Why a co-op serial?
I love to make up stories. And I love drawing pictures pictures that are based on the stories that I tell. I’ve always enjoyed serials in comics, graphic novels and literature. I confess that I’m now addicted to those wonderful video series available online. I feel like serials allow more opportunity to get to know the characters and what shapes their actions more than movies or even books do.
Through my consulting practice, I’ve become increasingly concerned with how the corporate world treats creatives, and employees in general. In essence, when you work for a corporation, you’re working under a dictatorship. I’d like to change that.
Awhile back, I discovered worker-owned co-ops and thought, what a wonderful structure for a creative consultancy. And what a great way to democratize the workplace. So, I began writing about the idea of a worker-owned and self-directed creative consultancy. After I’d written a couple of pieces, a small group formed and began discussing and planning our co-op.
It was right after that first creative co-op discussion meeting in December, 2018, that I began writing the co-op serial. My thinking was that a fictional serial would be a good way to promote our co-op. By setting the story in the near future, I could have the fictional co-op be doing creative projects far beyond what today’s creative-services organizations provide. Maybe, I thought, we could become like a management consultancy, but one that is dominated by creatives, not MBA’s.
The other great thing about imagining a story one short segment at a time is that I don’t have to worry about the whole story arc. All I have to do is stay within the framework I created in the previous episodes.
I wanted to invent a creative cooperative that truly could make the world a better place. A creative group that was far more influential than the design firms and ad agencies of the past. And by writing a serial about the future, of a fictional co-op based on the real co-op we were building, I could promote the real co-op and shape the future at the same time.
When the planning group for the “real” co-op came up with the name Overture, I immediately named my fictional co-op Overture, as well.
We just launched our website at www.overture.coop, where you can learn more about the real Overture. And you can read all 23 chapters on the fictional co-op on my site here: Co-op serial Archives – Ted Leonhardt : Ted Leonhardt.