Artist licence license#

In this particular case I pretty much said “Okay, you like the theme. 90 to 95 percent of the time there’s a change. It is so rare to show somebody something and have them say “Perfect, send it over.” There’s almost always a change. I want a white background, I want brighter yellow, I want a lime green.” Basically, okay, you like the image but nothing else about it.

It’s kind of a combination of a chalkboard, and folksy.” And she writes me back, “It’s a cool idea. So I did this one thing, and I sent it send it to one of my clients who does wall art. So I’ve been playing a little bit with the chalkboard trend with art that I like. If you’re on Pinterest at all, you see chalkboard stuff everywhere. “Perfect case in point… chalkboard is really popular right now. So this is the first question to ask yourself if you are interested in licensing your art: are you willing to collaborate with a third party on every piece of art you license? Tara Reed describes a typical instance of receiving feedback from a client: What many artists don’t realize about the art licensing process is that it is not normally a simple procession from finished artwork to expensive licensing deal. Where do they source that art? While some companies have in-house designers and artists, many source their art from freelance artists. And you don’t get paid until the quarter after it ships.” How does art licensing work?Ĭompanies that sell housewares, clothing, decor, kitchenwares, etc to retailers need beautiful art to put on their merchandise. It can take, I think nine months is the shortest amount of time between when I finish something and when it has shipped. Then they have to produce it, they have to sell it if it’s going into mom-and-pop stuff, or they have to ship it, whatever. If it’s a company I’ve worked from we have a basic contract, we’ll do an amendment where we add “Okay, yeah, now you’re licensing this art in addition to what you’ve already done in the past.” So you always have to do the contract thing. If I’ve never worked with them before, we have to start from scratch. Then, okay, it’s beautiful, somebody wants it. So they have to mock stuff up, they have to show it to people. They often won’t commit to you until they know they’re going to have decent placement. So they might show it to some of their key accounts, they might show it to a big account like Bed Bath and Beyond or whatever. A lot of what goes on in the industry now, it’s a little different than ten years ago, is they shop your art. So I’ve done the art, they’re now going to consider it. Send us the files, we’ll knock something up and see what happens.” One or two of them might be like “Oh yeah, we like it. “In our perfect world… I was just working on this collection this morning of art, and I’ll finish it probably tomorrow and I’ll start sending it out to a couple of clients that I work with all the time. Tara Reed gives us a rundown on the basic steps involved in an art licensing transaction: Are you willing to collaborate with a third party on every piece of art you license? There is tremendous potential in the world of art licensing, but it requires a different way of approaching business than more traditional avenues of selling art such as selling originals and prints through galleries or directly to collectors.

Artist licence license#

An artist who chooses to license their art may not sell any originals at all, but simply license the images for use on commercial products. Tara Reed is a licensing expert with years of experience, so we use transcribed portions from our interview with her throughout this article, lightly edited for readability.Īrt licensing is a way of making money wherein, as licensing expert Tara Reed puts it, you “rent” your artwork to companies to put on their products. Several years ago, Cory interviewed an artist who licenses her art with a wide variety of companies and who founded. While it’s not for everyone, it is a facet of the industry well worth exploring for artists who are well experienced with managing their budget and are interested in collaborating with corporations. A seldom-discussed aspect of the art industry, and somewhat mysterious to many artists, is art licensing. In fact, many of our artists make a living from their work without ever setting foot in a gallery. At The Abundant Artist, we are passionate about teaching artists that it is entirely possible to make money from your art, even outside of the traditional gallery system.