questions for artists

[abajew]

I've been checking this site a lot and thought maybe some of the artists on here could give me some advice. I recently graduated with a BFA in printmaking(but I have the most practice in screen printing). I didn't take any design or graphics classes, just printing techniques and fine art. I think I would like to get into printing/designing show posters.
So I live in the New York area, which I think is a great place to be, but I am having trouble locating the shops that do screen printed gig posters. So I guess my questions are:
Do people normally work for shops, or is it more of a freelance/ DIY thing? And if not working for a shop how do people normally find jobs?
Also, I have been beginning to teach myself illustrator and photoshop. In school I had done all hand drawing. Do you think its necessary to be profficient in design programs? Should I try to learn Indesign as well?

Any answers would be helpful. Thankyou!

[vrooooom]

Basically, it's kind of a "make your own job" type of situation. If you take a job somewhere, you're working on others' stuff. Start at a t-shirt shop or other screen printing shop doing commercial gigs, or if you have money to blow, take on an unpaid internship. The latter may not teach you anything about the business side of things, which you'll have to learn anyway unless you plan to always work for someone else. This is extremely important, even at the expense of honing your "craft" as plenty of talented artists crash and burn due to a misunderstanding of how to sell their work.

You'll find that a lot of people here tended to work somewhere first, then open their own shop or studio. Opening a shop implies that you're printing jobs for other people, aka clients. Design software knowledge is crucial here. Having a studio means that you're more or less able to sell your own prints like a retail venture. There's no definite boundary between the two, so all kinds of mixes between the formulas are going on.

So you wanna do gigposters? May I suggest art prints? You'll probably make more and it can lead to doing poster work. There's a lot of stuff going on in the "screen printed poster" market that can make it difficult to make a living off of posters alone. Simple answer? You just do it. Check the threads here (even your question has been answered previously, you just need to dig and use the search bar) and potentially start doing "work" for smaller outfits.

Get ready to work a day job, freelance, network, and handle studio business all at the same time for 10-30 years... and you might "make it." In any case, this is the correct outlook and work ethic to have, as the waiting list is long and the ladder to the top longer.

[imagine]

my suggestion is make art prints, rock posters is a loosing battle. the market is over saturated theres little to no money in it... butt the choice is yours

[Carlos Artest]

make t-shirts. its how i pay the rents. i feel like everyone has to make their own paths quite literally. You gotta hustle, you gotta make friends who know people who will have some gigs to get you. also- I have been doing it without ever knowing computer programs, but its kinda a fluke and my schtick.

i will be living in nyc summer, late summer bros!

[RichieGoodtimes]

My advice for a young artist is to not ask artists for advice about anything and sure as hell don't take any advice offered by artists.

[Carlos Artest]

^ nice

[RichieGoodtimes]

It's the fucking truth.

[Carlos Artest]

i meant because we're fb friends and i felt deja vu, brother

[dave welker]

So basically disregard anything said in this thread.

[ricv64]

unless it's from a designer