What Does It Take to Become a Scrapbook Design Team Member?

Sometimes it seems like quite a mystery: How do regular home scrappers “make it big” and become a Design Team Member of a famous graphic/product designer, product provider, or scrapbooking site? It feels like there’s a secret sauce that everyone is keeping close hold so that they maintain their coveted place.  Or maybe (OK, probably pretty likely...) those who have had the opportunity don’t really reflect back on what seemed to have helped them get there. 

After doing some research, I think that the best summary that I’ve come across is found on the Two Peas in a Bucket site in July of 2013 in a forum thread requesting an answer to the same question.  Although several people gave great tips and thoughts, the most insightful response came from Shimelle Laine (tagline: shimelle).

Words of Wisdom from the Other Side

According to Shimelle, the most important steps to becoming a design team member include (with my best summary of what she means):

• "Work for yourself first."  She describes how you should begin to use your work to help “sell” your favorite designer’s products.” 
• "Be consistent and professional."  Shimelle emphasizes being true to your style, posting regularly for your followers, and giving your scrapbooking work ethic the same level of professionalism you would in your day-job by responding to deadlines and change requests efficiently, and gracefully accepting critiques and changes in what makes the publication cut list.   
• "Use social media to help you."  These days, a person needs to communicate on multiple fronts to reach as many people as possible: Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, blogs, popular scrapbooking forums, and Instagram are all vehicles for getting your message out.
• "Look for calls and apply for your favorites."  Don’t apply to everything. For the best success rate, make sure the call seems to match your style and remember that a designer is looking to fill a specific position that you may or may not fit.
• "Be honest with yourself about the time/payment trade-off."  Most of the Design Team positions are paid with product.  It may not be worth it to you to commit so much time, energy, and additional scrapbooking supplies without true monetary reward.
• "Video is the new important thing." It could put you ahead of the curve to be able to create short, meaningful videos that both instruct AND sell a product.
• "Be ready for the negatives too."  We only grow through attempting things, sometimes failing, and above all - constructive criticism.
• "Only do this for a real love of the hobby."  Doing what you love shines through your work. It’s like how you can tell someone on the phone is smiling by the sound of their voice. It’s infectious and inspirational to see the passion someone applies to their work.

So How Do We Put It All into Action?

OK, so those are all AMAZING ideas and thoughts. Reading this got me pumped. I really felt the urge to go do it ALL immediately… but obviously it’s a LOT to swallow all at once. So let’s make like we’re eating the elephant and cut it into bite-sized-chunks.  I came up with 7.

*NOTE: All these steps start with “Begin” since no step is EVER complete. It’s a constant cycle of growth and expansion.

Step 1) Begin to Understand / Continuously Research Your Market-space

Someone once said “If you’re not moving forward, you’re stagnating.” Your work should always push your personal envelope. Try to learn something new with every page you create. Record what you are learning so that you can regularly review your progress and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back!
I read a great blog post about the cycle of learning, creating, and completion that we go through as scrapbookers, and I really take this to heart. Before STARTING each page, I try to go out and research to learn a bit more, try something new, and stretch myself a bit further.
Speaking of blogs, follow a bunch. You can learn A LOT from your favorite designers, fellow-scrappers, and other creative-types. Think outside the box and seek inspiration from textiles, product packaging design, etsy crafters, and more!
Follow industry trends. Not only does it help you expand your skill set, it also offers great inspiration!  Also - I know if I were a designer looking for team members, I’d see who had their eyes on trend. Just sayin. ;)

Step 2) Begin Marketing Products in Your Gallery

Once you’ve started steaming along, making beautiful things, it’s time to start selling your work, and using your work to sell products from others. Probably in my mind the easiest step is to start using your gallery to market the products that you’re using. Minimally, make sure to update your products list in each gallery post to include all work you’ve used by any designer.
While a beautiful page and a quick credit do a lot to sell a product, a true brown-noser (like me) might even add something to the gallery item description about how these products inspired you, what you liked about them, etc. to really help directly “sell” the products.
If the website where you purchased the products has an option to review products, you might also put something there. Don’t put something as non-specific as “i love this product!” Think about what made you use or purchase it. What made it unique? What review would YOU read that would get you to buy the product in question?

Step 3) Begin Contributing to Community Forums

Another way to make an easy name for yourself is to contribute to forum posts and threads. Playing along with site challenges, posting images to your gallery, and adding posts to discussion threads all get your name out there. If you want to really establish yourself, remember to GIVE as well as TAKE within the community. Review other’s work and tell them what you love about their style and approach.

Step 4) Begin to Share Your Work Outside the Community

So you found a scrapbooking community that you love and feel at home within. You’re contributing to forums and maybe you even have a few followers. It might be time to start to branch out and share your work in several communities to increase visibility and continually promote your work.

Step 5) Begin to Develop a Social Media Presence 

Most Design Team Calls require you to have a blog with loyal readership and the ability to promote through various social media channels.
Sometimes, this is all about re-purposing your existing social media outlets; for example, you may want to re-work your Pinterest page so that it’s “follow-worthy” (clean up your categories, think about what might inspire others, think about what helps to market the work you’re hoping to sell).
Other times, you might want to create something new such as a separate Facebook page (related/linked to your blog) for stuff about scrapbooking. Think of it as a business you’re trying to develop here.
Remember that if you’re starting a social media presence you need to be consistent so make sure you’re signing up for something you can REALLY do (ex: blog once a week, post to Pinterest daily, create a Facebook post 3 times a week… etc.).

Step 6) Look for Additional Learning Opportunities and Mentorship

Be it classes, scrapbooking events, or one-on-one mentorship, it is important to reach out for help. Not only will you learn from someone else’s experiences and bumps along the road, you will also be exposed to unique styles and perspectives that help you broaden your goals.  Not to mention how this helps to build and expand your network.

Step 7) Begin to Look for (and Possibly Respond to) Calls That “Fit”

I’m sure that most people would put this step MUCH earlier in the list, but I personally would like to have a solid foundation to lean back on when I put myself out there. I want to research a team I apply to to ensure that it’s a proper fit for my style and skill set. I want to make sure that I understand what I have to offer and can articulate what I can do to help this team succeed.  I’m still working on my foundation (I'm just starting to consider Step 4), but I still review calls at designteamcall.com or dtcalls.com and review my favorite designer’s websites regularly.  I do this for two reasons: 1) to familiarize myself with what calls are usually looking for so that I can make sure I continuously develop these skills and 2) so that I can start to see where my style matches up so that when I’m ready, I can apply to places that are a solid match.

What Do You Think?

I hope that this gets your creative juices flowing and helps to define some goals for the future. What else do you think goes into becoming a design team member? What other steps or goals would you add to the list? Have you taken any of these steps above? If so, what have you learned on the “front lines”?