Getting Paid: Some Artists & Designers Know How To Work The System

When I was in art school I was terribly naive about how to fund a creative life.

Yes, the graduate program at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago enabled me to explore many interesting conceptual ideas and to further develop my critical skills. Yes, I was surrounded by ridiculously creative and talented people who challenged me. Yes, my medium of choice was performance art which historically stands in opposition to the marketplace…I was not so foolish to think I would ever get paid to be a performance artist.

But, even at one of the top art schools schools in the country, it is a bit of an unspoken understanding what will happen to you after graduation. I never had a class on how to fund my creative pursuits. At best, the only practical issue that was addressed was how to prepare to be a teacher.

Your options:

• Live off your wealth (family money or whatever) & fund yourself
• Marry into money & fund yourself
• Get lucky…find gallery representation
• Get lucky…hit the lottery or something & fund yourself
• Teach or get a job unrelated to art & fund yourself
• Sell some kind of product & find a balance between personal passion and creating a product
• Sell some creative services & find a balance between personal passion and creating a product
• Augment the above with grants
• Give up and get a job

I have classmates who have used many of those options at some point or another. I personally taught some classes for a couple years as an adjunct, was able just to get by and had to live without health insurance etc. I have gotten several grants, which contributed to production costs, but, oddly, never paid you for your time and allowed a profit. I have sold the odd artwork but it was something that has never made much sense to my practice. I have sold creative services and pursued a number of jobs to fund myself.

Relatively few people break out and build a sustainable life as a creative. Even the famous are often hustling to make ends meet. There are just too many creative people and not enough buyers of creative things today. There are also too many highly educated wannabe teachers and not enough teaching positions. There is a creative outpouring gushing through the internet all day ever day and it is free to consume…how does the starving artist compete?

Most don’t. I was told in school that most people stop making art about seven years after graduate school. I certainly don’t actively pursue a traditional career at this point. Like many of my peers, I am adapting to the world where the art business isn’t as simple as making an art work you love and selling it to a fan.

What I have done is learn a bit about how corporations work and it has expanded my list of options. After years messing about with teaching, freelance work, consulting, and non-profit stuff I took job at Moleskine: the maker of those little black notebooks. I spent five years there running the Brand, Events, & PR activities for Moleskine in the Americas. I had the chance to create a ton of projects that look a lot like the work I pursued as an artist while also partnering with creative people of all sorts. But I am not here to recommend that you get a job like mine.

This work made me realize not everyone was as naive as I was. Creative people — artists, designers, illustrators, performers, musicians, writers, experience designers and foodies — regularly reached out to me to pitch projects and opportunities for collaboration. I was also actively out looking for creative collaborators all the time. I worked with famous creatives, internet sensations, emerging artists, and amateur of all sorts. People like Marina Abramvovic, Kehinde Wiley, Mike Perry, Mike Rohde, Shantell Martin, and the guys who created the NeoLucida.

If you are like I was in grad school, you might think of businesses as these faceless beasts that are there to stop you from reaching people with ideas. Yes there are filters but at some point someone does read your email or takes your call.

So let me add partnering with companies as an additional option to that list of how to fund a creative life. This is not just working for a company as a freelancer but actually publicly partnering with them on a project big or small. Companies have big piles of money that need to be spent. They are called marketing budgets. These budgets aggregate way more money than most grant making funds can ever offer.

Let me share a few tips to tap into this alternative funding source.

1. My first bit of advice is to just reach out. Make a call to someone in either the marketing or PR side of a business your targeting. Let them know what you do, how you share your work with your audience, and about upcoming projects that need support. A naive request is better than no request.
2. Even better, pick brands you like or at least understand the values behind the brands you reach out to and make pitches that align with their values.
3. Marketing departments partner with creatives to either raise awareness or to make themselves look good. So the size of your audience and the appropriateness of your creative identity is more important than your work. So get to work building your social media following now.
4. Being friendly, professional, and available is very important. Business are running at 150mph and when they need a creative partnership they need it now. This is why some much nepotism is rampant in business…the boss’s cousin, brother-in-law, or daughter are always close at hand. Businesses will keep coming back to work with you if you are also a pleasure to work with, so be friendly and professional. Reach out, make relationships, and stay in touch.
5. Pricing your collaborations will not be easy. Many companies will try to trade “awareness” for your participation to some degree. If you are just starting out it might be worth taking part in an awareness project but remember you are in it for some kind of profit. Try to get at least enough to cover your costs and then try to get double that amount.

Partnering with companies is a more ethically fraught endeavor than doing freelance work. You will have to figure out where you will draw the line between your own work and the work your are paid to make, distribute, and/or advocate.

Some creative people feel working with companies is inherently corrupting and probably never pursue the path I have described in this article. For the rest of you, I suggest start small and get some experience. Some companies are better to work with than others. Some requests will be more benign that others. Forget about the money if you can and think about the profile you are building.

Companies who are considering working with you will ask if associating with you will raise their credibility, increase their awareness, and support their brand. You should ask the same thing. Your professional brand should be improved by these associations. Otherwise, it is not worth the money.

Good luck!

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Erik Fabian is the founder of Upright Brand.

Originally published on Medium.