Creative Connectors - No. 32- Robbie Shilstone
@shilstone_arts - Giving Shapes Volume
About this Resource:
*Creative Connectors is a series of case studies showing how “success-FULL” artists & creators are connecting with their true fans and a follow-up tool from the free resource The Connection Blueprint by Stop The Starving Artist.
Each example in this series is made up of the creator (or artist), the vehicle (or creation), and the 3 connection components - the belief, opponent, and story.
Use these case studies to see how YOU could better authentically connect with your audience through your own work, social media, and heART based marketing.
✅ The Creator (Artist): Robbie Shilstone
Shilstone is a Los Angeles-based animator, director, and filmmaker. “Ever since my earliest memories, I have been drawing. My grandfather introduced me to painting at a very early age and it was always considered something of value in my family” he said in an interview. Originally pursuing illustration and design in college, he naturally gravitated towards animation. After teaching himself the fundamentals in his free time, became obsessed with the medium.
✅ The Vehicle (The Creation): The Animation
Robbie’s body of work showcases a wide variety of styles, themes, and techniques but he describes it with the words: graphic, minimal and playful. In his animation, he tells stories that are innately human. His background in illustration and perpetual experimentation has led him to develop a unique animation style. His company, called Shilstone Arts, creates hand-drawn animations for the music scene.
⚠️⚠️⚠️The 3 Components That Make It Connect:
NOW FOR THE GOLD! In the Connection Blueprint, we outline 3 important components that allow your fans to establish a quicker and more compelling connection with YOU as the artist: Your Belief, Opponent, and Story.
Check out the hand picked content below and let us know in the comments if you can spot the BELIEF, OPPONENT, and STORY in his videos.
If you skimmed, you missed it. Go back and click the videos and posts to see the vehicle at which he shares his beliefs from.
Now.. Share what jumps out at you: What do you think he believes? Who is he opposing? Do you catch any of his story that helps others connect?
Here are just a few examples we spotted on how he uses these 3 components to connect with his audience in an authentic, true to self, and success-FULL way:
⚠️ Belief:
“If you stand for something you will have people for you and people against you. But if you stand for nothing you will have nobody for you and nobody against you.” -Maurice Saatchi
These are a couple of beliefs that we’ve noticed:
Shilstone believes that as an artist, you have to discover what feels authentic to you to be true to your creative self. “It took me about 4 years after school to search internally and experiment externally before I found something that resonated with me as authentic. When you are too focused on trying to get a specific job or get a foot into the industry, you can do more harm than good with your body of work” he said in an interview.
Shilstone is passionate about allowing his audience to discover who they see in his art. On his Instagram most of his captions start with the question, “What is this person’s name”. With this question he is challenging his followers to get creative and come up with their own story for his characters. Oftentimes he adds to a commenter’s vision—creating an even more in depth story.
⚠️ Opponent:
”The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental skill.” ― Albert Einstein
The opponent defines the problem you and your fans are up against. If you know the problem well, the solution becomes more clear.
Shilstone opponent seems to be the inauthentic. He believes as artists we must pursue what we feel is authentic rather than trying to fit into what we believe the world wants from us.
⚠️ Story:
Fans know that Shilstone recently released an animated short film entitled, Off Leash, you can check it out here.
Shilstone has worked with clients that are pillars of the art world such as Apple, The MoMA, and Disney.
To see more of Shilstone’s art, check out his website: https://www.shilstonearts.com/
What else did you notice? Got another creative you’d like us to do a case study on?