Mmm. I love a good croissant.
When we took our kids to Paris a couple years ago, they marveled over the idea that people eat dessert for breakfast, like croissants and chocolate. What’s not to love? Rich, airy pockets of flaky goodness.
©2009 Sparky Firepants Images
As much as I love flakiness in my pastry, I abhor flakiness in the art business.
You know the stereotype of the flaky artist, right? It sounds kind of romantic in a I-live-in-a-one-room-Village-tenement-with-six-other-artists kind of way. A Bohemian Rapshody, if you will. In High School it sounded like heaven. Make whatever art you want, wear a beret, smoke brown cigarettes, starve.
In High School you can afford to be a flaky artist because Mom and Dad pick up the tab. When you realize that Somebody has to pay for the cigarettes, and that Somebody is you, you might want to rethink the flaky persona.
I do not mean to say that you have to give up your creativity and start dressing like a JCPenney model. Keep your thrift store chic and your nose ring, and by God keep your wildly creative mind flowing with whimsicality and nuttiness. Don’t get your kickers in a twist because you thought I said you should change who you are.
The reality is that the world of people buying art is a world of commerce. It’s a world of budgets and decisions. The Art Director you’re after to buy your stuff has a job to do. Part of that job is selling you to their boss. The boss has to sell you to the People with the Money, and those people have to sell you to the People Who Buy the Stuff for the Stores, and those people answer to their own boss, and that boss has to answer to your grandma who bought 10,000 shares of their store and wants to know why the stock is down.
So you might start to see why the Art Director does not want to work with a flaky artist. The Art Director wants to work with someone who communicates well, understands what they need, and knows what a gutter is and why you shouldn’t have the main character in it.
So wildly creative, yes. Flaky, no.
Here are a few things you can do to make yourself at least appear non-flaky:
Make yourself easy to reach
Respond to phone and e-mail inquiries within 24 hours (at least). You’ve been trying to get the gig for, like… ever. Why would you screw it up by letting that Art Director’s e-mail sit in your inbox for a week? Are you kidding me?
You don’t have to pick up the phone on the first ring or sleep with your Blackberry under your pillow, but for Suess’s sake, return a frikkin’ message, okay?
Learn about the project
Ask questions. If you don’t know, ask. If you’re stuck on why something is being asked of you, clear it up. You will look like a more of a pro than the bozo who just plows through and has to revise it later. Ask. That’s what the Art Director is there for.
Even better, think of a solution before asking. For example, if an illustration calls for an airplane, don’t just ask, “What kind of airplane do you want?” Rather, do your homework, try to understand the rest of the piece, and then suggest something. “I was thinking that a WWI biplane would work really well here, since we have that old Model T. Do you have a preference for airplane type?”
This is advice from one of my old bosses: Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.
By the way, this is another good reason for not working on spec. How can you possibly interpret the client’s need and offer the best solution if you haven’t even spoken to them? Working on spec is not a professional practice for artists. Writers, maybe.
Stick to the Plan
This goes hand-in-hand with asking questions. If you’re given an assignment that calls for cows in the upper left corner, don’t turn in a layout that has chickens because you like them better. That is uber-flaky.
If your rough sketch of the race car is approved, don’t turn in final art of a robot because you changed your mind.
Believe me, creative suggestions are always appreciated. Don’t be a robot, offer some input, be a part of the process. That makes it fun for you and makes you fun to work with. However (huge however coming up here), never alter the layout without discussing it first.
You just gave the Art Director more work to do. She either has to tell you no, then wait for you to change it, or she likes it but has to explain to her boss why it’s different and if the editor wants the original idea they’ll have to wait for it a little longer.
Does that sound like a fun day at the office to you? Make yourself easy to work with. The harder an Art Director has to work to get your project accomplished, the less likely you’ll be asked back.
These are just a few suggestions, but you hopefully get my drift.
To be a successful working artist, you can’t be a flaky pastry. It sounds fun and it’s a cool movie cliche, but it doesn’t keep you working.
Be like black coffee instead. Black coffee is no-nonsense. It doesn’t cloud things up with milk and sugar. It’s bold, strong, positive. It comes in many flavors, but it always delivers.
