
How to be an artist – Howard Hodgkin - supernumerary
http://iainmait.land/posts/howard-hodgkin-how-to-be-an-artist
======
fairpx
Great read.

Here's a short summary of my journey as an artist, making a living:

1\. Originally launched [http://fairpixels.co](http://fairpixels.co) to design
logos on a pay-what-you-want basis

2\. To help market this service, I open sourced the unused logo designs I
regularly would make for companies over at
[http://logodust.com](http://logodust.com). This resulted in a ton of growth,
getting covered by sites like TNW and Inc. Giving away stuff for free helped
me grow the business beyond myself.

3\. Then I recently launched [http://flypx.com](http://flypx.com), to create a
more steady income for myself and fellow artists. Where the goal is to spend
less time marketing oneself as an artist to attract clients, and constantly
provide value to companies. The designers/artists get to work their craft and
constantly improve. While the clients get to work with a single designer over
a longer period of time for a fraction of the cost.

I had written about this last chapter of my story as an artist and how I got
to #1,596/MRR in 48 hours: [https://medium.com/art-marketing/how-we-launched-
a-new-servi...](https://medium.com/art-marketing/how-we-launched-a-new-
service-and-got-to-1-596-mrr-in-48-hours-1c5c1b8ca5f0#.xzizva29u)

It can be a struggle to make a living as an artist, but once you combine
entrepreneurial marketing strategies to simplify the flow of work, things can
work out pretty well

~~~
ffwacom
not really an artist are you, more a graphic designer

~~~
germinalphrase
Commercial arts employ artists.

------
theyCallMeSwift
I really enjoyed reading this and was pleasantly surprised to find it on HN.
There is a really interesting intersection of art and hacking that I don't
think we talk about enough.

If I wanted to find more stuff like this, where should I look?

~~~
karenbennett
You might enjoy Paul Graham's long essay, _Hackers and Painters_.
[http://paulgraham.com/hp.html](http://paulgraham.com/hp.html)

~~~
supernumerary
[http://www.idlewords.com/2005/04/dabblers_and_blowhards.htm](http://www.idlewords.com/2005/04/dabblers_and_blowhards.htm)

