Archive for April, 2009
April 30, 2009
3 Comments
[The Purple Cow print. 39“x28”]
A few days ago, with the blessing of Seth Godin, I announced the Purple Cow Print. Here are some more of my thoughts, in no particular order:
1. I wanted to create an icon for the world I currently live in. The internet-enabled, Marketing 2.0 world. Seth’s 2003 book, “Purple Cow” seemed to sum up that world for me best. Turning into a print i.e. an iconic version of the world he spoke about, was a no-brainer. You walk into somebody’s office and see that print on their wall, you have no doubt whatsoever which worldview he’s aligned to.
2. I learned this while marketing wine: What’s interesting is not the liquid in the bottle, or what vineyard it came from, but the conversations that happen around it. Same with art. I wanted to make a print that HAD NO CHOICE but to start a conversation. A conversation about what? Not the work of art per se, but what the thing that the icon represents– the ideas in the book.
3. It’s the biggest print I have made so far: 39x28”. That’s BIG for a print. That’s a lot of purple.
4. Though I used “Web 2.0″ tech to market it, in many ways the print was a statement AGAINST what Web 2.0 seems to have been evolving into these last couple of years… a place where the shiny new tools seem to matter A LOT MORE to people than the objects people were building WITH the shiny new tools.
5. Though I’m really, really unbelievably happy with the number of pre-orders we have gotten so far, I believe the print will be A LOT MORE interesting to A LOT MORE people once they see it hanging on other people’s walls. Once they see the molecules with their own eyes. Once THE REAL conversations begin. The central thesis to Seth’s book is “Be Remarkable”. I went all meta and used his book design as a starting point to create something remarkable myself.
6. Somebody asked me recently if the way I marketed my prints [i.e. via Web 2.0] was part of the artwork itself? Well, I believe that all art is informed by its social dimension, including the commercial bit. The fact that you bought the print off a blog, rather than from a traditional art gallery, does indeed inform the story behind it. But you can just as easily take that theory so far. In the end, it’s made of paper and hangs on a wall. Theory can be a distraction. sometimes.
7. One of my great cartoonist heroes, Charles Schultz, once said, “If I were better at drawing, I’d make paintings. If I were better at writing, I’d write books. So instead I draw cartoons”. That’s exactly how I feel about my own work. I don’t see my work hanging in the Louvre any time soon. What I do see, however, and what gets far more interesting to me with time, is how people use my work fro their own ends, for helping them find their own sense of purpose. Seth’s book, or this print, won’t change your life. ONLY YOU will change your life. It’s only the job of the artist or writer to maybe give you a nudge in the right direction.
8. I am insanely grateful to Seth Godin for allowing me to run with this idea. He rules. Thank you, Seth!
[Check out The Purple Cow print over at gapingvoidgallery.com.]
4 Comments
For years now, I’ve been riffing on “The Global Microbrand”, something I’ve always wanted to create for myself:
A small, tiny brand, that “sells” all over the world…The Global Microbrand is sustainable. With it you are not beholden to one boss, one company, one customer, one local economy or even one industry. Your brand develops relationships in enough different places to where your permanent address becomes almost irrelevant.
And from what became glaringly obvious early on, a lot of my fellow bloggers had the same idea. To which I’ve always said, “Hurrah!”:
So then the next question is, when does your microbrand become TRULY global? Where is the tipping point?
Your guess is as good as mine, it really all depends on your definition of “global”. Although this blog has had readers from all over the planet for many years, most of my actual, paid business over time has come from the UK and America. So it never felt THAT global to me.
Then last week I shipped an order of signed prints to a client in Brazil…
And then today, somebody from Mainland China purchased a Purple Cow print. We’re talking “Mainland”. Not Hong Kong. Not Taiwan. Mainland.
Something interesting is happening, I can feel it…
33 Comments
My recent interview with Lateral Action got me thinking about “Myth”:
The way artists market themselves is by having a great story, by having a “Myth”. Telling anecdotal stories about Warhol, Pollack, Basquiat, Van Gogh is both (A) fun and (B) has a mythical dimension… if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have had movies made about them. The art feeds the myth. The myth feeds the art.
We all know how mythologies build up around art and artists, that over time informs the artist’s work itself.
Warhol’s weirdly destructive social scene at The Factory in the 1960s. Pollack’s excessive drinking. Van Gough’s descent into madness. Keith Haring’s wild party times in the New York gay scene…
Let’s say you spent a sizable chunk of money on a work by an artist you love. Let’s just say you couldn’t really justify it financially, you probably couldn’t afford it, but dammit, you just HAD to have it.
Let’s say you’re showing off the work to a friend, which is now proudly hanging in your office. Let’s say your friend never heard of the artist before.
“What???” your friend says, “You spent HOW MUCH on that? But it’s only some green and blue blotches!“
So you give your friend some background information. You tell him how famous the guy was back in New York in the 1970s, how “Breakthrough” his work was at the time, how he was influenced by Famous Artists A, B and C, and how he went on to influence Later Famous Artists X, Y and Z. You tell anecdotal stories about his tumultuous marriage to a famous, Japanese novelist [who’s work is also now making a comeback], and his up-and-down, booze-soaked relationship with Famous Artist K, his brief, heartbreaking love affair with Famously Tragic Socialite P, his battle with alcohol and drugs, and the old farm he retired to up in Woodstock, New York.
Hopefully by the time you are done with your story, though he may not end up being a collector of the artist himself, he at least will understand more clearly the work’s resonance, and why you made the purchase.
And of course, so will you. Because it wasn’t just your friend who needed to hear the story. You needed to hear the story, as well. You needed to be able to tell yourself that story, that story NEEDED TO EXIST, or else you simply would have not bought the painting in the first place. Without the story, without the “Myth”, you could not have justified purchasing the work to yourself [let alone your wife].
We don’t just do this for $40K works of art, we use the some mythological techniques when we buy computers, breakfast cereal, or bars of soap. Our lives are only as meaningful as the myths we can create for ourselves. And we like to create myths around the objects that fill up our lives. That’s what “Branding” is all about.
The more I think about marketing art, the more I think how what I’m learning applies to marketing everything else. Because art is not particularly utilitarian, the myth is key.
And unless you can understand the myth that informs whatever product you’re trying to sell, the harder your job will be. The more you can TRULY understand the myth, the bigger an edge you will have over your competition. I am right on this one.
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[“Murmer”. Ink & Pencil on Moleskine. April, 2009.]
I have some new original pieces for sale on my gapingvoid gallery page, including three new “Moleskine” pieces.
I’m asking myself a lot these days, “How did I get into the art business?” It certainly wasn’t intentional. That could be a good thing, of course…
I hope you’ll check them out. Thanks, Everybody!
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Mark McGuinness interviewed me recently over at the Lateral Action blog. Probably my best interview ever. A huge amount of what I’ve been thinking about lately somehow managed to make it onto the page. For example:
2. A lot of artists and creative types see marketing as an evil necessity — or just plain evil. What would you say to them?
“Artists cannot market” is complete crap. Warhol was GREAT at marketing. As was Picasso and countless other “Blue Chips”. Of course, they’d often take the “anti-marketing” stance as a form of marketing themselves. And their patrons lapped it up.
The way artists market themselves is by having a great story, by having a “Myth”. Telling anecdotal stories about Warhol, Pollack, Basquiat, Van Gogh is both (A) fun and (B) has a mythical dimension… if they didn’t, they wouldn’t have had movies made about them. The art feeds the myth. The myth feeds the art.
The worst thing an artist can do is see marketing as “The Other”, i.e. something outside of themselves. It’s not.
Thanks Mark! I enjoyed that.
April 28, 2009
9 Comments
[UPDATE: A picture of me holding up one of the Purple Cow prints. They look UTTERLY AMAZING in real life…]
[“Purple Cow” Printer’s Proof, photographed straight on. Dimension: 39“x28”, Click on image to enlarge etc.]
[The original design. Click on Image to Enlarge etc]
A couple of weeks ago I posted a new cartoon, basically a re-working of the front cover of my friend and mentor, Seth Godin’s seminal 2003 marketing book, “Purple Cow”. Like I told Seth in an e-mail:
It has occurred me many times recently, that one reason MANY, MANY people in the world are currently suffering during this current recession/crisis/whatever, is simply because they didn’t follow the advice in Purple Cow.
That’s a bit simplistic, I know, but it still has a ring of truth too it.
ALL your books are great, but Jeeze, Purple Cow is the one that really got under my skin, which is really what inspired the big drawing I did. To me the book, as a totem, as an icon, represents a huge shift in thinking that came along, almost uninvited, back in the early 2000’s. The drawing represents [to me] my own ability to internalize it.
You and I both somehow managed to find a way to currently live in this Purple Cow/Hughtrain world now, that we wrote about 5+ years ago. But now I see that same world suddenly arriving for millions of people… and it’s cold & scary for a great many of them.
Which is why I now think people now need to read Purple Cow more than ever…
I read Seth’s book right about the same time I really started to “get” this whole blogging and Web 2.0 thing. Purple Cow was almost iconic to me.
Which is why it was easy for me to envisage it as an icon.
So with Seth’s blessing, I turned this icon into literally ANOTHER icon– a very large, purple, iconic, fine art print. A “Totem”, as it were. Like Seth said on his blog, when he first announced the print earlier today:
Totem poles have been around for a long time, because they work. We need a place to tell our stories, and a reminder of what to talk about.
On a professional level, the stuff Seth talks about in Purple Cow is still very relevant. Be remarkable, Everyone is a marketer etc.- is what to me, Web 2.0 was all about. It WASN’T about yakking on endlessly about the latest shiny object or the latest crazy web-celeb stunt. It was about getting interesting ideas, products and services out to market a lot more cheaply, quickly and easily than it ever was before before. THAT’S WHAT EXCITED ME.
And that’s what this “Totem” is ALSO all about.
The print will be co-signed by both me and Seth. A limited edition of 380.
You can a pre-order one below for $495.00 below by making $150 PayPal deposit. This offer is open only to the first 100 people who respond. Once they’re in production, you can purchase one at the retail price of $1,100.00 over at The gapingvoid Gallery, my new e-commerce website that launched officially today.
Seth and I are planning on having some sort of “Signing Party” in mid-June up in New York City, to sign the prints live. If you’re in town, I hope you can make it.
Thanks, Seth, this is going to be insanely great!
[The Small Print:]
1. The pre-order price is $495.00 for the first one hundred people who order. Once the prints have been co-signed by both me and Seth, the price reverts back to retail i.e. $1,100.00
2. It will be a limited edition of 380 serigraphs, plus artist’s proofs. All prints will be co-signed and dated by both me and Seth.
3. The prints will be shipped out circa July 1st, 2009, soon after the NY print party.
[Click on PayPal $150 Deposit]
4. To secure your pre-order, please use the PayPal button above to make a $150 deposit. The PayPal form will ask you for all your details [including your preferred shipping address], which of course we’ll have for our records. Why are we asking for a deposit? To weed out the spammers, flakes and trolls out there [This is the Internet, after all], leaving only committed buyers in the mix. No other reason.
5. When asked for your details, please include your real name, not just your business name. The shipper won’t deliver it otherwise.
6. We’ll email you a PayPal form for the outstanding invoice once the artwork is printed, packed and ready for shipping.
7. We’ll be printing these to the same high standards as always i.e. top-of-the-line inks and paper, approx 39″ x 28″ in dimension. Please note this print is quite larger than the earlier editions, so make sure you free up plenty of wall space!
8. Shipping & handling [approx $45 USA, $65 abroad] is not included in the price. The buyer is also responsible for any Customs & Excise outside the USA. We ship them rolled, protected in tissue paper, in extra sturdy, 5-inch mailing tubes. If you insist on having it shipped flat, we can certainly do that for you, but it costs extra and the risk of shipping damage is far higher.
9. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me an email at gapingvoidprints@gmail.com, and either Laura or me will happily answer them.
10. Thanks, as always, for your love and support!
April 25, 2009
12 Comments
[Brian Manley kindly just sent me a picture from his Flickr stream of his new “We Need To Talk” print, framed and hanging in his office. Thanks, Brian!]
A while ago, I talked about “Social Markers”, a form of “Social Object” that places you in context within a group.
Social Markers are a prime form of social shorthand, that people use to STAKE OUT the ecosystem they’re occupying. So why do I find this such a useful term for marketers? Because obviously, if your product is a Social Marker in your industry ecosystem [the way the iPhone is in the mobile world, or Starbucks is in the coffee world, or Amazon is the book world, or Google is in the search world, or Whole Foods is in the supermarket world, or Virgin is in the airline world, or English Cut in the bespoke world etc etc] you will have an AMAZING competitive advantage to call your own.
And if the product your company makes is not a Social Marker, I guess the first question would be, “Why the hell not?” Quit your job and start over.
A few weeks ago I read an article in The Economist about how very rich Russians have suddenly started buying the art of Damien Hirst and other Western Contemporaries in large numbers.
Hirst is very, very famous. His work sells for millions. We could argue his work’s artistic merits till the cows come home… his work is cleverly designed to provoke that kind of controversy, anyway. But I’m not here to play art critic. I’m here to talk about something else.
When people buy expensive, famous art, it’s not just about the art in question. It’s also about the social dynamic that surrounds it.
When you spend a king’s ransom on a work of art, you are basically sending a message to the world, “I HAVE ARRIVED”.
“I, too, am now a member of a certain elite group. Like my peers, I too can appreciate and afford the likes of Hirst, or Warhol, or Johns, Rauschenberg, Matisse, Picasso etc etc. “
“Art as Social Marker”. Exactly.
People buy large yachts for the same reason. Or large apartments in Mayfair or Central Park South. Or deerstalking estates in Scotland. Or golf memberships to Augusta. Or islands in the Caribbean. “Social” drives the purchase just as much as the object’s inherent utility, probably more.
As far as I can tell, people don’t buy my work to advertise the fact that they’ve arrived somewhere BIG, like these wealthy Russians buying Damien’s work.
It seems more like to me, people buy my work because they ASPIRE to arrive somewhere, one day. Somewhere interesting and meaningful, with any luck.
Wherever that place may be, I can relate. I hope to arrive there one day, too…
3 Comments
[The “AgenciaClick” prints being signed and numbered…]
[The “Wolf vs Sheep” prints, freshly signed and numbered…]
I’m in Miami for the weekend, mainly here to sign some more prints and do some more drawing…
Drawn in Alpine, Texas. Printed in NYNY. Signed in Miami. Sold all over the world, via the Internet. A global microbrand, if ever there was one…
April 23, 2009
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In my last CDF Newsletter I asked people to please send me any pictures they might have of my prints in their possession.
Larry kindly sent me two, with the following note:
Attached is my “Purple Puppy” on my far kitchen wall, alongside a Haring print I bought 20 years ago at his Pop Shop in NYC.
Also attached is “Techcrunch Party 2006″ in my old office space. What’s interesting is that it survived an major electrical explosion and fire in that building two years ago, and was the first thing I checked when allowed a brief visit while the building was closed for weeks afterward.
And, yes, I am a Crazy, Deranged Fool. Started my own small PR firm on Nov. 1, 2008, while Wall Street was imploding, replaced my prior income, and just recently exceeded it, with more growth imminent. Won’t kid you — the first two months were scary. But I stuck with it, and am merrily pressing on.
– Larry Bouchie
Thanks, Larry! If you have any print photos yourself– especially ones with PEOPLE in them, please feel free to send them to me at gapingvoid@gmail.com. Thanks!
4 Comments
[“Fred 44″. Click on image to enlarge etc.]
Last year I worked on a large, 18“x24” pencil & ink drawing called, “Fred 44″.
It was a study for what went on to become my largest painting to date, “DesertManhattan”.
My friend, Laura owns a really nice camera, so we decided to take another picture of it.
Voila! Hope you like…
April 22, 2009
10 Comments
[Photo of The Experience Studio. Those sixteen small panels on the right are actually my cartoons.]
In my latest “Crazy Deranged Fools” newsletter that I sent out earlier today, I wrote about “The Kinetic Quality”:
We’ve always seen the Kinetic Quality working in marketing, working with brands. “By buying Brand X, I feel hipper, cooler, sexier, more secure, more in control” etc etc. But what I’m finding out is, this also works with art. To me, the interesting thing about art is not the usual “Heroic, absinthe-soaked, vision quest lone individual archetypal artist crap”, but how the art is USED by the person who has it hanging on the wall. What’s it actually there for? Decoration? Showing off? A conversation starter? An ice breaker? A way of telling a story? Something to brighten up the room? A symbol of social status? An expression of individual worldview? An expression of emotion? A totem to remind oneself of something inspirational and/or important? Perhaps a bit of all these?
So I’m seeing two worlds collide here: The internal, solitary part of making the art, and the external social part of how the piece of art is actually used.
Art? Used? Is art actually allowed to be “used”? Would the Art Police allow that? Instead of calling them “Patrons”, can we call art buyers “Users” instead? Would you be offended if I called you that? There’s no wrong answer…
Potential Energy turning into Kinetic Energy. I guess one of the reasons I’ve always had such liberal licensing terms [“Want to use my stuff on your PowerPoint Slides for free? Sure, go right ahead!!!.…”] is that I like seeing my work being USED. If people like my work, that’s great. But if they can actually find it tangibly useful, even better.
Soon after, Tony Kirton of The Experience Stuido sent me the photograph above, with the following note:
We positioned the your cartoons at the entrance of the studio, to kick-start a relevant conversation. Never failed!
It’s little mental trick that Kathy Sierra taught me– Don’t think of them as “Customers” or “Patrons”, think of them as “Users”. Whatever thing you’re selling, it’s not what it does that’s interesting; it’s how people use it that’s interesting. “People Matter. Objects Don’t.” Exactly.
April 21, 2009
4 Comments
4 Comments
[“Moleskine 42″ in a nice wooden frame. Click on image to enlarge etc.]
[“Moleskine 42″ before the framing, approx 5“x7”: Click on image to enlarge etc.]
[Close-up view]
In May 4th, 2008 I blogged about a new drawing, “Moleskine 42″.
I’m planning on doing more of these. I like their simple, plain, black & white austerity.
Yes, I’ll be selling them. I’ll also be taking commissions, just like I did with The “Wikipedia” Moleskine. If you’re in the market, feel free to let me know via email, Thanks.
[Moleskine Archive is here.]
April 16, 2009
1 Comment
My buddy over at Microsoft, Steve Clayton, demonstrates DeepZoomPix, using my cartoons. Details here. Thanks, Steve!
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Chris over on Twitter left me the following message:
@gapingvoid “create or die” is a timely slogan for the country and economy. we have shifted too far over to the consumer side
Yep, I would agree…
[The gapingvoid “Create or Die” print.]
April 15, 2009
4 Comments
[Alpine, Texas. Some of my Stormhoek “Dream Big” posters in the men’s room at Harry’s, complete with 1980’s beer porn. Hurrah!]
It’s been a while since we first put up the Stormhoek sign up in the Far West Texas desert.
“Made in South Africa. Drunk in West Texas”.
I liked that tagline, but I much prefer “Dream Big, Alpine, Texas”. It speaks more to people. It’s not about “Here’s why you should buy our wine”. Whether we’re selling wine, or working in a local garage, it’s more about something larger that we can all relate to, all of us who are lucky enough to live out here.
In small town like Alpine, where I live, word spreads. Real people talking about y’all etc.
When it works, Word-Of-Mouth Marketing works REALLY well. A story about a crazy cartoonist dude with this South African wine gives people something to talk about.
The one thing they do say about the actual product, though, that makes all the difference: “The wine tastes good”.
Granted, that’s not the most sophisticated sound byte there is, but it works well.
People like it. It’s a quality product. My secret, evil plan would die overnight if it wasn’t.
The good news is, in the United States, Stormhoek sold more bottles before April 1st this year, than it sold in the entire 2008. So something out here in Far West Texas is working. Exciting times, Indeed.
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That’s “DesertManhattan” there in the background, with a new, much smaller painting I’ve just started…
Far West Texas is well-suited to a studio made of canvas walls. The light is magnificent…
I don’t spend a lot of time in the studio– too busy with other projects– but when I am there, I feel both creative and serene. A hard combo to achieve, for most of us…
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“I work extremely hard doing what I love, mainly to ensure that I don’t have to work extremely hard doing what I hate.“
[From a recent Twitter post.]
April 13, 2009
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[From a recent post on Twitter.]
Now ain’t that the truth…?
I guess the argument still remains, what does “Changing The World” actually mean?
Does it have to be something huge, like Bill Gates starting Microsoft, The Beatles releasing Sgt. Pepper, or Nixon bombing Cambodia?
Or can it be something more modest, like opening up a really cool independent bookstore in a small town in Far West Texas that really could use one?
There’s no right answer.
It all depends on what you truly, truly love. “Meaning Scales”.
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[Click on image to enlarge etc.]
Though this cartoon, “Create or Die” is less than a week old, it seemed to really resonate with people, and by the time the end of last week rolled around, the number of people emailing me about this image almost equaled those who voted for Wolf v. Sheep. So, being the kind of person that hates to disappoint, I decided to damn the torpedoes and go ahead and publish it, as it seems to make lots of people happy.
The cartoon was inspired by a dialog I had going with one of my clients, Dell Computers, just before Christmas. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this “creativity” thing isn’t just a Dell issue, it applies to all of us.
Like I said in my previous blog post:
In this globalized, hyper-linked, internet-enabled world, “Boring” has suddenly become a very expensive luxury.
[…]
I want to make limited-edition prints that somehow, even in a small, indirect way, helps make companies and individuals less afraid, and more willing to be CREATIVE, more willing to embrace the CREATIVITY that they already have. Because economically and spiritually, that is ultimately where our future lies, even if that idea sometimes terrifies us.
I can’t tell you what to make. I can’t tell you what your customers will find interesting or useful. I can’t tell you what’s going to knock their socks off. I can’t tell you what “Create” means to you or somebody else.
But I will tell you, I AM RIGHT about this one. Create or Die. That’s why I wanted to make this into a print. Something on the wall to serve as a steady reminder.
[The Small Print:]
1. It’ll be printed around the end of April, and will retail at $450.00. Not yet sure on the edition size, we’ll decide when it is going to print, all hand-signed and numbered by me. Using the Paypal button below to make a $100 deposit, you can own at the pre-publication price of $265.00. The pre-pub price will expire by Thursday. Any orders after that, but before the publication date can buy it for $350.00. The minute the image is printed, the price reverts back to $450.00.
[UPDATE: The PayPal Deposit has been removed.]
2. To secure your pre-order, please use the PayPal button above to make a $100 deposit. The PayPal form will ask you for all your details [including your preferred shipping address], which of course we’ll have for our records. Why are we asking for a deposit? To weed out the spammers, flakes and trolls out there [This is the Internet, after all], leaving only committed buyers in the mix. No other reason.
3. When asked for your details, please include your real name, not just your business name. The shipper won’t deliver it otherwise.
4. The print will be ready to ship in 4 – 6 weeks from today. We’ll email you another PayPal for the outstanding invoice once the artwork is printed and packed.
5. We’ll be printing these to the same high standards as last time i.e. top-of-the-line inks and paper, approx 24″ x 35″ in dimension. If for some reason, I don’t like the way the colors lay down when I am proofing it, I reserve the right to change the colors and if you don’t like the final image, you can have your deposit back, no questions asked.
6. Shipping & handling [approx $45 USA, $65 abroad] is not included in the price. The buyer is also responsible for any Customs & Excise outside the USA. We ship them flat, not rolled.
7. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me an email at gapingvoidprints@gmail.com, and either Laura or me will answer them.
Thanks, as always, for your love and support!
4 Comments
[The book jacket– click on image to enlarge etc.]
It’s less than 2 months till my book, “Ignore Everybody” comes out. June 11th it hits the bookstores.
[You can download two PDF sample chapters here etc.]
[Pre-order Here:]
Amazon. Barnes & Noble. Borders. 800-CEO-READ. IndieBound.
To keep up-to-date with it all, please subscribe to my “Crazy, Deranged Fools” newsletter. I send something out about once a month. Thanks.
[UPDATE: The Official Publisher’s Blurb for the book:]
When Hugh MacLeod was a struggling young copywriter, living in a YMCA, he started to doodle on the backs of business cards while sitting at a bar. Those cartoons eventually led to a popular blog – gapingvoid.com – and a reputation for pithy insight and humor, in both words and pictures.
MacLeod has opinions on everything from marketing to the meaning of life, but one of his main subjects is creativity. How do new ideas emerge in a cynical, risk-averse world? Where does inspiration come from? What does it take to make a living as a creative person?
Now his first book, Ignore Everyone, expands on his sharpest insights, wittiest cartoons, and most useful advice. A sample:
* Selling out is harder than it looks. Diluting your product to make it more commercial will just make people like it less.
* If your plan depends on you suddenly being “discovered” by some big shot, your plan will probably fail. Nobody suddenly discovers anything. Things are made slowly and in pain.
* Don’t try to stand out from the crowd; avoid crowds altogether. There’s no point trying to do the same thing as 250,000 other young hopefuls, waiting for a miracle. All existing business models are wrong. Find a new one.
* The idea doesn’t have to be big. It just has to be yours. The sovereignty you have over your work will inspire far more people than the actual content ever will.
After learning MacLeod’s 40 keys to creativity, you will be ready to unlock your own brilliance and unleash it on the world.
About the Author
Hugh MacLeod worked as an advertising copywriter for more than a decade, while developing his skills as a cartoonist and pundit. His blog is Gaping Void, and more than a million people have downloaded the original post that inspired this book, “How To Be Creative.” He also lectures and consults on Web 2.0 and its impact on business.
April 10, 2009
17 Comments
[“Hamster Wheel”. Click on image to enlarge etc.]
I’ve sold or given away a lot of cartoons to my peer group over the years.
And given the choice between the two, I have generally preferred it when they hung it in their office, as opposed to in their homes.
Not that I have the slightest objection to people hanging it in their homes, of course. But ever since I was a kid, I’ve wanted my place of work to be a creative environment, not an environment of slow, lingering, death-by-endless-drudgery. And when I think of my peer group, they always FELT STRONGLY the same way as well, regardless of what they actually did for a living.
Idealistic? Sure. Unrealistic? Often. But we never had a problem with that. We knew it was the price we paid for trying to be true to our guts.
And yes, I always liked making cartoons that reflected this “creative” streak we all aspired to professionally. And my peer group liked it, too. And this is basically where my office-centric cartoon shtick came from.
One of the buzzwords you hear a lot in the business world these days, is “Innovation”. Yes, it’s a genuinely worthy thing to aspire to. Genuine innovation creates lots of genuine value, every young intern knows this. Which is why people like to throw it around like confetti. It’s one of those words that sound good in meetings, regardless of how serious one is about ACTUALLY innovating ANYTHING.
Here’s some friendly advice for all you Innovation-buzzword fanboys: You don’t get to be more innovative, until you make yourself more creative FIRST.
“Innovative” is an “external” word. It can be measured. It generally talks about things that have been tested properly and found to have worked in the real world.
“Creative”, however, is more of an “internal” word. It’s subjective, it’s murkier. It’s far harder to measure, it’s far harder to define. It’s an inward journey, not outward. Which is why a lot of people in business try to keep the word out of their official lexicon, preferring instead more neutral, more externally-focused language like “Value”, “Excellence”, “Quality” and yes, “Innovation”.
The trouble is, of course, that approach doesn’t work as well any more. In this globalized, hyper-linked, internet-enabled world, “Boring” has suddenly become a very expensive luxury.
Do you REALLY think Apple is afraid to use the word, “Creative”? Do you REALLY think Steve Jobs goes around his office yakking on endlessly about “Value, Excellence, Quality and Innovation”? No, of course he doesn’t. Apple’s UTTERLY AMAZING design, business and marketing prowess comes from the UTTERLY AMAZING creative fire in their collective belly, not the other way around.
I want to make limited-edition prints that somehow, even in a small, indirect way, helps make companies and individuals less afraid, and more willing to be CREATIVE, more willing to embrace the CREATIVITY that they already have. Because economically and spiritually, that is ultimately where our future lies, even if that idea sometimes terrifies us.
There. So now you know my secret, evil plan. You have been warned.
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[“Wolf vs. Sheep”. Click on image to enlarge]
[UPDATE: Wolf vs Sheep $265 is now closed. The price is now $350 pre-order until the print ships, early May. Thanks for the support!!!!!]
Re. “Wolf vs. Sheep”. We weren’t expecting the $265 pre-order offer [available only the the first 30 people etc.] to sell out as quickly as it did [All 30 were gone before the end of the day!]. Besides that, there were people who e-mailed us, saying that where having problems with Paypal, or they were not in an accessible place, etc.
So, being that it is Easter, and that I’m feeling in a “Holiday” mood, that sort of thing… We’ll keep the pre-publication price open until 5pm Easter Sunday, New York time.
PLEASE, THIS OFFER IS LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON. IF YOU WANT MORE THAN ONE, TO GIVE TO A FRIEND, ETC., PLEASE EMAIL ME FIRST, THANKS.
If you want to make the usual $100 deposit, please feel free to click the PayPal button below, and we’ll honor the $265 price. Thanks.
[UPDATE: PAYPAL BUTTON REMOVED, EASTER SUNDAY.]
[PS: To read the fine print, please click on the link above, or here. Thanks Again.]
April 9, 2009
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[Click on image to enlarge etc.]
There’s a wonderful metaphor in the Bible [Revelation 2:17] about “a white pebble”.
17 Let the one who has an ear hear what the spirit says to the congregations: To him that conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white pebble, and upon the pebble a new name written which no one knows except the one receiving it.
The metaphor was once explained to me by a Catholic monk. To paraphrase:
“You have three selves: The person that you think you are, the person that other people think you are, and the person that God thinks you are. The white pebble represents the latter. And of the three, it is by far the most important.“
He then gave me some good advice, something I’ve always kept with me:
“When life gets really tough, just remember the white pebble. Just remember who you really are. Just remember the person that only God can see.“
Whatever your thoughts on God or Religion may be, positive or negative, the white pebble is a very simple metaphor that audaciously asks the question: “Who are you, really?“
Yes, why are you here, exactly? Who are you here for? Yourself? Other people? God? Or maybe some other cause? You tell me…
It’s one of those questions that never gets old. Unlike the poor body that houses us.
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A friend just emailed me this excerpt from “Soul Dance”, by Bill Plotkin. I liked it so much, I thought I’d share it with y’all. It certainly resonates with my current day job. Brilliant.
The Survival Dance and The Sacred Dance
Harley Swift Deer, a Native American teacher, says that each of us has a survival dance and a sacred dance, but the survival dance must come first. Our survival dance, a foundational component of self-reliance, is what we do for a living — our way of supporting ourselves physically and economically. For most people, this means a paid job. For members of a religious community like a monastery, it means social or spiritual labors that contribute to the community’s well-being. For others, it means creating a home and raising children, finding a patron for one’s art, or living as a hunter or gatherer. Everybody has to have a survival dance. Finding and creating one is our first task upon leaving our parents’ or guardians’ home.
Once you have your survival dance established, you can wander, inwardly and outwardly, searching for clues to your sacred dance, the work you were born to do. This work may have no relation to your job. Your sacred dance sparks your greatest fulfillment and extends your truest service to others. You know you’ve found it when there’s little else you’d rather be doing. Getting paid for it is superfluous. You would gladly pay others, if necessary, for the opportunity.
Hence, the importance of self-reliance, not merely the economic kind implied by a survival dance but also of the social, psychological, and spiritual kind. To find your sacred dance, after all, you will need to take significant risks. You might need to move against the grain of your family and friends. By honing psychological self-reliance, you will find it easier to keep focused on your goals in the face of resistance or incomprehension, initial failure or setbacks, or economic or organizational obstacles. And spiritual self-reliance will maintain your connection with the deepest truths and what you’ve learned about how the world works.
Swift Deer says that once you discover your sacred dance and learn effective ways of embodying it, the world will support you in doing just that.
What your soul wants is what the world also wants (and needs). Your human community will say yes to your soul work and will, in effect, pay you to do it. Gradually, your sacred dance becomes what you do and your former survival dance is no longer need. Now you have only one dance as the world supports you to do what is most fulfilling for you. How do you get there? The first step is creating a foundation of self-reliance: a survival dance of integrity that allows you to be in the world in a good way — a way that is psychologically sustaining, economically adequate, socially responsible, and environmentally sound. Cultivating right livelihood, as the Buddhist call it, is essential training and foundation for your soul work; it’s not a step that can be skipped.
[Bonus Link:] “The Sex & Cash Theory”, gapingvoid, 2004.
April 8, 2009
23 Comments
[“Wolf vs. Sheep”. Click on image to enlarge]
[UPDATE: Wolf vs Sheep $265 is now closed. The price is now $350 pre-order until the print ships, early May. Thanks for the support!!!!!]
“Wolf vs. Sheep” will be the next gapingvoid print.
The votes are in, and it is always interesting to see which image wins, and what people have to say about why. We were betting that the winner was going to be “Love Begets Love”, but between the emails and comments, it was at least three-to-one for “Wolf vs Sheep”. [Which just proves that I still do not know why people like one cartoon over another]. Even though, fewer people voted for the other images, they were no less passionate about the ones they selected, and that started us thinking… as I will explain below.
I am always reminded that I need to spell out the ‘fine print’, as follows:
1. It’ll be printed around the end of April, and will retail at $450.00. It’ll be an edition of roughly 100, hand signed and numbered by me. The first 30 people who pre-order it by making a $100 deposit using the PayPal button below can have it at the pre-publication price of $265.00. Any orders after, but before the publication date can buy it for $350.00. The minute the print goes into production, the price reverts back to $450.00.
[UPDATE: PAYPAL BUTTON REMOVED, EASTER SUNDAY.]
2. To secure your pre-order, please use the PayPal button above to make a $100 deposit. The PayPal form will ask you for all your details [including your preferred shipping address], which of course we’ll have for our records. Why are we asking for a deposit? To weed out the spammers, flakes and trolls out there [This is the Internet, after all], leaving only committed buyers in the mix. No other reason.
3. The print will be ready to ship in 4 – 6 weeks. We’ll send you another PayPal for the outstanding invoice once the artwork is printed.
4. We’ll be printing these to the same high standards as last time i.e. top-of-the-line inks and paper, approx 24″ x 35″ in dimension. If for some reason, I don’t like the way the colors lay down when I am proofing it, I reserve the right to change the colors and if you don’t like the final image, you can have your deposit back, no questions asked.
5. Shipping & handling [approx $45 USA, $65 abroad] is not included in the price. The buyer is also responsible for any Customs & Excise outside the USA. We ship them flat, not rolled. When you give us your details, please remember to include your name, not just your company name. Otherwise the Post Office won’t accept it.
6. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me an email at gapingvoidprints@gmail.com, and either Laura or me will answer them.
Though “Wolf vs Sheep” was the clear winner, there was still a lot of PASSIONATE support for the two other contenders, “Create Or Die” and “Love Begets Love” [see the comments]. We’re looking at ways to make those available to you as well. I drafted a post earlier today that I’ll publish in a few days. In part, it says:
EVERY DAY now, I’m getting emails from people, requesting that I turn their favorite gapingvoid cartoon into a limited edition print. The good news is, in an ideal world, I would do it in a nanosecond. The bad news is, it is just not economically feasible. These sorts of print editions are really expensive to make, and without a critical mass of customers per edition, it simply doesn’t work
The funny thing about my work is, that because there is so much of it, so many different images mean so many different things to so many different people. On one level, I’ve been really blessed at being very prolific, but on another level, I struggle with deciding what to images to choose for production. Yes, there are obvious ones, like “The Bluetrain”, but many, like “Corinthians”, which proved to be really popular in the end, I could have just as easily not have chosen.
There HAS to be a better way. Somehow, I need to make the selection process more open to Everyone.…
So I’m thinking to myself, wouldn’t it be cool if people could SPONSOR their own limited edition? Seriously.
We’re looking into this idea where individuals can feasibly “sponsor” the production of their favorite cartoon into print form, and harnessing the power of the Internet to get other people to join their cause. We’ll either build or own website for that, or we’ll use something like Fundable.org.
[“Love Begets Love” and “Create or Die”.]
“Love Begets Love” and “Create or Die” will be the guinea pigs. It’ll be really interesting to see what happens. Please watch this space.
Thanks, as always, for your love and support!
April 7, 2009
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Vinny Warren, a highly respected Creative Director in Chicago [He wrote the Budweiser “Whassup” ad campaign] has kindly hung his new “Bluetrain” print in a key focal point of his agency, the conference room. He blogs about it here.
Fresh from the framing store, it’s one of just 85 signed Hugh MacLeod prints from the first in a series of limited edition prints he’s doing. This was always my favorite cartoon of his. I used to have a b/w printout of it on my office wall. It pretty much sums up how I feel generally. And I love the wildly optimistic yet utterly truthful tone. The text reads: THE MARKET FOR SOMETHING TO BELIEVE IN IS INFINITE.
This advertising connection got me thinking about something I posted back in February, 2004, during the tail end of my own advertising career, called “The Kinetic Quality”:
“The Kinetic Quality”: All products are information. The molecules are secondary.
The future of brands is interaction, not commodity. It’s not something you buy, but something you paticipate in.
i.e. a brand is not a thing, but a place.
[…]
In the old days, the three most important words in advertising were “Unique Selling Proposition”. To me, the three most important words are “By Interacting With…”
–By interacting with Gerber, she becomes a better-informed mom.
–By interacting with The Wall Street Journal, she becomes more tuned into the world of capitalism.
–By interacting with Apple, she brings her entrepreneurial dreams closer to reality.
–By interacting with McDonald’s, her busy schedule is made slightly easier by avoiding a lot of fuss over lunch.
–By interacting with Ralston Purina, she becomes more attached to her canine friend.
–By interacting with your brand, she becomes…?
A good brand is a two-way conversation.
What we bloggers know about the nature of information (a great deal) can be applied far beyond our usual diet of media, politics and journalism. Because all products are information. All products are ideas. The molecules are secondary.
Back when I wrote that, I was an advertising creative i.e. selling other people’s stuff. Now I’m selling my own stuff i.e. my prints. And the same rules still apply:
–By interacting with gapingvoid, Vinny Warren [or whoever] becomes…?
The short answer is, roughly: “Better able to articulate his own worldview to himself and to people around him.“
That’s the idea, at least. Which of course, is THE WHOLE PURPOSE of art in the first place: Self-expression through third-party “Social Objects”.
Anyone who’s ever owned an iPhone or a Harley Davidson will know exactly what I’m talking about…
[Sign up to the gapingvoid “Crazy, Deranged Fools” Newsletter here.]
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[UPDATE: “Wolf vs Sheep” will be the next gapingvoid print. Details here.]
In case you haven’t been following, I have been updating a few images from my back catalogue [which numbers over 5,000 drawings, the last time I counted] and turning them into limited-edition silkscreens.
It has been a great experience. It’s allowed me to reacquaint myself with the images, that in some cases, I haven’t really thought about for years. It brings back some old memories, and puts my mind to work in a new medium: How to translate 2″ x 3 1/2″ business card-sized doodle into large, 2-or –3-foot images.
As I spend time with this, I can’t help thinking about that age-old, never-quite-answered question, “What is Art?” How is it different, how has our relationship changed with it from even say, a couple of decades ago? Especially with the Internet evolving our sense of “Media” at such a lightning pace?
I don’t have a definitive answer to this, but I do have a few thoughts on the subject:
The artist whose work best summed up for me the Modern, post-World War Two, 20th-Century world that most of us were born into, is the late, great Andy Warhol. A fantastic magazine illustrator in the 1950s, who got into the imagery of televised, mass media in the 1960s. VERY mass-media. Who appropriated the visual language of a mass-produced, top-down, broadcast, CORPORATE world. The visual language of Madison Avenue, the visual language of Kellog’s Corn Flakes, Heinz Ketchup and of course, Campbell’s Soup. And we look at his work with the same sort of detachment as a TV commercial, or a can of beans in the supermarket. And we NEED to remain detached, or else this rather loud, glamorous, oppressive, consumerist worldview would bury us, would turn our brains to corn syrup.
Then along comes the Internet. A place that doesn’t do shotgun-media,“Broadcast” well. A place where if what you’re saying isn’t engaging, isn’t hitting people on a intimate, human level, it doesn’t get seen, it doesn’t get shared, it doesn’t exist.
Which explains why, as a relatively dedicated citizen of the Internet, I am far more interested in what a piece of “Art” can do for you, once it is on your wall, than what I got out of creating it. What it can do as piece of communication between you and the people close to you, not as a piece of academic Art Theory. I like the “Social-bility” of the work. I like creating “Social Objects”. And this to me, of course, is what the Internet also runs on. This, to me, is also what the new internet-enabled, post-TV world is all about. Instant, Human Connection.
And where does this “Human Connection” come from? Easy– from talking about the world you and I actually live in, not the world the “Theory Police” live in. Yes, that one. The messy one. You know EXACTLY what I’m talking about…
And yes, that’s what cartoons have ALWAYS been about to me, long before the Internet was invented, long before I even knew what Art Theory was. As I’m fond of saying, “It isn’t rocket science”. Real, Human Connection never was.
So, with this brave new world in mind, we’re thinking of publishing one of the three following cartoons:
1. “Wolf vs Sheep”. This is a re-working is one of my historical favorites. I first drew it when I had just to moved to New York, in 1998. It was about what I saw as the choices that people are confronted with in the rat race. They were fascinating times and elicited other favorites of mine, like “Company Hierarchy”.
2. “Love Begets Love”. Virgil’s famous quote. I drew the cartoon as a contender for the Stormhoek Valentine’s wine in 2007. It never made it onto the bottle as a label in the end, but a lot of people loved the drawing.
3. “Create Or Die”. Though I only posted this cartoon for the first time a few hours ago, I’ve so far received about 20 emails from people expressing serious interest in it as a print. I never saw that coming, but what the heck, up it goes…
We’ll publish one of the three, depending on the feedback we get. If you have an opinion either way, please feel free to leave a comment below, ping me on Twitter, or if you think you’re in the actual market for buying one, send me an email. Thanks.
The silkscreen print will be roughly the same size [approx 24″ x 35″] and of the same high quality as “Corinthians” and “We Need To Talk”. The price and number of the edition will also be in the same ballpark.
Please let me know your thoughts. All very exciting. Thanks Again.
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[Click on image to enlarge etc.]
Last week, Patrick Brennan was stuck in an airport lounge for several hours, waiting for his connecting flight. To kill time, he started messing around visually on his computer with the forty chapter titles of my upcoming book, “Ignore Everybody”. He came up with this, then emailed it to me.
I liked it so much, I went ahead and re-worked it, in my own handwriting. Very cool. If I ever publish it as a limited-edition print, Patrick, I’ll make damn sure you get a copy. Thanks so much!
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I’m guessing this would make a pretty fun print to put on someone’s office wall… just a thought.
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[Click on image to enlarge etc.]
[Cartoon inspired by a recent Twitter post.]
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[Click on image to enlarge etc.]
You either get it or you don’t. You either feel it in your bones, or you don’t. There’s nothing to explain.
[UPDATE:] Though only a few hours old, this cartoon is already in the running to become the next gapingvoid limited-edition print! Details here.]
April 6, 2009
12 Comments
[Click on image to enlarge etc.]
[William Blake]
April 4, 2009
13 Comments
1 Comment
Just stumbled across this photo from July, 2007. The Blue Monster made it to the SAP offices in Ra’anana, Israel. Rock on.
I’ve not been pushing The Blue Monster much in the last year. I’ve been busy with other things, and besides, like Microsoft’s Steve Clayton told me a while back, “It already has a life of its own, so there’s no need to…“
That being said, every now and then I’ll come across someone in the Microsoft ecosystem, either via email, Twitter or in person, who’ll tell me a funny story about it e.g. like how they were in somebody’s office on the other side of the planet, and there they saw it, hanging on the wall. Stuff like that makes my day. And it’s been happening quite a lot recently, for reasons unbeknownst to me. Which I suppose is why I’m writing about it now…
In retrospect, over two years since it made its debut, I’m quite relieved it never got officially sanctioned by the Microsoft marketing machine. “We’re Microsoft! We GET The Blue Monster! We’re cool!!!!” That would’ve gone down like a lead balloon.
My spies tell me that inside Microsoft, The Blue Monster is pretty divisive. Some people really resonate with it, a lot of people go, “Who the hell authorized this?!! This isn’t part of the branding!!!!” I consider them friends of mine, but I don’t work for Microsoft, nor are they currently clients of mine. So I’ll let them sort that one out for themselves. Heh.
I never envisioned it as part of “The Brand”. To me it was just a cartoon that articulated that demonic, creative passion, that sense of PURPOSE that ALL companies need to articulate, Microsoft or otherwise, software or otherwise, if they wish to remain interesting, if they wish to thrive long-term.
It’s not rocket science. Which is why it works.
[Link: The original Blue Monster blog post.]
April 1, 2009
4 Comments
Today was “Print Signing” Day. Spent most of the morning signing “Corinthians” and “We Need To Talk”. Rock on.
As you can see, “WNTT” is red & white. It was conceived as a purple & blue print, but as I e-mailed to people who had pre-ordered one:
As you will remember, it was envisioned as a mostly purple print, with some blue and black.
It looked good on the computer screen [i.e. lit from behind]. The trouble is, it didn’t look so good as a printed proof. It simply didn’t work. Somehow the purple didn’t gel with the other colors. It all looked kinda muddy.
So we messed around, as you can see in the second photo above. We took out the purple, just to see if that helped.
Then we changed the original blue to fire-engine red, we also tried orange-yellow.
And the red.… simply put.… looked SMOKING HOT! I’m writing this down in Miami. The WNTT edition [red] just arrived here in a wooden crate, and it looks utterly fabulous. Trust me; the photo doesn’t do it justice.
[The prints, 30 seconds after opening the crates…]
I know that the purple image above was what you planned on buying, and you may in fact have had your heart set on something purple. I totally understand that. Then again, Art is a work-in-progress. I didn’t know exactly HOW things were going to turn out until I was actually in the printing studio. C’est Le Guerre.
I’m signing the prints tomorrow and shipping them out this week. If you’re not happy about the new red color, I understand completely, and I will gladly refund your money in full, or credit you with a later print edition. It’s totally your call.
The vast majority of people were cool with this, a lot of them actually said they preferred the new red version. One person did have her heart set on purple, so we gave her a refund, fair enough. One other person agreed to take a “Corinthian” in its place. So it all turned out rather well, all things considered.
The prints are being shipped out tomorrow, so expect to see yours in the mail in the next few days. To be honest, I’m over the moon with how well these two editions turned out. These are very exciting times. Thanks, as always, for your love and support. Rock on.
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[Click on Image to Enlarge etc]
This drawing was inspired, of course, by my friend, Seth Godin’s seminal book, “Purple Cow”..
I always loved both the words and the design of the book. This is my tribute to it.
The book came out in 2003. Since then it’s changed a lot of lives for the better, including mine. Since then its DNA has buried itself deep inside Marketing Theory everywhere. Long may it continue to do so…
