don't put yourself in a bin

27/04/2020

How to sell one self has always alluded me personally, even simply describing myself has been a tricky concept for me to grasp. Am I actually creative, intelligent, musically skilled or interesting to those that don’t know me like I know the bottom of my mug (full of rotten spill over tea leaf)? You see you will always be unable to sell yourself if you don’t know who you are as a person or even what your purpose is on this small living planet. And on we go with number 12, the final chapter of Eddie William Hellewell.

Selling yourself is a common occurrence if not daily occurrence nowadays. When you go down to the shop you generally wear your typical; jeans, shoes, jumper, jacket etc. Unless you’re from Limerick City that is (pyjamas). It’s part of life to look “presentable” in public as opposed to lounging around watching hours upon hours of Netflix. Why else would your mother and girlfriend say they can’t leave the house because they “look a state”. It’s simply just part of the world we live in really. As a musician it is vital for me to sell myself, my skill and of course confidence. You’d never want to be the quiet drummer saying nothing or even interacting with the crowd here and there (a random screech will suffice). But it starts way before the gig itself. Getting an audience is tricky, how do you convince people to go to your gig when something maybe better/more mainstream could be playing that very same night. You can’t promise anything like a free pint or personalised letter or well it becomes bribery at that stage. It’s all about drawing people in for the reasons that you exist and why you play. Simply put to sell yourself you must be consistent.

Putting this into design is a tricky one because I for one have always downplayed my work or act as something that I just do. If asked what made you think of this idea or what was your inspiration for your project I generally talk about a piece of rust that looked mildly interesting from a certain angle. I’ve always thought there’s been so much to learn about the non-human aspect of design like evolution of animals and other organisms alive and what my responsibility as a designer is. And this brings me to another point of selling yourself. Be unique. If you like to go bird watching you talk about it, even better if you can link it to your work of the present and of the future. You could be a brilliant designer with ideas the entire world could benefit from but without a story and strict ideologies you simply cannot progress. So all in all it’s a tricky concept to show your best aspects but I mean if you can make a delicious cup of tea (a deep brown) than in my books you are very sellable on the human design market.