Aprende a promocionar tu trabajo: 10 recursos para artistas, diseñadores y creativos

Por Austin Kleon

Aprende a promocionar tu trabajo es un libro para todas aquellas personas que rehúyen el concepto de autopromoción. Diez sencillas máximas ponen fin al mito del genio solitario y nos enseñan a darnos a conocer con osadía y generosidad. Austin Kleon nos muestra cómo la obra creativa no es un producto sino un proceso en permanente desarrollo que, al compartirse, nos permite construir un público propio y aprender a comunicarnos con él.

No tienes que ser un genio, Abre tu gabinete de curiosidades, Enseña lo que sabes pero no te conviertas en spam humano, Aprende a recibir los golpes Con principios tan contundentes como estos, Kleon no sólo nos enseña estrategias para que nos atrevamos a mostrar nuestro trabajo, sino que nos abre un nuevo e increíble escenario el de la comunicación para que reflexionemos desde otra perspectiva sobre nuestra propia obra.

• Idioma: Español
• Editorial: Editorial GG
• Fecha de lanzamiento: 26 may 2016
• ISBN: 9788425229848

Austin Kleon

Austin Kleon is a writer who draws. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work! His work has been featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, PBS Newshour, and in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal. He also speaks frequently about creativity in the digital age for such organizations as Pixar, Google, SXSW, TEDx, and The Economist. He lives in Austin, Texas, and online at austinkleon.com.

Vista previa del libro

Illustration NO HACE FALTA SER UN GENIO

ENCUENTRA UN ESCENIO

Da lo que tienes. Para algunos, eso puede ser mucho más de lo que tú puedas creer.

—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Existen muchos mitos destructivos acerca de la creatividad, pero uno de los más peligrosos es el mito del genio solitario: un individuo con facultades sobrehumanas aparece de la nada en cierto momento de la historia, libre de influencias o precedentes y bendecido con una conexión directa con Dios o con las musas. Cuando la inspiración llega, lo golpea como un relámpago, una bombilla se enciende en su cabeza y, después de eso, el genio se pasa el resto de su vida trabajando afanosamente en su estudio, dando forma a su idea hasta convertirla en una obra maestra acabada, que después entrega al mundo exterior anunciándola a bombo y platillo. De creer en el mito del genio solitario, la creatividad se convertiría en un acto antisocial que está al alcance tan solo de unas pocas figuras, sobre todo de hombres muertos con nombres como Mozart, Einstein o Picasso. Al resto de nosotros solo nos quedaría la opción de revolotear alrededor de ellas, con la boca abierta de admiración y babeando por sus logros.

Existe, sin embargo, una forma más sana de abordar la creatividad y a la que el músico Brian Eno se refiere con la palabra escenio (scenius). Según este modelo, las grandes ideas suelen ser el producto de un grupo de individuos creativos: artistas, comisarios, pensadores, teóricos y otros árbitros del gusto que conforman una ecología del talento. Si examinamos más de cerca la Historia, muchos de aquellos a los que solemos considerar genios solitarios fueron en realidad parte de toda una escena constituida por personas que se apoyaban unas a otras y que se interesaban por lo que cada una hacía, copiándose mutuamente, dándose y robándose ideas. La noción de escenio no pretende menoscabar los logros de todos estos individuos notables; tan solo reconocer que las grandes obras no se crean en el vacío y que la creatividad es siempre, en cierto sentido, una colaboración, el resultado de una mente conectada a otras mentes.

Illustration

Lo que más me gusta de la idea del escenio es que nos hace un hueco en la historia de la creatividad a todos los demás, a todas las personas que no nos consideramos genios. Llegar a ser una parte valiosa de un escenio no depende necesariamente de lo listo o lo muy talentoso que seas, sino de aquello que puedas aportar: las ideas que compartas, la calidad de las conexiones que realices y las conversaciones que inicies. Si nos olvidamos de la idea de genio y pensamos más en cómo podemos contribuir a alimentar un escenio, podremos adaptar mejor nuestras propias expectativas a las expectativas de los mundos en los que queremos que se nos acepte. Podremos dejar de preguntarnos qué pueden hacer los demás por nosotros y empezar a preguntarnos qué podemos hacer nosotros por los demás.

Vivimos una época en la que es más fácil que nunca formar parte de un escenio. Internet es, básicamente, un conglomerado de escenios conectados y divorciados de la geografía física. Los blogs, las redes sociales, las listas de correo, los grupos de discusión, los foros... todos son la misma cosa: escenas virtuales por las que la gente sale para darse un garbeo y hablar de las cosas que les gustan y les interesan. No hay porteros, ni guardias, ni barreras para entrar en estos garitos virtuales. No tienes que ser rico, ni famoso, ni tener un currículum vitae resultón o un título de una universidad de renombre. En la red, todo el mundo (el artista y el comisario, el maestro y el aprendiz, el experto y el amateur) tiene la posibilidad de aportar algo.

Illustration

SÉ UN AMATEUR

Eso es lo que somos todos: amateurs. Nadie vive lo suficiente para ser otra cosa.

—Charlie Chaplin

A todos nos aterra la posibilidad de parecer amateurs cuando, en realidad, hoy es el amateur, el entusiasta que trabaja por amor a lo que hace sin importarle la fama, el dinero o la ambición profesional (en francés la palabra significa amante), quien suele tener ventaja sobre el especialista. Como tienen poco que perder, los amateurs están deseando probar cosas y compartir sus resultados. Se arriesgan, experimentan y siguen sus propios antojos. En ocasiones, en el proceso de hacer las cosas de manera poco profesional, realizan nuevos descubrimientos. En la mente de un principiante, existen muchas posibilidades —dice el monje Zen Shunryu Suzuki—, en la del experto, pocas.

Un amateur no tiene miedo a cometer errores o a parecer ridículo en público. Está enamorado, así que no tiene problemas para hacer aquello que otros consideran una pérdida de tiempo o algo directamente estúpido. "El más estúpido de los actos creativos es todavía un acto creativo —escribe Clay Shirky en su libro Cognitive Surplus—, dentro del espectro del trabajo creativo, la diferencia entre lo mediocre y lo bueno es vasta." Sin embargo, la mediocridad es todavía parte de ese espectro; puedes moverte de desde lo mediocre a lo bueno en pequeños incrementos. El verdadero salto está entre no hacer nada y hacer algo. Los amateurs saben que aportar algo es mejor que no aportar nada.

Los amateurs pueden carecer de una formación reglada, pero son aprendices vitalicios, y les gusta aprender en público para que otros, a su vez, puedan aprender de sus éxitos y sus fracasos. El escritor David Foster Wallace afirmaba que para él leer buena literatura de no-ficción era una oportunidad de "ver cómo alguien razonablemente brillante pero también razonablemente corriente se paraba a reflexionar sobre algún tema con mucha más atención, detalle y profundidad de los que la mayoría

Comentarios para Aprende a promocionar tu trabajo

[aapremlall · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Breezy and inspirational read with great advice on putting your work out there. Show your work, dammit!

[Blanca Mery Sanchez · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Excelente libro, claro y preciso, un libro para saborear el arte

[reader1009-863136 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

I am not an artist/musician looking to be discovered, so I can't speak to its usefulness per se, but it's a quick, easy read. here are my notes that might be useful to anyone looking to share their work:
(3) share something small every day (daily dispatch). Look at diff outlets (tumblr, dribbble, etc.). What are you working on? Is it useful or interesting? Share work, not cats/sunsets.
(4) Share what you love (from your cabinet of curiosities). Give credit and link back, and if you don't know the source, don't share it.
(5) Tell good stories. The process can be interesting. Practice telling stories.
(6) Teach what you know. (be of use to others)
(7) Listen to what's out there already--don't add to the noise, add something new and useful/interesting.

[antao-3 · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

Someone might say: “We need inspiring visual content that can enrich us.”Wow. Deep statement. On Instagram there is tons of crap and dross yet tons of visually inspiring images. She neatly sidesteps the utility of Instagram - there is no gatekeeper, no barrier for joe/jane ordinary to post his or her images. She wants to promote her art agency ...... and act as a gatekeeper and "enrich" herself. OK. I don't think anyone is forced to view Kardashian images, certainly I never see them. The online world is driven to some degree by "likes", people like when others signify their approval of an image by pushing like. Yeah, I got 15,000 likes on a photo of mine once, and fuck year I felt good for a while. The world is more complex than she images ///// or is far simpler than any of us imagine?From the perspective of an artist and CS scientist who hardly knows what Instagram is and luckily doesn't need to sell work to survive, I find many modern pieces too commercial and rather less art than artefact. I am only really interested in a piece of artwork LIKE Urban Sketching when planning and creating; after completion it gains (loses) a smaller status and probably ends up stashed away. This signature work, Instagram and family friendly, is the populist lure that does exactly what it is supposed to do. Attract the many who then may go on to discover more subtle and challenging works. I see no problem. Often lost in all of these discussions is the very unpopular idea that most art is wasted on the mass of people who view it. That's true of anything with depth, any effort at true expression, whether in film, music or sculpture. That does not mean that they don't enjoy it, but only that they enjoy it as a cow or chicken might enjoy it, on the level of the senses, rather than the imagination. If that sounds elitist, well...I certainly hope it does. So? What difference does it make if they stand there and flap their phones at the work like so many monkeys? They're just identifying themselves in the crowd, and letting others know where to toss the bananas. Speaking of which, who do you think that Banana in Miami was intended for? Monkeys. Billionaire monkeys.Having said that, I must add Art has been dumbing us down for far too long. Anything goes art and cheap one-off stunts is degrading all of us. It is about time some kind of effort went into raising standards and personal pride with achievement endeavour. I have a big interest in seeing what is happening in the good ateliers’ around the world and a lot of our student achievements would simply not survive in the world art arena. We are all fooling ourselves with producing art with a short lifespan.But what do I know? I’m half-roaster, half-interested party who likes to talk bollocks (which I know is bollocks) in order to hear people's actual opinions (rather than the "oh there's something to be said for that worldview" type of thing). Though now that I've gone and read up on structuralism, I'd probably lean that way with my work, but not the works of others. Continuing to argue the toss for the sake of it. Is emotion relative? Presumably given sufficient progress in study of the brain we (species, not you and me) could alter brain chemistry at will to produce a desired emotion. If that were the case then we would be able to secrete emotions and make them absolute.

[obtusata · Calificación: 3 de 5 estrellas]

This is meant as a marketing guide for creative types, but I still found it interesting.

[andycyca-1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Kleon shares concise advice on sharing, the environment of creativity and several myths about "genius" that are irrelevant in today's technological world.This is not a book about marketing, which is selling people something despite their refusal. This is about building your work so that someone else will want to get it and inspire her in the process. Everyone wins!

[patl_53 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

Having just finished Austin Kleon's previous book Steal Like an Artist, which I liked but didn't LOVE... I didn't expect anything different here. I mean, the book's exactly the same size and shape, the same layout, similar in approach. But this one hit me right between the eyes half a dozen times over.

I immediately started rereading this one, a library copy, and bought this one and Steal Like an Artist. I suspect that I didn't click with the first one because I read it too quickly and didn't really let it settle in. Or maybe it just speaks to a different stage of the artistic journey than I'm on. But Show Your Work... Oh, goodness. The second night I was reading it, I sat up four hours past my bedtime curating photo streams, removing the junk and the fluff, the "so what?" stuff that Austin speaks about. I kept in the stream photos of things-in-process, whether my new attempts at sketchnoting (and I'm NOT a drawing artist) or my attempts at yoga (I'm a middle-aged guy, inflexible and newb-like). I culled old photos of lattes and omelettes. I moved nearly two hundred photos of my family - fine snapshots, but not where I found creative inspiration for this stream - from my photo stream up to Facebook, where more folks are enjoying them as family photos anyway. Grandma and friends are there, not waiting on my photo streams. Four hours.

I also wrote six pages of journal notes, some by hand, some electronically; began to reshape my 9-year-old blog that I've left to die many times over. I revisited the great question of how I can find the metanarrative between all my distinct interests and outputs, to see what the main through-line is.

It's not just Show Your Work alone that sparked this - it was also much of David Whyte's poetry and lectures, as well as learning to doodle note and sketch note - but Kleon's book shaped and unblocked so much.

I can't recommend this book highly enough, and I'll be rereading Steal Like An Artist when my purchased copy of it shows up too.

[jpsnow · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Show Your Work is an excellent little jump starter for making your work known and feeding the cycle of creativity in course. The tips include some well known concepts that are too seldom followed, e.g. "Teach What You Know." There are others that will be counter-intuitive to some, such as sharing a lot freely. I jotted down a page full of ideas to try, all from reading this book cover-to-cover on a single flight. h/t Tim Ferriss via Tools of Titans.

[deldevries · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Nicely constructed and motivational to support creativity.

[jen6e6moore · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

A really useful and interesting little book about how to be an artist in the 21st century, and how to be a creative in public.

[margaretpinardauthor · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Great ideas on how to be someone who shares art with the world as it's being made, without losing your MIND. :)

[eenerd · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Practical, concise and TOTALLY DOABLE advice for those who make stuff and want to do something with it.

[margaret.pinard · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

Great ideas on how to be someone who shares art with the world as it's being made, without losing your MIND. :)

[figre · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

This is definitely one of those "your mileage may differ books." You know the kind: Others tell you it is the greatest thing since sliced book marks, you dive in with great expectations, you blaze through the pages, and you get out of the other end saying "What's all the fuss", "I could've done that", or "I want that part of my life back." (The last complaint is seldom legitimate as such books are usually so slim they do not really take that much time.)And when I started this book I thought it was going to fall into that category – I thought it would be a poor follow-up to Kleon's book Steal Like an Artist. (Let me pause here and let you know that the previous book was a game changer for me.) Recognizing that I may not have be in the exact frame of mind for this type of book and further realizing that the way to approach what Kleon was saying was not by trying to blast through the entire thing – rather, taking a moment after each second and thinking about what was being said - I read a couple of chapters and then set it aside, then another chapter and set it aside, and so one.Maybe it helped that, at the same time Kleon happened to be touring with the book and I got to hear him speak. Maybe it helped that I happened to watch a couple of his videos at the same time. Whatever the reason, every time I came back to the book, I found I was getting more out of it – each visit had more impact, more to share with me, more for me to take from it. And now, having finished the entire book over a leisurely couple of weeks, I can tell you it has been the source of at least two blog posts, a column in the magazine I write for, and additional content for my creativity and leadership presentations. Some may see it as a rehashing – a conglomeration of other people's concepts. But I would argue that Kleon has taken these concepts and put them together into a new set of ideas that are really about people developing their creative sides and, maybe more importantly, finding ways to promote themselves and their creativity without being a jerk about it. (See the section on vampires.)This book contains important insights about creativity and moving yourself forward that everyone should take note of. And it contains nuggets that can be applied to just about any aspect of whatever work you are doing.Your mileage may differ. I got a lot per gallon.

[sbenne3 · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

I saw the author speak so got an in-depth understanding of some of his key points. I enjoyed reading this quick reminder about fostering creativity in any form of work you are doing. I am also much more inspired to "share" in some form . . . . started with a daily journal and working toward sharing my ideas on social media.

[medievalmama_1 · Calificación: 5 de 5 estrellas]

This book should be adapted as the text for the introductory English class for all colleges and universities -- it makes the information that I have been trying to teach from outmoded books for 18 1/2 years easily accessible to ALL students, and teaches what they need to know to be successful in college and in life.Deceptively simple. Brilliant in its simplicity! Up to date in formatting -- it is a Workman publication, after all. Uses graphics, drawings, quotations, photographs as well as written examples.Was invited by a friend to hear Kleon give a talk last night -- went, listened, looked at the book, fell in love -- with the text.214 pages. $11.95.

[zzshupinga · Calificación: 4 de 5 estrellas]

ARC provided by NetGalleyBestselling author of Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon, brings back his unique writing style to Show Your Work! to explain why its more beneficial for you and your career to share you knowledge and skills, than hide it and keep it secret. Kleon shares his ten simple rules for being open and productive with short fantastic book, that is filled with illustrations, quotes, and stories to help make you better be able to share your story with the world. Kleon's main points to us is that you're not grandstanding or self-promoting yourself, but that you're being awesome and findable, and letting others learn from you. All of this helps you become more well known, as well giving back to the community. One of the first lessons that he shares is about living life to the fullest, look at those that have come before us and passed on, what was awesome about them? He shares the tale of George Lucas who had a near death experience at 18, which helped make him who he is today. Another important lesson, you need? Document what you do. Commander Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut that became known around the world, wanted.The most important thing that stuck out to with me was whenever you get a grade back, a project back ask yourself "so what?" You got an a or an attaboy, so what? Does it define you? Does it make you who you are? If yes great! If it doesn't, pick yourself up and move on, so that you don't feed the trolls, even the ones that live in your own head.There are so many stories that I could share from this great little book, because that's what its all about is sharing a story. I can't tell you that I'll reread this book every day, but it will live on my bookshelf as one to keep close by and pull out when I need inspiration. I give the book 4 out of 5 stars and would recommend it to everyone, for a bit of inspiration in their life.