Jumping Into Art Licensing - Artist Holli Conger

The more I learn about art licensing the more I think there are many different avenues one can take to enter this business - it is a way to commercially sell your art and how you get started in it varies, depending on each individual's situation. I think it's really a matter of setting one's own goal and defining what "success" means. What is it that I want to accomplish, how am I going to do it and is that what I consider a successful result? The variety of opinions and views about this particular topic fascinate me. So many stories... and here is a daring one, of a very busy, creative and successful illustrator and licensing artist, who's been juggling many projects at once!

Artist Holli Conger

The Moon from My Attic: Please introduce yourself - I'm Holli Conger and I've been a professional illustrator since 2004. I live and work in Nashville, TN and I specialize in the children's market for both publishing and licensing. I also license some of my photography work from my Typography Photography™ collection of letterpress blocks. You can read all about my journey here.

  

TMFMA: What brought you to art in the first place? I've always loved art and knew I wanted to be graphic designer at 8th grade career day. I got a Bachelor's degree in design, worked as a designer at a large publisher for 5 years and then went out on my own.

  

© Holli Conger

TMFMA: What's exciting about your creative work? I get to do it on my own time and I get to use my imagination everyday. Plus I can do it in my pj's if I want to.

  

TMFMA: What's your favorite medium or tool/s you create with? Right now, it's probably Photoshop. With licensing, layers are your best friend. I also love Illustrator.

  

TMFMA: Who or what has inspired you in your art? My kids. When my daughter was born I decided I wanted to be with her during the day, but I didn't want to give up my career, so I decided to push and go out on my own. When my son was born earlier this year, he's been my total inspiration for all things boy. Before I think I leaned more towards "girly" things in my art just because I was inundated with it from my daughter.

  

© Holli Conger

TMFMA: How long have you been doing art licensing? I've only been licensing my work for a few years. I started really promoting it in 2009. I exhibited at Surtex and that was really when I launched that division.

  

TMFMA: What brought you to exhibit for the first time and how many shows have you exhibited in - if any? I just needed to jump right in if I was going to do it. I've only done the Surtex 2009 show and I still hear and work with contacts I made there. It also gave me a good look at how the licensing world works and how many different brands fall under certain manufacturers.

TMFMA: Do you work with an agent or do you represent yourself? I have an agent for children's publishing but I represent myself for the licensing side of my business.

  

© Holli Conger

TMFMA: How does one go about getting licensing deals? What's the "protocol" if any? Just make contacts and keep them updated with your work. I have found that several Licensing Directors prefer to communicate though email for looking at samples, etc. so that's a real time saver. Just be sure you don't spam them with your work!

  

TMFMA: What do you suggest new artists do to present themselves to the world of licensing for the first time? Have a nice portfolio of work together. Have several pieces that go together with accompanying patterns.

  

TMFMA: Please give us your analysis of the market based on your own experience and contacts. I think the market has picked up from previous years. Licensing Directors are always excited to find the next new thing and are interested in looking at work.

  

TMFMA: In your view, what was of major interest to manufacturers this year? It's hard for me to say. My focus is more on the children's market and my type photography. I have seen more children's themed art tends to be vector based work. Not real sure why but that's what I get asked for the most.

© Holli Conger

TMFMA: How does a new artist find manufacturers that "match" their styles? My best advice is "go shopping." See which manufacturers are making what, then go back and research them, find their Licensing Director and send them your work.

  

TMFMA: What advice would you give other artists that are considering the art licensing field? Research is going to take a lot of your time away from creating so prepare for that. Things seem to go slow sometimes with contacts, but just stay with it and be patient.

  

TMFMA: Any other useful info that you'd like to share about art licensing? Stick with it.There are thousands of manufactures out there looking for art. Just send your queries and follow-up. 

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See Holli's blog, Facebook, Etsy shop, Society6 shop and Spoonflower profile.

A Chemistry for Licensing Art - An Interview with Joan Beiriger

This past week I have been busy creating backgrounds for my artwork. I discovered that this is an important factor in creating interesting art for products. I like to sketch the main elements and hand paint them, then scan them, and finally alter them in Photoshop, so I have many layers to play with. A bit time consuming but very effective and fun!

I think that our featured guest this week, artist Joan Beiriger, will agree with me on using Photoshop for backgrounds. As usual, her advice is very thoughtful and useful for a newbie to read. Here is what she has to say:

Artist Joan Beiriger

The Moon from My Attic: Please introduce yourself - I am Joan Beiriger and I design art for products although I did not start my career as an artist. I have a BS degree in geology and worked as a chemist at a national laboratory until 2002. During that time, I tried all sorts of crafts from wood and stone carving to various needlearts such as needlepoint, quilting, and blackwork. I am a great believer that anyone can learn to do anything if they try. I discovered counted cross-stitch in the mid 1980s and decided to design my own charts when I could not find designs that I wanted to stitch. That led into a business of selling my designs to magazines, to kit manufacturers (licensing was not an option then), and my own mail order business. By the late 1990s, I was searching for another way to express my creativity when I heard a presentation about art licensing by Suzy Spafford (Suzy's Zoo) at a Society of Craft Designers seminar.  So I taught myself to paint via instruction books and started my quest in researching the art licensing industry by going to the 1999 Licensing Show in New York.

© Joan Beiriger

TMFMA: What's exciting about your creative work? I love to brainstorm about new concepts and create new art collections that I hope manufacturers will license for their products and consumers will buy.  An extension to creating art is learning about the business side of licensing art. The whole process is challenging and learning information about the industry is fascinating. Sharing information via my blog and networking with others interested in art licensing is very rewarding.

TMFMA: What's your favorite medium or tool/s you create with? I started painting with acrylics but I now use Adobe Photoshop and sometimes water color washes for backgrounds.  I like the freedom that I have when using water colors to create backgrounds but I like the control I have when painting images digitally. I use many layers in Photoshop which makes it easy to edit my art to manufacturer specifications. Besides using Photoshop, I use Adobe Illustrator and Corel Painter to create various effects that I include in my work.

TMFMA: Who or what has inspired you in your art? I am inspired by so many things that it is hard to just mention one thing.  I love nature and especially flowers, butterflies and birds and am constantly photographing them for my huge reference library. I am inspired by artist Alphonse Mucha and other graphic artists that created Art Nouveau style designs in the 1880 and 1890s. I especially love the Art Nouveau gracefulness of stylized flowers and vines as they twist and swerve around one another.

© Joan Beiriger

TMFMA: How long have you been doing art licensing? I started researching the art licensing industry in the late 1990s. But I did not start licensing my art until 2007. The reason is that I had to first learn how to paint and create art for products while I held a full time job and dealt with family commitments. 

TMFMA: What brought you to exhibit for the first time and how many shows have you exhibited in? I have walked the Licensing Show and Surtex and exhibited at the 2009 and 2010 Atlanta Gift Show to market my art. I signed on with an art licensing agency in 2009 and no longer exhibit because my agent manages the marketing of my art including exhibiting at shows.

TMFMA: Do you work with an agent or do you represent yourself? I have an agent, Joan Sargent of JMS Art Licensing. 

TMFMA: How does a new artist "find" a match for their art with the right manufacturers? How does one go about researching this? It is crucial to know the limitations of your art for products. Not all art styles or themes are suitable for all products. For instance, collage style art works for home décor but not for decorative flags (those need central images that "pop"). A whimsical style art works for children's products or playful products such as for garden accessories but is not licensable for adult home décor. And illustrative designs with lots of "white" space works for some greeting cards but not for jig-saw puzzles (those need art that fills the space to make it difficult to solve). Finding the right manufacturer for your art takes time and hard work. Researching the different industries via the internet, reading blog articles, "window" shopping, and walking trade shows are just a few ways to find the right manufacturers for your art.

TMFMA: Please give us your analysis of the market based on your own experience and contacts. The licensing industry has gotten much more competitive than it was even five years ago. There are more artists trying to license their art while there are less manufacturers licensing art and less retail stores selling products with licensed art. Artists that are successful have created many art themes that consumer want and have partnered with manufacturers that license their art year-after-year.

© Joan Beiriger

TMFMA: In your view, what was of major interest to manufacturers this year? What do you think the main trends are for 2011-2012? The major interest this year (2011) to manufacturers is finding art that sells their products. Because of the poor economy, most manufacturers are NOT willing to take many chances so they are asking for the same art themes as last year. Those themes are dependant on the products they manufacture and that are wanted by their retail clients. But overall, flowers, coastal images, and roosters are popular for everyday and Santa and snowmen for Christmas. 

TMFMA: What advice would you give other artists that are considering the art licensing field and that want to exhibit in a show like Surtex? I advise artists new to art licensing not to "jump the gun" and exhibit at a show before they are prepared. It is very expensive to exhibit ($8,000 to $15,000 for booth fee, travel, lodging, banners, and marketing materials). Artists need to do their homework and walk the different shows (Surtex, Licensing Expo, Atlanta Gift Show, and Craft & Hobby Association) to see which one best fits their art. They should have a robust body of art (preferably hundreds of paintings) with a variety of themed collections to enhance their chance in getting deals. 

Artists should be prepared to exhibit at least three years in a row before they "start" to see a return in the cost of exhibiting. It takes time to build relationships with manufacturers. Also, NEW exhibitors are placed in the less desirable booths with poorer visibility at the rear of the show floor. By exhibiting year-after-year, artists have the opportunity to move to a more desirable location and better visibility when booth space becomes available.

© Joan Beiriger

It is also important to already have some manufacturer contacts before exhibiting at a show so appointments can be set-up. Existing contacts and appointments may make or break the success of a show. Normally artists that contact manufacturers, try to get deals, and build relationships and awareness of their art BEFORE they exhibit the first time are the ones that have a successful show.

TMFMA: Any other useful info that you'd like to share about art licensing? If an artist wants to be successful in art licensing, she/he needs to create popular art themes in collections with product mock-ups to present to manufacturers.  Following-up after submitting art to manufacturers is imperative. The more art the artist has the better. Also, new art collections need to be continuously created and older collections refreshed.  

JOAN BEIRIGER | Art for Products

email: joan@joanbeiriger.com

website: www.joanbeiriger.com

blog: http://www.joanbeiriger.blogspot.com/

linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/joanbeiriger

Brief Tips & Tricks in Art Licensing

Here are more key tips & tricks I get from networking and in reading up about licensing from blogs or books. I'm sharing them as I go - again, these are not laws set in stone, just comments I thought could be helpful in some situations.

• The twice a year (January and July) Atlanta Gift Show at the Atlanta Gift Mart is apparently a great way to meet art licensing directors. They are willing to look at art if they have time. This is a friendly trade show where artists are welcomed. 

• In art licensing one important thing to understand is which market your art is suited for - CHA's buyers are all about craft & scrap-booking with some exceptions. Atlanta is for the gift industry, garden, pets, Christmas decorations, ceramic, home decor, rugs, and hardly any paper/stationery buyers. Paper and stationary are at Surtex, along with puzzles, fabric, gift bags, characters, etc. 

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If you have any additional or contrary tips that you'd like to share, please leave a comment! I'll share more tips and tricks that I uncover in the weeks to come. By the way, have you started on your portfolio or collections yet?

 

Inspired by Nature - Licensed Artist Bambi Papais

I have now blogged for almost two months about my adventures in the art licensing field. I've been reading up on blogs, following forums, going to local licensing meetings, and also networking with several helpful and friendly artists who have shared with me some of their experiences. I'll continue to publish their advice, tips & tricks as part of my new series of editorials called Art Licensing Tips & Tricks - the first article came out a couple of days ago in case you missed it. 

It appears that two major underlying threads to be successful in this profession are creating art for products and research. Whether one decides to have an agent or venture alone into the industry, it seems that those two factors are key. And this is also what our talented guest artist Bambi Papais tells us today.

Artist Bambi Papais

The Moon from My Attic: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your art? I've had an interest in art as long as I can remember.  As a child, I remember coloring and doodling as a big part of growing up. Through the years, art has always been  a part of my life. I started painting with watercolors in the early eighties and have continued with it ever since. I'm basically self taught with a handful of workshops over the years. Though I do dabble with colored pencil, acrylic and a few other mediums, I really prefer watercolor as I know it so well and I love the look you can get from it.
 

TMFMA:  What is exciting about your creative work? Vivid color and fun patterns!! My work ranges from serious, realistic botanicals to whimsical fun crazy colored flowers with frogs. I tend to paint loads of tulips with vibrant multicolored patterns on their petals and usually a frog (maybe even a fairy) or bug hanging around. These types of paintings often make people do a double take to see what it is that is catching their eye. It might be a frog with a party hat hiding in the flowers. And the flowers aren't always your traditional colors.  

© Bambi Papais

TMFMA: Is there a person or thing that has influenced you in your artistic efforts? What inspires you? I have several favorite artists both past and present whose work I love and have been influenced by. Even though I certainly don't paint like them, their artwork is just so delicious I hope little bits of it are imprinted in my brain for reference. There are so many good artists around, it's hard just to name a few but ... Past: Cicely Mary Barker, Kate Greenaway, Norman Rockwell, Maxfield Parrish. And present: Daniel Merriman, Patience Brewster, Marjolein Bastin (there are tons more, but these a few off the top of my head). I'm inspired with the whimsy and the imaginary aspect that many of these artists present while still offering a realistic approach. I'm inspired by nature. I LOVE flowers and gardens and things growing. Birds and butterflies are amazing!!!  A hummingbird flitting by or a shy bluebird, what a treat!
 

TMFMA: Tell us your experience as an art licensing artist - In the early 90's there were some trade shows called "Art Buyers Caravan." I exhibited in Southern California and San Francisco with the ABC shows. That was some good exposure at the time. Artists were just starting to get in the licensing business. About the same time a small card company licensed my work for his card line. That card company was represented at several gift shows (which was my first exposure to the Gift Show business). Though that card company is no longer in business, he had such good exposure at the time, that a larger company, Bentley Publishing Group contacted me and I worked with them for several years both in the print department and licensing. The Bentley Group acted as my agent in licensing for many years.

© Bambi Papais

They were able to get my work on many products such as throws, rugs, stationery, fabric, figurines, puzzles, gift bags, stitchery and other  items. In working with them, they "matched" my artwork to the right manufacturers and there was always a discussion to make sure we were all in agreement. I was a guest with the Bentley Group at a licensing show at the Jacob Javits Center in New York a few years ago. It was very exciting to walk the show and see what was going on in the world of licensing. It was an eye opener to see how big the licensing business is now. It was also very gracious of them to let me be their guest! I would say if anyone was thinking about exhibiting in a trade show, go visit one first, even if you have to pay a fee it would be worth it. Exhibiting in any trade show is very costly, so do some research first. Now, since there are helpful licensing groups such as found on Linkedin, an artist can get tons of help from fellow artists for all kinds of information.  

© Bambi Papais

TMFMA: What would be your most fundamental advice to new aspiring licensing artists? Keep researching and reading (oh, and creating, too). There is so much good information out there. Persevere!! Trends come and go, don't get hurt when they go, be ready for the next something good around the corner. 

TMFMA: What are your future aspirations and goals? It was a wonderful experience to work with the Bentley Publishing Group but I have decided to give it a try on my own.  Sooo ... if the right agent came along ... I don’t know ... maybe. Even though I am not actually new at this, I feel new due to the fact that I'm trying it on my own. We’ll see and I'm very excited. I have some great opportunities happening!!!  

 

Visit Bambi's website and shop or find her on Facebook.