Insider Secrets: Sticking to Your Style, International Pricing & More!

Be a fly on the wall of this private VIP coaching call where our company leaders, Longina Phillips, Bec (Creative Director) and Sara (Head of Design) are asked about pricing designs internationally, working within a signature style and replicating successful designs. 

Read on and favourite this page for future reference!

If you're creating floral prints with a signature style, how can you use your signature style to create other designs such as abstracts or animal skin prints to include in your portfolio? 

Bec: Good question. If your style is naturally very detailed, you would just take that across into your skins where you might use more detail in the hair of the skin or the movement, you'd be more detailed in the way you draw a flower.

If you are very loose and abstract you would still take that same handwriting into paisleys or animal skins. I think it's just practice and finding the right methods for your handwriting. What do you think Lola? 

Lola: Well, I think from experiencing many many designers coming through our doors, your hand, your style will always come through anyway. No matter how hard you fight it, so it's a good thing.

It's always good to practice other things. 

Like even taking something that you think you don't like, but practicing that style.

It's kind of similar when doing a painting course and you copy a master. That's teaching you the color mixing and the style. If you can't do cute, try to do cute so that at least it gives you an understanding that, Oh actually it hasn't been that hard or,'Oh my god, I hate this. So you've learned something about yourself, what suits you and what doesn't suit you. 

Should we, in Australia, be paying VAT in Europe?

Lola: Anything that you sell overseas is considered an export, you do not charge tax. If you're at a trade show and you're selling to an English person, you don't charge them VAT either. 

Are print design prices the same, the world over?

Lola: In some economies you can sell your designs for higher prices and you have to be aware of it.

Companies in the United States for example often have much higher budgets than say companies in Italy. India is very big on negotiation. So you just have to be aware of the geographical differences and respect it. Some of your designs will be sold at a lower price and some at a higher price but at the end it all averages out. 

Can you create versions of successful designs?

Bec: We've been selling tropical designs for as long as I've been working here (20 plus years!). There's always a new version of tropical. So we'll look at what sold, and what was so successful about this bunch of tropicals that sold and we'll try and find a new way of doing that. And because we sell to different markets and some people work really close to season and they're really commercial, so what's already selling is going to work for them.

Our Business Builder Q&A Coaching Calls were created to help you navigate these types of industry-specific issues, none of which can be answered with a google search!  These one-on-ones are exclusive to our Comprehensive Business Builder, open for enrolments now!

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