Notes: For the New Face
Why I Built This
The actual reasoning behind this booking platform, and what it's trying to fix.
In short: Why Metty built BE ICONIC: the reasoning behind this free portfolio booking platform and the problems it is trying to fix.
Where this actually comes from
This didn't start as an abstract business idea. It started with my own experience, and it's worth saying that plainly before getting into the reasoning. I had my own work used by a platform in a way I never knowingly agreed to, the kind of use that was buried in terms and conditions written to be hard to notice, let alone question, unless you went looking for it specifically, which almost nobody ever does. When I raised it, there was no real accountability, just silence, and eventually nothing at all.
I'm not going to lay out the specifics of what happened here, that's not what this page is for. What matters is what it left me with: a first-hand, uncomfortable understanding of how easily a platform sitting between a photographer and the people who use their work can take far more than it ever gives back, and how most people never realise how much they've agreed to until it's already happened to them.
That experience is why this exists as something direct and independent instead. It isn't a theory about how things should work. It's a reaction to how badly they can.
Removing the middleman
A lot of the platforms in this space sit between the two people doing the work, a photographer and a model, and take something from that relationship without adding real value back to either side. This site is a direct alternative, you apply, you're reviewed personally, you get a real answer, and the images belong to both of you under clear terms, spelled out in full rather than buried.
No directory fee, no membership tier, no algorithm deciding who gets seen. Just a photographer and a model agreeing to work together.
Why a booking system, not DMs
Finding someone to shoot with usually means messages from strangers on Instagram or Facebook. It's messy, and it's hard to tell who's serious, or safe.
A booking system answers that before anyone has to ask. You can see who I am, what the sessions are for, and what happens next. Your details go to one place, not a chat that gets lost.
Keeping it simple and clear about its intention is what makes people comfortable working together. That's the point of all of this.
A word of caution about platforms
This isn't a blanket "never use a modelling platform" message, some are run well and help people find work. But it's worth reading the terms and conditions of any platform before trusting it with your images, your data, or your time, the same instinct worth applying to avoiding scams more broadly.
- Who owns the rights to images once they're uploaded
- Whether the platform can use your content for its own marketing without asking again
- What happens to your data if you close your account
- Whether "free" comes with a catch buried several pages into the terms
Ask plainly: who is this platform built for? If the real answer is "the platform's own growth" rather than "the people using it", that's worth knowing before you commit anything to it.
What this is actually for
Every part of this handbook, the actual rejection rates, the real UK law on fees, the red flags, the etiquette, comes from the same place: wanting people getting into this industry to have accurate, useful information rather than vague encouragement or a sales pitch. That's the actual point of all of it, not just this page.
A Few Questions