Studios

Today over on ArtOrder Jon Schindehette posted about working with art studios, so I thought I'd give my opinion on the topic. From what I understand, and I may be mistaken, the studios used to be really big up until the 70's and 80's in the US. There were quite a few around, but they were driven away by individual artists offering lower prices, the rising cost of running a studio, stock-art, and other general business woes that affected the decline of small business in the 80's and 90's.

Back in college at the Cleveland Institute of Art, our teachers in the illustration department were from that old studio era, and they tried to recreate that in the classroom. We had a large room in a renovated Ford motor plant we called "The Factory" that was filled with cubicles. Everyone got their own cubicle to work in, and it was a wonderful community atmosphere.

My teachers at CIA felt that independent art studios probably wouldn't return, but I think that studios can definitely make a comeback. With the digital age we've eliminated the need to have a large physical studio that needs to have electricity, rent, and other utilities paid. We can afford to have virtual studios to talk, share work and ideas, and meet our clients needs.

Being a member of Empty Room Studios and Creative Director of our publishing side has been a great experience for me. We have a wonderful group of artists that I really enjoy working with, and we're doing all the things the "old studios" used to do. The difference now is that we don't drive to work in the morning, we log onto our forum and check for updates. We post our WIP's (works in progress) online so everyone can give feedback, and we live scattered around the globe.

Studios are good for artists because it creates a sort of union atmosphere. There's power in numbers, and while you'll always have your bottom rung companies looking for a deal, having studios puts some power back into the artists hands. We can spend more time working on art, and less time searching for work.