Ann Balaam Miller has found a way to marry her numerous creative passions with her love for writing by using Substack.
While Ann’s career spans graphic design, fine art, calligraphy, and teaching, it’s her thoughtful use of the Substack platform that piqued my interest.
Ann’s Substack journey began about a year earlier than the time of this recording, using the platform to explore ideas for books and to share her deep knowledge of calligraphy, design, and art history.
What I discovered to be most interesting is that Ann sees Substack as integral to her creative process. For her, the writing commitment is a way to “unload” her mind of ideas, allowing her creativity to flourish as she refines her thoughts into weekly posts.
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5 Insights from Ann's Substack Strategy
- Creative Exploration: Substack helps Ann organize and refine her ideas into cohesive posts, making it a key part of her creative process.
- Idea Organization: Using Microsoft’s OneNote, Ann works on multiple newsletters (a.k.a. articles or posts) at once—developing content in advance of publication.
- Educational Platform: Ann uses Substack to share insights that complement her workshops, keeping students engaged and extending their learning beyond the classroom.
- Community Building: By providing free content, Ann fosters a strong connection with a wide audience, nurturing an active community of readers.
- Monetization Potential: Ann is developing a paid tier for more interactive content, demonstrating how artists can balance providing free value with creating revenue opportunities.
Substack can be a powerful tool if you enjoy writing and want to deepen your creative process through words.
And … Even if you have no intention of using Substack, Ann’s experience might just inspire you to start publishing your own ideas more consistently—through your newsletter, blog posts, or social media.
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Ann Balaam Miller Quotes
“You can’t escape your loves.”
“If you have an eye for it, then your art goes into just about everything.”
“As long as I’m dealing with an aspect of art and making something, then it makes me pretty happy. ”
“It is a story, but it can be a clunker or it can have some vibrance to it. And I’m always going for something with vibrance and something that people can take away easily and use. ”
“We’re trying to make everything work better. And that’s why we show up.“
“I really believe in free education for people who want it and who enjoy it.”
“It’s a link between what you have done and what you will do. It’s very much in the present, but it contains both aspects of your life—what you’ve done and then what you hope for—so it’s a hopeful thing.”
Ann’s linocut being steamrolled at SFCB Rollworks in 2019.
Mentioned
Related Episodes
Other episodes about writers and artists who write.
About My Guest
Ann Balaam Miller is a fine artist, calligrapher, and designer. She received a BA and MA in art from Stanford, studied fine art with Nathan Oliveira and Richard Diebenkorn, and founded M2 Design studio for commission work.
Ann authored three courses as an instructor for the Academy of Art University and created 15 handlettering workshops for the San Francisco Center for the Book, presenting diverse aspects of letterform such as African scripts, antique Secretary Hand, Bone script, futhark, invented alphabets, graffiti, and cola pen gestural writing. Her work is published in industry magazines Letter Arts Review, Bound & Lettered, Alphabet, and Scripsit.
Follow Ann on Instagram: @anncalli
Read her Getting Inky Substack
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