We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lauren Lowen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lauren below.
Lauren, appreciate you joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you’ve thought about whether to sign with an agent or manager?
Jennifer and I met through an online class that she was helping to run. After becoming familiar with my work, she extended an invitation to join a new agency she was forming (Jennifer Nelson Artists, or JNA for short). Jennifer truly is my Bat Phone and takes care of all business matters such as promotion, negotiating contracts, handling any sticky situations that may come up (which I’m happy to say is VERY rare), and collecting payments. A good agent should be getting you bigger jobs for more money, so giving her a cut of my profits is a no brainer and I still end up coming out way ahead than if I was doing it solo. Now that I’m also a busy parent, it’s such a relief to know that Jennifer is handling everything when I get extra busy with the kids.
Lauren, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I am illustrator who graduated from The Rhode Island School of Design and like to say that my art is “Whimsically Awkward or Awkwardly Whimsical”. Quirky characters, color, and pattern are all important elements in my work as well as humor. A powerful strength of my illustration is that it makes people smile or laugh, so art licensing and surface design became a natural fit for my art (surface design is when companies use your art to cover a “surface” of a product, such as a mug, lamp shade, or backpack.) Art for products has been one of the biggest income streams of my career, with children’s books and publishing becoming more prevalent as my characters and style develop and become well known by clients. It’s truly been a lot of fun and I feel privileged that clients enjoy my work and want to share it with the world! And pay me, too!
What I provide for clients is a unique approach that is usually tongue and cheek and an overall “flavor” that not everyone can provide. This is why finding your own way of working is so important! The combination of an artist’s brain with the way they execute their work is such a special thing.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish Procreate had been around when I was a student! Seriously, a big hang up for me in art school was that my sketches were always FAR superior than my final pieces because there was such a ‘loose’ quality to them that I could never capture in a final illustration that had hours and hours invested in it. Tools like that are handy and convenient, but more importantly they can help you get over your own mental blocks and insecurities. In fact, I think I’m better with analog materials now because of the experimentation I do with Procreate and other digital tools. It’s more of a dance between the two rather than “picking” one or the other.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
In art licensing, I make the art and then it gets shopped around to different Art Directors for everything from greeting cards to fabric. This means I have to be in tune with trends and what is actually needed in that industry. But I also have the luxury of creating things that make me happy and in line with my personal artwork. One goal is to think about what *I* would want to give to a friend or even own myself when thinking about art for products, books, etc. What would I want to see on a pair of kid’s pajamas? On Christmas Wrapping paper? What would make me go “oh, I HAVE to buy that for my 5 year old son.”? Another goal is to have fun. If I’m having fun with a book idea or pattern, people are most likely going to have fun looking at it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.laurenlowen.com
- Instagram: @laurenmincolowen
- Other: Jennifer Nelson Artists (agent) www.jennifer-nelson-artists.com