6 “in your face” Tips on Licensing Your Art

06 Aug 6 “in your face” Tips on Licensing Your Art

Licensing is a clever way to get paid for the same piece of art over and over again. This means, you paint it once and it continues to make money for you, even after you’re dead!

PERSONAL EXAMPLE: About 80% of our income comes from licensing Drew’s art. (See Sigg Bottle to your left). The image on the bottle titled “PURE JOY” was painted in 1998 and the original was sold to a collector from LA at an exhibit at The Surf Gallery in 98′. I think we sold that painting for about $500, but we’ve licensed the image for so many different products over the years, it’s earned us approximately $450,000 to date, and continues to be a popular, iconic image.

So, what do you need to do license your art? Click on the “more” link for our 6 tips:

6 TIPS ON LICENSING YOUR ART:

1.) GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR @&*! and make a REAL committment: because to be successful, you have to be 100% committed. It’s hard work. It’s not a walk in the park. It may take 10-20 years of developing yourself AS A BRAND to see the big time money. You can’t be one of those lazy artists that only does what he feels like doing when he feels like doing it. No excuses, no complaints, no whines. Make the committment!

2.) Learn everything you can about licensing: A committed artist will attend the Licensing International Expo, join LIMA, take the Licensing University courses, and read every book and blog you can find on licensing. I recommend Licensing Art and Design: A Professional’s Guide to Licensing and Royalty Agreements as a great start.

3.) Develop your art and yourself as a Brand: You are your brand, and so is your art. Have your own distinct style, one that is easliy recognized. People have to like you to want to buy your products – so be cool.

4.) Get an attorney that specializes in Licensing: This is so important. You’ll need an attorney to put together your licensing contracts. You can get one contract that is generally used for most deals. We do that. But please, don’t use your uncle Bob who’s a general attorney. It’s like going to a General Practitioner for a boob job. They’ll screw things up. You can find licensing attorneys at the licensing trade shows, through LIMA, etc.

5.) Always retain the (c) to your art: and have complete control over what anyone does with it. You’ll have a duty to your licensees (the companies that license your art) to not let some of your art get bastardized by someone else. The only way to ensure complete control is to ALWAYS retain the (c) to EVERYTHING, even those pieces of art that you think are not important. Trust me on this one.

6.) Strategize and plan your direction. Where do you want to have your products sold? Do you want high end items or to sell to the masses. Plan this out. And go back to tip #1……….

I have so much more to write about on this topic!

If tip #1 didn’t scare you off, please feel free to write comments and ask questions!

I want to see you succeed…..

Faithfully yours, Maria Brophy

This article (c) 2008 Maria Brophy