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How to Be a Creative in 2018 | Part 1

Design, Illustration, Video Creator

By 'Toto' (Aleksina Teto)Published 6 years ago 5 min read
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Photo by Matthew Henry from Burst 

We are reaching an era of infinite resources to be a creative. In that same vein, the market is becoming so saturated that creating starts to feel like playing the lottery.

"Where do I fit in?""Can I ever really find my place?""Is chasing trends my only option?"

It is becoming daunting and exhilarating to jump into the world wide web with our creativity. Where does one even start?

Depending on your field, there are different avenues that will help you flourish.

Learning

Intern, learn, be active

Quality

With such a saturated market, well developed skills stand out. There are so many amateurs out there who, though they know the landscape, don't have the highest quality of presentation or content. That doesn't mean they won't have success. But, quality catches the eye and creates more initial trust (though you have to prove that trust as you go).

Mentors

Finding people who do what you want to do is ideal. Whether you can find a job you can intern at to learn even the grimy side of a skill, or you study every inch you can of different people having success with that which you want to be doing, it will be infinitely helpful.

Observation

Sure you might not fully know how to approach your creative dream yet, but observation will prove more plentiful than you could ever imagine.

School is amazing, and there is so much you can learn there, but being involved in the field and/or community reveals so much more which school can never really prepare you for.

Design

Design is such an immense field that really does require training, whether that is online, at post-secondary, interning, or through mentorship. Without the fundamentals, you can't expect to have success.

But once you have those base skills, there are some avenues to take to make you more appealing.

Behance/Dribble/Instagram

These three social media sites are the place to be as a designer. It has been proven that posting quality work on Behance can get you work. Making use of templates for products (bottles, stacks of business cards, frames, phones, monitors) that you can digitally manipulate your design onto is a great way to optimize the presentation of your work. It makes it more polished, and feel official, whether it is, or if it is your personal work.

Instagram is a great site to share your process, work, and your personality. Being an image-based social media, it really fits well with graphic design. Though, you need to pay attention to the look of all your images together on your main page. It also needs to be consistent, both in look and frequency. Instagram is notorious for gaining a bunch of followers, then losing them in a week.

Challenges

Whether it's the 30-day logo challenge, or even just a personal challenge to post once every certain amount of days, audiences love to have something they can follow along with and consistency. It can be a great way to show skill, dedication, and even better your skills.

Blogging, Videos, Website

Creating content about teaching skills of your trade can solidify you as an expert, and in turn, make you appear more reliable for hiring. Along with that, creating a quality blog on your website, or one directing to your website can bring you up higher in search results.

And much like the blogging, creating videos of you teaching your skillset will also prove your expertise; it also shows a face and personality for employers to be able to assess if you are a good fit.

Illustration

Vlogging, Blogging, and a Website

For similar reasons to design, this trio can be immensely helpful to creating validity in your claims of your skillset. It also allows for a platform to show off projects you create, along with the process. Yes, you can do the same with design, but even more so with illustration, people get attached to the person behind the art.

Instagram

Illustration is all about the visual, and Instagram has a rich artist culture, and one that tends to be quite supportive. Using the right tags, Instagram can get some of the best traction for likes and comments for art.

Patreon, Ko-fi

Along with social media, it can be great to attach links to Patreon and Ko-fi, giving an option for them to support you, even just a little bit and be able to get rewards out of it.

Though you need to create a presence first for these to be useful to you, they are great financial resources for artists, and a way for the community to feel involved with your art.

Research

You can order it online, and here I can borrow it from the library, but you can look into the Children's Writer's & Illustrator's Market 2018 to find out about employers, and generally what is happening with the illustration market. It is a great resource for any illustrator!

Video Creation

Depending whether you want to be an entertainer or teacher, there are some options out there for you.

Entertainer/ Video Artist

YouTube is honestly the place to be for videos that are mainly entertainment, or more artistic videos. Though, with the changes in how YouTube pays creators, you might have to take some extra measures to start earning from your content. First off, you will need to look into having ads, and/or sponsors. There is a reason many mainstream Youtubers have been having more ads in their videos than before.

Another option (whether in an addition or not) is Patreon. You are starting to see more Youtubers use Patreon and relying on their audience to actively support them. It can also help involve the audience depending on how you set the rewards in Patreon.

Teacher/ Education

If you intend to create videos who's focus is to educate, there are some more options for you. The first to take a look at is Skillshare. It allows you to be paid per view. On top of that, they have challenges for new creators, and live classes periodically to help educate their creators. When I made my initial video, I even got a free microphone to help me create. They have a lovely team that genuinely want to help you. Of course, you can use Youtube as well, but you will have to set up ways to create more revenue from them (such as Patreon, Ko-fi, and ads).

Conclusion

Whichever field you feel drawn to, our modern age is becoming about creating trust and personality. So, whatever is your desired field, be genuine and let yourself flourish on what feels right. It might take a while to establish, so don't expect to get rich overnight. Years could go by before you get traction. But, keep learning, keep creating, and be genuine, and I believe anyone can find success is their passion path.

Good Luck!

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About the Creator

'Toto' (Aleksina Teto)

A Canadian designer, writer, typographer, and artist.

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