Signs & Wonders / A collection of things I see and how I see them.
Notes: 7669
artdirections: 5 Ways You Can Use Side Projects to Solve the Toughest Problems Creatives Face Today What is a side project? It’s a self-contained group of creative work which has it’s own narrow guidelines, scope and purpose. Side projects have been the key to 99% of my successful endeavours. I believe they are the creative’s most powerful tool in the current cultural climate. Here are a few reasons I believe side projects are the answer to the toughest problems creatives face today: 1. Marketing: Side Projects are Shareable Self promotion is tough today because we are all sick of ads all up in our face that we never asked to get all up in our face. I think side projects are the answer. Word of mouth is the only welcome advertisement there is. With social media and blogs, word of mouth has become amplified to millions. Because side projects are self contained and narrow focused, they are easy to digest and explain. This makes them gold mines for shareability. They can be easily tweeted or summed up in a short blog post. This maximizes their digital word-of-mouth potential. 2. Direction: Space to Experiment with Different Paths It’s important to be focused and have a clear purpose, but it’s also extremely difficult to pick just one road. Part of what makes this such a difficult problem is one question: what if you pick the wrong road?! This questions has lead me to diversify my path with side projects. When I get a new idea that doesn’t fit well into my current work, I start a new side project. Then if it’s actually good, it will grow organically, if it’s not, it doesn’t water down my other work. 3. Focus: Organize Your Different Focuses for Greater Impact Things without focus are confusing. Confusion means people won’t care. They can’t care; they don’t know what to care about. Separating your focuses into side projects can make it easier to have laser focus, and laser focus equals clarity, and clarity equals the right people caring. 4. Development: Room to Improve or Hone a Skill No one learns every guitar chord before they learn to play a song. No, when learning something new, motivation and follow through come from accomplishing those small attractive goals, i.e. learning to play a song you love. A side project can be a great motivational tool to learn and practice new skills in a way that feels like you are accomplishing something at the same time. For example, my daily drawing project, NOD, where I drew a new character every weekday for a year, was actually a way to practice writing. I paired up a developed skill, drawing, with one I was wanted to develop, writing, by adding a character description with every character drawing. 5. Specialize: Highlight and Communicate a Strength Sometimes you know you have a strength but you don’t get any notice for it. For instance, maybe you feel like you’re really good at making t-shirt designs but you don’t seem to get any work like that. One of the best ways to highlight that strength is creating a specialized project in that area. For instance, maybe it’s a blog where you post a new t-shirt design every friday on a blog. By doing this you are doing two things, 1. You are saying “I’m a t-shirt designer” and 2. Here are many examples of how good I am at designing t-shirts. This just spells it out for everyone, which helps because there is lot of noise and confusion out there. I hope this inspires you to come up with side projects that will benefit your creative endeavors like it has mine. I wish you all luck in your side-projecting! P.S. If you follow this blog because you like my art and design, you may want to know that I have a new website with loads of new work www.andy-j-miller.com P.P.S. If you are stuck and need some help on your creative path, I’m doing some Skype video creative coaching / consulting, read more here…also it’s completely confidential! Notes: 86
omfgco: Words to live by from the Hiut Denim newsletter. If you haven’t seen their first Yearbook, you’re missing out. Truth! Notes: 95