5 years of market stalls, everything I've learnt

This November will mark five years of me doing art and craft fairs and market stalls, (4 years in Bristol and half a year on London) so I like to think I have a fairly good understanding of how they work by this point! So, in the nature of not gatekeeping, here’s a bunch of pointers from my fairly experienced perspective if you’re thinking of selling your products in this way! - Please note: most tips are generic for any kind of stall holders but some are specifically illustration based ✍🏻 

My first two market stalls back in 2021, with varying success…

Where to start:

In terms of opportunities, it depends on location. I’d recommend googling and searching on Instagram for markets in your area, there’s some good Facebook groups too, and ‘Craft & Flea’ is a good market option that tours to different cities! You’ll find once you attend your first, you will talk to other stall holders there, and find out about more through word of mouth!

Prices for stalls can vary A LOT, generally the more you pay, the better you can expect of the general organisation and advertising of the event, but of course this is not always the case.

What is needed:

  • A card machine or app that allows you to take card payment, I.e. Square, SumUp, or Zettle

  • A cash float, I usually have around £50 worth in coins and small notes 

  • A printed price list and potentially price labels on products too, some people don’t like to ask and some people still will even if it’s super clear

  • Deals like “buy 2, get the 3rd half price” and sales rack’s can be super helpful in encouraging additional sales!

  • You might need a table, a chair, and a table cloth. This depends on the venue, they should let you know if they provide them

  • Display options for your products, such as a card rack, a flick-through style rack, boxes to stand frames up on. Height is definitely a positive, people want to see things at eye level. You can get most of these things on Amazon or second hand on Facebook Market place

  • Clips, tape, string, cable ties etc to secure things in place

  • A sign or banner of some sort is also really useful with your brand name on it to draw people in and gain followers, along with business cards and a QR code 

  • Variety in your products and prices. I have big framed prints which bring in lots of money, but are not always fitting for everyone’s budget or space, so I also have smaller and cheaper products like stickers and bookmarks for £2. A good mix helps facilitate a more steady income when you can’t predict the audience

  • Frames can easily increase your profits as some people love the convenience, they also make prints more giftable, however they can add unnecessary weight to your market set up making it way less transportable. I personally can’t take my set-up on public transport and envy people that can!

  • Packaging, ideally you want to be as eco friendly as possibly, ie plastic free, recyclable or compostable, some markets even specify this in their application. I get most resources from Eco Craft or Cello Express.

  • Storage and transportation, the wheeled karts used for festivals are a great help

  • Public Liability Insurance, the vast majority of markets need this for legal reasons. I get mine through Axis Web basic membership, which is only £2.70 a month!

Bear in mind, you don’t need to spend hundreds on the perfect set up, just get the basics, see what works for you, and you can always get stuff as go on! Also don’t be disheartened if it doesn’t go great, it’s a real hit or miss industry, which some markets being incredibly profitable and some where I don’t even break even… but even without significant profits, doing market stalls is an amazing way to get yourself out there and you’ll often find doing them will increase your following and online sales. I’ve also found clients for commissions through markets!

I’m doing just a handful more markets in the summer, then I’ll be taking a break until closer to the lead up to Christmas, so I can enjoy my weekends again! I’m also finding the cost of market stalls in market London pretty ridiculous, so they don’t feel super worthwhile for the time being.

UPCOMING MARKET STALLS:

How I feel about generative AI as a digital illustrator and what I'm doing about it

I remember when AI generated images started to become more prevalent, and at this point I really wasn’t bothered; the quality of the images produced was pretty weak in my opinion, they screamed AI with additional fingers in places where they shouldn’t be, they felt alien, and so I didn’t feel threatened. However, over time as the capability of AI has gradually increased, and I have to admit I’m now often impressed with the images that AI can produce. Sure they still lack that incredibly important hand-made and human feeling which I feel AI will never truly be able to reproduce, but they remove a heck of a lot of time and effort from creating images that perhaps don’t necessarily need that human touch.

As this threatening feeling towards the future of my career as a digital illustrator started to approach, I have had to question myself (and of course have been asked by friends and family) on what I’m going to do to tackle it. For a good while, I used my usual technique of trying to ignore it and hope for the best, but that only got me so far and I feel at this point it’s inevitable that more and more people will go to the ease and low cost of using generative AI rather than commissioning an illustrator, (depending of the complexity and reason for the images of course). So this is why I decided, if you can’t beat them, join them, and I’ve partnered with exactly ai, an ethical approach to AI that’s changing the rules of how AI interacts with artists.

Exactly ai trains bespoke AI models on your own assets to generate brand-ready visuals at scale. It’s designed to be secure, fast, ethical, and built for professional creatives. Obviously I was reluctant at first, as this is a huge change that’s happening right now in the industry I’ve based my livelihood on… but I’m hoping engaging with it in this way, using it as a tool to work with me, rather than against me, will save me being left behind in a technology driven world that is constantly evolving.

I’m working hard behind the scenes with members of the exactly ai team to ensure my model is the most accurate representative of my illustration style that it can be, as it still needs a few tweaks when it comes to depicting certain themes, however after experimenting a lot with the model, I was able to produce some images that I absolutely love and feel look remarkably similar to how I would draw them myself!

All of the images above were made using my exactly ai model, Ethereal Realism. Watch this space to see how it develops and I intertwine it into my personal illustration practice! You can also play around with the model and produce and purchase licensed images for you own use!

Creative Freelancer Tips I'm Not Gatekeeping

I’ve just finished 4 weeks of ADHD psychoeducation sessions that I was given access to following my ADHD diagnosis. These sessions were delivered in the format of weekly 1 and a half hour webinars, designed to improve understanding of ADHD after receiving a diagnosis later in life and most likely having an unclear perspective of how it truly presents itself and how to work with it, rather than against it!

I learnt a fair bit in these sessions and felt immensely validated. A lot of what was shared, I already knew, however this provided reassurance that the methods I’ve put in place, are deeply beneficial to my working practice! So I’d like to share a few of them here, as I’m very anti gatekeeping, and I’ve recognised that it’s very common that neurodivergent people find themselves working as a freelancer like myself, rather than within a company.

Create a structured environment: 

• Establish routines and consistent schedules. Predictability helps individuals with ADHD manage their time and tasks. 

• Use visual cues, reminders, and calendars to keep track of important events. 

Break tasks into smaller steps: 

• Large tasks can be overwhelming. Help break them down into smaller, manageable steps. 

• Celebrate progress along the way to boost motivation, and make it INTERESTING, providing novelty makes tasks easier!

Encourage healthy habits: 

• Prioritise regular sleep patterns. Adequate rest improves focus and overall wellbeing. 

• Promote a balanced diet, regular exercise, and social interactions that feed you!

Working for yourself is great for so many reasons, but it can also be really really shit too. The lack of community can make you feel really lonely, isolated, and unsupported. You can miss out on opportunities and inspiration that comes with working as a team. You can’t spread responsibility, instead you have the weight of it all on you own shoulders. Of course you can bounce ideas and share your struggles with family and friends, and I think for most people this is predominantly dumped on their romantic partner… but it’s not the same as having someone to listen and give advice that really understands the industry. So I’ve found, one of the best ways I’ve been able to overcome many of the issues around working for myself, is to nourish your connections with people who work in the industry.

As I went down the fairly traditional route into my creative career and attended university, I’m really lucky that I was easily able to form connections with like-minded people, however I know this isn’t the case for everyone! I also made friends with other freelance creatives later in life separate from education, (online and through market stalls) so despite it being harder, I know it’s possible, and the inside knowledge and validation I’ve gained from these friendships has been an invaluable asset to my career and general mental health!

I’d say the MOST beneficial choice I’ve made as a creative freelancer and actually stuck to (for I think around 5 years?!) has been weekly accountability calls with my dear friend and fellow illustrator Imogen.

Imogen and I met at Arts University Bournemouth where we both studied illustration. We loosely came up with idea during lockdown (as we graduated uni in 2020) to have a weekly call with one another to simply to keep in touch with the huge distance between us (Scarborough to Bristol), talk about our creative process, and hold one another accountable on the tasks we set ourselves the week prior. I don’t think either of us anticipated that 5 years later we’d still be doing it, but we both recognise it to be so incredibly helpful, so why would we stop?!

I’ve tried a whole bunch of different motivation techniques and organizational apps with varying levels of success as I often get overwhelmed. I’ve found for me, often simplistic is best. - Along with the phone calls with Imogen, the most beneficial tools to productivity are Google Calendar (despite being and iPhone user as they were so late to the party with introducing colour coded elements and better view to see everything all at once), and a really basic notebook that I think I was gifted years ago, that breaks tasks down and asks you to choose 3 top priorities, which for me forces me to group things together into more manageable chunks, rather than trying to do everything all at once!