Clifford Alejandro, Illustrator

Clifford Alejandro Illustrations
Jersey City, New Jersey
Assignment: Shape Magazine

Although Clifford Alejandro has been freelancing full-time for nearly five years, he once had to balance his passion for illustration with temp work in other fields to cover the bills. However, when he discovered ADBASE, it helped him get his full-time freelance business off the ground.

"When I first started out freelancing, I subscribed to ADBASE. I would send out a few thousand post cards and that's pretty much how I got work," Alejandro said.

The Jersey City-based illustrator specializes in digital collage and has won assignments for clients such as The New York Times, Gourmet magazine, DreamWorks Records, Forbes, San Francisco magazine, Bon Appétit, American Lawyer Magazine, Women's Day, National Geographic, Random House, Harper Collins and more.

Alejandro uses a "catalog" mailing strategy for his self promotions. He sends out packets of up to 10 post cards with images of his work to prospects, rather than just one or two images. The accumulation of post cards over time helped him win an assignment from Shape Magazine with his most recent mailing.

	More Targeted Now
Alejandro is using ADBASE as a research tool to get more focused with his self promotions. "Now I want to do more work through design agencies. So what I've been doing is going through the ADBASE listings, checking out peoples' websites to see if my style of work would fit with their clients, taking notes, and sending mailings out to companies that would be into what I'm doing," Alejandro said. "When I have a free week or so, I'll go through the website, make a list and start sending mailers out." Alejandro has also signed up with ADBASE marketing partners, The Alternative Pick and Theispot to promote his work online. This past year, he gained a big chunk of his new assignments through those two marketing partners. "I pretty much know that I'm going to be subscribing to ADBASE next year and the following year. The only reason why I haven't really sent any mailings out this year was because I've been busy doing other work. But I would say about 70 or 80 percent of my work does come through direct mail," Alejandro said. "It's an investment. And you get the return back with 1-3 jobs." Read more ADBASE Success Stories