Artists, designers, illustrators and licensing agencies have already begun to make plans for their involvement in Surtex 2013, the premier art licensing show of the year. According to show management, Surtex will return to the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City from May 19-21, 2013. [More]

I've been publishing interviews and articles about Surtex since the end of May after returning from the show. It has been great learning and fun to get multiple views of the show. I was pleased to host an informative interview with Lance Klass, President of Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing, who has shared with us his views as an art licensing  agent on the Surtex 2012 show, as well as other licensing topics.  How was Surtex 2012 compared to other Surtex shows you did? What was different and exciting for you as an agent? This year's Surtex seemed to be stronger, with more exhibitors and an extremely diverse group of visitors from North American and around the world. Of the 103 companies we met with during three hectic days, perhaps 15% were from outside the United States, often from halfway around the world, all drawn to Surtex to find the latest and most compelling array of artwork available for their products. As always, it was great to reconnect with other agents and artists and especially with licensees whom we hadn't seen for a year. And there were many new faces as well, including licensees who were experiencing their first Surtex. What a pleasure to meet people we're in touch with all year and be able to discuss active and future programs! In this business of art licensing, relationships are often as important as the art you're trying to license, and Surtex is a relationship-building experience. How was the Expo and what was exciting about it for you as an agent? Surtex is far and away the best venue for art licensing. It's in a great location – New York City – still the business hub of America. New York has a high level of energy and that seems to be contagious. In my experience, people who attend the brand licensing show in June in Las Vegas are more relaxed, but people who come to Surtex seem to be ready to do business and that's essential for us. Another exciting factor this year is that we seemed to have had more visitors coming to us from the National Stationery Show next door in the convention center. Thus we were able to extend our reach into cards, stationery, gift wrap and other paper products - definitely a plus. In your view, how's the current economy influencing art licensing and trade shows? I wrote about this extensively in an article that was published in the Surtex edition of The Art Buyer. In its simplest terms, the nascent recovery that began with Christmas 2011 when retail popped up 5.5% nationwide has continued each month since. It indicates that consumers do have more money in their pockets and are ready to spend it on products with artwork that makes them feel better about things. Art is the great anti-depressant, and consumers are tired of the grays and muted colors they were supposed to want (but didn't) after the crash of Christmas 2008. That was just a lot of off-trend baloney that steered so many consumer products companies in the wrong direction.What consumers want is color and more color, images that draw them in, take them away, make them feel better about themselves and about life, art that brightens their day and helps them move forward. If the economy continues its steady growth, we'll have even more demand for compelling artwork and our industry as a whole will benefit along with our licensees, retailers and consumers.   What will you do differently (if anything) for Surtex next year? I’ll try to get more sleep. I might also get another iPad so that two can be in use at one time. I also want to spend as much time next year enjoying New York as I did this year. What a pleasure once the booth was set up the day before the show, to walk from my hotel at 53rd and Seventh up and through the park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on 81st and Fifth. A glorious, perfect evening in the city, enjoying Central Park, ending with hours in one of the best art museums in the world. And of course we ate at wonderful New York restaurants. Who needs Vegas? Any emerging trends of importance to be mentioned? As mentioned above, consumers want color, brightness, beauty and we who license art need to provide it to them. Can you offer any advice to new artists about breaking into the industry? Read the articles on your site, on my blog on The Business of Art Licensing and other sources of good information about what art licensing is and how it works. Connect with agents and artists, network, learn. Find out what potential licensees want and provide it to them. That means not painting for yourself, but rather painting images that will have maximum appeal in the market. What makes for a great collection? Any advice for what kinds of designs to include? A great collection is one that has maximum commercial appeal. Every artist is different in approach, media, and ability. Study the market, be inspired, put it down on paper, canvas or Photoshop. What's on the horizon for your agency? We've expanded our stable of artists to 30 to give us greater diversity of subject matter and style and color, and we're experimenting with styles of art and subject matter that are new to us. We're more open than ever before to taking on very talented new artists whom we think are a good investment. This is a good time to be in art licensing.  Anything else you'd like to add? I want to compliment the staff at Surtex for the way they ran the show. The Jacob Javits Convention Center is undergoing major expansion and one effect of that expansion is that during a rainstorm on the Monday of the show, the roof leaked in our aisle, effectively shutting us down for over an hour. That wasn't the fault of the Surtex staff, but they went the extra mile to get us running again quickly, and after the show to provide recompense to those of us who lost valuable time, contacts and business. These folks are a class act. - - - - - This interview first appeared as a special feature in The Moon From My Attic: An Art Licensing Chronicle.  Thanks are due to artist and blogger Alex Colombo for her fine work on interviewing artists and agents and thereby providing artists with valuable information about art licensing. Lance J. Klass is the President of Porterfield’s Fine Art Licensing at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.  Mr. Klass studied international economics and economic theory at the University of Chicago and the University of California, Davis, and has worked in the field of art licensing since 1985. This article is (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing.

For all the talk these past few years about harnessing the power of social media to promote your business, your products or your art, when it comes down to it, many people don’t know much about social media at all.  Of those who do, many if not most don’t understand how they can use social media to make themselves and their businesses and products better known and in the process, increase their income. Networking Can Work For You! Very briefly, the term “social media” means the use of a group of internet-based social-networking sites that allow fast and easy communication between people. It’s become a hot topic because of the enormous growth of two personal social media sites – Facebook and Twitter – and one site organized primarily for business – LinkedIn. Each of these three sites (and they are just a few of the many communities that have sprouted online) allows you to connect with existing friends, make new friends, and better yet for all of us in the field of art licensing, they allow us to connect with artists, photographers, designers and with key people in companies that thrive on access to compelling art, photography and design.  In other words, artists, licensing agencies, and prospective licensees. Necessarily tied in to these social networking communities are a vast number of internet sites, search engines, bookmarking sites, bulletin boards, blogs and other internet features that encourage communication among like-minded individuals. Your Way to Free Advertising Thus we now have a way to advertise and promote art and art-related products that costs virtually nothing and yet can reach out into an extensive and expansive group of prospective clients, customers, and licensees.  But free advertising is only worthwhile if it’s effective, and a basic knowledge of how to use social media to promote your artwork is essential to making it all work. Use a Basic Portfolio Site as Your Media Destination My own system of utilizing social media to create new licenses for my artists is to have an extensive art portfolio site as the hub to which all promotion via social media is oriented. To give you a real example of such a site, visit Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing. I strongly recommend that every artist who wants to promote his or her work have an art portfolio site online.  There’s no faster, easier or better way for any artist to show their work than to have a site which allows a visitor to see what they have created and to be able to contact the artist or even better, to purchase original work, prints or other products with the art then and there using their credit card or Paypal. Free Templates and the Value of Blogs There are lots of relatively easy ways to develop such sites, and they’re often either free or inexpensive.  Many site providers have a range of templates available at no charge for site development, so you don’t have to learn a whole new language in order to create a lovely site that promotes your artwork. Many artists have also created blogs which they use to discuss what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, show the process they use in creating art, and thereby gain a group of dedicated readers and followers who are essentially highly-qualified prospects for future purchases of their art. I would recommend that you look at starting with Blogger, a wonderful blog creation site made available for free by Google. Once you learn more about blogging, you might want to try one of the other services available; many artists use Wordpress or Typepad and find them easy and effective.  Having a blog allows you to write about and show examples of your art.  They’re wonderful for self-promotion.  Even better, all the blog sites that I’ve come across allow you to update your blog live online, without having to add to it in a complicated program offline and then upload it to the internet.  One of my artists uses his blog to show how he develops a piece of art, from start to finish, in a very effective presentation that takes you through the process of creation of the work. How to Use Facebook for More Free Publicity Once your art portfolio site is established, join Facebook, which has an astonishing 800 million subscribers worldwide.  Most people use Facebook as a way to connect with friends but an increasing number of people are using it to promote their businesses and products.  If you want to focus your usage on business, then create a page on Facebook just for your business and direct people there.  Use either your main personal page or your art business page to interest and involve people in your work, and get in touch with other artists, clients, associates, customers, and potential and active licensees, always directing them to your art portfolio site where they can see all that you currently have available for sale or license. Twitter? LinkedIn? Why Not? Similarly, you’ll want to join Twitter and use that platform to send out small messages directing people to new postings on your Facebook page or your blog, or directly to your site.  It’s easy to search on Twitter for people of similar interests, and it’s remarkable how quickly the number of Twitter followers will grow. Another good source of professional contacts is LinkedIn, which is used by many artists to connect with companies that need compelling artwork for their products. I’ve discovered that each of these five components – main art portfolio site, art business blog, Facebook business page, Twitter, and LinkedIn – tends to support my overall effort to promote the works of my artists and thereby bring in new licenses for their art. Publicizing New Art One of my approaches to using social media for free publicity is to debut a new art collection on my art portfolio site, put an image or two from that collection with a promotional description on Facebook, send out tweets about the new collection to my followers on Twitter and occasionally I’ll even discuss it on my blog or put a notice about it on LinkedIn as well.  I do love free publicity. I’m not alone.  Lots of artists and a ton of companies that depend on compelling new art for their products are now using social media.  For example, Michael R. Woodward, the president of Out of the Blue Licensing, has “found social media to be increasingly important in reaching potential and active licensees for our creative group of artists and photographers,” for his art licensing agency.  “Major corporations use these platforms to increase their business, and I’d strongly recommend that artists expand in social media and also look at using video email marketing to present their work to prospective clients.” Another associate who works in brand and character licensing has focused on using LinkedIn as a way to locate and cultivate potential new licensees around the world.  He regularly invites individuals to connect with him on LinkedIn, goes through their list of contacts for prospects, and also reads the discussions in the many groups that are related to his field, finding even more interesting and potential prospects in the process.  And, of course, other people do the same with him.  And thus social interaction grows, and with it, the viability of our business of art licensing. Social media is a revolution in advertising and promotion, so don’t let it pass you by. - - - -  (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing. A version of this article first appeared and was featured in the Spring 2012 issue of Art Buyer, the British art licensing publication that's distributed worldwide.

    I know this title sounds like a John Grisham mystery, and while runaway licenses do have elements of mystery in them they're anything but fiction. Unfortunately, they do exist, and they can be difficult to deal with, very difficult to control, but not always that difficult to extricate oneself from with some persistence. Here's What It Is     A "runaway license", very simply, is a license that has somehow spun out of control.    The basic premise of a license is simple: the owner or representative of the owner of art grants a manufacturer or publisher the freedom (license) to use his or her art on commercial products.     There are all kinds of art licenses, probably as many as there are lawyers who can write them. They can be easy to read or painful to read. Some are so dense that even attorneys and licensing agents have a hard time getting through them. Others are so simple, so skimpy, that they leave out a lot of important provisions that should always be in every art license.     Some of the basic provisions that should be in every license include the length of time that the license will run and the rights of the parties to the license.     A license should state, either in itself or in an addendum attached to it, which pieces of art are to be used, and on what types of products.     The license should allow one party to terminate it if the other party breaks it by violating any of its important terms. And there should be simple ways in which an artist can determine whether the licensee (the company that has licensed the art from the artist) is following the terms of the license. It's all very simple, or at least it should be.     But if it's that simple, how can a license go out of control? There are several ways this can happen, and they can all lead to unwanted, and occasionally nasty, results. A Doleful Tale     I recall hearing from an artist a few years ago about one such license. She came to me for help and she told me a doleful tale. You see, she had started a business relationship with a really nice fellow a few years before.     If I recall the details correctly, the fellow produced and sold home decor products like trays, mugs, coasters, that sort of thing. He had a small company and everyone in it seemed very nice - at first. Perhaps most importantly to the artist, they all seemed to love her art. So she signed an agreement, or license, with them that allowed them to use her art on several different types of products.     The company liked her art so much that they decided on their own to expand their use of her art to other products that weren't listed in the agreement. She didn't find out about that until a friend told her she'd seen them in a store.     Before long, the company was devoting several pages of its catalog to a whole range of products with her art. The products were lovely, or at least they looked pretty good in the catalog. So what was the problem?     Well, as she explained it, they had never gotten her permission to use her art on all these products. She didn't know what they were doing, she wasn't sure what the products really looked like as she'd never received any samples, and she didn't know what they'd do next.     Wasn't she being paid well for all this usage, I asked? She replied that she had called them several times about royalties but could never seem to get through to the right person.     She did receive some money at the beginning of the relationship, about a thousand dollars, and she was very happy with that payment, but that was two years ago and she hadn't received anything since. Yet more and more products were being created and sold, with her art.     Well, I asked, did the agreement have some sort of termination date, or length of time that the license would run, or perhaps a statement about what she could do if they violated the terms of the agreement? She wasn't sure if it did or not but she assured me that it was a brief, straightforward license.     Where was it, I asked? Could she send it to me, or read me a bit of it, or answer some specific questions about it? It's always helpful to know what you've signed your name to! Well, she wasn't quite sure where it was; it was with her papers somewhere and she hadn't seen it for awhile, but no matter, she was sure that the company had the best of intentions.     She just wasn't sure what they were doing with her art, and she would like to get some money from the company. It would also be nice to get a sample or two of the products that they had made with her art on them. Could I help her? Ouch!     That was back when I did consulting work on an occasional basis, time permitting, but this was such a mess that she didn't need an agent to sort it out.     What she really needed was a good copyright attorney.     She was dealing with a runaway license and didn't know it. Worse, although she had an idea that something wasn't quite the way it was supposed to be, she had so little certainty in the process of licensing that she lacked the confidence to call them up and demand accountability. She felt, as they say, "used, abused, and refused." What had she done wrong?     Without seeing the license it was hard for me to know exactly, but several errors were obvious. First, she had apparently not understood the license that she had signed at the beginning of the relationship.     Perhaps she had gone ahead on verbal assurances from these very nice people and never bothered to read it. Or perhaps it was just too difficult to read. Then once it was signed, instead of putting it in a safety deposit box or some other safe location, she put it somewhere else and then forgot where it was so she couldn't refer back to it.     She wasn't familiar with the process of licensing so she didn't know what her rights were, or weren't. She didn't know what to expect. Was it normal that companies could do what they wanted with art, or was this unusual, she asked?     And while it gave her a good deal of pleasure to know that her art was being used on so many pretty products and that so many people appreciated it, as time wore on she felt that she had been forgotten, and even though her irritation increased, she lacked the willingness to face a confrontation with them. What if she were wrong?     She was embarrassed to ask questions or to be too persistent. What if she appeared stupid or unprofessional? What if they decided she was a problem and didn't want to use her art anymore? Then that might hurt her career or get her into trouble or even worse, she might wind up in court.     She couldn't tell, she didn't know, she was confused, so she was immobilized.     Then the story got even worse. She told me that she had heard that the company that used her art was being sold. She didn't know if her art was going to be used by the new owners, perhaps under a new or different company name. Would they put her art on other products? Would she lose her ownership of her art entirely? Again, she just didn't know and she was afraid to ask. Been There, Done That     What a mess! But I've heard similar stories from other artists, and I've had a few runaway licenses myself. One was with a small company whose owner was always "in the warehouse," "out for the day", "in a meeting", "at a show" - anywhere but near a phone where I could speak with her.     Imagine our surprise when the artist and I discovered that our licensee was reproducing dozens of pieces of art for her product labels, without even telling us much less asking for our prior approval.     Samples? Royalty checks? Royalty reports? Straightforward communication? Forget it! This lady was out of control, her company seemed out of control, her record-keeping was apparently nonexistent or abysmal. We had a runaway license on our hands.     In another recent instance with a much larger company, I discovered to my dismay that the company had gone ahead and put my artist's work on unauthorized products which were in direct competition with the products of a brand new licensee. They had acted as though they - and not the artist - controlled the use of the art, and they had done whatever they wanted with it.     In the meanwhile I had assured the new licensee in good faith that there were no products in existence or under license with any other company that would directly compete with his. Then I found out that I had been blindsided by a runaway license.     If I hadn't handled it smoothly, if my new licensee hadn't been so understanding, he could have brought me to court for negotiating in bad faith or for fraudulent representations. Needless to say, this wasn't a situation I enjoyed being in. I was upset, my artist was upset, the company that had run away with my artist's work and overextended themselves, taking orders for unauthorized products that put us in a major conflict between licensees, was upset and it all could have ended very badly. But this time I was lucky. What Did I Do Wrong?     Just like the artist who didn't follow up closely enough with those ever-so-nice people who loved her art, I didn't follow up closely enough with this one licensee.     I had cut them some slack because it was a financially successful license. I had no idea that they were considering producing products that might conflict with the new license that I was negotiating.     I "assumed" that the licensee would come to me for approval of new product categories, were that to be the case. After all, that's a key provision of our license with them. But I was blindsided when the license went runaway, and by that time it was all damage control. As they say, "assumption is the mother of all screw-up's."     Years ago I had a boss who told me sternly never to do anything out of desperation. I must admit that when a good deal of income is on the table, a sense of desperation can enter the picture. I want and need the income, my artist wants and needs the income, we all want and need the income. The more income that's in the balance, the more the sense of desperation. And it's always so much easier, it seems, to avoid confrontation, to go along, to be passive, to go on hoping that things will work out as they continue to spiral downwards.     Believe me, when you have to start thinking and acting like that, I assure you that "things" probably won't work out.  And when they don't work out, it may be time to bail out. - - - -  (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing.

This Interview with Lance Klass, President of Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing, was conducted by Alex Colombo and published in his The Moon From My Attic art blog: I've been working on my first licensing collection. So far I managed to not throw away anything...however, some concepts didn't work that well after I placed them on mock-ups or templates of real products. Creating art for licensing is actually a different type of design work and I am starting to adjust my ideas to fit. It's a learning process like any other design field I have done professionally. For another, more experienced view on this challenge of creating art for effective licensing we can read up this very informative interview with Lance J. Klass, the founder and president of Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing. And although it's not even close to Christmas yet, I want to also share a licensed image by Porterfield's artist Janet Stever. © Janet Stever The Moon from My Attic: How long have you been doing art licensing?  I’ve been licensing artwork since 1985. I established Porterfield’s in 1994 as a collectibles company, with a smaller emphasis on art licensing. As the limited-edition collectibles industry went into decline, we focused increasingly on building a solid ‘stable’ of artists oriented toward the creation of art that could be licensed onto a very wide variety of commercial, retail products here and abroad. TMFMA: What would you say is/are the exciting factor/s in art licensing? The purpose of our company is to provide manufacturers and producers of retail products with artwork that will increase their sales. When we’re able to do that, it’s very exciting. Personally, I get excited when I come upon an artist whose work has great potential, or when an existing Porterfield’s artist sends in artwork that’s beautiful, compelling, and on-market. I love it when a brand-new licensee comes in the door, when we’re able to license artwork to a really good company, when we’re successful at retail and especially when that’s reflected in high quarterly royalties.  And I love it when we receive samples of beautiful products which carry artwork licensed from Porterfield’s artists, and when I hear from those artists that they’re really happy with those products. It can be extremely gratifying for an artist to have his or her work reproduced on excellent-quality products, to see these products in stores and to hear from friends that they saw the products and loved them.  What could be better for a creative person than to have a very positive impact with their work? TMFMA: What's your view of art licensing exhibits such as Surtex?  I think Surtex is terrific, and I’ve written an article on just how terrific I think it is, and why I have that viewpoint, on my blog at http://www.art-licensing.biz.  For my money, there’s no other show in or around our field of art licensing that comes close to having the exposure, impact, viability and return on investment provided by Surtex. TMFMA: Do you advise new artists to exhibit at Surtex or other art licensing shows to start off their career? And how many shows should they be part of to begin with? I wouldn’t waste a nickel on other shows, at least not if you’re starting out.  If you’re very successful monetarily and have established yourself as a brand, then yes, try some of the other shows.  But if you’re not at or near the top of the market, then Surtex is the place to be.  As with any show, you want to visit it and walk it thoroughly before investing in exhibiting. So the first step would be to go to Surtex, speak to artists, licensors, agents, licensees, and learn as much as you can. TMFMA: Please give us your analysis of Surtex 2011 and its market. Surtex 2011 was a powerful and extremely successful show.  After all, it’s the largest art licensing show in the world. This year the number of exhibitors increased 23% over last year, and about 6,000 people attended.  That’s six thousand qualified visitors, among them creative, marketing and/or licensing directors and staff at companies that must bring in compelling new artwork for their products.  You can’t ask for more from a licensing show. TMFMA: At Surtex an artist can both sell and seek art license opportunities. How does one decide what to sell and what to license? It all depends on what you do, on your orientation as an artist and/or company.  If you create surface textile patterns or repeat designs for fabric, rugs, quilting and bolt fabrics and are prepared to sell your art outright, then you should be in that part of the show that focuses on SURface TEXtiles.  You’ll show your work to companies that buy designs outright, along with total copyright rights.  If you sell designs outright, you should also check out PrintSource, a show that’s designed specifically for artists, designers, and design studios that sell concept patterns outright to individuals primarily in the fabric and apparel industries. If, however, you don’t want to sell all rights to your images and want to be able to license designs again and again, then you belong in the extensive art licensing section of the show.  That’s where I and my associates in the art licensing industry show the works of our artists. TMFMA: In your view, what was of major interest to manufacturers this year? What were they looking for?   Bright, bold, uplifting, colorful, enchanting, inspirational and/or compelling artwork that will immediately catch the eye of a consumer who is a bit more reluctant to spend money because of financial uncertainty.  I was discussing with associates just the other day how art – really good art – is the best antidepressant. Good commercial art will not only sell products, it will do so by conveying a sense of beauty, calm, pleasure or escape to the viewer who feels a bit better just looking at the artwork and wants to bring that art, and the product it’s on, into their lives. TMFMA: Based on your Surtex experience this year and your knowledge of art licensing, what do you think the main trends are for 2011-2012? I try to avoid guessing at trends.  I much prefer studying the market, talking with licensees, seeing what’s selling and what licensees are looking for.  They’re the ones who guess for their companies, and I try to provide them with what they’re seeking. Actual physical data beats trend forecasting every time. TMFMA: What advice would you give other artists that are considering the art licensing field and that want to exhibit in a show like Surtex? Be as good an artist as you can. Study the market. Go into every large mall in your area as well as every big-box store, and look at every type of product that carries art. Study and learn. See what works. Look at composition, subject matter, color, saturation, format. Don’t paint for yourself, paint for women over 30 who purchase 85% of the consumer goods in America, buying products for their spouses, their children, their homes and themselves.  Then develop an extensive portfolio of such works. A few of this and a few of that won’t get you anywhere. Learn from experience what works, and then do lots more of it. Learn Photoshop, if only because you’ll need to manipulate digital files of your art. If you’re interested in painting dry on Photoshop, study it and work hard at it.  If you paint wet, develop your photography skills or else find a good, inexpensive photographer to shoot your work.  Or if you paint small, learn to scan your own images.  You may even want to finish them digitally.  My feeling is that if Leonardo were alive today, he not only would be working on Photoshop, he probably would have invented it. TMFMA: Any other useful info that you'd like to share about art licensing and Surtex? Don’t expect to make a whole lot of money the first year and a half, simply because most companies license artwork way in advance of product release dates. Because of the sampling, marketing, production, shipping and billing cycles, expect royalties from your licenses to begin either 13 or 16 months out from initial date of license.  But if you work hard, study the market, paint for the target consumer, cultivate licensees and work harder and smarter, you’ll do well given time. Read my blog on The Business of Art Licensing and the articles that I’ve posted on our main Porterfield’s site as well as the blogs of other artists and agents. Learn as much as you can. Oh, and be sure to register your copyrighted work with the U.S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress for that extra level of protection. - - - -  (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing.

Quite a Show! Surtex 2011 is over.  277 companies and individual artists participated in the show and in the process exhibited the works of over a thousand artists for viewing by almost 6,000 visitors representing manufacturers, retailers and developers of products destined for retail sale in every level of retail outlet from high end to low. This year’s edition of Surtex had 23% more exhibitors than last year, and Surtex is projecting the total number of exhibitors in next year’s show, which is scheduled for May 20-22, 2012, to rise to 325 exhibitors. Surtex is the heart of the art licensing industry and is the largest art licensing show not only in North America but the world.  While there are other licensing shows, they generally focus on brands, movies, music, characters, personalities, television and cartoons.  There are also some very small art licensing adjuncts to major gift and craft  shows.  A Unique Venue for Artists Only Surtex focuses like a huge rainbow-colored laser beam on art.  Its uniqueness makes it a powerful venue for artists, and the licensing agencies that represent them, to show their work to an extremely-diverse international array of potential licensees. The show occupies the same main floor of the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City as the National Stationery Show (NSS), and there’s considerable interaction, as you might imagine, between the exhibitors in both shows. Extra Synergy When Teamed with the National Stationery Show Surtex exhibitors and visitors wander through the aisles of the NSS looking for new trends, new licensees  and new art directions, and in return, NSS exhibitors and visitors come to Surtex to locate new sources of compelling artwork for their products, meet with existing artists and licensors, and check up on the latest directions in commercial art.  It’s a symbiosis made not in heaven, but in the minds of clever show sponsors who put those with strong, compelling art together with those who need that art if they wish to grow their companies.  This creates a strong synergy that can be exhilarating and extremely productive. The Single Best Place To Be With the Licensing show in Las Vegas re-branding itself as the Brand Licensing Show for 2012, that makes it clear to everyone that if you want a single show that gives you the most exposure to American and international licensees, Surtex is the place to be. Be sure to connect with Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing at Surtex 2012! This year's show will be bigger and better than ever! - - - - - (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This posting may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this posting, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.  Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well, and check our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing.

About a year ago, AdaPia d'Errico created a blog on Tumblr, the free and easy-to-use blog site, to promote the artistic works of her sister, Camilla, a talented Canadian artist, illustrator and cartoonist.  As the blog developed, AdaPia began to diverge from solely promoting the art of her sister and of other bold and creative artists, to writing insightful and intelligent pieces on the business of art licensing.  I came across AdaPia's work recently when I began a Tumblr blog oriented toward promoting art and artists. A search on "art licensing" brought her to my attention, and as I read through her postings on the how's and why's and how-to's of art licensing, I became increasingly impressed by this young lady's perception and insight into the great game of art licensing in which many of us find ourselves. In her own words, AdaPia is a "foodie, wine and chocolate connoisseur, fashion fiend, traveller. I help artists and creatives get into the 'brand mindset' to successfully promote and brand themselves, their art and their characters. "I am the behind-the-scenes source of all things 'Camilla d'Errico.'  My life is shaped by what and who I encounter, and my journey is an endless adventure of growth and exploration." Important Advice for Artists Recent articles on her site have included advice on social media sites and setting your strategy, how to design an artist's portfolio website, overcoming shyness in networking, how to identify and use social assets to promote your work, partnering with and promoting your licensees, and a host of others relevant topics for artists on the business of art licensing. In-between these articles are postings on the artistic creations of her sister Camilla, and links and other postings relating to artwork that she personally likes and admires.  It's all good, and definitely worth a visit. - - - -  (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing.

Cutting back on the use of creative, inspirational and compelling artwork is not an effective strategy for manufacturers during an economic downturn. [More]

Guest blogger and noted licensing professional Linda Mariano gives her Top 10 Checklist for how to get moving in art licensing. [More]

If you're planning to exhibit at Surtex or the National Stationery Show for the very first time, the tips in this posting may help make the experience easier, less expensive and more effective. [More]

An artist was shown a calendar that had been put together by individuals at a local church. It contained works of art from a variety of artists, with no attribution of authorship of the works or copyright notifications. Such a discovery raises the question of what one should do when confronted with obvious copyright infringement. What would you do if you found your artwork copied without your permission by someone on the internet or on retail products? Here are some suggestions. [More]

More often than not, when you're ignored or rejected by a possible licensee, it isn't about you and it's isn't your art. There are other factors at play. Read on... [More]

An increasing number of companies are purchasing their product lines "off the shelves" at special shows in Hong Kong and Shanghai, and then bringing those products over here to sell to retailers. They're not only out-sourcing product development, they're out-sourcing art development as well, and it doesn't make good sense to do that. This article tells you why. [More]

Janet Stever's charming "Snuggle in the Snow" image got total placement on the cover of Carson Industries' 2011 Fall/Holiday catalog for flags, mailbox wraps, floor mats and related seasonal products.  Click on the title to this posting to see the image. Can't do better than the cover.  Congratulations Janet! - - - -  (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing.

Smart Retailer Magazine is worthwhile following for anyone who is interested in licensing their artwork. [More]

Art licensing contracts come all sizes, shapes, formats and wording. Some have lots of fancy legal terms, while others may be poorly written or just too short to cover everything that should be covered in order to protect you and your rights.

Here's a checklist of 10 essential points that must be covered in each and every licensing agreement. There's more, of course, but these 10 points are the basics, so be sure to look for them in every contract you're asked to sign
[More]

Artists want to know how to get their foot in the door at companies that used licensed art. There are several good ways to do so and to find the right people with whom you can begin long-lasting, pleasant and mutually-beneficial relationships. [More]

A good art licensing contract can form the basis for a long and successful relationship, so don’t overlook the paperwork on the road to what you hope will be success in licensing your art. [More]

Now that we're rebounding from what's been called the worst economic recession since the Great Depression, companies that are smart enough to bring in bright, charming, compelling new artwork for their products are leading the way in retail. Here's my viewpoint on how art licensing has been turning around, and how we can all benefit. [More]

Don't slow down load times for your site because your file sizes are just too large to load quickly. Here's how to make them the right size. [More]