Collaboration Chronicles

The members of Collab21 who post here meet every Wednesday.  This week’s topic was DIY workshops.  I had the idea for a workshop to show how to design a logo/flyer/shirt for someone else’s band/event/company-  print it, license it for certain uses, and write the contract.

I followed up on this the other day.  A “show promoter” talked to me and she liked flyers I did in the past.  This flyer is my favorite- I did it for friends at a housing co-op.

I mentioned that I avoid working free.  People have to pay rent, and they spend years studying and going $97,653 in debt to get skills.  Also, expectation for free work undermines others.  But I like doing friend/charity favors on occasion (I did the co-op flyer in return for meals and party), and I appreciate the nature of bands’ work to get their stuff out.  So I offered to swap service, or even draw a flyer free if the band would also use the art on a shirt/album and tack on $1 for the artist.  (I hear you can hook up a split through cafe press.)

Response:

“Personally as an artist I wouldn’t pay for tee shirt artwork or flyer artwork or anything of the sort. By putting your artwork on a flyer or tee shirt its free promotion for you as an artist. Trying to capitalize off a DIY punk scene is lame. I book shows but I don’t get paid, no one who works at the club does. its volunteer because we love our scene and want to see it survive. All the money goes to the bands, so they can pay for gas to drive to the next show. If you are only making art to make a profit I don’t think you can call yourself an artist. I simply don’t believe Art should be your job. Art should be what you are passionate about and work a job to be able to afford. If someone asked me to make a flyer for their show I would do it because I love to.”

I asked how well that worked for her tattoos- did that artist work free?   How about asking for free car repairs so people can see the mechanic’s work driving around?

Big surprise, her day job is accountant.

There’s a response worth using in a workshop, and I’m sure it will be easy to find someone else worth working with.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 at 10:13 pm and is filed under Communication. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.