Full name/age/job title:

Idil Sukan, 28, founder and Creative Director of Draw HQ. 

Please give us an overview of your average day.

When you work for yourself it’s difficult to justify not working. Our client list has become varied – including businesses, musicians and theatres, so deadlines can crop up at any time. There’s a range of work: admin, organisation, scheduling shoots or shows, promotion and liaising with client. Some days, all I do is reply to emails. It’s a wonderful relief when I’m able to attend the shows that I work on. Photoshoots are more of a structured event. 

What is the most common misconception about your job?

That success comes easily in creative fields. It’s difficult to approach creative work with the same structured commitment that you would do a “normal job” – but the more you invest your time and treat it like a job, the greater the dividends. 

The deeper misconception is about the time this kind of work takes. My work includes designing, marketing and shooting the promotional photography for theatre and comedy shows or musicians. The pressure’s high to create work that represents the artists and their overall vision while also effectively marketing the show and contributing to its commercial success. I invest a huge amount of time and effort to create something tailor-made for each client. 

The shoot itself is sometimes the easiest bit. It would be far easier to just turn up and shoot whatever’s in front of me but my approach is much more of a creative, collaborative process.

What is the hardest thing about your role?

Taking on “one client” is not taking on one person. Usually I would take on, say, a comedian’s new show. I’m working for the comedian but he or she may come with their production team, agent, agent’s assistants, PR team, their venue and the venue’s PR. Even the comedian’s husband or wife has a say.

When did you decide what you wanted to do with your life and how did you set out to achieve it?

By saying yes to everything. I’ve always done things that I happened to do well at, and people kept asking me to do them again, which moulded itself into a career. I started out working with student plays and comedy shows, universities and local magazines, and working with friends on their first forays into the professional world. I went to university in Edinburgh and having the festival on your doorstep opened up opportunities. Most of the people I’m working with now I originally met in Edinburgh. Basically everyone I know needed something designed or photographed – headshots, business cards and websites.

What can you do to get a head start?

Be prepared to work for free. Work done for free has the potential to get you noticed at the beginning of your career. If you’re not going to get paid, you may as well get great portfolio pieces out of it and make your client very happy.

The more you do it, the better you’ll be. There are no shortcuts. If you want to be a photographer, shoot every day. The more you do it, the more confidence you have over your medium, which means it begins to become second nature to you and you can then focus on being creative with it.

Could you describe the creative element to your job?

The majority of my day-to-day work is very hands on, working directly with graphics software for layout design or pen and ink for illustrations. The production side can involve working directly on the shows. However, the really creative element comes from trying to think of fresh ideas every day to do bespoke work for each client. 

Thinking laterally across different media can result in creative work. The things I learn in production apply to my photography, or my experiences in PR contribute to design work. Design doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

What’s the one thing you wish you’d known at the start of your career that you know now?

To trust my instincts more. Having good gut instincts is one thing but having the confidence to act on them comes from having a tight network of people who you believe in and who believe in you.

It’s not as scary as it looks. I wish I’d trusted my abilities when I was younger and put myself out there more, concentrated on personal work more. It’s the personal work that really pushes your boundaries and gets you the most attention.

Which organisations/websites/resources do you think would be useful for people entering your industry?

Eat up everything you can about art and art history. There’s a mess of galleries in London, so go there – especially the National Portrait Gallery and the V&A. 

Personalised link recommendations through Twitter, Delicious and apps such as Zite and FlipBook open up incredible work and creative projects that are inspirational, funny and educational. Following creative networks such as Behance, DeviantArt and Flickr, is essential – this is where a lot of the best new work around the globe gets posted.

Develop an active presence online, even if it’s just on Facebook. Every freelance designer I know – their whole client base started out with just doing logos and small flyer designs for their friends. And let’s be honest, I still do a lot of that.

Idil is running the Edinburgh Picture Show, a daily photographic project in August that documents the Edinburgh Festival for the Pleasance Theatre Trust. Follow her on Twitter and find out more at www.drawhq.com. 

Interested in becoming a creative entrepreneur? Apply for Sky Arts Ignition: Future Fund to win £30,000 of funding.

Visit our Edinburgh hub.

Photo credit: Mat Wandless

Would you like to be featured in Job of the Week? If you work in the creative industries and would love to share your advice, expertise and experience with IdeasTap members, get in touch with our deputy editor at Luiza@ideastap.com.