Another Brushing Up episode! In this chat, Cody and I dive into the power of collaboration — exploring how working together can spark creativity, amplify your reach, and help you achieve bigger goals. From co-creating projects to cross-promoting each other’s work, we discuss practical strategies to forge valuable partnerships that benefit everyone involved.
We wanted to talk about this topic because collaborations have benefitted us in every way imaginable. Embracing collaboration has helped us improve our work as illustrators and surface designers, but also made us take on projects we otherwise wouldn’t have been able to tackle. We’ll discuss those projects and more in this episode.
Overview of this episode:
00:00 Intro
1:09 Benefits of Collaboration
3:25 How Brushing Up Started
8:10 A Competitor is a Potential Collaborator
9:14 Pickle Collaboration Example
15:43 Limits of Working by Yourself
20:38 Parallel Collaborations
22:28 Sketchbook Project
25:39 Marketing Benefits of Collaborations
36:35 Tips for Starting Collaborations
47:15 How to Find Collaborators
53:20 If You’re an Introvert
57:20 If You’re Worried About Time
59:16 Validation in Collaborations
Relevant Links:
•Pickle Illustration: Are Two Minds Better Than One?
•5 Marketing Tips for Surface Pattern Designers
•2×2 Sketchbook Project by Dana Barbieri and Anne Butera
•Sketchbook videography by Jenn of Spotted Stills
•The Collaborative Sketchbook Project and its Journey of Healing and Shared Experiences
Find us here: Brushing Up
Related episode: Brushing Up Ep 7 – Top 10 Online Communities for Creatives
With Brushing Up, Cody and I want to educate and empower other creatives through inspiring talks. As always, feel free to get in touch if you ever have any questions via email. If there’s something in particular you’d like us to talk about, please let us know. You can download the resource guide for free over here. We are here to cheer you on!
