We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Joel Siegel. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Joel below.

Joel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I have worked on so far is Linktober. Linktober is the social media based Legend of Zelda themed art event that I started in 2015. It manifested as an alternate to the other drawing events of October. I had struggled to get through them for a couple years and then realized I should draw from something I know a lot about and love a lot; Legend of Zelda. Following that it got me through all 31 days of the month and I thought if this worked for me it would work for others. I grabbed the social media handles, the domain, developed a brand, built a site, and created a calendar that I released to the Zelda fan sites. That next year of 2016 we went from 3 people making Zelda art in October to over 300. Here we are in our 8th year this October and we have 7K participants worldwide. The concept of Linktober is to create one piece of art each day of October. It is kept open-ended as we want people to feel welcome to do as much or as little as they can. Some do 31 days, some do random days, some draw, some write, and everything in between. Why is it meaningful? Linktober inspires people out there to create themed to something they love as the catalyst. If they do multiple days of creation they begin to get into a rhythm and by the end of the month they have not only a body of work but are able to notice progress in their own abilities. Linktober helps artists with time management and practice. It is meaningful because it has set people upon new paths that they didn’t even know that had within themselves. It opens doors, it creates friendships, it has become far more than just an event of October. We have a whole huge community in our social media, in our Discord, and beyond. Linktober led me to create a completely virtual convention in lieu of the pandemic in an effort to help support our global community during the dark days of lockdown. This convention is now entering its 4th year and has gotten a lot of smaller independent creators in front of more faces and has even attracted some of the larger talents surrounding the greater Legend of Zelda community including musicians, cosplayers, and voice actors! There is not question that Linktober is the most meaningful project I have worked on so far, but in my late 30s I think I have many more years to come so who knows what I will work on next!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I was lucky to be born into a family with access to everything that would stimulate my growing creative mind as a child including creative parents and a creative sibling. In other words I have been making art and surrounded by art my whole life. As a kid I always wanted to become an animator and make cartoons. It led me to Columbia College Chicago where I majored in Traditional Animation. Unfortunately, the world had a different path for me as I was unable to land work in the animation industry, however a new path arose for me. I began to teach myself the Adobe programs in hopes to learn enough Flash to try again with the animation industry, but instead I ended up learning far more of Illustrator and Photoshop and even landed a graphic design job with a startup in Chicago. This was really where it all began for me as I got a taste of what I could create not only with the talent and knowledge I already had but with new tools of modern tech.
A few years later I met my wife and she had helped me realize that what I knew how to do could be marketable as art. I had created a piece for her and learned that I loved creating these half traditional and half digital pieces. I started making these 11×17 prints of pop art of things from movies, video games, and music that have cult followings, and eventually found myself working comic conventions selling my wares while still working graphic design jobs to pay the bills.
Over a decade in I maintain doing graphic work part-time, as well as freelance, working cons, and even co-owning a used art supplies store with my wife. In other words, I do a lot that is related to art and design. Speaking in the realm of design I have done every facet of graphic design, and what really sets me apart from other designers is that being self-taught I end up coming from the Wild West of the graphic design world. Sometimes that is good as I don’t follow the rules, and sometimes that is a challenge. While I may not work in the same way that designers who are traditionally trained do; I found my own way and it works.
I am proud of most if not all of my work. I pour my heart and soul into most everything I work on and it shows through. Even if some things I work on don’t work out I always end up adding it to my backlog for the portfolio as each step is a lesson on a greater road.
The biggest thing I can say is that no matter what; I create things I would want to see, want to enjoy, want to consume, want to interact with even if it is something I may not be a big fan of there is always a way to push boundaries. I love learning more things about art and design and it really helps me reach new heights and learn new tricks. Keeping it organic, fluid, natural, and ever changing.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

This is a great question! Yes, I wish I had known about a ton of resources earlier in my creative journey but if I had then my journey would be different and likely less interesting. That being said there are TONS of FREE resources out there to help people along with their creative journeys. What I mean are if you are into working digitally for every industry standard program or app there is AT LEAST 1 free one that does exactly what you need it to do. Search for them, save them, bookmark them. This is true outside of the digital realm too. You know those creatives you really admire? The artist or entrepreneur you look up to? Well, they are human too. Reach out, ask them. You might not get an answer or you might wait a long time for one but at least you tried. On top of that there are so many other resources out there like tutorials online that are free to read and watch, there are books at the library that help, there may even be volunteering opportunities that fit what you may be looking for. You just have to put in a little bit of effort to find these things. I may have come from some privilege but the skills I have really came from me teaching myself by trial and error, by tutorial, by book, and even by sitting directly next to mentors and watching the way they work. Trust me when I tell you, if I could make it happen so too can you.

How did you build your audience on social media?

First I will give you my advice and second I will give you my opinion.

Building your social media audience can be a long and arduous process for some or a super easy seamless task for others. It doesn’t depend too much on your efforts actually. I suggest you make between 1-3 posts per week and make sure they are different styles of posts. WIPs, final products, process, the journey, reels, pictures, looping GIFs, all of these keep things pretty interesting. Stay away from too much text in your posts in the visual and even the captions. People scroll social media so quickly that getting wordy isn’t usually worth it. On that note mind your hashtags too. Too many will bury you in the algorithms and too few will show you to too few people. Learn your analytics and when your own audience interacts with your posts the most. Is it in the mornings on Thursdays? Is it Saturday early evenings? Your audience will be unique to you. Don’t post too often either as people will get really tired of your stuff and it really begins to feel like advertising. Like many things in life it is a delicate balance. Not everyone can be a celebrity or an influencer on social media so don’t sweat it. Lastly follow, like, and comment on like minded accounts of people or businesses. It will get you noticed. Keep it positive and set an example.

Second, social media is like a meal of empty calories. The count of likes don’t matter at the end of the day. The amount of followers don’t matter at the end of the day. I sit at near 2K on my art account and nearing 8K on my Linktober account and neither of them make me feel fulfilled on social media. Would it be cool to have 200K followers on socials? Sure, but no. You end up getting so many opinionated people commenting total BS at that level (I used to manage accounts that big). You cannot keep up with the comments, the likes, the followers. Your posts might be less drowned out by the feeds but your voice may be quieted because of a following that large or larger. Yes, your business or art will be successful and in front of a steady amount of people, but even at my lower followed accounts that is still true. I have had posts hit over 100K Reach organic (that is like mini-viral) and it didn’t do much. People liked 1 post, came and saw, didn’t follow and ran away. Social media doesn’t do too much. Instead it is only one aspect of a much larger topic of knowing how to handle digital marketing. Don’t forget your website, email campaigns, public appearances, and so on. Lastly, don’t forget to get some you time away from social media, if not then your art might suffer.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.joeldsiegel.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/joeldsiegel
• Facebook: facebook.com/joeldsiegel
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joel-siegel-82942235
• Twitter: twitter.com/joeldsiegel
• Other: Do not forget the Linktober links too! www.linktober.com , facebook.com/linktober , twitter.com/linktober , instagram.com/linktober

Image Credits
All images and artwork are my own