In this article we will take you through the whole process of how you use creativehub’s creatives.new feature to connect with potential clients looking to commission artists on with commercial work.

What is creatives.new?

creatives.new is a service that matches creative artists with potential clients who want to commission creatives to predominantly make marketing, ad, social and web content for them.

It’s free for you as a creative artist to make one portfolio. We do not take any commission or charge you to do this. You can add more portfolios if you wish by upgrading to a paid subscription at £16 a month. This will potentially help you win more work.

Currently the skills we offer to clients are photography, illustration, retouching, art direction, CG stills artist.

We will in the future be adding more categories and accepting portfolios, such as graphic designers and UI designers.

Who owns the clients you find for me?

You do. creatives.new is a matching service, with tools for messaging and project workflow tools to make project communication, commenting and file delivery easy.

The clients are entirely yours, we do not get involved, you set your rates and negotiate agreements as you normally would for any of your own clients.

We do not share the data about the job with anyone, and we do not use the imagery in any way other than to show it to you and the client in the browser in your creativehub accounts.

How does creatives.new work to match me with clients?

creatives.new works using artificial intelligence to understand the content of your images. Clients can search these images in 3 ways:

• By the type of content. The client types the type of content they want to make into a search field. For example, if they want photography with models on a beach they type: models, beach and select photography. Or if they want abstract illustration of fruits they type abstract illustration of fruit and select illustration.
• By the style of image. If the client has a reference image of what they want to make they simply drag and drop the image onto the browser and /Find shows them similar images
• Browse. They can just browse the content, based on the category of skill they are looking for; e.g. photography or illustration. If they see someone they like they can click ‘see more’ on that image to see more examples of similar images like that image.

Clients see a list of images that most closely match their search criteria. Some of these images may be yours! Clients can narrow down their search for a creative illustrator or photographer, by using filters, which you will find at the top of the search results screen.

They can filter by:

• Location If the project is location specific then this is important. They click the dropdown and start typing the country they want to hire the creative in.
• Rate You can set a maximum hourly rate if you want. This will not be displayed to the client, but it will narrow their search results down based on their budget. Setting a minimum hourly rate will prevent a mismatch of expectations between you and the potential clients. The rate for the job will be agreed between you and the client.

If a client likes your image, they can click on your name and see all your images on your profile page.

We advise you to keep a consistent style in your images and group them into separate portfolios. Consistent styles are what experienced marketing people look for in portfolios, as that gives them comfort that they know what they are getting if they hire you. This will ensure the highest likelihood that you will get contacts and jobs from clients.

If clients decide to contact you, they can do this from either your profile page or the search results page.

What happens when a client wants to contact me?

When a client wants to contact you they press the message button and they send a message to you.

They will be asked to enter the following information to help the you understand what they are looking for:

• Name and project description. This is to give you a clear sense of what they are looking for.
• Rate and project start date (optional). These fields are optional, and can be skipped. If they do enter these details it isn’t binding in any way, it is just an indication to see if there is a mutual fit budget-wise.
• Your details. They enter their name and email, so we can email them when you respond.

If the client does send you a message then we show a notification in your creativehub account and we also email you to let you know you have a new project proposal. That message will look like this:

After that you can use our messaging service to chat about the job.

They can then ask you questions and you can discuss the project. As soon as they respond or you send them a message you or they will get an email notification.

In your chat window both you and the client can add files to your messages. These files could include:

• Reference images. You might want to exchange reference images to gain a deeper understanding what what the client is looking for.
• Further portfolio images. The client might ask for further examples of your work.
• A full creative brief PDF. The client could upload a full creative brief, a contract, or the and you can upload a quote.
• Links. You might want to add links to your website or a Pintrest mood board.

How does a job get the green light?

After discussing and agreeing your job terms, if you want to do the job you can just click accept job. This will tell the client that you are available to do it.

The client can then click proceed on the job. You will be notified if they do that, both in your Home page activity feed and by email. This will automatically create a project that is shared with both of you.

You can then use this project to manage the job smoothly. Click to find out how projects work as great tools for managing commercial projects, giving and getting great feedback, tracking versions and delivering files.

Ready to start getting more commercial jobs? Click below to login and make your free portfolio.

When you’re logged in simply click on the Find commercial work tutorial to guide you through that process.