How We…Are Building A New Community Of Artists To Focus On And Collaborate With
Whilst we were authors with Laurence King Publishing, we made a range of art and design books, stationery, and gift products for over 15 years. We did this whilst also running our own commercial studio as filmmakers who made documentaries and commercials and love the visual arts. These experiences as authors, artists, and entrepreneurs helped us restructure and restart a business, create Soi Books, and create an artist community that supports a whole range of creatives and artists in turning their work into books and products.
Bloc is a freeform creative release from Soi Books. We want release it at least twice a year and give creatives within our community a place to share their work and get published
But what does it take to build an artist community AND How are we doing it?
Here are some key elements we've found essential as we’ve started this journey with the Soi Books community.
A sense of purpose: A great artist community needs to have a sense of purpose that goes beyond just connecting people. As authors and filmmakers, we believe in the power of storytelling and documenting, and even preserving the work of some great artists we know and admire. These could be graffiti writers, street artists, photographers, or illustrations. That’s our remit! So now we want to help artists turn their work into books and other products that can be enjoyed by a wider audience which can inspire and educate people around the world. Plus, having your work in print, as a physical tangible product is great to have, share, and present.
A supportive platform: You can't build an artist community without the right platform. We've chosen to use Circle as it works for us. This isn’t a sales pitch for Circle but it got the tools we need and it’s a patient platform so as we change and see how things work, we can adapt and make the changes.
Engaging content: To keep your community members engaged, you must provide high-quality content relevant to their interests. This means we need to share the good stuff. We are still working out what this also means in terms of programming content, but something we look forward to sharing soon is live design and creative meets where we share with our community what books we are making.
Collaborative opportunities: Collaboration is key to any artist community. Through our Stickerbomb brand, we always collaborated and ask for submissions and we continue to do this today. So now we encourage artists to work together on book concepts and products, and we provide guidance and resources to help them turn their ideas into reality. We also commission ideas from artists to turn into book concepts and provide opportunities for artists to illustrate existing manuscripts or stories.
Supportive resources: To help artists turn their work into books and products, you need to provide the right resources and support. We learned through our time with Laurence King the need to have a team to support - this can be design, editorial, sales, marketing, production, or even just general creative. We’re taking this forward as we offer book design, editing, and self-publishing guidance. We also provide access to publishing opportunities and help artists navigate the industry. Because to be real, the publishing industry is overwhelming and at times very old school.
In summary, building an artist community takes a lot of work, but it's incredibly rewarding. To make it successful, you need to prioritize community management, authenticity, flexibility, and patience. We are still making our way with this, but these points are crucial. We believe that they are essential for creating a thriving community of artists and at the end of the day, we are artists ourselves, and we know how important it is to be 'real' with each other. By staying true to these values, we're confident that we can create something truly special for those artists who want to make books and connect with like-minded creatives.
Elizabeth Corrall, one of our Soi Co crew members - you can read about her here.
