Taaryn Brench launches her all-encompassing guide to running a freelance illustration business

Published 13th September 2021

Taaryn Brench is an independent designer and illustrator based in Leeds.

After working as a multidisciplinary designer for a full service agency, Taaryn now works independently across design, illustration and motion.

In her latest project, the freelance creator has launched a 72 page e-book breaking down “everything I know (so far) about running a freelance illustration business” with the aim of demystifying the whole thing and making it available for everyone.

We caught up with Taaryn, to find out why this project was important to her and why she decided now was the time to write it...

“Sharing knowledge and helping other people get a leg up is something that’s so incredibly important to me and is a big part of my practice” says Taaryn. “As someone who didn’t study an arts course and changed career in my mid 20s, I struggled with where to start with building a freelance illustration business. So I spent a lot of time researching and learning from making mistakes! I also made a few contacts over social media and in my early days, they were kind enough to give me some advice on getting started which I’m so grateful for.”

“I initially started a blog with the hopes of writing articles on different freelance subjects and also featuring my favourite illustrators. But it didn’t last long! I found it really hard to find the time to update and promote it.”

“Over the past two years, I’ve spent a lot of time mentoring illustrators from different backgrounds and I found it way more rewarding to chat with people 1 on 1. The idea for the e-book came from a student I was partnered up with on Sheffield Hallam University’s mentoring scheme. She’d asked me about contracts and clients so I wrote up a quick guide about my whole client process from start to finish, using a job I’d just finished up on as an example.”

“This summer, I took a month off from client work as I was feeling pretty burnt out. After some down time, I had a look over all my mentoring notes and found that the same things were coming up. I’d always wanted to update my guide and now that I had the time, I decided to expand on it to cover more stuff.”

“Essentially, I wanted to create the resource that I wish I had when I first started out! Being a freelance illustrator can be really lonely sometimes and when you’re stuck, you don’t know where to turn. And sometimes we forget to think of ourselves as a business because we’re focusing on the art. My aim with this e-book is to make people feel more confident and empowered with running a freelance illustration business and to give people clear direction and actionable plans to make it work long term!”

The e-book covers topics such as: