Art Print Issues

HDExpo Puts Art in the Hospitality Picture

Changes in the tradeshow scene regarding the art business have been frequently reported here. The traditional industry shows such as ArtExpo and Decor Expo are well off their peak years in size, as are the publications that support them. And, the total number of shows serving the industry are at lows not seen in decades. No matter what factors you use to account for the downward trend, they are sadly there and showing no signs of resurgence.

Tradeshow Woes Are a Problem Across Many Industries

It's not just art and picture framing shows that are on their heels. You needn't look hard to find evidence of contraction in all kinds of industries. Given such a multi-industry trend is surely a cause to wonder if there are alternative shows worth either attending or exhibiting for artists and publishers.

There Are Bright Spots To Be Found

One growing show growing increasingly important to many art publishers and self-representing artists is the HDExpo. It is the sister tradeshow to Hospitality Design magazine, which also is growing in size. These entities primarily serve complete design needs for hotels, restaurants and corporate centers.

Gaining traction in this market is a way to create a steady cash flow from a distribution source outside the gallery and online channels that are top of mind for most artists. Not to say the field isn't competitive. It is, but I have always maintained there is ample room in the most crowded fields for artists who bring a fresh perspective to the scene.

Hospitality Design Magazine Publishes Largest Issue Ever

As a former trade magazine rep, I drooled with lust when I saw the most recent at-show copy of Hospitality Design. At 448-pages plus cover, it resembles a mid-size city phone book. I hadn't seen a trade pub that size since the heyday of Decor magazine's show issues for New York or Atlanta many moons ago. The combination of growing importance of the HDExpo show and the size of the magazine puts an exclamation point on their momentum and the market they represent.

Las Vegas Is a Boom Town for Home Furnishings & Hospitality Design Shows

Las Vegas is also home to the World Market Center. It is the host site of the Las Vegas Market, which also is bucking the downward trend as a huge fast growing international home furnishing marketplace. The common wisdom for decades was no venue could successfully compete against the IHFC show and the concurrent shows in High Point, NC for the home furnishings market.  In just a few short years, the Las Vegas Market has proven there can be a viable alternative to the IHFC.

To Be An Effective Marketer in an Industry, You Must Be a Student of It

Effective marketing is a multi-year strategy. The first stage is to become educated about potentially lucrative markets important and new to your business. If you have your own designs on seeing your originals and reproductions used in the hospitality industry, learn all you can about the shows mentioned here and the markets they represent. You likely don't have the budget to tackle them all. But spending time studying them is a great first step towards getting your foot in the door at one of them at the appropriate time.

On the HDExpo Web site, go to Expo/Exhibitor List/Product Category Search. Start with the Artwork: Prints/Reproductions/Photography category and work your way through all the other appropriate categories for ideas on companies to approach, or to see what those exhibiting are doing on their on Web sites. It will be time well spent to study this terrific resource. And, of course, if you can actually go there, all the better. This year's May 14-17 conference and May 15 -17 exhibition dates are upon us. If it's too quick for this year, tickle it as a must for 2009.

Surtex Offers Artists Yet Another Alternative to Galleries and Selling Online

The Surtex show runs May 18 - 20 at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. Surtex bills itself as a licensing show for original art and design and offers a different kind of distribution and income from the hospitality business. Surtex is a terrific venue for artists who want to license their work. It's a show to walk the first year and then to decide if paying for exhibit space makes sense. Many artists are able to make connections there by respectfully and tactfully approaching publishers and licensors when they are not otherwise busy in their booths. The better you prepare for these shows, the better your experience will be.

Thirteen Sure-Fire Rules to Create Success for the Emerging Artist - Part One

1. Don't paint or photograph with the preconceived view of becoming known for a look or style when you have so much to offer on a wide platform of personal interests.
2. Don't have any concerns whether galleries or collectors will have a clue as to what to expect from you when you jump from painting portraits to ponies. With your abundant talent, it doesn't matter because it's only time before the whole world is beckoning to it.
3. Don't submit to any of the multitude of regularly available columns, features, special sections and other FREE publicity opportunities. After all, why go for the filler copy when the cover stories are just around the corner?
4. Don't go out of your way to have any valuable contact with the media when you just know they will be courting you once you are rich and famous.
5. Don't ask any reps, whether they be advertising, tradeshow, framing, paper, printer or art reps, who call on you to tell you what is happening in the business; you wouldn't want to benefit from someone who sees the business from 30,000 feet when you can stay grounded in your studio.
6. Don't bother investing extra money to get the best digital scan possible for your reproductions. If less than the best is acceptable for you, by golly it ought to be good enough for your collectors and would be collectors.
7. Don't ever access the wealth of great information so freely shared by Alyson Stanfield, Robert Genn, Paul Dorrell, Dan's Empty Easel, Charley Parker, Katherine Tyrrell, Clint Watson, Dick Harrison and Barney Davey to name just a few because you suppose you can't trust anyone who is not another starving artist. Surely, they are a bunch of self-serving types just angling to retire once they glom on to a huge chunk of your awesome marketing budget.
8. Don't go to art tradeshows such as ArtExpo or Decor Expo when you can't afford to exhibit. Why would you waste your time seeing how your competitors are doing when none of it matches the masterpieces coming from your easel?
9. Don't waste your time reading a trade magazine like Art World News, Art Business News or Decor. You can't afford to have your creativity be informed by what the most successful artists and publishers in the business are doing.
10. Don't participate in artist discussion boards such as Wet Canvas, Digital Painting Forum, Art Scuttlebutt and Online Visual Artists when you could be watching reruns of Desperate Housewives instead. What could you possibly learn there you don't already know?
11. Don't use the Internet to market yourself and your business. Why would you spend your time with a Web site or one of those trendy Blog things? For heaven's sake, don't even think of whiling away precious hours starting a Squidoo lens or figuring out how the likes of Boing Boing might help jumpstart your career.
12. Don't succumb to the siren song of shameless self-promotion. Stay humble and know that hope alone will bring you all the sales, notice, fame and glory you surely deserve. Let the money grubbers have their time now, your lasting fame and legacy after you are long gone will be the best revenge.
13. Don't go to the extra expense of using a professional printer, or at least carefully follow all the procedures they employ to create lasting art, when you can bang out almost archival reproductions right on your desktop. After all, a giclee is a giclee is a giclee; right?.

BONUS POINTS

1. Don't take the snarky tongue-in-cheek comments personally and keep in mind that controversy sparks more interest than milquetoast commentary.
2. Keep in mind the timeless advice to Wear Sunscreen, which is the common name of a column titled Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young written by Mary Schmich and published in the Chicago Tribune on June, 1 1997. The most popular and well-known form of the essay is the successful music single released in 1999, accredited to Baz Luhrmann.
   

Dick Harrison's "Sales Tips for Artists" New Website

The inimitable erudite Dick Harrison, whom I have blogged about before, has put out a new Web site, Sales Tips for Artists. The site offers one place where artists, reps and others interested in art marketing and how to sell art can learn from Dick's 20 years of experience selling his own work and that of as many as 200 other artists. Dick is an eloquent speaker, which makes listening to his podcasts as enjoyable as they are informative. Here's his brief description of the site:

The sales tips you're about to listen to are based on what I learned as a successful artist's rep and producing artist. The "secrets" I'm about to share supported my family for more than twenty years and and I know they will help you as well.

Dick could easily charge for these valuable lessons and I believe most artists would be happy to pay to tap into his knowledge. I encourage all my readers to not only take the time to learn from Dick, but to repay his generosity by sharing the link to his site with as many people as possible.

Dick Harrison's Sage Art Marketing Advice

If you haven't spent time on Wet Canvas, you are missing a most valuable resource. With statistics like the following, you could spend days mining the information available: Threads: 418,661, Posts: 5,628,165, Members: 105,331.

This month, Dick Harrison, who was a professional full-time art rep for 20 years has generously offered his best advice to artists seeking to succeed in the business. He has posted a number of Podcasts on the Talk Shoe podcast site. In keeping with his savvy, he chose the Wet Canvas/Art Business Center/General Art Business thread to announce he had created these most informative podcasts to give to anyone one who wishes to listen. 

My strong advice to you dear readers is to listen to all he has to say. Here are the links to the Wet Canvas threads with links to the podcasts: Selling Tips from an Art Rep with 20 years experience http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=414300 and Who Gets What and How Much http://www.wetcanvas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=418004. Kudos to Dick for his unselfish sharing of such valuable information!