Hardest Year Ever? An Honest Look at the Illustration Industry in 2024

12/27/24 • 20 min

As 2024 winds down, we’ve been hearing all sorts of things - budget cuts, AI fears, and whispers of a downturn. There’s no denying it’s been a tricky year for many illustrators. But is it all doom and gloom? Not necessarily!

Timestamps for you to skip around:
00:20 Special news - The doors are open for Find Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag!
01:15 What we’ve been hearing from illustrators about the industry.
03:00 Why illustrators are feeling the pinch of budget cuts.
06:30 The world is craving handmade, delightfully wonky work.
09:45 What’s going on with picture books, then?
13:30 Fly your freak flag - this is your moment to shine.
16:00 Licensing, animation, and new media - growing areas to keep an eye on.
18:15 Inclusivity in illustration and what agents are looking for in 2025.
19:50 Why you shouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket.

🎉 Exciting Announcement

The doors to our Find Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag course are open!

✨ Enrol whenever you like - no more waiting for us to open the doors.
✨ Join by the end of January 2025 and you'll get:

A Good Ship Illustration sticker pack.
The chance to win a 1:1 mentoring session with us - the 3 captains.

Learn more and join here: Find Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag

Come and say hello!
✏️ @thegoodshipillustration
🌏 www.thegoodshipillustration.com
p.s. We love answering your illustration questions. Click here to submit your question for The Good Ship Illustration Podcast 🎙

🎉 Exciting Announcement

The doors to our Find Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag course are open!

✨ Enrol whenever you like - no more waiting for us to open the doors.
✨ Join by the end of January 2025 and you'll get:

A Good Ship Illustration sticker pack.
The chance to win a 1:1 mentoring session with us - the 3 captains.

Learn more and join here: Find Your Creative Voice, Fly Your Freak Flag

Previous Episode

Ho ho ho 🎄 pressies for illustrators (love from Ron & Betty Frampton x)

What do tiny bowls of crisps, the world’s fanciest pencils, and a mysterious couple called Ron and Betty Frampton have in common? They’re all in this week's Christmassy podcast!

Get ready for festive chaos, creative inspiration, and permission to buy yourself something lovely, courtesy of Ron and Betty.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Who on earth are Ron and Betty Frampton?
01:20 – What’s on our Christmas wishlists? Pencils, paint, and tech setups
04:30 – Christmas bingo, tiny bowls of crisps, and the unwritten rules of bingo culture
08:15 – Why quick, unplanned drawings can sometimes be your best work
10:50 – Helen’s 30-second cut-out reindeer and a carpet fitter
11:50 – Permission to treat yourself this Christmas. Ron and Betty would approve

Links Mentioned:

Find Your Creative Voice Course – Treat yourself to a creative boost Find out more here (and if you join before the end of January 2025, we'll send you some gorgeous stickers in the post. SNAIL MAIL!)

🎄 Merry Christmas and a happy new year from all of us at The Good Ship Illustration 🎄

Next Episode

Big goals, no pressure: Planning your creative year with The Good Ship Illustration

Is it time to set goals, or are you feeling more “no plans, just let me lie down” this year?

We chat about:

Why some years are for sprinting, and others are for walking.
The power of visual goal-setting.
How to make goals human-sized, doable, and fun, without freaking yourself out.

Here's a Good Ship permission slip to do your 2025 goal-setting in a way that works for your brain/energy-levels/life.

Timestamps:
00:00 – Happy New Year! Goal-setting: exciting, overwhelming, or somewhere in between?
01:00 – Join our Planning Party on 16th January (details inside!)
02:30 – Sprinting vs walking: knowing when to slow down and when to push forward
03:45 – Loose goals, intentions, and the value of taking things slowly
04:50 – Why “no plans” can still count as a brilliant plan
07:00 – Visual goal-setting: drawing the year ahead and keeping it in sight
08:15 – Human-sized goals: how to make planning feel manageable and fun
10:00 – Intentions beyond work: making space for life, joy, and connection
16:00 – Ideas for tackling the overwhelm of “too many things to draw”

Links Mentioned:

You're invited to our Planning Party on 16th January!
Sign up for our emails here to get your invite: https://www.thegoodshipillustration.com/

The Good Ship Illustration - Hardest Year Ever? An Honest Look at the Illustration Industry in 2024

Transcript

Unknown00:00:20.000

Yes,

Unknown00:00:26.000

because we get in near the end of the year, we ought to tackle the question. Someone sent in a question and said, What do you think about the state of the illustration industry at present? And we tried to sidestep it, and then we're like, we really need to answer. This was Yeah, because it's a bit of it for a live call inside the business course or the picture book course. We were like, This