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T-Shirts and Suits: A Guide to the Business of Creativity
By David Parrish
Published by Merseyside ACME
ISBN 0953825426
Dateline: 6th December, 2005
It’s an old cliché that artists don’t like business.
There’s a sense that somehow getting stuck into the administration
side of your arts business will stop you being an artist, turn you into
a ‘suit’.
It can be true but it doesn’t need to be, as the author of T-Shirts
and Suits, David Parrish, goes to great lengths to make clear. Parrish
is a rare thing. He’s a hugely qualified business consultant; there
are more letters after his name than in it. He’s also worked extensively
in the creative industries. If there is a divide between creativity
and business then Parrish has been successful on both sides of it. The
man knows what he’s talking about
At only 105 pages T-Shirts and Suits is short, but it’s
designed for people who probably don’t enjoy reading business manuals.
In eleven short and readable chapters Parrish takes you through the
steps necessary to establish and grow a successful arts project. The
chapters are deliberately laid out to be easy to read and access; the
longest is ten pages, perfect for dipping into when the need arises.
Parrish’s ideas are presented simply and without jargon. He has
a friendly, clear writing style and the book is a joy to read, each
chapter presenting as many concepts in a page or two as other books
take whole chapters to squeeze out.
The book is a generic guide to business skills in the creative industries;
it isn’t directly aimed at theatre companies. In fact it seems
a little over-focussed on web design, especially in its case studies,
and while there are links on the website, a little more advice in the
book itself on where to go next might have been useful.
T-Shirts and Suits doesn’t pretend to be a catch-all manual
of business skills, it’s far too short. What it is is a brief introduction
to what you will need to know to run an arts business or group, and,
in many cases, just enough information to stop your fledgling project
floundering before it’s properly started.
Parrish has been there and done that, and hasn’t so much bought
the t-shirt as silk-screened and successfully marketed it. Whether you’re
established or start-up, this is a book you can dip into for advice
and inspiration. T-Shirts and Suits is lucid, easy to read, jargon
free and guaranteed to save you sweat, money, time and tears. Buy this
book!
Ged Quayle
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