In this interview we'll get into the head of Martin Fredskov, the artist behind VEKTORKONGEN. What made him start selling vectors and what drives his art.
The history of VEKTORKONGEN
VEKTORKONGEN translates into the king of vectors in Danish. Originally suggested by a former business partner through many years, as a brand that wasn't afraid of bragging about their skills.
I [Martin Fredskov] have worked exclusively with vector graphics for more than 10 years, and i've always had a slight curiosity with selling stock vectors, since learning about them early on. The idea of making passive sales appeals to me.
In 2016 i started playing around with selling stock vectors on Colourbox, but only got about 7 sales over 2 years. Some of them, if not all, from friends. And honestly - It probably had something to do with the quality - few if any of the vectors i had online back then are in the current portfolio.
- And back then i only had about 20-40 vectors uploaded. Something i've later learned is all about volume, and you need at least a portfolio of 100+ to get just a few sales a month.
By december 2019 i decided to sell stock vectors again. I started doing daily vectors i could sell, following a theme each month. I did this for a couple of months and by early 2020 i started submitting them for sale on Shutterstock, Adobe Stock, VectorStock, Dreamstime and BigStock. I later found Pond5 and PantherMedia.
Initially my plan was to start my own site too, which became VEKTORKONGEN. I started out a wordpress site with a custom theme i fixed together, but quickly ended up migrating to Shopify so it would be ready for a shop, and would allow for a big portfolio without having to worry about an ever increasing cost of hosting. This is what became the site that you're probably reading this interview on.
It's no longer set up as a shop, as i much prefer not having to worry about the legal issues of having an international shop, but i still do weekly uploads to all of the vector stock sites that i contribute to.
I'm very emotionally driven. If i don't have the heart in it, I generally don't continue a piece of art or a series of art. I don't hesitate stopping a series or a piece of art, if my heart is no longer in it.
For over a decade i've worked professionally with art, and have made a wide variety of art. Festival maps, mascot characters, flat style buildings and vehicles, and probably a ton i've forgotten.
Animal art
At a personal level, nature has always been a big inspiration. In the past i've done an animal ABC, and my flat style animals found here on VEKTORKONGEN started out as part of the promptlist i did in 2019 and 2020, and have since continued as a series on their own, with the ultimate goal of making an attempt at drawing every single visually distinct animal species and subspecies. I generally tend to favor drawing the oddballs of nature, but more common species slips in too.
