How did I steal like an artist.
How did I get noticed without fear.
A year ago I was procrastinating on the web. Checking links here and there and I found a TEDx with Austin Kleon. It got my attention with the title: “Steal Like An Artist”. What the hell was that? I watched and it captured me from the very first second. It seemed that he was talking with me. No formalities, more like a tutor or even a friend.
I was astonished how we think in the same way in so many levels. It’s amazing how things were in front of me all the time and I didn’t realize that. I could have done much more stuff in my career if I would have followed his 10 tips from the beginning.
So I bought his books and read in couple of days both of them. “Steal Like An Artist” and “Show Your Work”. And nothing was the same again.
I work in advertising more than 10 and as Sir John Hegarty said, we have 10 years cycles. We start, work hard, develop and we come back to the beginning. It’s funny, but it’s true. We start over and try to refresh our careers without some of the mistakes we’ve made. It’s hard to keep us motivated for 10 years in a row. As creatives, we need to be motivated. The happier, the better the work is. But the tricky is how to keep us motivated.
I found a way to keep me motivated. This is helping me on trying to be a better worker, a better art director and a better thinker. It’s for me, made by me.
No briefings, no deadlines, no pressure. It all depends on me.
So I decided to Steal Like an Artist and Show My Work. No fear. It’s all about the learnings. It’s all about the fun. It’s all about the things I believe.
In march 2014 I decided to create my first personal project. I figured it out that I love music and album covers design. I have been writing and talking about album covers since my graduation (which BTW, my thesis was about the Semiotics of all Pink Floyd’s album covers). So it was clear and easy to decide. But what to do with that?
I had a crazy idea and I tested it. I had to redesign a new record cover for an album while I was listening to it. So I put the album to play, and started the design and the challenge and the catchy is, I have to finish the design before the album ends. The first result was Love Gun from Kiss. Within 32 minutes I made the first one and I was super happy. “Now I have a project and a work to show!”.
I created a Tumblr for it (www.albumcovercover.tumblr.com) and it’s been alive since and I’ve made around 70 covers redesigns so far. During the process, I started to share my work with some key people.
My work was published and featured on sites like “The Creators Project”, Design TAXI, ‘Catraca Livre’ (Brazilian Cultural Website), UOL Music (Brazilian online media), CCSP (São Paulo Advertising Creative Club), Creative Bloq, ShortList.com (UK), La Stampa (Italian Newspaper), among others.
The secret? I had no fear of sharing my work. No fear of sending emails. No fear of the answers.
Just some time ago I started a new personal project called “Advertising FC”. It was one of those simple ideas. I’m huge football (soccer) fan, love design and love advertising. So I mixed those 3 elements together and that was it. Now I’m creating and imagining how would look like the football kits from advertising agencies.
I had the idea, made the first one and I liked it. So I keep doing it. In a week I had the first 16 “clubs” and then I posted on Behance and created a tumblr for that as well (www.advertisingfc.tumblr.com).
After publishing, same thing, it’s time to show the work. I sent 6 key emails for special people and that’s was it. The project came out and became a really big thing. I wasn’t expecting that much visibility. Now I’m getting to know new people, getting some good feedbacks, and most importantly, some of the guys I admire that didn’t even know my existence, now they noticed me and that’s for me is success.
My secret? I had no fear of sharing my work.
Life is made of failures, the more you fail, the more you learn. The more you learn, the better you are.
Is simple. Just steal like an artist and show you work.
Thanks Austin for inspiring me. I hope this text can inspires someone else.
