Anja Kroencke’s bold, graphic illustrations have appeared in advertisements and editorials for a diverse range of clients including Tiffany & Co, the New York City Opera, Target, the New York Times, Victoria’s Secret, Aeroports de Paris, Johnson & Johnson and Vogue, and they will move off the page to grace M.A.C. cosmetics bags and tote bags this summer. Kroencke has won numerous awards from the Society of Illustrators, The Art Directors Club New York, American Illustration, and Communication Arts, and her work will be featured in a book on fashion illustration planned for release by Taschen later this year.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Kroencke studied textile design and fashion illustration, pursuing a career in graphic design after graduation. She relocated to New York City in 1994 and switched her focus to illustration after garnering quick success. I interviewed Anja for a cover feature that appeared in the September/October 2001 issue of Communication Arts. The striking dark silhouettes that defined her style helped inspire a fresh new direction in fashion illustration. “I think the appeal of this style was that it was actually used more by corporate clients who wanted to adapt a younger and more trendy/modern/stylish look and less for fashion clients,” Kroencke explains.

Then she was drawn back to her design roots, and began to incorporate more pattern and texture into her work. “I don’t think it was as much a conscious decision as it was a personal evolving of my style,” she says. “At this point I had done it for quite a few years and it had become so popular and adapted by other people that I needed to move on. I always loved to draw women so by going back to drawing facial details and my love for pattern and texture I naturally moved over to the beauty and fashion side of illustration.”.

Once you have a chance at a job with a new client or a big job for a current client, there is a tendency to rush through the standard business practices. Don’t do it, especially with new clients. Illustrators often feel if they are “easy” on the client on the first job, the client will decide to stay and give them more work. Not necessarily true; all it does is set you up for an unhealthy relationship. The way to build healthy and profitable relationships with clients and turn jobs into repeat business is to use good business practices dealing with client projects. Here are some client project issues that will come up with your illustration jobs, and some tips on how to deal with them to develop and maintain a strong relationship thus encouraging clients to keep coming back with more work.

The Deadline
This is a very delicate subject in any job with any client. Many illustrators feel if they meet a miraculous and unreasonable deadline, the client will “love them”. Unfortunately, all that will do is ensure the client will always give you jobs with not enough time to get them done properly in the future! Every client has a deadline horror story to tell that makes them wary of giving accurate information on this point. The best bet is to ask the kind of questions designed to help the client feel more comfortable with your ability to meet their deadlines. Instead of asking, "When do you want this job done?" as this is much too subjective a question, ask for more objective and measurable information such as, "When will the website with these illustrations launch?” Look behind the stated deadline. By breaking the delivery into a series of benchmarks on a timeline, both you and your client will feel more in control of the process (and they will feel safer coming back for more).

The Specific Need
Be sure to find out what specific problem this illustration project is supposed to solve. The more accurate a statement from the client of their goals and objective, the better opportunity you have to meet it. Meeting the client’s goal, whether it is for traffic-building website illustrations or a sales-building package illustration, will always give you a better chance that they will come back again.

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