5 Reasons You Have to be Creating Your Own Content
(reposted from Andy J Miller)
5 Reasons You Have to be Creating Your Own Content
(And what does it say about me that I’m reposting this? 
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1. Traditional Marketing and Advertising is dead!
Look at an extremely successful designer or illustrator and you will see a strong body of content.
We all know advertising is actually SPAM! We want value, we don’t want to look at something someone paid a price for us to see, we want to see good stuff that we choose to see. We choose to see great content, and we form great bonds with people and organizations that make great content. Forget about mailer campaigns, make something worth sharing!
2. The Best Projects Require More Than Your Hands!
The best clients I have ever had were asking me to add more than drawing. It can be a little scary, but these opportunities have all been on the back of content I have made. When you create content you show the value you can add with your head, not just your hands!
These projects are the best paying and most fun, but the only way they will trust you with this type of work, is if you prove you can do it with your own content.
3. Add Value To Your Community
If you are part of community of any kind, creating content is the most valuable part of your conversation. Instead of taking and critiquing the community, you are making it. This gives you authority in the conversation and appreciation. Be lavish in your giving of content, you probably owe your community a lot.
4. Learn About Yourself
When you start to make content you will notice what you enjoy, what is best received and where you feel most comfortable. When you start adding material to your style, your style develops and starts to follow your material. When you start looking inward for content you start to get to know yourself better, which develops your craft.
5. If You Don’t Want to Make Your Own Content Maybe You Need to Do Something Else…
At the end of the day, if creating content sounds like a chore, or you’ve tried and it is a chore, I can see only two conclusions: one you haven’t found the type of content you love to make or worse… you need to find something else to do with your life. If you don’t love this creative field you will not make it, and if you hate creating content you probably don’t love this field, i.e. time to take the career aptitude tests all over again!
Has creating your own content been valuable to you?
Hey Jess – Regarding #2, could you give a few examples of what clients requested in addition to drawing? (Text is an easy assumption, just wondering if there are other considerations.)
Strangely (& for a time disappointing) my own value has been in identifying content I love vs the content I’m able to create with 100% confidence/skill/pride. Frex, I love longform graphic novels, but I don’t have the stamina/attention span for it (I write it but can’t draw it), so, for the time being at least, I’m focused on very short works (comics stories in the 1-6 page range & strips) & posters/fine art.
Hey RoosterTree—thanks for the comment! While I won’t even try and speak for Andy, my experience has been that clients often ask for a personality, which is a kind of content.
It’s the difference between drawing a turtle and drawing a turtle that will connect with certain readers and viewers, and communicate a certain message. See what I mean? It’s intent, and it’s focus. Keeping in mind that drawing X is being used for X purpose, rather than just making another drawing.
“An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.” ~ James McNeill Whistler
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I can totally relate with you on knowing what you can come up with vs what you can bring to fruition. It’s a smart way to way, I think, because you’re being honest with yourself and are mindful of your abilities. I’ve had to shut down ideas entirely, knowing that I couldn’t execute them well enough to work. Still, we people are engineered to progress, so we’ve got to constantly be pushing our own boundaries.
Not to get all preachy, but I’ve always loved the scripture from Ether in the Book of Mormon, that says “And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble…then will I make weak things become strong unto them” (Ether 12:27). I love that we have weaknesses to help us become stronger.
‘Personality’ – that’s a tricky one. I’ve turned down requests for certain things, like drawing someone as their fave superhero, b/c they were thinking along the lines of a MacFarlane or J.R.Jr style drawing that I can’t deliver.
Although I’m anti-religious, the lesson you quote applies across all belief systems & lack thereof, that weaknesses can become strengths &, for creatives, limitations become assets to creativity.
I do have a new plan for tackling longform stories, I just haven’t had the opportunity lately to try it out, emulating Clowes’ style of making each page its own titled story/chapter; it might serve to make the long haul feel not quite so long
Great point! Comic book store signings are always a little strange for me, because I get a lot of requests to draw Batman and Iron Man, and I prefer to draw them differently than they appear in the comics. I feel bad for the kids who get cartoon characters instead, but I would feel worse if I just mimicked other artists all day.
You’re right! It was just the quote that came to mind at the time. Thanks for understanding.
That’s exciting, to know that you’re planning a new way to tackle longform stories! I think that any way you can break things down into smaller bits is good. I even know creators that alternate their workflow, so that every day they switch from writing to drawing and back again. It keeps things fresh. Is there a particular story you’re working toward?