August Solaris
Character-driven illustrator for narrative worlds that care about the quiet moments.
Product, Positioning & Problem
August Solaris (they/them/theirs) is a digital illustrator making warm, cozy, character-focused promotional art of all kinds for narrative-driven projects like TTRPG campaigns, podcasts, children's books, and indie video games.
After many commissions and amassing a following of over 3k on Bluesky, this project served as the transition point between early-career generalist and a specialist ready for freelance work.
My Role & Contributions
I handled the brand design and website design for this project. With August being an artist not afraid of the ins and outs of social media, we decided that they would be better off managing that piece themself.
Key Design Decisions
The biggest challenge was finding a way to position August in the sweet spot of authentic to their career stage and ready for more hands-on work — and figuring out the what and who they wanted to work on and for.
When we talked about their desired transition into the world of freelance, we decided to lean into what made August's work already special, and pitch it to the projects that it would work best for, taking their positioning from "all-rounder generalist" into something much sharper that can take them to the next level.
This is how we fell into "promotional art for narrative projects focused on the quiet moments & textures of a story" as a north star to guide everything else around.
Before, their generalist positioning forced them to compete on price and style, but the new positioning allowed them to compete with a much smaller segment.
The new website reflected this, going deeper into the "why" and "who" behind the work instead of acting as a gallery site. We kept the coziness and warmth of the original and fleshed it out to serve as a sales & positioning asset.
The Outcome
Once the rebrand was adopted, August gained more clarity on the direction they wanted to move their career into. They were able to present themself more confidently to potential collaborators.
Quickly, they were able to raise their rates, and their cold email efforts had a 30% increase in response rate due to a better target and more specialized offer.
