Creative Pep Talk
068 - How to Fix Your Art
(upbeat music) Hey y'all, just a quick heads up. The episode you're about to listen to is eight to 10 years old. Now, these episodes were intended to be evergreen, and I still believe there's a lot of good information in these early episodes, but I do wanna let you know that some of my ideas have evolved over time. Times have changed since we made these episodes, and ultimately, I'd like to think I've grown a lot as an artist and a human, and that these don't necessarily represent my best work, or the best of the podcast. If you're new around here, I suggest starting with the most recent episode, or at least go back to around 300, and move forward from there. Enjoy the episode. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Hey everybody, it's me, Andy J. Miller, and this is the Creative Peptalk Podcast, where we talk about making good money, making great art, and I just talk to you about the things that I'm learning, the things I've learned about doing that, learning about how do you make a living, not just a few dollars, but how do you make a living on creativity? How do you find your place in the world if you're a creative person? Is there a place for you? And it's a topic that is close to my heart, and it's been real in my own life. And so, that's what the show's about. Before I get started, I'd like to thank illustrationage.com/creativepeptalk. They're the syndicate of the show. They're a fantastic illustration resource. Go check that out. So, today on the show, we're talking about, is your work good? Is your work good? Is the problem, not your marketing, your promotion, what you're doing online, your social media engagement, all that, blah, blah, blah, you know, is the work actually good? Cutting to the core. Now, I hope that doesn't sting, and I hope it doesn't make you afraid, because you don't need to be afraid, right? I think making art is in many, many ways, just a skill, something you can learn. It doesn't have to be something that you're born with, and it happens or it doesn't happen. And so, how do you get good work, right? So, today what we're gonna talk about is criteria to judge your work through, so that you can get enough distance to actually be objective when you're looking at it, right? So that you can see, you know, what's maybe not adding up, what's not measuring up, okay? Because, you know, doing the same things and expecting different results is the definition of insanity. That's what Albert Einstein said, and of course, we all know he knew a few things. I don't know how much he knew about art, but I think it applies here. Like, how many of us are carting around the same portfolio from five years ago and expecting new jobs to land in our lap. Like, and then, you know, going into 2016 with the same old portfolio and thinking, 2016's gonna be different for me. Well, you know, we talk a lot about marketing. Why we talk about, we talk about it because, you know, there are a lot of average artists out there with great careers because they're fantastic at business and marketing. And then there are a lot of people out there that are amazing artists that are terrible at business and they have a terrible career. And so, we talk a lot about business and marketing because it is extremely important. But the truth is, this day and age, if the good, the work, having good work, having great work, really, is a baseline. It's just the first building block before you do all the other stuff to get your work out there and have a thriving career. But if your foundation is a problem, you know it's not gonna work out. Like, if you've ever went looking at houses, if you've ever had to go through the pain of that, of buying a house, you know, that if they say, "Well, there's a crack in the foundation," you run because that's what the whole house is built on. So, yes, maybe the work in your career and your art career is only the foundation. Maybe it is, but if you don't get it right, nothing else is gonna work out. And so, that's what we're talking about on the show today. How do you look at your work with some clarity, with some self-awareness, with some tools so that you can actually decide what's not measuring up? And yeah, you can go talk around, you can get feedback from people, that's all true, it's all well and good and it works and I suggest it. But, at the end of the day, you need to be able to look at your own portfolio and see where you need to change things to get a better result. And that's what we're talking about today. Now, I'm sure there's backlash, right? When I say good work, like having good work, because anytime you say that and you're talking about art, you're gonna get all these people saying, well, art's subjective and you know, I know this guy who made a living doing these tiny circle drawings and yeah, okay, first of all, we never try to make a plan on the exception to the rule because a plan is seeing patterns and then basing your process off of those patterns. And so one little exception to the rule like this guy who made a thriving art career off of terrible work, that's the exception. We're not gonna build a plan around that. We can't, there's no patterns in that. If you look at the majority of people making a great living off of art, they have good work. They have the baseline good work. And you can say it's subjective, but you know what else is subjective? Food, right? Like everybody has different tastes. Like I love spicy food, I love black coffee, I like IPAs, I'm that guy, okay? Yeah, I'll admit it, I get it. But you know what? I love food, but my father-in-law, he loves mushrooms. He'll make a mushroom burger, like it's just a giant mushroom on bread and call it a burger and it makes me gag. I can't take it, I can barely take the smell of mushrooms. I hate him so much. So, to that level, yeah, okay, I can see how art and food can be subjective, but you know, so a while back, I was at a wedding and it was a fancy affair. It was actually amazing. And at the end of the night, you know, there's a lot of waiting around, you know, you get hungry before the meal 'cause there's so much shenanigans happening before. And I get hungry, I get a little hangry from time to time and we're waiting on the meal, you know, and when it gets there, it looks amazing, I chow down. Now, I had a little bit of a weird feeling that maybe my chicken was underdone. Now, this is a public service announcement just to say, "If that's you, don't eat the chicken, okay?" Because now, in the future, I know that I spent a terrible time in the bathroom, you know, vomiting and it was the worst thing ever. I was totally sick and it was the worst I've ever been sick. And I rode home in a taxi lying down, convulsing, you know, breaking out into hives or something. It was the worst. It's one of my least favorite memories. And to me, it's like you can say that whether your portfolio is good or not is subjective, but just like food, you know, if it gives you food poisoning, it's not good food, it's not subjective. Nobody would argue that that chicken was good. All right, like you have, there's a baseline. There's a baseline to whether this is good and we're gonna run it through criteria because, you know, with food, you really eat with your eyes, your nose and your mouth. You know, you have to, it has to look appetizing, it has to smell good, that's part of your taste, and then it also actually has to taste good, and that's the three part harmony of food. And that tells you whether it's good food or not, whether it was a good experience. Now, when I think harmonies, I know what you're thinking, right? The best four part harmony of all time. Boys to men, right? I mean, okay, maybe that wasn't your first thought, but it was mine. So today what we're gonna do, we got a little bit silly on the show, but it's real content filtered through a ridiculous system just for the heck of it. We're gonna take the four members of boys to men and I've attached four different criteria to each of them in a way that mashes up real nicely, and we're gonna look at your portfolio and we're gonna find the perfect four part harmony of your portfolio. Are you ready for this? Come on. Miro is a collaborative virtual workspace that syncs in real time for you and your team so that you can innovate an idea into an outcome seamlessly. We talk a lot on this show about the idea of how creative research shows that playing with the problem is essential to innovation. Now, when I think of play, I don't think of documents and email. So if your team is often working remote, you need something more dynamic and collaborative. I think that Miro's mind maps and flow charts where team members can edit and play in real time has a lot more capacity for innovation in playing with the problem than traditional ways of collaborating over the internet. Whether you work in innovation, product design, engineering, UX, agile or IT, bring your teams to Miro's revolutionary innovation workspace and be faster from idea to outcome. Go to Miro.com to find out how that's M-I-R-O.com. Hey, in case you don't know, we have a monthly live virtual meetup every last Monday of the month with supporters of the show from Patreon and Substack. We have so much fun on these calls and they are the warmest, most encouraging creatives that I have ever met. And we also talk real creative practice stuff. We have authors, illustrators, lettering artists, picture bookmakers, fine artists, musicians and folks that work in video and film as well. And we have people that are just starting out, people super established in their creative careers and everything in between. For the rest of this year, we're gonna chat through our new journey of the true fan series exploring questions and ways to apply these ideas to your own creative practice so that you can leave 2024 stronger than you came in with more visibility, connection, with your audience and sales. Sign up to whichever suits you best at either patreon.com/creativepeptalk or antijpizza.substack.com. And I hope to see you at this month's meetup. (upbeat music) - So before we get started, I always feel like I have to explain why I'm a boys to men fan. You know, a few years back, I made the indie rock coloring book. The majority of what I listened to is probably considered indie music. But, you know, I grew up in Indiana. I grew up in a house that was mostly full of old Phil Collins CDs. We did have like one best of Beatles CDs. That was the best on offer. We had the Grease soundtrack. Not a lot going on musically. Not really a music house, not really an art house. But, you know, we had a cousin of mine, Dave, we called him. Well, we didn't just call him that. That was a thing. And he came and lived at our house for a little while. And he introduced us to the beauty of '90s R&B and boys to men. And it was really the first music that I got into. And so I got super deep. I know like every boys to men song, like almost every album, not the new one. I didn't get down with that. But I deeply and intimately know boys to men. And I listened to him from time to time. And at some point, I just felt like I had to get it out there. I had to confess that, yes, I did make the indie rock coloring book, but I also get down with some '90s R&B. And you know what's even cooler is that the indie world has really embraced R&B as of late. And so there's some super cool stuff happening. Anyway, today we're starting with there's Nathan, Michael, Sean, and Wanyai. Okay, those are the four pieces to the perfect four part harmony that is boys to men. Number one on the list is Nathan. Nathan's the guy with the glasses. And I'm sure the marketing idea was he's the smart one, the respectable one. This is the guy with the brains, okay? And so I'm asking you, you know, do you have the brains to pull off this work that you're trying to do? And really what we're talking about here is, are you skilled? Do you have the skills? Do you have the know-how to actually do the work on a high enough level to really ask other people to pay for it, right? I think that, you know, this is an overwhelming part for me early on, like, I don't like acquiring new skills. I don't like, I'm not the guy, you know, on lynda.com just banging out 50,000 tutorials until I'm just insanely well versed. It's like, if I was learning guitar, I just learned the first couple chords that I needed to play the song that I wanted to play, you know? And I would just slowly build that out over time. And that's totally fine. But there comes a time when you look at your portfolio and you ask yourself, you know, is there, are there places where, you know, my skills are really lacking? Like, there are places, you know, there's things that you go out of your way to not draw. Like things that you really need to just acquire some new skills, whether it's in the software or the hardware. Like, maybe, you know, there was a time like, I don't know, six or seven years back, I think, where I just felt like, you know, my vectors, my vector shapes in Illustrator, they're just not up to snuff. Like I can tell that there's something about them that isn't working. And so I just did a bunch of tutorials. I just hammered that out. And it actually made a giant difference rather than always trying to just do the trial and error thing and learn on the job. I actively went out and tried to acquire that skill. You know, there was another time where I felt like, you know, the skill level of what I was doing was just not that high. Like, you know, anybody that could pick up a pencil could do what I was doing. You know, I was doing interesting things. You know, I had other parts of the four part harmony going on. But in the skill level, it was really kind of amateur. It was just kind of low level, almost anybody could do it. And so it was a time when I thought, I really need to up my game in terms of my skills. And I started drawing digitally. And I started learning that. And so I started acquiring new skills in the hardware that I was using. And so when you look at your portfolio, be honest with yourself, you know, are there places where you really could use to grow in your skills? You know, one of the things that's really helpful is being around other creative professionals and hearing what they value in skills. You know, seeing what things kind of really turn them off. One of the biggest things is being able to speak the right language of the niche or market that you're a part of so that you can be down with it. So you can be accepted in that so that you, so your work can get shared. And I think one of the things that really, really puts people off is when you're really missing core skills that are important to the market that you're a part of. And if you're missing those things, you're not gonna be accepted. You're not gonna be shared. You're not gonna be, you're not gonna really find the true success that you're looking for. And so a big thing that you can do is just spend time around other people doing this. And that doesn't mean that you have to go hang out with them. It means that you have to be where they are online. It means you have to go listen into their conversations, listen to the talks online by these people. And just start to get a sense of what are the skills that are really, really important in my niche? And if I don't have them, how do I go out and acquire them? I don't always think that it's the best idea to go back to school or go to art school. There are plenty of other ways to circumvent that that are cheaper and more time efficient. Go check out Skillshare. Go, you know, if you wanna get into editorial work and you feel like maybe there's a way that your work is kind of lacking, maybe conceptually, you know, your skills are lacking. You're not sure if you're really firing on those cylinders. Go check out the Skillshare classes on editorial illustration. There's some great stuff in there and you'll start to notice the vernacular of what this thing's all about and you'll start being able to identify where you even need to grow your skills. 'Cause you might not even know, you might know where it's lacking, but you don't know what you need to do to increase those skills. And so the first one we're looking at is Nathan, the brains. Do you have the skills to make the kind of work that's really gonna shine? Next up on our list, we've got Sean Stockman. I don't know why I remember his last name too, but we've got Sean Stockman. Now Sean's kind of a, you know, he's kind of behind, more behind the scenes. He's not one of the people that's right up in front, necessarily. And to be honest, I don't really know what his part was. I don't know what makes him indispensable in the group. And Sean, if you're listening to this, I'm sure you're a big fan of the show. I love your verses. Sometimes your verses are really my favorite. Your verse in "Water runs dry" is one of my favorite "Boys to Men" moments. So I'm not dissing you. I just don't know exactly what you're bringing to the group in a unique way. So let's call you the emo guy. You were the guy who brought the emotion, right? You really brought the heart and soul to the work that really hit people on a visceral emotional level. I don't know if that's true. I don't actually think it's true. Although you did do that on that "Water runs dry" track. But let's just say that, you brought the value. You brought the heart and soul of the music that really connected with people. And, you know, so right now I'm going through this process. You know, I started and stopped a bunch of books that I couldn't get into. And I'm trying to find the next right book to read. Because when you find that perfect book, you can just kind of hammer through it super fast. Because it's like hitting you right at the right time. And so I've been putting my feelers out to kind of find the next book that I really, really want to read. And so I kind of I've been testing a few different books. And one of the ones I've tested was Your Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman. And it might be the one that I read. It's so far, it's really, really good. And it's just basically all the things that you need to know, like the cheat sheet for a master's in business. And, you know, one of the things he talks about is that if you have a business and you aren't providing any value, any clear value for people, then you really don't have a business. Because the purpose of a business is to give value to people that they trade for money. And I think often we don't think about this enough in our art. Like, do are we providing a real value in service? Not just to, you know, the ad agency, like, yeah, we provided an image. But what does that image actually do for real people? Like, does it actually make them feel anything? You know, what, I try to explain this to my students and it's always kind of difficult because value can be sort of a hard thing to pin down. But, you know, one of the ways I try to talk about it is if you look at a McDonald's commercial versus an old spice commercial, you know, a McDonald's commercial in my mind provides no value. The only thing that, the only value is for McDonald's, which is they're selling their wares, they're subpar burgers. They're, they're, the only value there is for them, right? So there's no value for the customer. It's just buy this stuff. Look how good we are, buy this stuff. Old spice, on the other hand, literally provides value for free, which is here's a funny little piece of content, right? And most of the value is for you. It's entertainment value. And so, when I talk about the students doing their own personal projects, I talk about, you know, what value are you really bringing to these people? And if it's just a cool image, like, oh, that's cool, the internet has enough of that, okay? The internet is chocked full of cool stuff, right? Just, oh, that looks cool. That's not really doing it. That's not really providing value, you know? Like, that, providing value, you know, how can you actually make someone feel something to where they, you know, we do an Instagram project in my class, and I talk about what kind of service can you bring to Instagram to make people's Instagram experience, you know? They're stream, more enjoyable, or more meaningful, or more powerful, or funnier. How can you actually do something with your work? You know, your work might do all the things that it needs to be, it might be really skilled, it might be fantastic in every way on paper, but it doesn't actually do anything to people on a visceral level. Like, when people look at it, they might say, yeah, that's very skilled, right? Like, you might be able to shred a guitar with every single note, but if it doesn't make people feel anything, if it doesn't move them, if it doesn't, you know, hit them on a nostalgic level, or make them laugh, you know, really, people aren't connecting. And if you're not really really giving any value, you know, you're not really valuable to any company. And so, I think that's a good place to start, like, is there, does my work actually do something for people? Like, it actually really provides, not just the service of making an image, but the service of real connection with people. And if you find yourself in that place, start thinking constructively about, how do I actually intentionally try to make people feel something, or make them, you know, if it's not feeling, it could be thinking, how do I do something clever that makes them actually think, that actually does something to them? What's my desired goal for the response from the audience? And when you start thinking more like that, and thinking of your work like a gift in that way, where you're actually giving them something clear, your work can become so much more powerful. - It's holiday shopping time, y'all. It's time to freak out. - Ah! - Not. - Because uncommon goods is here to make it easy. Listen, all I did was click the for her section on this site, and I instantly saw five things that I could get, Sophie, don't tell her, but I'm thinking either the National Park sweaters, the tea advent calendar. There's also just below that little bubble tea kit for my oldest. And then I saw one of these, you know, the retro little viewfinder orange real viewer things, but you can make it your own photos. Okay, it might not make sense. Just you have to go check it out yourself. Here's the thing, I have seriously never seen so many good options for gifts online in one place, and unlike lots of other convenient options, shopping uncommon goods actually supports small businesses. To get 15% off your next gift, go to uncommongoods.com/peptalk. That's uncommongoods.com/peptalk for 15% off. Don't miss out on this limited time offer uncommon goods. We're all out of the ordinary. (upbeat music) Next up on the list, we've got Michael. Michael, now this is a controversial one because Michael is no longer part of the group. They had a falling out of sorts and he's gone. Now, you'll remember Michael, he's the guy who doesn't seem to sing very much at all, but about halfway through the song breaks it down with some heartfelt soul. He just basically says a few words that adds to the narrative of the song in this real bass voice. He's the base of the four-part harmony, and he always has some very heartfelt things to share with the audience. And it stops in the middle of the track and it says, "Baby, remember those times you ran out on me. "It's all good," that's Michael, all right? And he's the bass to the harmony. He's the bass line, right? He's the thing that gives it that foundation to the rest of the stuff. And so for this one, we're talking about content. Like, is your work all fluff? Or is there actually some meat? You know, you've heard these songs, right? And that come along and these pop songs that they're talking about nothing. There's no real substance there, right? You know, these songs where they're like, "You did this to me and I was feeling like that." And you're like, "What?" They're not talking about anything. And actually, you know, I heard James Victoria say once. He's a designer. He referenced James Joyce, another James, the James connection, this James Joyce, the author says that in the universal, no, in the particular lies the universal, right? And so if you get really descriptive about the finer details of your own life, you're gonna unearth some universal principles that other people can sink their teeth into. And so really this point is about does your work, does your portfolio, does it have, is there real stuff? Are you referencing things in real life? Does it, it's the sink your teeth into effect? Or is it all fluff, is it airy? Is it all style, no substance? And so if it lacks that baseline, people are gonna have a really hard time actually connecting to it. And the way that I like to look at this one is, you know all these singing competition shows. I've said this before in the podcast and I'll say it again, 'cause I think it's really, really important. You know, people need something, they need context, they need to be able to attach to it in a familiar way, not so familiar that it's boring, but they need to put it into some kind of context so that they can digest it. If it's too foreign of an object, they don't know what to do with it. And if you look at these singing competitions, you'll find the judges are always trying to get them into some sort of box that can help them connect with an audience, right? You can have these people that, you know, the best contestants never win. You know, the people that are super versatile, they can sing anything, they've got all this talent, they can, you know, they're super interesting, they have all this stuff going on. But if they don't have like a thing like, I'm country, I'm the country guy, or I'm the rocker guy, or I'm the ballad guy, I'm the diva. If you don't have one of those things, you're not gonna get really far in the competition. And if you do, you're gonna be the exception to the rule. But you'll find these, you know, the country guy. He goes way further in the competition than he should just because he has this clear thing that people can sink their teeth into. They're like, well, I love country, I'm voting for that guy. Like, do you have things in your work that speak to real people that they know, oh, this thing's for me, or oh, I really like that thing. And I think you don't have to be obsessed with these things, right? If you're obsessed with making art, you can make art about all kinds of different things. I do think you should lean towards the things you're interested in. But just take a topic. If you're into space, make some astronaut stuff. If you're into pizza, make some pizza stuff. You know, make some stuff that actually has, that's actually about specific things in the real world so that other people can know that you're talking to them. Because if you don't have that, if you don't have anything to sink your teeth into, people are gonna have a hard time knowing what to do with you. You know, I read an article recently by the fantastic designer, Michael Beirut. He is one of the chief designers over at Pentagram Studios, the big, massive, renowned design studio. And he said that, you know, designers are really working with cliches, but trying to make them not too cliche, trying to speak something new into something old. And so when you design, he said when you design a spaghetti label for spaghetti sauce, it can't look so foreign that it goes completely invisible. It can't, the design can't be so different and so disruptive that it really is off-putting and kind of scary to customers. So you have to play within the bounds to a certain degree, but you also have to say a fresh word within that spectrum. And so maybe you can look at your portfolio and say, you know what, I've got a beautiful veneer to everything I'm doing, but I don't really have the baseline. I don't really have content that people can latch on and actually be fans of because everything's too airy, too abstract. And so maybe it's time to just pick a few topics and dive super deep into them so that you can speak to a specific audience and they know that it's for them. (upbeat music) Okay, the last part of the four-part harmony. Juan Yay, the star of the group. He's the guy at the end of the song when everybody else is singing the regular chorus and he's going all over the track, you know, improv and going up and down, going all over the tune, going crazy in the background, right? Like just singing his guts out at the end of the track pretty much every track. And I love those parts, they're my favorite parts. Juan Yay Morris, okay? He is that guy, the wow factor, the added layer, the part that goes nuts, the X factor. The part, does your portfolio have the thing? The thing that when people see it, they're like, man, that is sweet, right? Like, it's really, you can get away with the portfolio. You can get some work, you can connect with some people if you don't have the wow factor, okay? Yeah, you can do it. But let me tell you this, it is much harder. I've tried it, you know, back in the day, I tried to just make really tasteful work. Like, this is really tasteful and the right people will like it and yeah, you know, to a degree it worked. But I'll tell you this, if you can find some things that really give it a veneer that's more exciting, if you can push it a little bit where people are like, I don't really know how you're doing that or there's something about it that looks other. There's something about it that looks supernatural. If you can find that, somehow it is so much easier to sell that portfolio. And, you know, I went on a journey to try to find my own little tips and tricks, my own little things that I did in my work that helped to contribute to that X factor, to that thing that when people see it, they're like, "Ooh, that looks good, that looks nice." And it's really, you know, indescribable. It's not, it's different for every person. But, you know, I heard Chuck Anderson say he's a designer. He said, you know, all these people always griping about getting ripped off. He's like, go try to make something that other people don't know how to rip it off. Like, make something that other people can't figure out how to make. And I think it's actually a really worthwhile pursuit. If you can find some things, if you can find some techniques, you know, where the parts are greater together. Like, think about Bob Ross. I always loved this, right? Bob Ross, the painting instructor extraordinaire, he would do a few little brush strokes, brush strokes. He'd do a few brush strokes that would, you know, look exactly like a tree, but they were these really simple mark making. And that has that wow factor. You know, if you can do a little thing that seems like more than it is. And yeah, it's not something that you can just, you know, okay, I need a little wow factor. Pussow, wow factor. It takes a lot of experimentation. You got to try all kinds of things. And when you start stumbling upon, hey, when I do this, it kind of looks like there's an extra dimension. It kind of looks like there's something else going on there and really gravitate towards building your work up in that way so that when people interact with it, there's that, you know, that physical response to it. Like, ooh, man, I like that. Trying to sell a portfolio without that extra layer of X factor, without that wow factor, it's really, really hard to sell that portfolio in the long run. It's really hard to get lots of clients. And you don't have to, the wow factor doesn't have to be hyper realistic drawing. That although that is an example of wow factor, it can be all kinds of things. It can be totally unique to you. You know, early on, one of the ways that I dealt with this was just more as more. Just going wild on my line work, just doing crazy amounts of lines so that you built up this thing that had that instant gut response like, man, that looks kind of crazy, right? Didn't take any skill. It just took extra effort. And that's one way of doing it. If you can't, if you don't have any crazy tricks yet, just go whole hog and make something, you know, go super deep with it. Just go super meticulous and just go totally into it and make it crazy. But it's so much easier to sell a portfolio that has that wow factor. And I'm always trying to notice in my experiments when I'm doing something that has that extra layer, that indescribable thing that just pushes it forward, that people can have that instant gut level response of like, man, that's, oh, I like that. Don't shy away from that out of, you know, some self-imposed sense of taste where you're not, you know, having the wow factor is beneath you. You know, those artists, those musicians that refuse to have a chorus, refuse to play to the pop, you know, narratives, the typical sounds like don't go so far off the spectrum that you're really impossible to get into. You know, there's a level of accessibility that you really need to have to thrive as an artist. And so I think part of that is don't shy away from, you know, in music it might be the drop, right? You know, when things really hit hard and you hit that emotional thing, you know, something that I hear a lot in movies is like, oh, they really use the soundtrack to manipulate my emotions and I didn't like how they did that. Like, what are you talking about? That's the purpose of the movie is to make you feel something and all of the parts need to come together to do that. And if they did that, they succeeded, right? So don't shy away from that with some kind of stoic version of art. Like, dive in, use the tricks, do them in a tasteful way, do them in a new way, but don't shy away from finding that wow factor or doing those things that really help people connect with your work. So I want to wrap it up. I want to wrap up our in-depth pontification of boys to men, the finer points of what makes boys to men so fantastic on the creative pep doc. But I want to end it here. You know, all jokes aside, boys to men did have some success back in their heyday. And you know, I think one of the reasons why they really worked, maybe the biggest reason was they brought a unique thing to the R&B scene, they actually brought Dew Op and that harmony thing to the hip hop R&B scene and they combined those two things and it created this unique kind of weird thing. They were kind of classically trained singers in this little Dew Op quartet kind of thing and they turned that into R&B music. And so the last thing that I want to say is, you know, I don't like harping on about unique work. You know, I get down with the Paul Rand kind of approach. He said that, you know, don't try to be original, just try to be good. You know, I really do kind of approach things that way, but I think you should be underneath it all striving for some kind of connection to your own unique voice so that you can cut through the noise and have something different to say so that when a job comes up and it requires a certain sort of voice, they pick you over the other contestants, right? And so I think the last part to having that perfect harmony in your portfolio is having some unique point of view, having some unique offering, you know, they call it the unique selling point in business. Like what's the thing about your work that's really different to your competition? For me, I feel like, you know, we are, I feel like I'm part of this group of artists that is making work that's heavily inspired by mid-century stuff. And I really do fit within that crowd. But I have tried to breathe something new into it. Something that maybe isn't an obvious thing. I try to put a psychedelic spin on modernism. So aesthetically, my work is very modernist. You know, there's a lot of restraint going on. There's a lot of, you know, it's minimal in many ways. In the color palette, in the shapes, it's very geometric in a lot of ways. But I try to bring conceptually, some, you know, in the conceptual side, some psychedelic elements and some surrealism. And I never really liked psychedelic art or surreal art. I don't like the way it looks aesthetically, but I love conceptually that they're tapping into, you know, the hidden side of life, the weird side of life. And so I tried to bring that concept to the aesthetics of modernism. And for me, when the lineup is me and my peers, if the brief calls for some magical elements, if it's trying to capture that stuff, I think I usually get the job for that. Because I have some unique selling point. It's different. You know, it's a different voice out there in the market. And so the best way, I think, the best way to find something unique and what I think creativity really is, and I'm not alone in saying this, is combining two things that seem nearly impossible to combine. Because if you think about psychedelic artwork, it's really maximalist. It's really all over the place. Craziness that doesn't make any sense. Mixed with minimalism and modernism, which is all about functionality. It's all about utility. It's all about simplicity, right? So mixing those two things seems nearly impossible. And initially, it was really overwhelming to try to figure out how do these pieces go together. But going on that journey in a lot of ways is the artistic journey. And for me, was really valuable. And now they feel like how could, it's so obvious how these things go together, right? So what I suggest you do is go look for things that are maybe unappealing to other people that speak to you on some level and polish them up so that they're palatable for the market that you're in. You know, for me, I kind of thought about it recently, even as far as saying, let's take the aesthetics of someone like Alexander Gerard who was practicing in the mid-century and I'm obsessed with the aesthetics of his work. And let's combine that with Dolly, you know, the surrealist. Let's combine that with, how about even Lisa Frank, right? Like the 90s, unicorns, crazy, rainbow, the crazy maximalist nature of that and bring that to the constrained Gerard, right? Like combining those things. I think it's really interesting when you take something like Lisa Frank that I think in a lot of ways would be seen as aesthetically kind of crass and ridiculous in adult contemporary culture of today and try to make that palatable to them. That's a really interesting, for me, it's really interesting. It's in trying to combine those. I feel like I'm getting some unique stuff. You know, if you listen to the new Grimes album, she has this music that is in so many ways, very contemporary, very cutting edge, very like indie and palatable in those ways. But she's also bringing in that old, you know, early 2000s, 90s, like Eurotrash, like, you know, that song, I'm blue, like that stuff that's like, or like Aqua, I'm a Barbie girl. It's very much like that too. And so I was really inspired by that. Like, how can you take these things that other people don't see any value in and really make them palatable in a new way? Like combining them with things that are interesting. And then you're gonna get some unique things. And if you can do that, that's almost the best way to have your portfolio cut through all the other stuff online. You can't go too far in that towards ugly and nobody likes it. You need to be careful in that balance, but I think it's a worthwhile pursuit. And so that's it. That's the perfect harmony. That's how you get all those cylinders firing. And I suggest that you go look and if you're not succeeding in the way that you'd like to be, you know, one of the biggest things you need to do is make sure that your work is so good that they can't ignore you. That Steve Martin quote. Like go back and just assume, I'm always assuming. And that my work isn't up to snuff. That there's always something that I need to be tweaking and working on. And so recently, you know, I forgot that feeling again. I went back through my portfolio and I just tried to take some sober judgments of what's really missing here. Like what, what things are really not working. And actually there were parts of this criteria that I felt like it was actually falling short of right now. And so this is just stuff that I'm learning right now. I don't have it all figured out. And so take a look, go through your Instagram, go through your website and just take a look, take it through this criteria and see if there's some places where it really doesn't measure up. And don't get overwhelmed by that. Just make a plan of action. You know, do some experiments. Go learn some things and really try to build your portfolio in a new way so that you can get some different results. (upbeat music) All right, that's all I've got this week. I'm excited about the "Boys to Men" episode of the podcast. It was a long time coming. Maybe soon we'll do a "Fragal Rock" podcast. I could do an infinity amount of "Fragal Rock" podcasts. I genuinely am obsessed with "Fragal Rock." It's not a joke. "Boys to Men" is a little bit more of a joke. I'm not saying you're a joke. If you're listening to this, Nathan, Michael, Sean or Juan Yay, I'm not saying you're a joke. I'm just saying that, you know, I'm not deeply passionate about "Boys to Men" per se, although I do listen to them from time to time. I am deeply passionate about "Fragal Rock," however, and I will talk at length to support this passion and obsession. So I hope this was valuable. I hope you can find some things in your portfolio that you really need to work on so that you can get those goals that you're looking for in this new year. So you can find some new places and new results that you've been looking for. Thank you guys so much for the enthusiasm on the show. So many of you reached out recently and thanked me for the show, and that means so much to me. It's, you know, extremely humbling and awesome to know that my journey, the things that I'm learning, the things that I'm going through are affecting other people in a positive way and, you know, I've really heard some testimonies of things like some tangible things that have happened from stuff that you've learned on the podcast, and that is just the best thing ever. It's one of the best things in my life. So thank you so much. You can find this show on illustrationage.com/creativepeptalk. You can find it at mysitewww.andyj.pizza. You can find it on soundcloud.com/creativepeptalk. You can find it on iTunes. Right now, we're in the top five on the design charts on iTunes, and that is so sweet. I'm so pumped about that. Thank you guys for listening, sharing, reviewing the podcast, and backing on Patreon. You guys are awesome. I've got some new things coming to the Patreon soon. Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate it. Continue to do whatever it takes to get excited about making the work so that day after day, you can make small contributions to this overall goal, this bigger journey of thriving financially and making great work. Thanks guys, stay panda. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) - Hey y'all, one more quick thing. Earlier this year, I rebuilt my website using Squarespace's new fluid engine, and I was so pumped about how it turned out that I have been really thrilled to find as many ways to partner with them and tell you about what they can do and bring you discounts as possible. With social media going haywire, I think having a site that feels as unique as your creative work is essential to building trust with your target audience or your clients. I have had several clients point out how cohesive and fresh my site looks lately, and if you wanna check that out and what I was able to do without any code, check out AndieJPizza.com. If you wanna test it out, go to squarespace.com/peptalk to test it out yourself and when you're ready to launch, use promo code PEPTALK for 10% off your first purchase. Thanks Squarespace for supporting the show and for supporting creative people. - I'm Whit Msildine, the creator of this is actually happening, a podcast from Wondery that brings you extraordinary true stories of life-changing events. Told by the people who lift them. From a young man that dooms his entire future family with one choice, to a woman that barely survived her roommate, we dive into what happened and hear their intimate first-person account of how they overcame remarkable circumstances. Follow this is actually happening on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app.