The Idea Guy

Virgil, mentors, and the latest from the cobbling community

I finally saw my friend Alex after two and a half months of our schedules resisting to line up. I was running late because Adam and I couldn’t stop riffing about our newly found disdain for the movie Face Off.

and also because of this sunset demanded to be witnessed

Whenever we meet, she’s always there before me and the host usually just says, “She’s right this way,” like it’s obvious I’m the remaining party.

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“You won’t believe what’s happened!!”

I haven’t even sat down and she’s already half filled me in on the recent happenings of the Sonoma cobbling community - which she’s only loosely connected to - but was situationally roped into a light scandal last week.

The waiter comes by a third time to ask if we are (finally) ready to order. We get the bacalhau cakes because they are delicious and I’m only like 80% gluten free. After talking about how we are seeing society disintegrate, I ask her about a creative project she’s been working on and she shows me beautiful sketches, while telling me she knows they are not that good (they’re amazing).

I’ve just stepped back into independent work after a year in-house, then a chunky sabbatical. I did work on a direction project in October, but that ran into unrelated-to-me complications further down the pipeline, and will never see the light of day. Still mourning!!

As I come back to emails and contracts and meetings, it has felt urgent to re-think how I structure work. I keep cycling through all the usual ways (in-house, fractional, full freelance, retainer) then needing to cleanse my palette. Maybe there’s nothing wrong with that but I’d like to land on an approach that feels both sustainable and exciting.

A whole lot of the last year and a half did not work. But I have a strong intuitive pull towards an answer to addressing this cycle, which is exciting. I’ve been working on a piece about this but the scope keeps growing so instead of working on that I am writing this.

Part of the inspiration and research is a talk Virgil gave in 2018 that I watch at least once/year.¹ So many of the things I’ve gleaned from that recording have formed me (cheesy, I know) and I want to scream them at everyone. I recently read Playground and he’s the person I’d bring back.

I re-watch the video when I am in need of mentorship. Most of my mentors are dead or have no clue who I am and usually both. With this particular question I’ve been needing them to weigh-in.

His thinking around ideas and creative process feel so inevitable, it leaves you confused why we don’t all operate this way. It involves bringing others into your vision, but most of us creatives have been burnt.

I recently upgraded my subscription to JULIANA SALAZAR’s newsletter and she writes about it here and here. She also talks about how creatives tend to undervalue anything that comes easily to them, and how ease is not indicative of value or worth.

Which brings me back to dinner with Alex. She tells me about a time back in her LA days when she pitched a big accessory brand a collaboration with an artist she was assisting at the time. They asked for more creative so she sent the full deck which contained an idea for a product they did not yet carry, along with how to execute. 14 months later they launched the same idea and direction with someone else.

NOW IT’S A CORE CATEGORY.

This dynamic is at odds with my favorite project approach where I somewhat carelessly put my work out there and the right people materialize. An early example: at the tender age of 22 I posted a voting related graphic I kept formulating and eventually designed out.

Putting the idea out there made it possible for a brand to find and reach out to produce it as a drop around election time, which then got timely press. People with lots of eyes on them were wearing the product and posting about it. I can trace back many projects I have done since to this moment. Although I got paid pennies, this was all insane to me since I had been freelancing for a total of two months.

But I don’t do that anymore, I’ve become more precious/jaded about putting ideas out there. Just this week I’ve spent ten hours crafting a deck that I’d love to see come to life, but am overthinking.² It’s scary to be imitated or taken advantage of since a lot of brands would honestly rather copy you than pay you. I don’t have a fix to this, it just keeps nagging at me.

Would love to hear all your thoughts in the comments or dm me.

Love you longtime,
Cam

1. The ending will make you cry and the full 70 minutes are worth the watch.

2. It’s one of those ideas that pulls you in but also don’t feel like I have to start this business right now. It’s ready for the right brand/person. Virgil talks about this too.