Finding Comic Magic in Corporate Design: Reimagining Client Work as Comic Layouts

Believe it or not, I think I’m actually having more fun with my client work right now than I am with my personal work.

The reason I say that is because, right now, with my personal work, what I’d really like to be doing is just writing and drawing my comic or making some standalone images for an art book. Instead, what I know I have waiting for me is a massive backlog of business tasks. I need to work on my website, create a new online store to replace my existing one, and set up my books for print-on-demand through IngramSpark instead of Amazon so I can offer them for sale across other platforms.

There’s a variety of little projects related to the business of being an artist—the things required to generate money from art—that are completely separate from the act of actually producing artwork. I know I can’t just ignore them and sit down to draw. Those administrative tasks aren’t going to go away, and the sooner I get started with them, the sooner I’ll be able to spend more quality time on personal work as a whole.

Importing Comic Workflows into Product Design

On the other hand, with my client work, I’ve actually found a breakthrough. I found a workflow where I’m taking the best part of my comic creative process and my personal artwork process, and I’ve been able to inject that into developing ideas and products for clients.

My favorite thing to do as an artist is thumbnailing—making tiny, simple little sketches to work out the basics of an idea. I realized that when I was doing product design, I was sitting there trying to sketch out a finished product, and that isn’t where my strength lies. I’m an okay illustrator, but I don’t think I’m a great product illustrator. I’m good at making the production art needed to manufacture products (which is usually most of my job), but when it comes to pitching new concepts, I needed a different approach.

I realized: what if I just make a really small thumbnail and focus on creating an image that sells the features using little inset shots or panels? It’s almost as if I’m thumbnailing a comic page: one big main image to show the overall function of the product, and a couple of small panels highlighting specific features that come with it.

Finding the Flow State

Treating a client presentation like a comic book page—taking that thumbnail, blowing it up, and doing a cleaned-up drawing of it—feels exactly like taking a comic thumbnail, blowing it up, and drawing a finished page. Just those simple, subtle shifts in mindset and approach have made client work far more enjoyable.

I’ve gotten into a great workflow for generating these ideas based on project outlines and client needs. I’m spending a lot more time lately in a genuine creative flow while doing client work. That’s a huge positive, especially since I’ve had to work through the weekends for the past few weeks and it’s been eating up a lot of time.

It feels unusual to me to be enjoying client work this much compared to my own personal projects, but finding a way to make the daily paying work feel like play is a win I’ll gladly take.

Have you ever successfully adapted a workflow from your personal creative passion (like comics, storyboarding, or painting) to make your “day job” or client work significantly more enjoyable?

How do you handle the administrative side of art—like managing websites, store platforms, and print-on-demand setups—without letting it completely destroy your creative momentum?

Do you prefer working out ideas in tiny, loose thumbnails, or do you prefer diving straight into full-scale drawings when developing a new concept?