Anyway cutting the small-talk. Yesterday we went through most of the remaining power factors and (Hopefully) I've made a good case to the relationship of power between the artist and the client. All that's left to talk about is competition and I'll round things off to conclude. 

Competition

Now competition isn't something that every artist faces directly, in fact a lot of you won't even notice it too much if you're in connection with agencies. But it's something virtually all artists face, the price they work for, the quality of the work, the time they can complete it in as so on. If it's not an agency that's deciding between you and someone else to put forward to a client, it's the client themselves that are thinking "Which artist should I pick? This one is cheaper but this one has got such a unique style." Whether you realise it or not you do face competition, the only difference is the environment in which it happens.

The power in competition can perhaps seem pretty obvious in most scenarios, lets say you compete with an artist, he offers to do the work in less time than you and for a cheaper price, basically undercutting you. If he gets the job he's the one with the power right, the artist who can beat the other competition right? 

Think outside the box, a bigger perspective, why are you even competing like this? I like to think of it as "Who's pulling the strings?", who has the power to put you in this position? I like to use examples like freelancer.com because while it's an incredible place to hire out anything involving technology but when it comes to artistry, you need to ruthlessly compete with each other on price to get the job. I did my own testing on this company, I impersonated a typical client who wanted to commission an artist to bring an idea I had into life. (The project was actually based on the idea I had for a piece of art I wanted to hire an artist for!) So I filled in the form and set my budget to a healthy £500 for what I was asking for and then waited for the offers to come in. 

The first two were good, around the £470-£490 mark, but then quite suddenly a volley of offers came in, undercutting the other every time. Skipping to the point I had a very good budget yet artists were forcing to set offers for £100 or less in the end because they had to compete. Where does the power lie in an environment that pits artists to get compete on something that isn't really that relevant to the very concept of art? It's the companies.

This all being said, artists having no power when it comes to competition and all that. Don't mistake me to be believing that it's purely on the companies, or that artists shouldn't compete on price because it's 'art'. Price competition will always be existent between competitors, the point I'm making is that (In my opinion) there seems to be an abuse of power over artists that makes them compete on price. I don't like seeing that artists have to sacrifice so much of their potential because there's an artist out there who can work for cheaper. 

What Hire an Artist does is take away this power from the company (Basically our company) and gives it back to artists. How do we do this? Well, we don't make you compete on price. On our platform when you make an offer to a client, you will not be aware of what other artists are offering/working for. All you will see is the client's budget and the project details and you base the price of your offer around this.

When you take away some of the focus away from money, you concentrate more on the art itself. If you can't see what others are offering, you'll think that your artwork better be damn good so you have a good chance at beating your fellow artists. (Noticed that I said fellow?). I had a good think about this when I was planning this company, would it be better to make artists compete with each other on price and help get the client a better deal? Or would it be better to work in a different way and encourage artists to compete on artwork quality and their own unique style?

I chose the latter and so more power had been taken away from a company and handed to artists, the power to compete freely on what it actually all about; the art, not the price. An another note, I can only imagine the kind of benefits this would do for the new generations of artists trying to break into freelance artistry. When you was an artist first starting it's likely you had low confidence and had to work for cheap to make sure you got the job, can you imagine what it would be like to use a place that encourages to work for a price you're happy with? A place that encourages you to sharpen your skills and perfect your own unique style? I can envision that Hire an Artist can actually make full-fledged artists out of people.

Perhaps it seems ambitious, but by creating an environment that supports freelance artistry and creativity, I think we can really make a difference to the lives of freelance artists.

So I think that's all I have to say when it comes to competition, enough with power to the companies, more to the artists (Got to be careful not to sound like a revolutionist!).

Let's wrap it up in a nice short conclusion.

Price

Workload
Fees

We don't charges you fees unless we actually help you. This means sacrificing power, we're not a subscription service where even if we don't get work it doesn't matter because we still get our hands on your money. By sacrificing this power we make you, the artists, the lifeblood of the company. We can only ever survive if we help you, this is perhaps one of the greatest power balancing factors. 

Extras

No extras. Period. Extras create imbalances and the power in these lay with the company or those already with power.

Competition

Power is sacrificed, we don't "pull the strings" and pit artists against each other by price. True, they do compete to a certain degree, but it's now more focused on the quality of the art and the artist's own personal unique style. We're creating an environment that supports artistry.

Thanks for reading!

And so concludes my (Perhaps quite terrible) discussion on the balance of power. I hope you enjoyed my terribly organised discussions. Tomorrow I will resume with the regular daily summaries. I didn't include a final judgement as to how balanced it is, I feel this should be for you to decide. What I will say though is that we definitely give more power to artists than most other places.

Now, one last thing. This argument is unbalanced! Why? Well this entire discussion was virtually focused on how power is given to artists and how it benefits artists. (Mainly because that's just about my only kind of readers right now!). But after some time I will need to make posts discussing the other side, how it empowers the client, to put across that side of the argument and make them feel comfortable using this platform to anything else. After all, they're the people that will be paying you.