Art Print Issues

Wired Art Marketing Idea

About a year ago, Wired, a leading tech publication, offered its readers, anyone actually, the chance to create their own personalized cover, like the one pictured here, in a promotion sponsored by Xerox.

Good Ideas Never Go Away

Then as now, I thought it was a great idea. But, I put it away in lieu of other blog post concepts. It's stayed with me and I present it to you today as a way to stimulate your own thoughts on how you might think of creative ways to interact with your collectors and prospects.

The promotion was done as a creative way to show off the Xerox XMPie™ product line, which it had acquired in 2006. Specifically, it allows users to implement its Image Personalization tool to create the personalized headline and illustrate the versatility and ease-of-use of the program. I'm not sure what the price is for the program. It doesn't say on the product's Website. For those of you who own Adobe Creative Suite 2 or 3, you can download a free 30 day trial.

Employ Creative Borrowing to Invent Your Personalized Promotion Ideas

What's more important than the technology to readers of this blog is the concept behind the use of the technology. That is, borrowing on the concept to help you use whatever means, technology or otherwise, available to you, get in gear to think how to personalize your art for your collectors is what is important.

Giclées Are Just One Way to Personalize

The giclée process with its variable size capabilities is just one way you can personalize art for your collectors. I think this alone is underutilized as a way to truly serve customers' specific needs. Substrates are another way to personalize your work. New products are frequently being announced. These are but two examples of how technology can be used to personalize art. Can you imagine collectors willing to pay a nice premium for something personalized for them? I can.

Personalizing on a Small Scale Is an Advantage

If you are able to use the XMPie program to let your collectors and prospects have fun with your art and create a personalized printable product like the one pictured here, wouldn't that be way cool? How much good will, promotion and publcity you can generate with an ideal like this? In the right hands, the possibilities offer great promise on multiple levels.

Dont' Sweat the Small Stuff

Don't stress if you lack the tools or budget to use this program. The idea behind how to reach and influence your customers is the important thing. With a bit of creativity, you can come up with your own unique ways to get personal with those important to your career.

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.

French Incent Buying Art - Guggenheim Vegas Closing - Using Whitey Ball in a Down Market - ArtExpo Vegas a Conservative Go

Signs of changing times:

• The announcement came last week the French government is so distraught over slipping in worldwide art sales, falling to third behind China, it is offering interest free loans for its citizens to buy fine art.
• It in a sad, but not completely surprising item, the Las Vegas Sun reports the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum there is scheduled to shutter next month...sigh. But, in the perfection of hindsight, looking at Vegas marketing then and now, it seems logical it would not work.

Sin City Is the Name of the Game

You may recall Las Vegas formerly tried to tout itself as a family friendly destination with water slides, the Wizard of OZ's Yellow Brick Road at the MGM, roller coasters and so forth. However, it didn't take long for the shine to wear off that idea before Vegas reverted to true form. It is, after all, called Sin City for good reason. The popular and effective "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas" slogan that replaced the family theme has been successful because it pointedly captures the allure of Vegas.

In retrospect, the familiar saying, "You can't make a silk purse out a of a sow's ear" now seems appropriate to putting one of the most prestigious fine art museums in Vegas. As the Las Vegas Sun article points out, there were other problems, but at the heart of it, it just wasn't a good fit. The closing of the Guggenheim speaks volumes about culture, or lack thereof, in Vegas, and to a degree how specialized the interest and marketing of fine art is. The wisdom of crowds theory dictates the taste for Vegas is gambling, dining, nightclubbing, extravagant shows and forbidden fruit with not much energy or enthusiasm for fine art experiences.

In the tradeshow business, the take on destinations such as Las Vegas and San Francisco is they are great convention, but largely lousy tradeshow towns. Simply, the distractions are too powerful to keep crowds on the floor for smaller shows. Behemoths, such as Comdex, draw so many attendees they override the common wisdom. That said, it is only fair to note some small tradeshows such as the annual West Coast Art & Frame show do well there regardless. And in fairness to Vegas, there are but a a handful of cities worldwide that could sustain a Guggenheim museum.

You Can't Put Round Art into a Square Frame, No Matter How Glittery the Frame

The moral of the Guggenheim Vegas story is you can't force something where it doesn't fit. Put another way, swinging for the fences in an attempt to clear the bases with a Grand Slam homerun grandiose idea is not always a winning strategy. For art marketers, this lesson could not be more true, especially in a down economy. Looking back, the concept of an exquisite fine art museum in Vegas was a grandiose idea gone awry. The baseball analogy provides a nice segue to discuss employing a strategy called "Whitey Ball" for art marketers in a down market.

The Whitey Ball Strategy for Art Marketing in a Down Market

In the 1980s, the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team didn't have big hitting sluggers on its roster. Its huge ballpark with faraway fences didn't suit having them on the payroll. Instead, the team's wily manager, Whitey Herzog, used his creativity to build a team around speed and slap hitting singles batters. During his tenure, Herzog picked players who were fleet of foot with the ability to steal bases, move fast to plug defenses and thwart their opponent's offenses. Whitey always sought as many chances at bat he could get for his players. Essentially, he adapted his strategy to conform to what he had to work with. The results were spectacular with three National League pennants and two World Series appearances, including a World Series Championship in 1982.

Piling Up Singles in Today's Economy Is a Great Strategy

Whether you are an independent self-representing artist or a big time publisher, this is a good time to employ your version of Whitey Ball marketing. For those serious about sustaining and building their businesses, smart marketing is more crucial now than in good times. Maintaining your marketing edge now will, when the economy turns, put you far ahead of those who hunker down and do nothing.

NINE IDEAS FOR USING WHITEY BALL MARKETING WITH YOUR ART BUSINESS

1. Accurately assess your resources, opportunities and goals. Doing so serves to keep your expectations real.
2. Give your business every chance at bat it can get. Look for all the publicity and media notice you can garner - there are more opportunities than you realize. It all matters and it all adds up when you find and use them.
3. Shore up your defenses by tightening non-essential spending keeping funds available for the best opportunities.
4. Go for the single when you get to bat. The first step to getting a run is to get on base. The first step to getting repeat sales is to establish a relationship with a potential collector or gallery
5. Carefully weigh your options. When it comes to deciding how to allocate your marketing budget, employing the carpenter's credo to measure twice and cut once is a wise idea.
6. Renegotiate with your suppliers to get every discount, value added service and the lowest prices they can provide you.
7. Explore every viable means to diversify your distribution channels. Going forward, alternative, creative marketing is a fact of life no matter what the economy is doing.
8. Do whatever you must to make sure your customers are happy and your service is par excellence.
9. Don't buy into fanciful untried ideas (Or, if you must, start small and play conservatively. If it's good, you'll have time later to ratchet up your participation.)

Your Best Ideas Likely May Come From Doing Something You Were Sure You Would Never Do

To get creative, it helps to get outside your comfort zone. Try thinking about doing things differently, much differently. For instance, consider where have you not been, what have you not done and what you would never do. A marvelous brainstorming activity is to take a large sheet of paper and write down all the people, places and things you would never approach or do in your business. The harder you think about it and the more ideas you conjure up, the more likely your best out of left field (baseball pun intended) idea will come.

ArtExpo Las Vegas is a Conservative Go

Is there a correlation or lesson about the ArtExpo Las Vegas show and the closing of the Guggenheim Hermitage? Of course, especially if you believed Vegas had become an art mecca. I fell under that spell. Like many others, I was a strong proponent of the ArtExpo Vegas show last year. I devoted several encouraging posts on Art Print Issues and another on the very popular AbsoluteArts.com blog, where I contribute frequently.

My post show follow up was more sanguine. Like the folks at the Guggenheim and many others, I felt Vegas offered promise. Seeing the museum close and the ArtExpo show last year come off smaller than anyone would have hoped for and now in tougher economic times, it's hard to muster great enthusiasm for the 2008 show. Still, the industry is down to few choices for shows and this is one of them.

If you have the resources, ArtExpo Vegas can work to your advantage to exhibit there.

I met several self-representing artists who were thrilled they made the decision to go. The smartest advice is to go expecting the best, but also be prepared for something less than that. By doing so, you are poised to react to a good outcome and will negate the deflation of a bummer experience by having acknowledged the possibility of it. Exhibiting there, especially as unknown artist is akin to gambling, don't play with money you can't afford to lose. Go with a good marketing plan, use solid money management to keep losses to a minimum and play hard and smart and pray for a hot streak

What the artists with whom I met that had a great ArtExpo Vegas show had in common was they had unique well developed thematic styles that appealed to certain buyers with substantial open to buy budgets. In other words, in each case it was a single buyer that made the difference for them. This scenario is likely to happen again this year, but understand the buyers are selective. It doesn't mean your images aren't good if you don't succeed. It could be they are not right for those buyers who attend. Being able to know the difference only comes with experience. If you lack it, seek the advice of others to get an honest, if not brutal, assessment of where your art comes in.

The art print market is evolving and so are the venues and media that report on, promote and support it.

What we are witnessing is the rapid deconstruction of how things were done in the past. It is far from an art industry problem. You can find reports of all kinds of shows and media contracting from their once bulging sizes. It's harder to find where the business is going. Some to the Internet, some to targeted marketing and some to marginal players folding their tents.

To maximize your return, you need to pay close attention to help you understand how the business is evolving. Playing Whitey Ball with your marketing will help you sustain your business as you wind through the challenging times we find ourselves in today.

Shift Happens - Slideshare is Way Cool, Use It Freely!

Recently, I republished a post from the fertile mind of futurist Watts Wacker wrting in his monthly newsletter, First Matter. In his Keep Your Eyes Open I'm Convinced It's About to Happen article, W2, as he playfully signs his emails, explains the enormous impact Peter Max had on the art market in the 20th Century, and how The Beatles played a part in it too.

Watts postulates THE NEXT BIG THING in the art market will come from China. Agreeing with him, I added a comment on his Web site. It notes how things are vastly different from 40 years ago when The Beatles and Peter Max changed the world. I suggest some musical muse might come from the Caribbean or Africa in a collaboration with a Chinese artist that could shake things up in ways we haven't seen since the 60s. It often seems to me the more unlikely a thing one can imagine today makes it more likely to occur. The slideshow below, courtesy of Slideshare, sheds light on Watt's basis for his prediction.

Futurism is not based on crystal ball gazing, but rather distills the future from what is obvious. You just need to know where to look and how to interpret your results. This, being more difficult than it sounds, is why W2 gets the big bucks. The above Shifthappens slideshow illustrates how in the new millennium we are on the precipice of a historic shift where by sheer numbers in our now close knit digital global age, China and India are poised to dominate the way Western Europe and the U.S. respectively did in the early and second half of the 20th Century.

I can't portend exactly what such a monumental shift will mean to your career as a visual artist. But, I can tell you changes you cannot foresee will impact it as the Shifthappens presentation implies. You can judge by your own experiences that technology has changed and shaped how you inform yourself, create, reproduce, market and sell your art today. I encourage you to be open to change, to embrace it, to productively use it however you can.

In 2005, how many thought artists would use blogging for significant learning and marketing experiences? I opened an account with my blogging software, Typepad, in 2005, but didn't quit my PDF style newsletter until a year ago, making me in some ways a poster child for the poignant Kelly Ruger quote below.

A way cool Web 2.0 program you can employ now is SlideShare. Both presentations embedded in this post are from its Web site. SlideShare is the world's largest community for sharing presentations & slideshows. You can upload your PowerPoint, OpenOffice, Keynote or PDF files, tag them, embed them into your blog or website, browse others' presentations, and comment on individual slides. What's more, the transcripts of your presentation will be indexed by Internet search engines and show up in search results. It's a great way to share your ideas with others, or to learn from other people. And it's completely free and you choose whether to make your presentations public or private.

To further stimulate your creativity, review the terrific presentation below, which is also found on Slideshare: Visual and Creative Thinking: What We Learned from Peter Pan and Willie Wonka. Here is just one quote from the presentation which I hope will encourage you to review it:

Sometimes an idea loses its meaning over time, but isn't abandoned because of the investment in the past. These ideals are often so immune to criticism that those who challenge them are ignored or marginalized.- Kelly Ruger

View the Visual and Creative Thinking Slideshare presentation

I've suggested here a couple of time to use The Personal Brain, which is a wonderful mind mapping brainstorming tool. If you are beginning to see a pattern here of encouraging creative thinking and tools, you'd be right. Enjoy!

Is the Next Big Thing About to Happen?

I've been a huge fan of futurist Watts Wacker since I first heard him speak to a group of tourism executives circa 1999. His presentation was fascinating and full of compelling information.

He was as riveting a speaker as any I've heard. That he managed to mesmerize his audience of business executives while wearing long hair, shorts, sockless loafers and a rumpled button down shirt made him more interesting. It was a rare encounter where I found myself thinking, "How fun it must be to be that smart, that cool, that self-confident and worthy of having organizations fly a person in and pay them thousands to hear their ideas for a mere 90 minutes?"

At the time, his international bestselling book, co-authored with Jim Taylor, The 500 Year Delta: What Happens After What Happens Next was riding high on the charts. And, his subsequent books, Visionary's Hand, and The Deviant's Advantage plus his latest, What's Your Story?: Storytelling to Move Markets, Audiences, People, and Brands provide more profound and practical insight from this informative oracle.

Finding a Way to Fill the Yearning for Authenticity Can Drive Your Art Career

A key fact I landed on from The 500 Year Delta was in the monumental changes we are living through, there is a societal yearning for authenticity. Today's digital world, including giclees, doesn't allow much for it. If you can figure out how to create true authenticity in your art career and properly promote it, you will reap great rewards.

Wacker's always thought provoking monthly newsletter is penned by him and published by his company, First Matter LLC. The essay most apropos to this blog is from the February 2008 issue. It does not disappoint. With permission, here it is:

Keep Your Eyes Open I’m Convinced it’s About to Happen by Watts Wacker

I can’t help but keep thinking about this being the 40th anniversary of the ’68 Chicago convention and the tragedies of both Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Especially now that so many have suggested that we are at the same, or at least, similar crossroads today, I just keep thinking about it.

I actually disagree with the assessment of similarity to the two periods of time. In 1968 the social mood was much more “down with authority” ... today? ... it’s much more like “are you prepared? ... and is there such a thing as being an authority?” We want our institutions to be prepared for the future and we’ve not so sure they are so.

There was an artist who captured the ‘60’s, Peter Max. Peter’s an amazing man. Philanthropist, humanitarian, environmentalist and philosopher ... he is the most successful living artist in the world. He truly was the catalyst for connecting art and business. Max was the first person ever to have his work placed upon everything from bed sheets to sneakers. His product was out-licensed to the tune of $1 billion (yes, billion) before 1970.

While he would likely refer to himself as a neo-expressionist today, he has traveled from realist to pop artist (maybe archetype on this one) to his latest definition. His prescience in seeing how “the poster” was on the cusp of unprecedented ranges and intensities of color (all at inexpensive and high quality) allowed him to connect romantic, playful and psychedelic. He created the yellow submarine for the Beatles. Toulouse-Lautrec would have been proud. Peter readily says that his love of the cosmos and childhood expectation of becoming an astronomer was a major source of inspiration for the art of the 60’s. He captured a period of time.

Today, we should be looking for “that look”. What I mean is, what is the look for today? We’re far enough “in” to the 21st century. And, like Peter, I believe it will be somebody born in Europe ... developing years in Asia ... than blossom in the USA. However, in the 2010’s it will be some other order and more than likely an artist who blossoms in Asia. Keep your eyes open ... I’m convinced it’s about to happen.

I'm in agreement with Watt's observations and predictions. If you want to read my TalkBack comments on his site and peruse some very interesting links related to Watts' commentary, go here.

This post comes on the close of the 30th Annual ArtExpo New York show where in its heyday none other than Peter Max used the venue to further his career. Wouldn't it be great if the artist whose talent will rise to grab our collective consciousness as Watts' envisions was exhibiting there this year? That fantasy aside, given the changing dynamics of the art market, I wouldn't bet on such a notion. It's far more likely the art print market and its primary venue will undergo untold major changes before the next big thing comes calling. Just as The Beatles and Peter Max helped revolutionize music and art by being different and not of the status quo, I believe the next big thing will break out of some yet unknown venue or channel.

The Wisdom of the Wizard - 2008: Year of Transition

Last month, I introduced readers to Roy H. Williams, aka the Wizard of Ads, in announcing his illustration contest. Besides being an enormously talented and effective advertising professional, he is a best selling author, a deep thinker, a provocateur, a teacher, a romantic and a prognosticator. The Wizard Academy he spearheads is a place of learning like no other.

In a couple of recent posts here, you've read my thoughts on the economy with suggestions for adjusting your marketing plans. Katherine Tyrrell, who publishes the heavily trafficked Making a Mark blog. from across the pond in Britain picked up those posts and added her own insights and some other terrific links you will find informative and instructive. Her site is a veritable treasure trove of information for artists.

It seems lately there is a plethora of advice on the economy; then there is the Wizard with his unique, believable take on a 40-year trend shaping society right now. Here is a verbatim transcript of his January 20 Monday Morning Memo:

2008: Year of Transition

In January of 2004 I launched a public presentation: Society’s 40-year Pendulum. Audiences from Stockholm to Sydney to Vancouver to Myrtle Beach will recall my statement, “2003 was the first year in a 6-year transition from the Idealist perspective to the Civic.” 2008 will be the sixth and final year of that transition. Labels like Baby Boomer and Gen-X and Soccer Mom assume a person’s outlook is determined by when they were born. This is a very foolish assumption. Look around and you’ll see that Baby Boomers aren’t Boomers anymore. Most have adopted an entirely new outlook and are becoming part of what’s happening now. By the end of 2008 there won’t be a Baby Boomer left in America. The last, reluctant holdout will finally admit that Woodstock is over, Kennedy is dead, and the Idealism of the 60’s was a wistful dream. In their 1993 book, Generations, Strauss and Howe asserted that western society swings from an Idealist outlook to a Civic perspective and back again with the precision of pendulum. And at the bottom of each arc, the new views introduced by that generation's youth will be adopted by the adults within 6 years of the tipping point. 1963 introduced the Idealist outlook we associate with "Baby Boomers." 1968 was the final year of that transition. By 1969, everyone in America, regardless of their age, was seeing through rose colored lenses. 2003 was 1963 all over again, but this time we're headed in the opposite direction. 2008 will be the last year of our transition to a Civic perspective. Here’s what to remember when selling in 2008: 1. Efficiency is the new Service. Your customer is saying, “Quality and price and quick, please. I’ve got things to do. Thanks.” Service and selection still matter, but not nearly so much as they once did. Inefficient organizations built on high-touch “relationship” selling will decline.  Today’s customer is magnetically drawn to efficiency. This attraction will increase over the next few years. 2. Authenticity is essential. Listen to the street. “Being cool” has become “Keepin’ it real.” Naiveté is rare today. Your customer is equipped with a bullshit detector that is highly sensitive and amazingly accurate. And the younger the customer, the more accurate their bullshit detector. When selling, remember: If you don’t admit the downside, they won’t believe the upside. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Leonard Pitts gave us an example of “keepin’ it real" when he opened his syndicated column recently with the following lines: I’ve got nothing against fame. I’m famous myself. Sort of. OK, not Will Smith famous, or Ellen DeGeneres famous. All right, not even Marilu Henner famous. I’m the kind of famous where you fly into some town to give a speech before that shrinking subset of Americans who still read newspapers and, for that hour, they treat you like a rock star, applauding, crowding around, asking for autographs. Then it’s over. You walk through the airport the next day and no one gives a second glance. You are nobody again. Dave Barry told me this story about Mark Russell, the political satirist. It seems Russell gave this performance where he packed the hall, got a standing O. He was The Man. Later, at the hotel, The Man gets hungry, but the only place to eat is a McDonald’s across the road. The front door is locked, but the drive-through is still open. So he stands in it. A car pulls in behind him. The driver honks and yells, “Great show, Mark!” For the record, I consider Leonard Pitts to be one of the greatest living writers in the world today. Read his column and see if you don’t agree. 3. A Horizontal Connectedness is replacing yesterday’s vertical, social hierarchy. Labels like “white collar” and “blue collar” sound almost racist today. The new American dream isn’t about pulling ahead and leaving the others behind. It’s about becoming a productive member of the team. “Winning” has become less important than “belonging.” Listen to the streets. “I’m number one,” gets the response, “You ain’t all that, dog. You ain’t all that.” Labor unions were deader than a bag of hammers in 2004, a relic of the past, so when I predicted that collective bargaining would reawaken and gain momentum during the coming Civic outlook, audiences often laughed or folded their arms and curled a lip, thinking I was advocating organized labor. (I wasn’t.) Have you heard about the Hollywood writer’s strike?  Expect to see Wal-Mart unionized in the upcoming years. Hide and watch. See if I’m not right. 4. Word-of-Mouth is the new Mass Media. Video games and cable TV stripped our kids of their innocence at an early age, but the Technology that robbed them of idyllic childhood also empowered them with cell phones, blogs and blackberries. Viral marketing wasn’t created by the advertising community. It’s simply the result of a horizontally-connected generation (1.) sharing their happy discoveries with each other and (2.) trying to protect one another from mistakes.  WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS: It’s no longer enough just to have great advertising. When your customers carry cell phones and can email all their friends with a single click, you need to be exceptionally good at what you do. 5. Boasting is a waste of time. Your customer is saying, “Talk is cheap. Actions speak louder than words. Don’t tell me what you believe. Show me.” IN YOUR ADS, do you include “proofs of claim” your reader, listener or viewer can experience for themselves? 6. Everyone is broken a little. And the most broken are those who pretend they are not. It’s time to take the advice of Bill Bernbach, “I’ve got a great gimmick. Let’s tell the truth.” 7. Keep in mind that during the next 12 months, as we complete the transition from the Idealist outlook to the Civic perspective, these trends will be accelerated by the facts that: (1.) Access to information is going up and (2.) Access to money is going down. By the way, if I ever win a Pulitzer, I’ll immediately start wearing French shirts with 3-inch cuff links that spell out PULITZER PRIZE WINNER in diamonds. But if what I said earlier about “the last, reluctant holdout” is true, I expect my attitude will change approximately one second before midnight on December 31, 2008. Have a great week. Roy H. Williams PS  I'll be making that 90-minute presentation Society's 40-year Pendulum as part of the New Client Orientation on Feb 5. and again during the  Free Public Seminar on Feb. 12. My friend in Afghanistan, Wizard Acadgrad (and MBA) Susan Ryan sent me a fascinating email, “Christmas on the Road to Kandahar.” Cashews, Almonds or Pecans? No, my favorite nut is Leeroy Jenkins. And he’s got an interesting perspective on 2008. Finally! That new book from Michele Miller and Holly Buchanan!

Which Colors Are In Your Palette? Bet on blue, not brown

Have you ever wondered how the color palettes of so many varied companies seem to follow suit? For instance in the past year, if you browsed a Crate & Barrel or Horchow or Macy's Home catalog you'd find natural blues and shades of chocolate brown making a strong influence on home design. Is is possible that Cadillac and Lexus could choose eerily similar shades of luscious metallic raspberry red in the same model year? Given seasonal color palettes are chosen one to three years in advance, such trends do not happen by coincidence. Most color designers who work for large companies that need to forecast color direction to market their products subscribe to either the Color Marketing Group or The Color Association. These organizations help them decide on colors from Kleenex boxes to Cadillacs.

An Associated Press story picked up on MSNBC: Social trends color shade-forecasting business - Next year's Beijing Olympics could spark a trend in reds and yellows explains how the 1,100 member Color Marketing Group works to identify coming trends in color for Consumer/Residential and Contract/Commercial products that include: Action/Recreation, Consumer Goods, Technology, Home, Visual Communications, Transportation, Juvenile Products, Fashion, and environments for Office, Health Care, Retail, Hospitality/Entertainment and Institutional/Public Spaces.

If you are painting with the notion your art and legacy are museum bound, this information may not be of interest to you. If, however, you are painting to create art that will be bought to complement other decor in homes and offices, then paying attention to color trends is valuable. Ask any exhibitor working an art tradeshow what is the first question they get from buyers. I guarantee it is, "What's new?" As with themes and subject matter, questions of palette choices are always brought into the conversation. To let your color choices be informed by trends you catch early can make a difference in if and how quickly otherwise well executed art gets sold.

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.
   

The GapingVoid Comes from the Creative Mind of Hugh McLeod

If you haven't yet availed yourself of the wit and wisdom of Hugh McLeod, please do so forthwith. His blog post, HOW TO BE CREATIVE, from nearly three years back remains his most popular. With good reason, it's brilliant, pointed, poignant and downright hilarious. Read his 31 tips on how to be creative and you are sure to laugh, be informed, be reminded and be resembled. The full title of his blog is, gapingvoid: "cartoons drawn on the back of business cards"  Enjoy!

New Beginnings - ArtExpo Bets on Las Vegas

I guest blog at Absolute Arts on a semi-frequent basis. The subject of my August 9 has the same title as this post. If you go there and my blog is not up, please try again later. It is sometimes mid-morning before they get the latest contribution posted. If you have been reading the posts here the past few months, you know I have expressed concern over changes at ArtExpo New York that do not bode well for the industry. I know changes are inevitable and today more than ever Will Rogers' astute admonishment rings true:

"Even if you are on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."

Accepting change is one thing, being concerned the changes are causing harm to an industry is another. Right now, ArtExpo is planning its coming out party for Las Vegas. I am cautiously optimistic to know the show being held at the Mandalay Bay Casino and Resort on September 28 - 30, is sold out. That's a good thing. Now to bake that cake and eat it too, buyers have to be drawn to the show and they have to buy. If that happens, we will be witnessing one of the best things to happen to the industry in a long time.

By the way, if you haven't spent time on Absolute Arts, you should. It has lots to offer artists and there is much to learn from the site. It offers artists high traffic and some I've seen on artist's discussion boards have reported good sales results from it, while others have not had that result. That would tell me the sales came from those artists who have images with appeal that are priced appropriately.

THIS JUST IN: Dick Harrison reports he has put up another of his informative podcasts on his www.salestipsforartists.com Web site. This on the subject that vexes nearly every artist, especially emerging artists: How Should I Price My Artwork. As always, Dick in his incredible generosity offers this invaluable information at his best price: free. I've yet to listen to one of his podcasts and not come away better for it.