There’s no money in Art…
Growing up in Wales in the 70’s was challenging to say the least. By the time we left in ‘84, our town, previously buoyant from mining tradition, had become a ghost town overnight. We upped sticks just in time and moved to Kent, beautifully green by contrast, ladened with beaches, orchards and opportunity. I had drawn and painted from an early age, partly in the pursuit of escapism from a challenging upbringing but mostly as there was very little to do where we lived. My stepdad who was a mechanic at the time, (a very good one too) constantly frowned upon me, saying on many occasions that ‘There’s no money in art’ and regularly insisted that I pursued a career in engineering or some other vocation. These words resonated with me throughout my life and was probably the defining catalyst for what I do now.
That said, on reflection of late it has made me think about the context and time in which he said those words, was he correct at that particular moment? He was certainly ill-informed, as back then there was no internet, books or magazines on design (unless you specially requested them from the library) there were only 3 tv channels (channel 4 launched in 82) the only influential TV programmes at the time were either Take Hart or Blue Peter. How could anyone really find out about the design legends such as Luballin, Rand and Glaser without social media, TV or books. Schools and Colleges certainly weren’t encouraging it as a career path with courses more veered towards illustration and fine art. He probably had a point.
Fast Forward to 95, after leaving art college I found myself mostly clueless as to what I was going to do, maybe I should have accepted my fate and got my hands dirty with engines after all. In the end though after a small and lucrative* career in tomato packing I had a lucky break. A neighbour told me that a London design agency (what’s a design agency?!?!) were looking for an office junior to fulfil various roles within their business. As opportunities were few and far between I jumped at it and never looked back. It wasn’t easy though (juniors certainly do have it easier these days, although I’ll save that for another time) from delivering proofs all over London to cleaning out bromide and film machines. But during that time I absorbed numerous skills from some amazingly talented people and started to develop a plan for what I wanted to do.
This appreciation for the basics; there was no internet when I started, a colour runout would take 30 mins to print, working 48 hours straight was pretty much standard, illustrator was called freehand and everything was created in QuarkXpress — helped mould me into a more resilient designer. Being a designer in 2020 everything is expected to be instantaneous and if it’s not we moan ‘that file took 20 seconds to save - wtf!’ It was very different when a file could take over an hour to save!
Anyhow, back to the title... ‘there’s no money in art’ - I’m slightly inclined to agree with that statement, unless you’ve tapped into a trend or a style at exactly the right time i.e Banksy or Shepard Fairey etc. or are just bloody talented. I will however amend the original statement slightly and say that there ‘is’ money in design, plenty of it too, and more importantly considerable reward and gratification — you just have to put the time and effort in, no matter how complicated or difficult your start in life was.
