677 - How To Transition Into Full-Time Freelance with Artist & Designer Joe Ledbetter

Joe Ledbetter explains to Adventures In Design how he got on the path of working fulltime creating prints, paintings and toys all under his very distinct illustration style. Check out all of Joe's new work this weekend at Designer Con in Pasadena, California where he will be exhibiting at booth 934 and appearing on the Consumer/Collector foodchain panel with Mark Brickey. 

Episode Talking Points & Topics:
- Why some people just can't seem to wrap their minds around the concept of designer toys. 
- Hear the road that Joe Ledbetter took to turn his unique art style into his full-time job. 
- Defining the Joe Ledbetter signature style of bold colors, swishing highlights, and perfect sweeping line art to trap it all. 
- Mark proposes to Joe to be apart of his DCON plans.
- Art as toys, Joe's new piece for Ikea 2018 versus licensed cartoon TV characters, each has a place in the scene but does one damage the perception and value of the other. 
- Joe gives tips on how creates one of the best-designed booths for Designer Con. 
- An explained breakdown of the business model of blind-box toys. 

Circle Of Trust Paid Bonus Content Talking Points & Topics:
- The difficulty of making painting as profitable as prints. 
- How black or black and white colorways add so much magic to your sculpts and toys. 
- How the Stormtrooper helmet may be one of the best-designed movie props of all time. 
- Pitching your ideas to Hollywood and how it's not as glamorous as it may sound. 
- How writers in Hollywood are reverse engineering the magic of graphic novels.