making it work Hilary B arts
My "go and see" was, to look at the world of
selling art, how do artists,
in the widest sense, do that?
To begin with I thought about the words that are used, and
why do they strike terror, disdain, contempt, in some artists?
Don't we want our work to be seen, don't we want to make a
living?
Merchandise, merchandising
Engage in
the business of a merchant
Selling
goods or ideas, especially in a retail situation
Momento
A
reminder of past events
Keepsake
A small
item kept in memory of the person who originally owned it, or gave it.
Souvenir
A thing
that is kept as a reminder of a person, a place or event
Oh I see nothing here about quality, changing the world,
enriching peoples lives, challenging peoples views. But hang on, we do want
people to remember our work, stay connected, especially when as B arts does we
create ephemeral work, site specific theatre that only lasts in the memory,
digital or real, so if they went away with something, or could buy something
later, or in advance, that would seem to be OK?
“The
benefits of selling art as products are huge as it effectively gets your art
out there and increases your potential audience around the world. It only takes
one collector who purchased an art tie to go on to purchase a large original at
several thousand pounds for the whole project to make sense, and this does
happen."
I can see how this applies to 2D art. How could this apply
to site specific theatre, well we could work with images/photographs/designs
from our shows and put them on ties!?
Some comments from artists who sells stuff.....
“The
pitfalls only appear if your lose control of the product range. So, for
example, if a company produces 50,000 cards (as The Eden Project did of my
work) and then fails to sell them, that stock could end up in a bargain bucket,
dragging down your market value. To avoid this ‘dead stock’ situation, most companies are
now using the art-ondemand technique. It means less profit per item but no dead
stock and therefore better profit
margins.
“The
cost to us as artists to license using Zazzle
is only time. There are no setup or running costs and we are now free to
concentrate on developing projects using the technology.”
“I
sell T-shirts and other products through my website and also created an online
T-shirt shop (www.art4shirts.com). Over the years I have added more and more
designs, and now have several sections to which my painting site links.
“I
produced my first online T-shirts when I put my Japanese print collection
online (www.surimono.com). I was looking for a way to market the site and use
the fantastic images I had collected over the years. I opened an account with
www.cafepress.com, and they gave me a free online shop where I could add images
to their products. It is very simple to open and operate: open a free account,
upload an image and then apply it to the Cafépress products. You can print
on everything from T-shirts, calendars, postcards, bags, clocks, aprons and
button badges to fridge magnets. Cafépress does all the work – take the order online, print
the item, post the item and put the profit markup into your account.”
All this sounds interesting, but it's very clear that it
needs a time commitment from someone, either the artist themselves, or perhaps
in MIW case a person who could work for a group of artists/companies?
So then I went off on a go and see on the Internet, where
else do artists sell their work?
Etsy Tons
of independent shops selling, art, craft, vintage. Under the "art"
category;
Art
Zines, Collage & Mixed Media, Custom Portraits, Decorative Arts, Drawing
& Illustration, Figurines & Art Objects, Painting, Photography,
Printmaking, Prints & Posters, Sculpture. There are no membership fees with
Etsy. It costs $0.20 to list an item for 4 months, or until it sells. Once you
sell your item they collect a 3.5% fee on the sale price.
Fees for
listings and transactions are accrued on your monthly Etsy bill. At the end of
each month they add up all your fees, and email your monthly statement to you.
You must pay your bill by the 15th of the next month using either the credit
card on file or PayPal.
Etsy has a reputation for being craft orientated, and
designer focussed, but has huge numbers of buyers internationally, get ready
for knowing about packaging and posting costs, and trips to the post office, or
even your own man with a van service, there are planting wanting your business.
I looked next at postcards since it seemed an easy way in
to the world of merchandising as pre publicity and cheaper point of sale at an
event. There are more sites moo.com
I us them as an example. It just needs time and a source of photos and a good
eye for what people would buy. And to put the costs into your project budget in
advance.
Postcards
10
£6.59
(£5.49
excl. VAT)
Deluxe £23.99
(£19.99
excl. VAT)
20
£13.18
(£10.98
excl. VAT).
£47.98
(£39.98
excl. VAT)
50
£26.39
(£21.99
excl. VAT).
£95.99 (£79.99
excl. VAT)
100
£43.99.
(£36.66
excl. VAT)
£138.00
(£115.00
excl VAT) spec offer in Jan
Can buy
short runs, so no dead stock issues, quick turn around, can buy packs of cards
with different images.
People who go to music gigs always tel, you that T shirts
are a good thing to sell. So I looked at the issue back stock. (If anyone would
like a Stoke100 Tshirt B arts has a box of them, orange XLarge, we now give
them away!!!)
T shirts a variety of
sites/companies offer this service....
Tshirtdrop's
print on demand service, makes T-shirt outsourcing easy.
If you
are a new or established T-shirt designer and are looking to outsource your
garment printing needs, then our print on demand service is the one for you.
The
process is simple :
You sell
a T-shirt or garment design through your website, eBay, Zazzle or other site.
Send
Tshirtdrop the order information, via our dedicated Print on Demand email
address.
Sit back
and relax whilst we; Pick the required garment, Print the design, Pack the
garment, Post directly to your customer.
You
receive an email confirming your order has been completed.
We
invoice you our standard flat rate charge per garment.
All
orders come through to our print queue and are printed on demand.
So
whether you need 1 Print per month or 500 Prints we treat your order with the
same importance as any other.
It was quite hard to get to the actual cost for a T shirt
without ordering one, anyone got a Making It Work design in they would like to
tryout?
Now I went off into to world of merchandising proper,
things you can get printed with your design on, typically at the low end of
this are pens, that say B arts working for change, office Knicks Knacks that
scud around and get given away free as a way of getting your website and logo
out there. However there are some other items you get designs rather than
promotional stuff printed on, perhaps an image from a show I'm thinking?
Zazzle
Slightly
posh version of custom print items and all sorts of things, iPad cases, cards,
T-shirts, etc etc
CafePress
As above,
but it's a mixture of Etsy and Zazzle.
Then I wandered off into the world of 2D art, which could
again be images from a show, event.
Artfinder
Is a
marketplace for people to discover and buy affordable original art online, from
independant galleries and artists.
They
market the site via twitter and Facebook and have an iPhone app.
They call
themselves a global marketplace, have over 13,000 followers on fbook,
The
selling points that you the buyer are supporting the artist and nurturing new talent.
They have
a free returns policy, and you can buy gift cards, they divide art up into
many, many categories all to enable the buyer to find what they are looking
for.
Artists
receive up to 70% of the fee for the work.
This is
what ArtFinder says....
If you
are an artist and want to improve your chances of being accepted by Artfinder,
here are three easy recommendations:
1) Your
story is almost as important as the quality of your art. A good story sells, and
collectors love to know that the artist is thoughtful, passionate, committed,
or maybe crazy, whatever is their preference.
2) You
manage your own store on Artfinder, and your storefront is created from the
images of your art. By submitting high quality images you show that you care
about quality, and are able to put together a quality presentation.
3)
Selling online is about showing your best side. All artist produce works in
their portfolio from time to time that are less strong. That's okay. But show
us that you understand that it's about quality, not quantity. Bad quality work
will detract from your good work. Know when an artwork is not ready for prime
time.
I find the first recommendation very thought provoking, it
is what all good sales gurus tell you, what is your story? It is the hardest thing
for a hard working arts company to turn around and tell their own story, well
it seems that way from here at B Arts. Which makes me think that we would need
to put some time, effort and thought into this, but as they say may reap some
dividends.
Then I went off and looked around at what people are
doing here.
I visited the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery, Newcastle
Borough Museum and Art Gallery. They all have shops attached, and my heart
sank, the home of heritage tat, but with some hidden art work in there which
probably doesn't sell since there is so little of it.
Although to be fair to Newcastle it is the stuff you see
first when you go in through the door, and it has a modern feel.
Maybe in funky Birmingham or Manchester there is something different? Sounds
like a shopping opportunity.
Grand Union (Birmingham)
Have an online shop as part of their website, they sell
artists multiples, prints, photographs, soundtracks, called Editions.
I have a visit planned! More on that...later.
Here are some images that expand my thinking.
Where to stock your museum, gallery shop.
Those words are what I fear will happen when we sell our
work, it just means we have to sell it and not put it in the hands of marketing
companies.
Susan always say, take stuff out of your note sketchbooks
and sell it.
So
how would we do that? Anyone fancy this on their phone cover?
Could this be a card, just needs a cheeky phrase?
This years Christmas card from B arts?
A new tea towel anyone?
New curtain design?
Now I see that this is just the start. There are no hard
figures in here,how much do artists make from selling their work, what do you
make from T shirts, multiples, cards etc.
Maybe this could be part of our next phase, for MIW
consortium to try some of this?
Some further thoughts on our attitudes to
merchandising/marketing....
AUSTERITY, I think it's infectious, it closes down our
aspirations, closes down our available resources, cramps our style, things have
to go in the face of rising costs and reduced income, the easy option is
merchandising/marketing
PERCEIVED POVERTY, I think there is a general assumption
that N Staffs is poor, that the middle classes are the people who buy stuff,
the middle class in N Staffs is small, so don't bother trying to sell stuff. A
vicious closing down of aspirations.
LACK OF RISK TAKING, in a works where everything is restricted then risk taking is not
top dog, yet what have we got to lose?
REDUCTION IN ARTS BUDGETS, companies are attempting to over
deliver top quality arts on a reduced budget, so there develops a tendency to
ignore areas of the budget which may be perceived as peripherals, marketing,
training.
MARKETING BUDGETS, they are easily taken out, and therefore
the time is lost to develop this area, leading to a reduction of the possible
income form different sources.
DEPENDING ON KNOWN CIRCLES OF AUDIENCES, at times of
shortage, of time, people, money, we rely on the known, the people we already
know and can easily contact.
A definite recipe for NO GROWTH, no growth in possible
audiences for the work and reducing the market for it.
NO ACKNOWLEDGING OF GLOBAL AUDIENCE FOR THE WORK, within
the structures of austerity the company may feel that it has no place in a
global market, perhaps a false economy.
3 Learning
points
Put time into your project plan for identifying, producing,
the merchandising in advance
Do the selling yourself, the artist is the best person to
do this
Buy in targeted help, eg writing blurb, or something you
don't can't do.
Hilary H.
