A Family Design Story: Cathy Heck Studio

Surtex is now is less than a month away. I fell in love with it last year when I walked the floor for the first time so I decided to exhibit in 2012. I recently signed up with Montage Licensing for representation and couldn’t be more happy - I'm very excited about my debut, but most of all I am thrilled to be working and sharing ideas with such a creative and ever-growing community of inspiring artists and professional manufacturers from around the world!

And speaking of professional artists, I am happy to introduce the first of many upcoming inspiring posts with Surtex exhibitors. I briefly met Cathy and Ellen Heck last year at Surtext - a fantastic mother-daughter design duo based in Austin, Texas. Although, they enjoy creating artwork for all product categories, they are most known for their successful juvenile collections. In fact, over two million babies own a Cathy Heck baby book. Now, Cathy works alongside her own child, Ellen, a graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a talented artist, who has literally grown up in the business of Cathy Heck Studio.

TMFMA:  Please introduce yourself with a short bio. We are Cathy and Ellen Heck. We work from our two studios: Cathy in Austin, Texas and Ellen near Berkeley, California. We create our work with pencil, pen, brush and mouse. We are connected seamlessly by the big computer in the sky.

CATHY: Although Ellen officially started working with me several years ago, she has actually always been by my side, working from her own little drawing table in the studio.

ELLEN: It was great to grow up in a house in which the art supply drawer was right next to the silverware drawer.  We were making art all the time.

TMFMA: How did you find your way to design licensing? CATHY: I was lucky to begin my career as an art director at Young & Rubicam, a large advertising agency in New York City. As an art director, I hired illustrators through their agents to create illustrations from my layouts. One of those agents, Jane Lander, asked if I would like to try my hand as a free-lance illustrator. So I began ... learning each new medium on the job ... a little scary, but it worked. I created illustrations for a wide variety of clients from Woman's Day to Jell-O. At that time, design licensing was a very new way of commissioning work, but Lynda Sylvester, who worked with Jane, took my portfolio to a gift company and my first licensed collection was born: Share-A-Hug, a group of characters that centered around a big polar bear named Bahama Bear and a reindeer, named J.Randolph Reindeer, V.P. of Marketing of S. Claus, Inc. (our characters have shorter names these days - for example, meet Baby Bot and Gif.)

ELLEN: I first squeezed my way into licensing when I was 13. Cathy had been creating hundreds of stickers which she licensed to Frances Meyer Inc. during the early scrapbooking "sticker boom." I asked if I could present some ideas for stickers too, and as the very encouraging mom that she has always been, Cathy said that I could present a group of ideas for the next presentation. I sent 6 ideas and, happily, they chose two: puppies and kitties. I still remember seeing my very own puppies in Michael's for the first time. It was a thrill!

TMFMA:  What's exciting about your creative work? CATHY:  Starting a new project, trying a new medium, receiving an email from a new mom who loves one of our collections. With art licensing, I get to know people all over the world.

ELLEN: I love holding the real thing in my hands. After first working on the computer files and then being separated from the project while in production, it is always a fun surprise to receive a box of samples.

© Cathy Heck Studio from the Little Pond collection

TMFMA:  Who/what has inspired you in your art? CATHY: I adore children's books, almost to the point of needing some intervention. Two of my favorite contemporary illustrators are Lisbeth Zwerger and Helen Oxenbury. I have also been inspired by the strong conceptual work of Milton Glaser and the wise instruction from my college professor, Dr. Leonard Ruben. I am energized by daily life with my funny family. I am even moved to draw by our rescue dog, Neville, whose lineage is definitely unclear, but whose personality is kind and good. (Plus, he's a blog hog). Whether the characters in my illustrations are from a tropical rainforest or a quiet little pond, they carry traits and expressions that are found in the children I have known and loved.

ELLEN: Cathy's children's book fanaticism - as you might imagine - has resulted in the creation of the best children's book library I know. We were so lucky to grow up surrounded by such a well-curated collection of inspirational pieces. Also, always the art-director, Cathy encouraged my sisters and me from a very early age to try to approach school and art projects (and Christmas cards, and everything really...) from different angles. Thinking outside the box and striving for clever concept implementation became goals very early in our lives. Cathy's encouragement, expertise, and generous teaching have been, without a doubt, my greatest inspiration.

CATHY:  Oh gosh.

© Cathy Heck Studio from the Zoophabet® collection

TMFMA:  What's your favorite medium or tool/s you create with? CATHY: A pencil, Sennelier watercolors, jars of Prismacolor pencils, a fresh new Rapidograph, a fat Staedtler eraser, Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes, Photoshop, and my Epson printer (love that guy).

ELLEN: Photoshop is magic, I love the smell of watercolors, and there is nothing more beautiful than a full-size etching press.

TMFMA:  Can you share a favorite technique you routinely use in your artwork? CATHY and ELLEN: Our new favorite technique is called mother-daughter-collaboration surprise. This technique was discovered under a string of tight deadlines, during which we discovered that we could literally work on the same art and the collaborative result was even more interesting than the original idea. One of us will draw a sketch with pencil. One will tidy the sketch with ink. One will color the art with paint. One will put the art into a repeat pattern with Illustrator. One will blend the pattern with other patterns in Photoshop. One will mock up a product. One will call the other one and say, "That's not what I had planned ... it's so much better!"  The other one will say, "I agree. We are amazing." You can read Ellen's post about the birth of a pattern here.

© Cathy Heck Studio from the Emma collection

TMFMA:  Please give us your analysis of the market based on your own experience and contacts. CATHY: Because I have been in the licensing business for over 25 years, I'm going to answer this one. We have seen up and down cycles throughout our experience. Following the last downturn, however, we have seen a different kind of recovery in the way this business works. I believe it is not solely because of the recent drop in economy, but rather the combination of that economic decline with the rise in computer-based design and social media all at the same time. Although the economy is becoming stronger (cautiously), I believe that a designer has to examine new methods of creating and selling work, as well as marketing via social networking in order to decide which methods work best for his or her styles and product categories. The way people buy is changing every day, and since our art adorns those things that people buy, we must adjust to those new buying styles.

TMFMA: What advice would you give other artists who are considering the art licensing field and that maybe want to exhibit in a show like Surtex? CATHY: Visit Surtex. Walk the aisles. See the booths (have a nice dinner; you are in New York, after all!). Go back to your studio, and make lots of art. Take an inspiration break to see new trends. Go back to your studio and make more art. If you have children, watch their soccer games. It's good for you, and good for them. After you have made a lot of art, exhibit at Surtex.  You will then know if this is the business for you. Surtex will help you discover the best way for you to make art and make enough money to keep making art.

ELLEN: Hug your boss (if she's your mom). Or, hug your mom, even if she's not your boss.

CATHY:  :-)  

And if you haven't read it yet, don't forget to check out Cathy and Ellen's fun and informative Surtex After Hours Guest blog post!  

Cathy Heck Studio

https://www.cathyhecknurseryart.com/home.html

Style, Theme and Technique in Art Licensing - Artist Matteo Grilli

First of all I want to thank all of the artists who have been sharing their wonderful stories and art on my blog, as well as all my followers. It has been a fun journey so far, and per the many emails I receive, the articles have been a source of inspiration to many. So this is great!

Starting in April I will also publish a series of new editorials, including blog hops and short articles featuring artists and their fun, inspirational and trendy work. I will also continue to publish one or possibly two interviews per month. This will give me more time to work on my own art in preparation for my debut at Surtex this year - here is my promotional postcard for the occasion!

But meanwhile this week I want to introduce to the licensing community the lovely work of another Italian artist, Matteo Grilli. He was born in Italy and showed a deep fascination for animals and art from an early age. Matteo says, "I didn't follow any art school, college or art course so I am completely self taught. I started working as a featured artist at the Russell Gallery in Ireland in 2009. That trip to Ireland was my springboard to start my own art career." Life events eventually brought him to Brisbane, Australia, where he is currently based and is finding his way as an emerging artist.

Artist Matteo Grilli

"My ultimate goal," Matteo says "is to draw attention to the beauty of nature, to its fleeting essence, to inspire its contemplation, discovery and enjoyment, and therefore its understanding and care. Birds are my favorite subjects but any aspect of the natural world attracts my attention. I pursue precision, detail and realism derived from what I see. I belive that less is more and that what is left out of a work of art is as important as what is included, so I tend to leave space for the viewer, not paying much attention to the surroundings, focusing on the very subject of a painting." 

He also adds that this may lead his artwork to look rather unfinished, sketchy or more like studies. "My watercolour technique is rather traditional, mostly wet on dry and wet on wet as well." The tools Matteo uses are traditional too, high quality watercolour paints, paper and brushes, a pencil and sometimes an ink pen. 

"I see things with the same curiosity and excitement I had as a child. What I think is exciting about my creative work is to be able to share an experience derived from a contact with an animal in its natural environment. After witnessing the beauty and truth of nature I feel an urgency to portray it and a responsibilty to share it. I want to give the viewer one more chance to enjoy the overlooked beauty of the small things, of all the amazing creatures we, more or less unwittingly, share our lives with. I see all of this as very exciting."

His primary source of inspiration comes from the amazingly rich and varied wildlife living in suburban Brisbane. After nature itself, he been inspired by many other things, from the nature books of Marjolein Bastin - "after which I decided to focus on watercolor," Matteo says - to Louis Agassiz Fuertes and John Busby, to cave art, Chinese and Japanese artwork, and his childhood's cartoons like 'The Animals of Farthing Wood' and 'Watership Down.' "I also like the artwork of the many British watercolour artists of the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries, natural history art, botanical art and early topographical tradition. Looking at all these things over the years still today puts me in the right state of mind to create."

At the moment Matteo just started a new series of artworks called Avian Faces, which focuses on exploring the different fleeting face expressions of birds. He says, "I'm also getting ready to start my art business in Australia which is very exciting and I'm looking forward to it."

Matteo concludes saying, "I do not have any experience in art licensing but it is a path I am certainly very interested to follow and it is on my list of things to achieve. A future aspiration is to be able to allow people to contemplate and meditate upon nature's beauty through my work. Also, I want my artwork to be seen as a good means of inspiring nature's protection, consideration and enjoyment. And last but not least, of course, I hope to be able to support my projects with my art business."

           Matteo's blog: matteogrilli.blogspot.com

Surviving in the Licensing Arena - An Interview with Licensed Artist Patti Gay

I have been experimenting over and over with different techniques and ways to create collections, trying to make my art suitable for commercial use. It's a "look," per se. It's not as easy as one would think. It's like a ... search ... for one's own identity in this arena of licensing. I asked myself this question: how will I survive this quest against so much competition? There are already so many skilled and successful artists out there ... so how does one make it through? Veteran artist and licensee Patti Gay helped answer my question with few simple words: continue to learn and grow!

Artist Patti Gay

The Moon from My Attic: Please introduce yourself - I graduated from Columbus College of Art and Design with an illustration major. I started out in advertising. After moving to San Francisco I was hired as an art director for a greeting card company. That was my introduction into the whole licensing arena. Being an art director was a great way to see how things worked from a business standpoint. After leaving art directing I started creating my own work.

TMFMA: What's exciting about your creative work? What I love about being an illustrator is that I’m not boxed in. I can continue to learn and grow. I find that exhilarating. I also do work for different markets. I like doing work for licensing, children’s books and for hanging in shows. I am also trying to learn how to make interactive apps for children. Sometimes there is overlap. I think it keeps my creativity fresh and keeps me excited about what I am working on.

Two Can Art - © Noah and Patti Gay

TMFMA: What's your favorite medium or tool/s you create with? When I do traditional painting I work in oils or watercolors. I also am doing work in Photoshop.

TMFMA: Who or what has inspired you in your art? I have to say that the collection I am really excited about was inspired by my son, Noah, who is autistic. He loves to paint. I think the textures he creates are really beautiful and I have saved a lot of his paintings. I decided to scan them into the computer and create a collection called Two Can Art. All of the images are made entirely from the textures he has painted. I take the textures and put them into designs. I also made an e-commerce blog for prints on demand of several of the images. My licensing agent is also representing the line along with my other work.

Beach - © Patti Gay

TMFMA: How long have you been doing art licensing? I’ve been licensing my work for over 20 years. Amazing to think it’s been that long. Things have changed so much with licensing. It is a much tougher market then it used to be.

TMFMA: What brought you to exhibit for the first time and how many shows have you exhibited in? I’ve been represented by my agent at shows, but I have never had a booth on my own. It’s tough for me to get away for that length of time, and it is very expensive to do it alone.

TMFMA: Do you work with an agent or do you represent yourself? I do have a licensing agent. I work with JMS Art Licensing LLC.
 

TMFMA: Please give us your analysis of the market based on your own experience and contacts. I think it is a competitive market. With the economy in the state it’s in companies want to be sure they have products that will sell. I also have to say that sometimes you just get lucky and things get into the right hands at the right time. 

Two white bunnies © Patti Gay

TMFMA: In your view, what was of major interest to manufacturers this year? What do you think the main trends are for 2011-2012? I think companies are looking for something that they feel is a sure bet for them. I see from call outs that the subject matters haven’t changed all that much. There are some companies that are more adventurous, so it really depends on the company. I think trends are moving towards brighter colors, which I love.

TMFMA: How does a new artist find manufacturers that "match" their styles?

With the internet it is so much easier to see what companies like. You can get a feel for what they lean towards by looking at their current collections.

Memory box cover - © Patti Gay

TMFMA: What do you suggest new artists do to present themselves to the world of licensing for the first time? I think having a professional collection of images is the most important thing. Think about who you are presenting to as well. Research companies to see what might be a good fit for the type of work you do.

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? Look at company sites to get a feel for what kinds of products art is licensed on. Look at your work and think about how it might be used for product. Think about who your buying audience would be. Before doing a booth at Surtex be ready. It is a big step to show there and is expensive, so you want to make a good impression and you want to have collections that are marketable.

TMFMA: Any other useful info that you'd like to share about art licensing? I think those who are tenacious and keep growing are the ones who get the work. Keep at it. Keep learning, but most of all love what it is you are doing.