You’re not here to make a paycheck. You’re here to make art.
Remember the time when creating was pure fun. When it was exciting.
Now? It's a grind. Sometimes you wonder how you got here? If it's worth it.
At some point, every creative studio owner, every artist, every designer, every filmmaker hits a wall:
The momentum slows. The excitement fades. The work starts to feel like work. Clients get harder to convince. The projects feel smaller, safer, more predictable.
And then the panic sets in:
Why aren’t we growing? Where are the big clients? Why does it feel like we’re grinding harder but moving slower?
Here’s the real reason why studios and creatives get stuck:
They forget they’re here to make art—not a paycheck. The shift from art to business is the slow death of creativity.
The moment your creative practice becomes about the business of creativity instead of the act of creating, something shifts.
And at first, this feels like progress. The business grows. The invoices get bigger. The work gets steadier.
But then, one day, you wake up, and the thing that once lit you up now feels like a job. You’re caught in the very system you set out to escape.
And the more you focus on keeping the machine running, the further you drift from the energy that made it all work in the first place.
Money Follows Energy. Not the Other Way Around.
The system wants you to believe that making money comes first. That once you’ve secured the bag, then you can relax. Then you can experiment. Then you can take risks.
Bullshit.
The biggest brands, the most exciting studios, the people who are doing the kind of work you wish you were doing? They aren’t sitting around waiting for permission. They’re not guessing what will sell. They’re making what they love—and the right people come to them because of it.
Because energy attracts money. Not the other way around.
The studios that win are the ones that stay true to the work.
Every legendary creative studio, every iconic artist, every brand that actually matters follows the same unwritten rule:
They never stop treating art like the main event.
? Sagmeister & Walsh: Built a brand not by chasing clients but by making weird, expressive, rule-breaking work that attracted the right ones.
? Beeple: Spent years making daily digital art, not for clients, but because he wanted to—and built an empire from it.
? Justin Bua: Didn’t wait for an industry trend. He painted hip-hop, the streets, the raw movement of urban culture—before anyone was looking. His work wasn’t “marketable.” It was real. And that’s exactly why it found an audience. Now? He sold more then 60 million of his posters.
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The difference between the studios or artists that thrive and the ones that stall?
How to get unstuck (before it’s too late)
If your work has lost its edge, if your business feels harder than it should, if clients aren’t showing up the way they used to—don’t look at your marketing.
Look at your energy:
The fix is simple:
Because the moment you start making art again, instead of just making a paycheck, something shifts.
The energy comes back. The right clients show up. The momentum starts to rebuild.
Because people don’t hire you for what you’ve done.
They hire you for what you are becoming.
So stop waiting.
Stop optimizing.
Stop looking at what the market wants.
Make something that feels like you again.
And watch everything else fall back into place.
If you’re stuck, you’re moving in the wrong direction.
The way out isn’t more of the same—it’s doing the opposite. The way to making a great living out of your work isn't to be a commercial designer—it's becoming an artist.
Remember this: You are expected to make art, to exist outside the system, to lead people out of mediocrity.
Because artists are meant to lead. It's our role in society. You are meant to show another way. A way that isn't optimised, transactional and f*cking boring. You are meant to have a different perspective.
NOT on sale is for creatives who refuse to play it safe. Who know that the system won’t save them. Who are ready to move differently, think differently, and attract work by becoming unignorable.
If that’s you, join us. You will learn to attract better clients by being the artist you are meant to be.
Learn more about NOT on sale by reaching out to me.
Co-founder & Creative Director at Practice
3 周This is spot on Marko. My first thought it that the challenge is in scaling the studio’s genius, which is often the founder. How to enroll the rest of the team around this vision in order to grow and take on larger projects while staying pitch perfect on the artistic voice that got it started. Definitely something I’m considering at the moment - how to grow the business and at the same time also drive the creative.