Hi there! I’m designer, metalsmith, and educator Megan Auman and I teach artists and makers how to profit from their creativity. I firmly believe that art, craft, and design make the world a better place, which is why I hate to see artists and makers undervaluing their work.
Whether that’s underpricing, burning out, or not marketing or selling to their full potential because they “don’t want to bother people,” I want to see artists and makers ditch the guilt and fear and start making real money from their work.
Here at Artists & Profit Makers, I share business advice I’ve learned running my eponymous jewelry line over the past seventeen years – everything from pricing to wholesale to product photography to yes, sales and marketing.
But more than that, I help artists and makers bring their businesses into Alignment so you can build a business that makes you money AND makes you happy!
I believe we should always celebrate handmade. I try to put a photo of my hands throwing a piece in my marketing material.
Ok, this is now one of my new favorite commercials. It’s fantastic…as if big companies are finally coming back around to the beginning. It gives me hope.
This has inspired me to start thinking of making short video clips about the creative process and what goes into making an item from concept to completion. People respond well to video and imagery.
I couldn’t agree more. I am driving my sixth Jeep in 20 years and prefer the homemade stuff (I know it has foreign made parts). I think the tide is turning in terms of people looking for simplistic living, homemade, handcrafted, unique items from vehicles to jewelry. America is pushing back too on the idea Washington sends out that we’re not good enough. We are going back to our roots as industrious, creative, hard working and taking responsibility for our success.
I think this really represents a fundamental shift in the approach to marketing to America. It won’t appeal to everyone – and that’s okay. But this commercial seems geared to the working class, a group that has been unable to buy quality craftsmanship – whether due to price or due to the pressures of a consumerist society – for quite some time.
Could it be that the Walmart generation is ready for change?
Pingback:Aaaaahhh, Craftsmanship… [Part I] «
This Jeep commercial is smart to capitalize on a current trend – local, green, handmade, craftsmanship, etc. With the recent recession came a push for people to live simpler lives – buy more local foods and products and be as green as possible. Really, I just think we are in many ways reverting to the ways our grandparents lived. And I think it’s wonderful.
The culture is shifting away from buying mass marketed junk and it is prime for the taking. People with handmade business (such as most of us) are ahead of the trend and that is the best place to be. It is inspiring when you see it taking off in a mainstream venue – such as this commercial.
Great post!
I love the slogan ‘the things we make make us’!
When my husband and I first saw this on TV together, we just sat there silently watching. At the end, we were just staring at the screen, mumbling, “That was really good”. Brilliant ad. I think what I loved most was that it wasn’t the traditional “We’re-the-US-and-we’re-always-#1!” ethos that I can’t STAND. Instead, they acknowledged that we’ve gotten out of hand and away from the hard-work and quality that made this country what it WAS… and what I hope it can be again. Now if only people took that concept and applied it to demanding quality, care, and concern for things like food and the environment, I’d be a happier camper.
I have worked as a costumer in theatre for most of my adult life, (garment industry before that) and I’m a bit ashamed to admit that it infuriates me that we don’t value craftsmanship in our society.
That said, the return to handmade is great reason to hope, and yes, we should extol the virtues of craftsmanship whenever and where-ever we can, and help move the world back to a place where we respect everyone’s skills.
Thanks for posting!
When you put that lift on and go for those 33 inch tires, you are almost ctinmoimg your jeep to the offroad. Why would you put gas sucking tires on a daily driver? If it is going to be mainly for off road use then it really doesn’t matter. The wider the rims, the more footprint of the tire gets put on the dirt. The narrower the rims the more the tires look like balloons and the less footprint goes in the dirt. Serious offroaders air down their tires anyway. Be sure to get the correct backspacing or dish to the rims so the wheels don’t rub the frame or other when turning. That is the main reason people change rims with bigger tires.The narrower the tire the better it handles all round. The wider the width of the tire the more your jeep will handle like a monster truck (which is not necessarily a good thing!).Let me clear the air in case you are unaware. The tire size 31 10.5 15 means that the tires are 31 inches tall, 10.5 inches across the tread (footprint of the tire) and that they fit on a 15 inch rim. Your Jeep factory rims were probably 15 inches indiameter and 8 inches across (where the tire seats). Larger width tires (>10.5 ) wide will fit on the stock (8 ) rims, but it is probably not reccomended. I would feel comfortable putting pretty much any size tire on a 10-10.5 rim.
I recently was having a crisis of faith about my work not selling and was considering doing reproductions. I was trying to justify it as a way to broaden my price range, and was looking at everything from cheap packs of greeting cards to matted and framed giclees. After spending a lot of time going back and forth in my head I decided against it. I am a craftsman and I place too high a value on the connection between myself and my work to mass produce it. My brother suggested that if I steer clear of giclees I would have to market my work as a premium product, but I don’t know that I totally see it that way. I would like to think that people in this country do appreciate craftsmanship and value craftsmen in general, and I certainly hope this Jeep ad (I’m a Jeep owner, BTW) is a harbinger of things to come.
I saw this commercial the other day and absolutely loved it!
I was going to comment in response to this wonderful post, but my comment turned out to be a bit long, so I ended up posting it over on my blog and referencing CMBA. –It looks like CMBA pulled the permalink back here, but it also automatically brought with it all of my tagging gobbledy-gook (my WordPress theme doesn’t allow for the tags to be posted AFTER the body of the post…). ;-S
Not to worry! Megan graciously offered to try to edit the permalink, and also offered me the opportunity to post a redirect to my post and the conversation on defining both skill and craft.
http://jewelrydesignchronicles.wordpress.com/2010/06/30/aaaaahhh-craftsmanship-part-i/
A HUGE thank you, Megan!
Wonderful vid + thread! Tamara, I enjoyed reading your post as well. I’m been really interested in this movement towards craftmanship in America. Since the economy has bottomed out, I think it’s made the average person realize the importance of making things. And making them well. “Made In America” used to be stamped on the majority of things people used to buy in the past, and I feel that by learning a craft, I’m doing a small part to bring that back.
What are we up against in turning the tide back towards buying American-made? Is it sweatshops and Walmart? Is it the skills and marketing of craftspeople? I don’t know, but I’m glad there’s a bunch of us asking these questions. It would be a shame to lose the skills that built this country. I feel like the Creative Empire back then was almost a natural state of the economy. Props to Megan for getting the discussion going!
I actually read Tamra’s post about this one first and left a comment there. I hadn’t seen this commercial on TV, but I did see one from (I think) Hyundai where they talked about their cars being like “handmade” and I thought, “I don’t want a car that’s handmade.” I would like one that’s “well made” like they said in the Jeep commercial. So both companies had the same idea, but Jeep got right and Hyundai made me think of badly glued paper airplanes.
I’m so glad that you posted this commercial. Everytime I see it, it gets me so excited to be a maker. I had no idea a Jeep commercial could do that for me! It’s incredibly gutsy, I like how it’s very targeted and really hits a chord. I’m quite surprised that a big company like Jeep would produce a commercial that really calls our country out on how we’ve gotten away from making quality products, and the value of making – here with our own hands. I would love to see more of this sentiment shared in the mass media.
I have a set of BFG 31X10.5 on my stock 2000 TJ with no lift. They will rub on hard turns to the left or right, but that can be stopped by anjustidg the steering stops on both front wheels. Beyond that I have never had any other problems with my tires rubbing.
Both logos are well crafted, but by far the first logo restpeenrs a more complete picture of Russia. Its deep cultural history, beautiful artistic crafts, the passion of its people, their love of the Olympic games and the spirit of competition are all embodied in the first logo.The second logo with its website embedded for those who need the extra guidance causes me to think of the Russian geek who sits behind the computer playing Tetris a very limited picture of Russia. In fact, the second logo could easily represent a Russian tech conference or online gamers convention. The whole concept of mirroring the lake is a myopic mistake when considering the first logo more aptly mirrors the Russian culture and its connection to the Olympics.