#lean art

[etacarinaecer]

Artfight 6 @ The-F0X on dA

[rated-l-for-larry]

Larry high school power couple. Commissioned by anon. P.s. I’m so sorry it’s probably not what you expected an it’s not chibi like but something unexpected came up and I can’t do more than this rn. Hope you like it anyway.Sorry again.

[rockarosa]

💜 L E A N 💜

[imatrapgod]

bestfriENDS.Php

[patron21]

Are You Building on Rock or Sand?

In continuing to explore what I have been thinking of as Lean Art, I would like to discuss what is often called a Minimum Viable Product. In running a lean business, entrepreneurs are now hip to the idea that you start with your minimum viable product - that is, the most stripped down, rough, and unrefined version of a product. From there you can test whether or not people are interested in what you're offering. After all, why perfect something that no-one cares about to begin with?

What this means for art makers is the essence, the inspired strain of an art work. Of a finished product, only part of it is the essence and the rest is decoration and production. If I write a song, the glint of inspiration may be just the melody and the lyrics - all of the additional instrumentation and arrangement is where the craft comes in. 

In the art world, we rarely think to create a bare bones version of our work to share prior to unleashing on the world. It isn't often that a musician publicly shares 20 of their demos to find the 10 songs that are worth developing. But why not? Why spend all your time and money going off hunches? It isn't selling out to discover which of your tunes people actually like, is it?

So let me officially welcome the idea of the Minimum Viable Artwork (MVA). 

Discovering what this is for your work is often a process of stripping away. For example, when Bjork sings "Big Time Sensuality" unplugged with just an organ and tablas, you hear the power of this song without needing all the production of the album version. I'm sure she could sing it a capella and still move most of us. That is her MVA - just her and her vocals.

Knowing the piece works before production allows us to focus on developing the song in ways that enhance its inherent power instead of simply adding a bunch of bells and whistles. At any point, if the polished piece starts losing its impact we can strip layers away with confidence that our MVA is solid and maybe all we need is a pivot.

Conversely, if the MVA is not strong, it probably isn't the time to start spending resources on production. A beautiful building built on sand is still going to fall. No amount of production is going to make a mediocre piece into something that moves people (at least not in a positive way). 

[patron21]

It's All About Product

This is the job title for one of my friends on Linkedin. I think much of it rings true for most creatives, though as artists we typically hate the idea of classifying our artwork as "product". 

To piggy-back my last entry, often we don't know what we're doing when we start a project. For instance, I may know that I am going to record an album, but then what? I may even have all of my songs written, but what instrumentation am I going to use? Should I hire a producer? Which one? Where will I record? At home or in a studio? Should I pay for mixing or mix myself and pay for mastering? Where will I get the artwork? And on and on. 

The issue here isn't how you will produce a piece, it's that you don't know which steps to take in order to give your art its best chance for survival. Talent and vision are not the only ingredients in making something people want to experience again and again.

Here's the part where the terminology gets scary. Entrepreneurs have a term called product-market fit that helps them understand if they are making something people actually want. Before you freak out, know that I'm not leading you down a rabbit hole of pop marketing appeal or pandering. I'm talking about understanding which version of your authentic voice resonates most highly with your audience. If you played 10 shows and every time you play "Baby Girl" your audience goes to the bathroom, to the bar, or turns around to the talk to the people behind them, you would probably consider not making it your lead single (and should probably consider re-writing or scrapping it). 

Seasoned entrepreneurs recommend discovering if there is an audience for your project before you get too heavily invested in it. In posts to come, I hope to explore ways to measure the audience for your work and how measurement can help inform the decisions that aren't vital to your vision.

[patron21]

Why It's Essential to Pivot

Because you don't know what you're doing.

To over-simplify, we make art for two basic reasons: to satisfy our need to create and because we want to move people. If it's just about you, then you probably aren't worried about making money with your art and probably aren't reading this post.

Out of the gate, we often don't know if what we're creating is connecting with our audience (or if we're even trying to reach the right people). Entrepreneurs are well versed in this idea as many (most?) successful businesses aren't successful for doing what they started out doing. (For more on this check out the righteous book, Getting to Plan B)

The point is, the art we're creating is not so different from the project Jeff Bezos created (amazon.com) or one Mark Zuckerberg built and many of the same rules apply in seeing these projects become successful. The point of this little rant is to draw a parallel in the process of understanding when you need to redirect. Getting to Plan B illustrates how most of the popular web businesses you use have pivoted in the process of building their masterpieces.

In looking at your own work, where may you need to pivot? It could be changing your distribution (itunes vs. bandcamp?), changing your name (real name or pseudonym?), focusing on a different medium (is your visual art connecting with more people than your music?), or any number of things.

Pivoting isn't giving up or admitting defeat, it is simply part of the process from moving where you are to where you want to be. Create your work, notice the response, learn what worked and what doesn't, then repeat.