The importance of social

It’s clear why Jenni’s distinctive style and colorful, quirky snaps of her work do well on social, but she’s been practicing for a while.

“When I was at uni studying my tutors didn’t really care about it. They said, oh make a website – they weren’t really involved in social media at that point. I was a proper nerd, like really in love with the internet from when I was really young and I used to put all my stuff up on a site called Flickr. I had a Facebook page really early in my career as well, so it’s always been a big part of it.”

But Jenni is careful not to let social media take over her life. She explains: “I try to balance it out a bit because I don’t want to be always on my phone – it’s not good. And if you’re constantly chasing validation online it’s not good either. It’s about striking a balance – I don’t think I’d have a career if it wasn’t for social media.”

Jenni loves Instagram for finding new artists and she follows and eclectic bunch.

When I ask if Jenni gets a lot of inspiration from the artists she follows she’s not so sure. She says while you’re studying it’s good to take inspiration from other artists because you’re trying to find your own style, but now she’ll follow artists that create things very different to her own work. “Now I’m pretty settled in the style that I do so I don’t take very heavily from other people,” she says.

So what does she think of the social scene for artists these days?

“It’s a good a time as ever to be an artist because it’s easy to get your work out there, but also because of the fact that it’s easy to get your work out there it’s also a saturated market so you have to be doing something that’s pretty niche to get attention, really.”

Luckily, Jenny has found her niche.

Big thanks to Jenni Sparks for speaking to us and being so generous with her time. You can find her on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and on her website.