When a performer is put in front of a crowd, the typical advice is to “Be yourself.” Like other pieces of terse advice, it’s easier said than done. The same applies to making things—especially things aligned to what you think a product or service should be and therefore would want to use. The next step, logical but still not easy to arrive at, is to learn if other people appreciate what you made for yourself.
One example of such like-mindedness is design-and-advertising agency-turned maker-of-interesting “outside stuff” Coudal Partners, founded by Jim Coudal. Their mission is to “create clients, not find them.” As Coudal put it:
“Well, we have this audience that comes to our Coudal.com site all the time, and they must be like us, if they read the things we put up. If we can find a way make, create, sell things that we need, then this audience might need it, too.”For starters, one’s self is always a dedicated audience. There’s potential to grow this audience of one to many, and caring for them while being true to yourself.
Tap into your inner like-minder.
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This is the second piece of a series focused on the lively cast of characters whose roles make the play of Creativity. In case you missed the previous Creative Role, meet the Slow Cooker.
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Typographic illustration, tailormade for this series, was done by Shawn Hazen. Read his Designer’s Quest(ionnaire).
