understand color theory. Color invokes emotion. You want to make sure the colors you use are creating the right emotion for what you are creating. Try to find a good balance between light and dark colors, make sure your colors work well together. If the colors don't work together, the design won't work.
- Composition, scale and perspective are important. You must understand these three principles when creating your designs.
Composition is how you place the design elements. Design elements should be balanced so that one area of your design does not look too heavy or too light. It is alright to have white space, but it should be balanced so that emphasis is on the design elements.
Scale is the size of the design in comparison to the elements within the design. Does anything in your design look too small or too large, especially combined with the other elements?
Perspective gives the design a 3-D feel. It is about creating a dimensional look rather than a flat look. It can mean the difference between looking at a building from an angle rather than viewing it straight on. If you are creating in a whimsy or primitive format, it is ok to vary some of these principles but they need to work together.
To see more of Phyllis Dobbs' designs, visit her at Phyllis Dobbs Designs.
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Interview © Alyice Edrich, All Rights Reserved. www.alyiceedrich.net
Artwork © Phyllis Dobbs, All Rights Reserved. www.phyllisdobbs.com
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This post was sponsored by
The Dabbling Mum.
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Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson excelled as an artist as a child, so it was no surprise that her high school art teacher would encourage her to obtain an art degree in college. After graduating with a Commercial Art degree in 1990, Elizabeth worked as a graphic artist. Then in 1997 she opened a graphic design business with her husband. But it wasn't until 2003, when her children reached the ages of 4 and 5, that she found time to create fine art.
