Michelle Turton

Illustrator Michelle Turton specialises in portrait, lifestyle and travel illustration, currently dividing her time between a career in digital marketing and freelance commissions. She has exhibited internationally, and her work has been featured in books, on buildings, clothing, skateboards, sculptures and walls around the world.

Michelle loves to travel, regularly visiting family in Peru, and cites the Peruvian culture and atmosphere as one of her influences. She believes that it is important to have new experiences to inform her work and travel provides a constant source of inspiration as “it forces you out of your comfort zone and to view the world from different perspectives”.

After graduating from Falmouth University in 2005, Michelle struggled to find full-time illustration work in the UK and ended up having a successful career in account management in various creative agencies. She enjoyed managing the design process and this experience means she can see a project not only from a visual perspective but also how to solve and answer a client brief. This skillset has been invaluable in getting freelance clients and now accredited in digital marketing she balances her time between digital project management and illustration, noting that “from a client’s perspective it’s useful because I can see a project from a social and digital side but also what it needs visually.”

This dual career allows Michelle to pick and choose illustration projects carefully and now only take on projects that she believes in and which give something back to society. Past commissions have included contributing illustrations to, ‘Once Upon a Time in Birmingham: Women Who Dared to Dream,’ an illustrated book telling the stories of inspirational women from Birmingham past and present. ‘On this planet’, an exhibition organised by Jenny Tong for which artists were invited to submit riso prints sold to raise money for the World Land Trust, Buy an Acre scheme. Being half-Peruvian Michelle was drawn to this project as the charity is working in Peru to protect areas of the Amazon rainforest, and she chose to depict the critically endangered yellow-tailed woolly monkey in her work. More recently, she has created a t-shirt design to raise funds for NHS Charities Together.

We chatted with Michelle to find out more about her experience as a woman working in design agencies and managing her freelance illustration career.

How did you first become interested in working as an illustrator/designer?

I always enjoyed drawing and I was lucky that it was nurtured by my parents. My primary school teachers told my parents I was excellent at colouring in and my Dad encouraged me by buying books on the Impressionists and a set of oil paints from a car boot sale. I gravitated towards the arts in school but didn’t really think about it as a career until my college tutors encouraged me to apply to do illustration at university.

Can you tell us how you got to where you are now?

I graduated with a degree in Illustration from Falmouth School of Art and then worked part time in various shop jobs, getting the odd illustration commission before working in Gran Canaria through the European Training Scheme (ETS). In Las Palmas I studied Spanish and worked in a small print-based design studio with an amazing team of three designers and one photographer. My first commission was to do an illustration for a post card campaign to promote a sex shop called Kanerotika – I asked my roommate to model for me in her bikini!

When I returned to the UK it was difficult to find work as a full-time illustrator and I needed some financial security. I worked full time in various design and marketing agencies as an Account Manager, and in my spare time organised several Inkygoodness exhibitions with Lisa Hassell. The nature of agency work took me in a different direction to illustration and for a while I was focused on communications and marketing with a digital edge. I studied a CIM digital marketing course while working full time and managed lots of digital projects from online advertising to website and app builds, both in-house and client side. I went freelance in 2016 and now split my time between freelance illustration and digital project management. It’s the perfect balance for me.

How have you grown over time and developed throughout your career?

I’ve grown more confident in my ability and ideas which is a really powerful place to be. Now I know when to stop, without feeling guilty. Life can be tough, and the older you get the more the world can throw at you. I’m lucky to be able to travel quite a bit which is a great way to see things from a different view and give yourself some perspective. I see a huge difference in my work from 10 years ago, and it reflects how I’ve grown personally and creatively.

Do you feel the digital marketing experience has helped you in your illustration career?

Being qualified in digital marketing has helped me with the freelance side of things as it’s reassuring for clients that I’m accredited in some capacity. There’s a lot more illustration content used in marketing nowadays, and specifically on social media advertising, so my broad skill set is useful from a client’s perspective. The digital project management also pays the bills and allows me to pick and choose which illustration projects I want to do. Dividing my working week between digital marketing and illustration and using different mindsets for both has also meant I’ve never experienced burnout or lost my passion for creating, which can be a problem for commercial illustrators.

What do you enjoy most about being an illustrator?

I love being able to express ideas that are independent of language. It’s actually a very therapeutic experience to get something out of your head and down on paper.

How do you get illustration commissions… do people contact you or do you actively seek out clients?

A bit of both, people come to me through social media and email and through googling a subject where my work comes up. I also sometimes do promotional campaigns and send out postcards to my client list. I use passion projects as a way of promoting the kind of work I want to attract. Passion projects are often the ones I’m most proud of where I’m using my skills to benefit others and do good.

How has being a woman impacted your career? (positively and/or negatively).

I don’t feel I’ve experienced any sexism, or that being a woman has had a negative impact on my career. My first boss in a design and marketing agency was female, she supported me hugely with my career progression and development.

However, in my experience most of the design and development teams in the agencies I’ve worked in were men and it was the client service teams that were predominantly female. Recently I’ve worked with a female digital project manager and UX designer for the first time, but I’ve never come across a female developer. I’ve also realised that the majority of artists I admired, books I read and art exhibitions I visited growing up were by men, and although it didn’t make me think I couldn’t do it, I do now wonder why this was and how interesting it is that the balance is changing and that we are now starting to see more equality in the arts.

In your experience, do you think there is equality and diversity for both men and women across the design industry today?

My experience may be limited in this regard, since as my career progressed so did the desire to be freelance. I wanted to work flexibly, remotely and anywhere in the world, so being a Creative Director or CEO was never on the agenda. However, when I was working full time in design and marketing agencies there was a culture that allowed staff to work up to 60 hours a week, and to be on call at all hours of the day and over weekends. It wasn’t healthy and puts a lot of unnecessary stress on parents who simply can’t commit to that level of time in the office.

I’m hoping now, with much more focus on mental health, there is a better work/life balance in the agency world.

Do you have any words of advice for women considering a career in design today?

Do what you love, and if you start to fall out of love – make a change. Be confident with your voice, it’s valid and it’s needed. Think about your responsibility as a designer to yourself and the world around you. Collaborate!

What does the future hold for you?

Gosh, I still see myself working freelance, continuing to work with some wonderful clients and creating some awesome illustrations. I’d like to be living abroad, with a little workshop or gallery space and I’d also like to be using my skills to support more environmental projects.