Being in a team is hard, being made responsible for getting that team to be at their best is a completely different kettle of cats, but fear not I have some ‘hard learnt lessons’ that might just make it a little easier, and hopefully a little ‘cheaper’ too.
To really get into this article accept for a moment that people are artists and you, you no longer produce art for a living, you are now an art director of an art studio. Oh and you are whimsically flamboyant with a cat named Poco, yes Poco is a Hairless Egyptian cat. I wrote a piece colour palettes and how it relates to art and artists, if you haven’t read that yet this article might be a bit of an acid trip that doesn’t end well #nopantsrunningwild . (yeah go read that first)
Lesson 1: You don’t run the artists, they run themselves, you only run their environment.
People are tricky to manage because they are all individuals, the need to create drives them, inspires them and ultimately defines them. Their environment has a massive influence on their ability to be creative and this means ecosystem management and not ability management is required. Your ‘job’ as the art director is to provide structure and create the best possible environment, after that you step away and let people run themselves. Sometimes you need to step in to reestablish structures but mostly you get to just watch the creative process, and poke it with a stick now and again.
For art to be created a ‘studio’ must be created, and a studio is not just a space, it is an entire ecosystem. A combination of physical environment as much as guiding principles and emotional structures, a space for creating and collaborating, where individuals are free to express themselves fully and safely. This is your ‘Job’, Poco is just along for the ride, you are in charge of the ecosystem and the materials, you guide the people to the best result while maintaining the safety and security of the ecosystem.
Lesson 2: You are not required to be the best, you are required to help the best get better.
Far too often I see art directors painting complete works by themselves robbing their artists of precious opportunities to learn. As a leader and a coach you personally commit to helping your artists develop themselves. Helping to develop their skills, broaden their appreciation for their own techniques as much as that of others, expand their colour palettes and unlocking their abilities. You only paint with them when asked too, or in rare cases when required. Your main focus, your ‘job’ as it stands, is to lead, coach and maintain the ecosystem, and feed Poco, she gets grumpy if you don’t feed her, but resist the temptation to pick up a brush, at least for now.
I was a pretty good artist back in the day, actually I was damn good, but I found that I had a much richer talent for guiding other artist. Ever since then I have been on a journey to collect the skills to match the talents needed to help guide other artists. None of this came for free, I was fortunate enough to learn from others and their mistakes before I started guiding and coaching myself, but i still made some pretty big ones myself.
Lesson 3: Learning from the mistakes of others is cheaper than making your own, but you will make them, make sure you have some ‘whoops’ credit.
This is the unfortunate truth of the matter, regardless of how much you learn from others you will always be faced with unique situations. Your artists are going to be weird and wonderful, you studio is going to get messy, your clients are going to get angry all of this is situations unique to your experience. And even through all of my efforts to learn and develop I still had to pay ‘school fees’. In other words I made my own mistakes, burnt relationships, tried to repair them, learned and continued to learn. Learning from others won’t always help you avoid a mistake altogether, but you could learn enough to make ‘cheaper’ mistakes.
Having some ‘whoops credits’ in the bank helps a lot. ‘Whoops’ credit is nothing more than reputation and report with your artists and clients. Whoops Credits take time to build up, but once established can be used to pay for mistakes and sometimes forgiveness. But be warned, credit doesn’t last forever and some people stop accepting it quite quickly, so make sure not to use it too often or run out all together.
To paint together means to struggle together and this is something that many shy from because it requires a degree of vulnerability, trust and respect on the part of the artist and the art director. As mentioned before the studio has to be safe and kind to experimentation, a place where failures are treated as opportunities to improve and where trust is prized above all else. This is a fundamental part of building up those ‘whoops credits’. Leading by example especially under failure conditions is what creates that bond of trust and respect between yourself and your artists. This bond transcends physical and monetary reward by huge margins. For most people anyway, some just want the cookie, give them the cookie, nothing wrong with that.
Lesson 4: If you don’t understand them, how can you guide them?
All artists are not created equally. Some artists are fantastic at creating outlines and foundational structures but have little interest in details, in contrast some cannot paint until they see the basic outlines but once known can blend light and shadow to create the most magnificent details. It is here that the art director, the leader and coach of the artists, you must be able to choose the artists well for the task at hand.
Through continuous committed study and experimentation you will be able to understand the extent of each artists skills and their limitations. This in turn will allow you to make better decisions. Juts so we are clear experimentation involves no needles or ‘brain wires’ it is more about pushing boundaries than anything else, not rocket science, but dangerous none the less, be kind.
As the leader and coach you must watch the processes carefully to see spaces for appreciation, opportunities for improvement, moments of brilliance to celebrate and spaces for learning. Especially when all your artists are brand new, it takes time to identify their styles, depth of palettes, strengths and importantly weaknesses to prepare them for growth, collaboration and most importantly failure.
Experimentation is key to discovery, but experimenting blindly with combinations of artists and changes in environment can be costly, excessively so. Spend time studying your artists and ecosystem before you experiment. If it can’t be avoided, then it can’t be avoided, in these situations you must be more watchful of the processes than ever before. Not all artists get along and not all of them have positive influences, be aware of their need for a leader and coach in these times especially when the pressure is on everyone is playing a game of “who the hell are you again?”.
Lesson 5: Control is a figment of your imagination, authority earned is your true power.
The freedom to experiment is what produces great art, realize that there is no need for control only guidance. If, as a leader, you can explain clearly what is required, and as a coach you can guide and support the process of discovery without controlling every aspect thereof, you will be creating an ecosystem where artists collaborate freely, working with feverish focus and dedication to the goal without the need for control. By providing a seemingly unrestrained yet structured environment, you are in effect providing the boundaries and expectations without the need to enforce them. They become part of the artists habits and in return for this freedom you will very likely be rewarded with authority over the ecosystem. In effect placing you back in ‘control’ but as an elected leader not an appointed enforcer.
I experimented a lot with studios and combinations of artists, and successfully so, but only because I have always understood one thing. Fundamentally I don’t have to teach an artist how to ‘Art’ they know how, and probably better than me. I learned quickly that by providing freedom and protecting that freedom is key to building a relationship of trust and respect with those in my stead has always rewarded me with unfettered authority over their ecosystems.
Lesson 6: You are the Art Director not their friend, be careful of crossing that line.
Building the relationship based on honesty and humility allows you to also be hard when needed. And sometime you have to be hard, not every mistake can be treated with a light touch. Some realities and consequences have to be explained bluntly so that the effects of actions can be understood by everyone to allow for growth and improvement.
You can be blunt when there is trust. Trust allows you to be brutally honest without being brutal, eliminating the potential for misunderstanding, the fear of long term damage to the team because its never about the people always about the situation this mentality is bread into a team and is only truly understood if the relationship is built on trust and respect.
But beware of crossing the lines to personal friendships, this is a difficult path to navigate, it can be disabling and limiting in your ability to be an effective leader and coach, completely undermining your objectivity and authority to great detriment of the studio. I have had many people love me for celebrating their achievements and highlighting their unique skills, and probably as many despise me for pushing their limits and pointing out their short comings. But I could only do this because my position was established as the leader and coach and nothing else, this doesn’t mean I’m a “hard ass”, I’m actually quite pleasant to work with, it just means we all know “who is who” and where the line is drawn.
To date I have had many studios in my stead and many artists pass through my doors but no one has ever arrived without being welcomed, trusted and respected from the start. I make an effort to expose teachable opportunities and to pay attention to every artist in my studio to see where I may become the student. Humbling yourself to someone else for an opportunity to learn has great impact especially if your position and authority is well established. No one has ever left without having the opportunity of teaching me and others and to date no one has died in the process.
Putting down my own brush and experiencing the joy of painting through other artists, watching them grow and expand their abilities has given me one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life, I hope that this can be the same for you.
Mind, on the rocks?! 