Zach "ZHC" Hsieh in the warehouse studio.
"Socializing was always hard, and uploading my first art on Instagram made me very nervous and self-aware."
The world of art has undergone many changes in history. Long gone are the days of Rembrandt and classic frames, brushes, and paint. In just the past 20 years, digital artists have emerged, and digital tokens have allowed an entirely new income stream for independent artists.
As in most other areas and "industries," a key element of success is the distribution model. How will people see your art? Independent artists have traditionally had few options but to try to place their pieces in galleries and leave a significant chunk to commissioned sales. The internet's distribution models through social media and video have enabled a huge overlap between the passion economy and the world of art.
In a high ceiling studio built in a warehouse in Austin, Zach Hsieh sits in shorts to talk about how he became one of the biggest artists on Youtube, with 25 million subscribers on the main channel alone.
"I think when I was really young, I loved reading these dinosaur and animal books and loved just drawing the pictures from them." Zach also recalls his early days when his family encouraged him to explore art in a time when middle-school puts social pressure on students and what they should do. "I had terrible grades and felt I wasn’t going anywhere."
Zach started exploring and tried uploading some of his art to his personal Instagram account. "As people in school followed each other, it made me a bit self-aware, but I kept uploading. After school, I would just doodle and post the picture. After a while, some art pages found my work and reshared on their pages"
That’s when it started to take off. As Instagram refined their algorithms, niches were encouraged, helping more art interested people find Zach’s account. Zach grew up in the Bay area, so a career in tech was kind of the default. "It was scary to take a path that no one else around you had taken before."
Eventually, Zach started to grow a small fan base, who encouraged him to keep posting. But there was always a lack of connection with the followers, and so Zach started to experimenting with appearing in the content himself. The first video was a Spiderman drawing uploaded to YouTube with a commentary by Zach. "Recording myself on video was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done. "I probably re-shot that video 20 times."
Fast forward three years later, and Zach has built a team and surprised Charli d’Amelio and the TikTok house Hype House with customized iPhones and MacBooks. "That was one of our most popular videos, we painted their devices in really cool ways, and people just loved it".
The video now has over 100 million views. Another very popular video is when Zach customizes an entire house with murals, custom furniture, and detailed painting for Mr. Beast. Clearly, the budget has been increasing for the videos, and the budget can sometimes be around USD 250,000. The Mr. Beast one currently has over 70 million views.
"We’ve become friends with some of these other creators that we’ve collaborated with. Similar to Mr Beast, we just re-invest almost all of our proceeds back into the business and channel". Zach and his team has an outspoken focus on always improving on the videos to grow. An interesting and unlikely strategy for a 22 year old who recently found financial success. "I grew up watching a lot of Shark Tank, and they were always talking about reinvesting in the business."
The team today consists of 16 full time employees, supplemented by contractors when doing a bigger shoot. Sometimes a team of 40 people is required. Videos are also often made in parallel with as many as 30 videos being made at the same time.
Zach and his girlfriend Michelle and another team member of the ZHC art team.
The reach of the YouTube channel has allowed Zach and his team to explore various revenue streams and experiment with the business. Having over 25 million people see what you do is an extremely valuable asset that allows you to bypass middlemen and gatekeepers, such as galleries, museums or distribution centers. Currently they’re exploring a fashion brand, but YouTube is and will continue to be the core of the business. The team uploads videos approximately once per month but the entire process can take up to a year.
Zach is a very interesting example of how fast a creative professional can rise to the top by understanding the audience very well.
"Future-wise, we will keep the channel growing as much as possible, and I’d like to be an advisor for a channel that directs and produces longer form movies and shows." If Zach could say something to a younger himself or an aspiring creator out there, it would be to "not worry too much." "If you have a dream and love doing it, go and chase it because you will never look back."
The conversation has been shortened and edited for clarity
@gltore, g (at) bytangent.com
