FAQ: Do you need physical product samples to succeed in art licensing?
This question comes up now and again, recently arriving in my email inbox from Lori Kirstein – Resident Artistic Lunatic. (I LOVE her title – I could certainly borrow it!)
Lori asks…
“I have my images up on Cafepress, but when it comes to product in hand, I don’t have any because the final products of my work are Photoshop-manipulated. Do I need to attend to getting “real world” samples – and figure how to do that best – before I get your book?”
(She was referring to the “How to Find, Interact and Work with Manufacturers Who License Art” )
In case you aren’t aware, CafePress is a Print-On-Demand website where anyone can upload art or digital files and when they are purchased, CafePress creates and ships the product.
The answer I gave Lori was “No.” In art licensing you don’t need to have physical samples to get an art licensing deal. Sometimes artists will do digital mockups, to show how their art would look on products, but it isn’t a requirement.
When you do get your foot in the door and get a licensing deal or two, it can be helpful to show those products. Lori could also purchase a product or two from her own CafePress shop if she wanted a photo of an actual product or two for her website. I’ve even known artists to go to pottery stores and hand-paint samples to show – but that does require time and money. The most important thing, in my opinion of course, is to be clear about whether any physical products are licensed or mock-up samples and available to be licensed. I often add a note like this: “These are samples of how the art could be applied to products but are not licensed at this time. Please contact me if you are interested in this collection for your product line.”
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara Reed
P.S. If you want to create digital mock-ups of your art on products in Photoshop, check out “Product Mock-Up Magic” – we’ve done the hard work of taking photos of products and getting rid of the backgrounds, as well as creating video tutorials to help you learn how to apply repeat patterns to them and more. Take a look at http://www.artlicensinginfo.com/mockup.html
P.P.S. To give Lori some “link love” for her question, you can see some of her work at http://www.cafepress.com/LoriKirstein
Suzanne Cruise, Art Licensing Agent, shares her knowledge and the mp3 replay is free!
Last night was the December “Art Licensing Info Monthly Ask Call” and I had agent Suzanne Cruise on the line. Suzanne has been an agent since 1990 so she certainly knows the business! Several times she reinforced that this is a relationship business – quality art is obviously needed but equally as important is the relationship you or your agent can build with the manufacturers.
In the hour we talked about all the questions submitted by artists, I learned so much and hope that everyone on the line did as well! If you missed it you are in for a treat because the mp3 replay is available for free! (Well, the cost is your email so we can keep you up to date on what is coming up!)
I also really enjoyed getting to know Suzanne better and learning about how she looks at art, works with artists and tries to make art licensing a win-win situation for everyone involved.
Here are the topics we covered:
- How do you know if you are ready for an agent?
- How often do agents want art?
- What criteria does Suzanne use when deciding if she will represent an artist?
- Does an artist have to have experience in licensing to get an agent?
- How much art do you need to find an agent?
- Do different agents specialize in different product categories?
- Can you work with more than one agent?
- Do many agents work on a non-exclusive basis?
- What if you do mostly pattern work – will you be able to find an agent?
- Is it a good or bad idea to build a following for a character on sites like Zazzle and personal websites before trying to license the character, or will that hurt the chances of success?
- Do artists have to have computer skills to succeed in licensing?
- What computer skills would be helpful for artists to know if they want to license their work?
Suzanne also mentioned several times (much to my delight!) that it is good to be able to mock-up your designs on products so you or your agent can show manufacturers how well your designs will apply to their products. (I didn’t even prompt her – I promise!) So if you don’t have your copy of Product Mock-Up Magic yet, maybe now is the time to get it!
I promised to link to my blog post about creating a code system for your art – another thing Suzanne recommends. CLICK HERE
Finally, we talked about a Photoshop plug-in, Contact Sheet, and I will do a separate blog post about that soon. Thank you to all the artists who sent me information – it seems to be in different spots in each version of Photoshop and I haven’t had time to really dig in and investigate. Stay tuned…
To get your copy of the mp3 replay, CLICK HERE
Here’s to your creative success!
– Tara
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