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Gifted Artist Floating After Graduation
Q: One of our daughters is a gifted and multi-talented artist, so we sent her to an art school where she amassed an impressive portfolio in different media — photography, pencil sketches, watercolors, pastels, knitting, crocheting, computer-generated designs and more. She graduated last year from a school for creative careers that promised to help her find a job, but it did not help, and it closed forever, declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
She has had several freelance projects, but has no clue how to be a successful, self-employed artist and digital media professional. She will put 20 to 30 hours into a design for a T-shirt and is lucky if she gets $50 for her effort. I told her she shouldn't give Mona-Lisa quality at greeting-card prices. When I asked her if she would accept a job for $2 an hour, she told me I just don't get it.
She is in her mid-20s, and I'm concerned about her future. I want to guide her, but I'm uncomfortable being her academic advisor, job counselor and social worker. We are able to support her now (she lives at home with us), but I know she would like to be able to get her own place.
A: You are part of an ever-so-large group of parents helping their recent college grad children to survive in this job market. When your daughter says, "You don't get it," she is referring to the prices an artist can command for creative products. Artists can charge according to talents displayed by the finished piece, but an artist who takes 50 hours can't automatically charge more than an artist who takes 20 hours if the results are equal.
One drawback for your daughter to market herself is that her talents and skills are broad, which may translate to a company thinking she is scattered across the creative field. It's great to have the talent and a portfolio in various areas, but an ad agency seeking a graphic designer wants to see an extensive portfolio in that focus area. If a person wants a job writing ad copy, showing short stories and poetry isn't going to cut it. She can share her other work in an interview to show she is multi-talented, but she first has to show her passion for the artwork needed in that job.
Next, she has to decide if she wants to start her own business or put her efforts into finding a full-time job as a graphic designer, illustrator or any title she can show her proficiency in through a portfolio. Job searches take a full-time commitment and practice for her to sell herself to any particular company.
Often the creative side of an artist precludes the entrepreneurial business skills needed to start one's own business. Each ability you listed could be a business unto itself. For example, designing T-shirts, painting jeans and running shoes, knitting a line of scarves, hats and mittens, designing album covers for singers, or any area she favors all have the potential for earning money. If you can help your daughter zero in on her greatest talent — the one she is truly passionate about — and guide her in creating a focused portfolio, she may find it easier to market herself as a success-driven artist.
You can't be her social worker, but you can act as her business manager. Let her take advantage of the time she is living at home and don't allow her to flounder in a creative but scattered way. You also must allow her to change her focus area if she decides she doesn't like the first few paths she tries.
Finally, if she can't decide on any specific area among the many talents, it might be time to lead her to a qualified psychologist for assessment testing to see if there's an underlying problem preventing her from being able to concentrate on one area. Consider this year as her preparation period toward a career, and let her know about the deadline. Tough love shouldn't be cruel, but it must be firm.
Email all your questions to workplace expert Lindsey Novak at LindseyNovak@yahoo.com. She answers all emails. To find out more about Lindsey Novak and to read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate Website at www.creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2013 CREATORS.COM 
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Comments
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10 Comments | Post Comment
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She should look for a job as a graphic designer. She has the portfolio for it. If she does that for a few years while she gains experience and does freelance work on the side, eventually she can launch her own business with her former employers as clients if all goes well. She needs to demonstrate that she can successfully run photo shoots or print campaigns for companies who pay people to do that, and it's a lot more likely to happen if she begins inside their doors.
Comment: #1
Posted by: LouisaFinnell
Wed May 1, 2013 11:13 PM
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Here are some pointers to starting an Art Business
1)Join a local guild of artists, Mixed Media is a good start since it encompasses all mediums (paint, photo, fiber, sculpture) If there isn't a local guild get onto “Meet Up” and try to locate a group of people who share your talents or start one.
2) Purchase and read the book, “I'd rather be in the studio” by Alyson B. Stanfield. The statement of the book is “The Artist's No-Excuse Guide to Self-Promotion” Alyson does a fantastic job of guiding an artist to good promotion of their work. She also has a blog and you can register for a daily newsletter packed full of good suggestions.
3)Find the art shows and festivals in the area and start submitting entries to them. The costs range from $30-300 depending on the venue. This will get her work seen and hopefully purchased. She will also build valuable contacts in the “Art World” and will get new leads and friends.
4)Enter State Fairs and other judged competitions, she can ad “prize winning” to her resume. Also enter contests in periodicals such as “Cloth Paper Scissors” or “Artist'” or any other art publication.
5)Invest in post cards of her best pieces with her contact information printed on the back to hand out at art shows
6)Start a blog and show detailed step by step “how to's” to making her art.
As for pricing, you can only get what someone thinks your work is worth. So the secret is to start at a fair cost and build from there. $50 for a T-Shirt logo, especially if it will be used as a resale is a pittance. $50 + $.50 per shirt sold would be fair and that is negoiatable up front.
Usually people under price their items and that frustrates other artists who have theirs marked at a fair price. She may want to check out pricing at other shows and gallery's to see what she should charge starting out. She can ALWAYS go up.
She also may want to try and find a job in the Art World at an Art Museum or Gallery, this would at least get her gainful employment in her field.
Comment: #2
Posted by: commentator
Thu May 2, 2013 7:54 AM
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Your daughter needs courses in marketing. Art schools don't train artists to make a living.NO ONE OWES YOUR DAUGHTER A JOB OR ANYTHING ELSE.Joining an artist's group will only reinforce self-destructive behaviors which lead away from employment.As a college instructor we helped many aristic teenagers disguished as adults to find a way to put food on their tables. It invoved paid employment not cushioning by parents who don't live in the real world.
Comment: #3
Posted by: retired
Fri May 3, 2013 8:32 AM
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Wow! It's true: there's no one as smart as all of us together. So much good advice here. I'm going to sift through this and design an approach that my husband and I can use to guide our daughter towards a stable and fulfilling career. Thank you, one and all, for chiming in, and being the village we need to raise our child!
Comment: #4
Posted by: mamajava
Fri May 3, 2013 12:30 PM
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LW1--I'm sorry but your daughter is learning the hard way why it is imperative for people like her to minor in something that yields a real, marketable skill. Today's economy requires real, tangible skills; evidently employers don't value artistic and creative talent as much as they do engineering or computer savvy. Sorry, but that's the hard truth. Also compounding the problem is that very likely, if your daughter typifies many of the artists I know personally, she's her own worst enemy when it comes to marketing or selling herself. Your daughter spends 30 hours on designing a t-shirt because she's passionate about art and enjoys her craft immensely. While this is wonderful, it doesn't pay the bills. Designing websites and managing a brand do! My advice is to encourage your daughter to go back to school and update her skills to include business and marketing. Once she has those marketable skills, she'll be able to combine them with her creative knack to earn money with her art projects on the side while also holding a nine-to-five job that actually pays enough for her to make a living.
Comment: #5
Posted by: Chris
Sat May 4, 2013 3:51 PM
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Today's economy requires real, tangible skills; evidently employers don't value artistic and creative talent as much as they do engineering or computer savvy. Sorry, but that's the hard truth.
***********
Nope. Not even close. It sounds almost verbatim from what clueless guidance counselors told high school students 30 or 40 years ago, not foreseeing the information overload about to hit consumers and the growing importance of design to overcome that: in ads, products, brochures, presentations, packaging, websites, even landscaping and interiors.
They're paying big bucks for all of that, to people who understand the importance of using their design skills to advance the message of the client. And that's exactly why LW's daughter spent many hours on that T-shirt design --not because she liked spending time in the studio, but because she understood (as Lindsay Novak does) that future prospective employers would be looking with great interest at that piece in her portfolio, to see how she executed the client's (often garbled and contradictory) instructions into a design that incorporated her skill. That T-shirt, as part of her portfolio, is an advertisement for her work, and will be until she has enough other assignments to supplant it, and it was therefore worth spending the extra time on. (Doubtless,she won't need or be able to spend that kind of time on each assignment down the road...but it's critical early on to make sure you, as well as the client, are satisfied with the design.)
I work closely with our company's designers, and I've seen how their influence has grown in just the last decade.
LW: One other thought. If your daughter has talent for photography, she may want to start a blog as a hobby. Photographing projects she does for fun and blogging about them can be a lucrative hobby as people start pinning her works on Pinterest and following her blog -- that translates into ads that can be nice extra income. You don't even have to be a talented writer, as long as you're entertaining, and your instructions are clear enough to let readers re-create similar projects in their home. Worth considering.
Comment: #6
Posted by: hedgehog
Sun May 5, 2013 3:08 PM
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@ Hedgehog Re: #6
"I work closely with our company's designers, and I've seen how their influence has grown in just the last decade."
And I can name eight highly qualified, creative people who hold degrees in graphic design or other creative fields who have either been laid off in the last two years or cannot find work. I think that speaks to what employers value.
Comment: #7
Posted by: Chris
Tue May 7, 2013 7:44 PM
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Seriously, Chris?
I'm married to a production coordinator whose work requires graphic skills. I work with more than 15 artists on staff, and several temps. Of the many layoffs this large company (more than 100 now, down from over 400) had here, fewer than 2 have been artists. One was laid off, I suspect, for resistance to new ideas. Far more layoffs came in administrative, editorial, finance, marketing, HR and other divisions.
We've had numerous artists LEAVE, yes -- for positions they found elsewhere. I've also worked with 3 freelance graphic designers hired through a temp agency.
In a visual age with digital cameras everywhere, businesses don't want to risk their products/services going ignored or dismissed simply because of poor design. You may not have encountered that end of the business world, but I live there.
Comment: #8
Posted by: hedgehog
Thu May 9, 2013 11:06 AM
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commentators comment is spot on and I'd like to ad a couple more things: take a class in being self employed, learn to do a cost ratio analysis of all projects so you know which you make money at and which you don't, find items that you can mass produce cheaply or affordably and give you the most bang for your buck and sell them at bazaars and non profits to give you the money to do the other things you need or want to. Many non-profits in my city have gift shops and will sell your items on consignment. There are also a few coffee shops around here that sell artists works on consignment. There are saturday markets, farmers markets and other venues. Decide which part of your talents you are best at, enjoy the most and are the most profitable, they don't always match but it's important. I know lots of artists that actually do not earn money for the things they find most enjoyable because they don't want to spoil their pleasure by adding the stress of having to make money off of it. Volunteer do jobs with non-profits. make sure you don't over extend yourself, promise too much, or give too much away for free. Make sure you always have every item marked with your mark and a copyright protection. Work with schools too, my son's school had an artist as the art coordinator for an entire year, the job enabled her to get a paid position somewhere else the next year. There are a lot of options and it's nice that she can come home and work it out and it's good to have someone pushing a bit now and then as well. Best of luck to your daughter. I hope this doesn't double post, it keeps telling me incorrect captcha. but I forgot to mention a couple other things, start an Etsy shop and look at having designs that can be sold on cafepress and other similar websites.
Comment: #9
Posted by: Laurie
Thu May 9, 2013 2:10 PM
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Etsy isn't a bad idea, Laurie, but LW's daughter shouldn't look to it as a sole source of support. It's supplemental at best,because the time invested in creating and photographing quality pieces is almost never going to be reflected in the selling price. A number of craft bloggers have written about this.
It IS worth pursuing as supplemental, though, because if she blogs, she will need to create a steady stream of attractive products and how-to tutorials to attract eyes and subsequently advertiser dollars, and she most likely won't be able to use all of them herself, nor give them as gifts. Etsy is better than a garage sale, or trying to connect with retail shop owners, who will want her to craft multiple identical pieces, and who will factor their own efforts/space into the final sales price. And an Etsy shop, along with the blog, provides potential employers with at-a-glance info about her design skills.
Comment: #10
Posted by: hedgehog
Sun May 12, 2013 9:05 AM
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