Tuesday, May 27, 2008

How Smart Am I?

Not as smart as I would like to be. Who is?

As I prepare to move into our new house I have been thinking hard about how to set up my studio. I have been fiddling with the idea of how to operate a graphic design and music studio out of my home.

Up to this point I have concentrated solely on the music I have been making...Which I have yet to fully engage the marketing of. But in the last few weeks it has occurred to me that I should also consider design as a potential for income.

My day job as a graphic designer for a small business has made me rethink my strengths and weaknesses. I have come to the conclusion that my strengths are (obviously) creativity related and that they are not limited to music.

As I think / post "out loud" here I am finding my way in the creative industry. Trying to find my place. I realize that this is not something that will happen suddenly...Establishing my place. So I am prepared for a year or two more of getting all my things in order, getting it all sorted out to make a realistic arrival into the audio and graphic industries.

The competition is unreal, massive, seemingly unsurmountable! But of course it is not impossible to establish myself, just really, really hard.

I am currently "connected" to a few very good people in the creative community and what is left is for me to have something very solid to offer. I have told myself that in a week or two after the move...After we are settled in our new home and my studio is up and running...That it will be a matter of a few months for me to have a solid design portfolio and audio demo.

I have all the equipment needed to make this happen and all that is missing is the dedicated time needed to pull it off.

By this time next year I hope to have a serious dot com set up with all the needed ingredients for a serious push into the creative industries. For now it is this blog and my thoughts...And I think as long as I keep these things in focus I can achieve my goals.

Thanks for anyone who has bothered to read this and wish me luck. I hope one day to have something substantially more useful to offer here...But for now it is essentially a brain dump.

Cheers,
m e e k

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When I was running an indie hiphop label, I was only beginning to develop a downtempo production style. Though I wanted to take it further, I was only able to work on my project during my free time away from my label duties. It got pretty frustrating.

Finally, I decided to resign from the company and work on my own music full time. In the months leading up to that, I had recorded plenty of demos that reflected my new sound.

During the first couple weeks of being "free," I went back through all the demos I had produced and, to my surprise, discovered that all the pieces for the first album were already there. I took those demos and mixed/mastered them, then immediately released them online. All this was in a matter of two weeks after leaving my former company. Go figure.

The point I'm trying to make is that, though it may seem tedious, you're probably getting more work done than you think. You may very well be finished with whatever project you're working on.

Good luck.

ultrameek said...

Thanks Rob!

It is always good to hear similar stories with happy endings!

I am really looking forward to pulling it all together once I get this new home settled and the studio put together.

I have over 100 tunes to sift through...and I am sure there is a complete LP in there somewhere.

Last FM still has me a bit stumped but I am going to credit that to my lack of free time to figure it out.

Cheers,
m e e k