Star Power 11-6-2016
Star power - people notice you - people notice your irresistible art.
Star power - study, practice, presentation, packaging.
Star power - art business - it is about connecting with someone who "gets it" - they like the message, they like how it feels to them. Which is not necessarily the message you tried to convey.
Star power - your product with your art on it can become a best seller at stores near your home. There are many products you can print on your home computer/printer and enclose in attractive specialty plastic bags, stapled shut with your logo/sticker design or specially designed business card on it. You can also have novelty items made up decorated with your art and offer them for sale as a coordinated set with an attractive price. Packaging and presentation, with a stunning design, maybe in a basket, can raise your prices substantially. The subject matter and the prices should be compatible with the lifestyle of the area.
You can have your art on
- Gifts
- Collectibles
- Decor
- Design
- Greeting Cards
- Stationery
- Journals
- Book Covers
- Fabric
- Housewares
- Plates
- Mugs
- Paper Products
- Bath Towels
- Shower Curtains
- Bed Comforters
- Garden Flags
- Watering Cans
- Flower Pots
- Birdhouses
- Feeders
- Mailboxes
- Door Mats
There are logistics that have to be worked out:
- Publishing
- Production
- Packaging
- Distribution
The people who know what resonates with the local retail businesses are the people who are involved in local sales of products. You can ask store managers what they would like to see from you based on what has been selling for them.
In a company, you want to talk to the art, marketing and sales people. You can learn the most from them by working in their company. You can earn a good income and increase your business skills. Talk to people who have been there the longest, they will be more seasoned to the nuances of successful sales for their region.
How do you see people? You have to be willing to learn, ask questions, take advice, and watch successful people who have learned how to make other people feel at home, valued, respected and important. The more successful they are, the more skill they have at keeping their opinions to themselves and just listening.
While you are perfecting your art style, developing your technique and finding your niche - it is usually true that you will not be earning much money from your art. Almost nobody starts an art career being able to support themselves. They may never support themselves on just their art but still be a successful artist and a successful business person. It takes a lot of time and hard work to sell a lot of art and that may be prohibitive, especially if creating art is more important than selling art.
You have to be honest with yourself. Do you actually want to do the work required to sell your art? Or do you just want to create your art?
You have to be honest with yourself. Do you actually want to do the work required to sell your art? Or do you just want to create your art?
There just isn't enough demand in the marketplace for framed paintings compared to the number of people creating art. You have to consider creating your own products with your art on them, either licensing your art or by managing the manufacturing of your products with an independent company. Every product with some type of pattern or drawing on it was created using someone's art. That includes clothes, furniture, curtains, decor, etc.
Our economy runs on design. Every product had a designer. And most successful products go through a series of design changes and consumer testing before they become viable in the marketplace.
You can do consumer testing using your time, your money, your legwork, your advertising and marketing - and your own products sitting unsold in your parents' garage.
Or you can learn from watching the process being perfected on someone else's money. But people don't share "trade secrets." You have to go to work and watch them. The best training in the world is simply watching an old pro.
You can take advantage of the need all employers have to train their employees to become part of the profit making machine of the company. You can learn the art business the easy way - sales, art, design, decor, office politics, bookkeeping, taxes, etc. by having someone teach you about "business." There is a shortcut called on-the-job training, and there is a hard way called the school of hard knocks.
Not everything sells well in all communities. Paintings of polar bears, cute baby seals and frozen tundra are not sold in Hawaii.
You need to connect with your niche. Even if you don't know the people around you, the neighborhood you live in has a culture that values its symbols. Some symbols are local: Times Square and the Statue of Liberty in New York, the Golden Gate Bridge in California and the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
Some symbols are admired, but less obvious. Some communities have traditions, like hunting dogs and horses for people who may not actually even hunt themselves. They may have childhood memories and love anything to do with hunting dogs and horses.
Local newspapers favor the news that revolves around family life, local tourist attractions and the values of the local community.
People who live or grew up in rural areas with a country setting, with long winding roads, few houses, some working farms and/or open fields and woodlands will appreciate art products that depict those settings. These themes are often popular with the general population as well.
People who live near the ocean or a river often like art that highlights the coast, the sand, the waves, sailboats, seashells, underwater seascapes with porpoises, turtles, local fish, fancy fish, marine life, etc. These are popular in the general population.
Horses in both wild and domestic settings, with or without people, and/or dogs and cats, hunting dogs, foals, barns, pastures, are popular in the general population.
Roosters, with hens and chicks, barns, and rural roads are popular in farm areas.
Cityscapes of local landmarks and tourist attractions, both natural and man made are popular.
Star power - is not all things to all people.
Your design should appeal to a fairly specific group or niche in the population.
Job experience relating to that niche will facilitate your connecting to them.
Automobiles are even more perfectly designed to sell themselves. Even on the lower price points, the automobile calls to the human heart. "You will look more beautiful here in this shiny, perfectly proportioned, perfect color and the right price that fits your budget, the credit is approved... take it home with you. And if you don't buy it you will look ugly in that old thing you are currently driving." Sold.
The artist's job is to pre-sell the product. Your portfolio has to have "selling power," or you will be crushed by the competition.
If you don't get a job in the arts (or any specialty), more often than not, God has intervened to keep you from going over a cliff. Later you will learn how God was working for your good.
Art is one of the most sought after careers.
There are more artists than there are people who want to buy art. And even fewer people who can afford to buy more than a paper print.
There are more people who want to learn to paint art, than who want to buy a framed painting, and this is a group you can reach.
It is harder to be successful selling paintings than it is becoming an award winning country music star or making movies. People buy new records and watch movies. People don't usually buy art unless they are moving into a new home. The odds are against you making a living wage, big money or a lucrative career selling your framed art paintings.
However, there are other options. There are many art related job opportunities that actually will provide a good income, a retirement, and income from your maturing art style.
If you think about the big picture - art and photography are everywhere and every business needs them to sell products.
Supply of interested persons for art/photography related jobs exceeds demand and reduces prices/income. The inexperienced are usually eliminated first.
Because inexperience shows. The more you paint, the better your work will be. If you paint 20 paintings of a tree, by the time you get to the last two or three, you will see a shocking difference, even more if you actually spend time studying how to paint trees.
You owe it to yourself to do research, study and practice.
Supply and demand, experience versus inexperience equals low wages.
Every company and every job gives some kind of training. Some training occurs just by being in a business environment, by exposure to other people and situations. Career twists and turns will create opportunities and experience in business practices, off seasons, taxes, decorating, computer arts, software and design - things you would not expect.
Time, study and practice brings maturity to art. Study art and business. It shows.
Used books can be bought for pennies on the dollar. And there is much to learn on the internet.
Create more art. Repetition will almost always result in the exquisite beauty of "accidents" - and the gold of serendipity.
Many people make money in art because they "learned the art business," not because they create the best art. There is no way to explain some "art" that sells, other than the artist shook a lot of hands and someone was attracted to that art style, most likely because it was original.
An alliance with a gallery owner has made some artists and gallery owners quite wealthy. However, both the gallery and the artist may have short careers. It's difficult to create similar, but different pieces in quantity. And "trends" can wipe out all financial gains.
Do the work, paint, design, and innovate. Look for connections and opportunities.
Artistically inclined individuals are needed everywhere.
Become a business person. Go further. Earn more.
Being employed, even if only part-time, provides an income that allows you the liberty to make art you love rather than just trying to make something that will sell and pray for a sale.
Employment can get you out of the house and can open all kinds of doors. Experience is highly valued and very useful when it includes actual business skills.
Business skills:
- You will have to figure out how to solve problems that are unsolvable.
- You will have to work with or for people who are totally unreasonable.
- You will have to learn to not tell people exactly what you really think.
- You will have to learn not to curse when the pressure is on.
- You will have to learn to negotiate big and small issues every day.
- You will have to learn to be silent when people disrespect you.
- And then you will have to make everyone feel respected and valued.
- You will have to learn to do your job even when you want to quit.
- You will have to learn to let go of the negatives and focus on the positives.
- And the things that give you peace will become your consolation and joy.
Whatever gives you peace will become your art.
And people will want what gives them peace.
Star power - people will notice you. Look for things you can do that will help solve a problem. Choose a project. Everyone notices you when you solve a really annoying problem.
Star power - many churches would appreciate a donation of religious art to hang on their walls, And the work of God has great rewards. A lot of people do attend church, even if only at Christmas. Many of them are small business owners in need of services you could provide either full time or for special projects. It can be good for networking.
Star power - many restaurants need some beautiful art for their walls and would love for you to match and compliment their decor so that their business setting is upgraded. Many of their customers may be small business owners who would have an interest in your art. They may want to show your art for a percentage of any sales you make. Keep in mind, your art has to be a "fit" for the decor, locale and price points of the store. Your prices should be within a comfortable reach of their clientele.
You can offer your art prints plus greeting cards made from your art prints attractively packaged as a set, but probably not as just a framed print. Many stores will buy them up front from you and sell them. Leaving things on consignment is risky, it ties up your money and should be covered by a contract. You can approach any and all places of business to inquire about a collaboration for sales. The subject matter is the deciding factor in making sales. You may have to test several subjects to find what works. Most businesses will not buy anything vulgar. Call ahead for an appointment and take some items that you can sell and leave at the store. Offer additional small add-on like stickers, a coffee cup, etc, for upselling. A $10 product can be upgraded to a $20 or $30 product by upselling.
You can't sell identical greeting cards in two businesses who are closely located, but you can sell them in any business that wants them.
Very often the best art and/or greeting cards for local shops is represented by the interests of the nearby community
- national parks
- geographical landmarks
- oceans
- rivers
- bridges
- skylines
- shopping centers
- street scene (day and night)
- tourist spot
- sidewalk cafe
- boats
- sports
- horses
- hunting
Most communities have adult education programs and local clubs who would consider having you teach specific art projects that result in a finished product. You know more about art than most people. You could also make great contacts. Many people will buy from you if they are unhappy with their own painting.
Start a coupon club and bring your art to the meetings = offer art classes to the club members.
Offer free art prints, greeting cards, stickers and/or a coffee mug to people who have a painting night at their home with their friends who want to attend a painting workshop and paint their own painting.
Samples that you leave behind may disappear, so don't invest heavily in time, materials and frames that you leave on consignment or as decor items. Losses are common in the business environment. You should not expect the store to compensate you unless you have a contract stating reimbursement.
Your contact information should be on the back of all of your products.
There is a learning curve in all skills and all careers. At best, it will probably be many years before you become established and make a good living from your art. You cannot assume that you are going to be one of the few artists who really become financially stable from their art.
It is true in every business, the higher your price point - the fewer items you will sell because there are fewer people willing and/or able to pay more.
The higher your price point, the more unique the design has to be. Look for ways to sell in the medium price market without investing in large quantities of inventory. Create work inventory slowly based on paid orders.
It is wise to always be looking for opportunities to broaden your experience and bring in an income. But nothing is better than volunteer work, because it will bring you into contact with people you could never meet otherwise.
Co-workers, teachers, neighbors, friends and family will often be a good source of information regarding possible employment - which could be of value in assisting you with your career goals.
Positions can open up where you didn't even know there was an "artistic" opportunity and your art could be recognized and rewarded.
You don't have to try to sell your work. You can talk about being an artist and people will ask to see it.
The more people you meet, the more likely you will meet people who love your work.
More to come..
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