Forty-Four Links About Forty-Four Things

200 Best Illustrators 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Thu, 19 May 2011 16:50:00 +0000

Congratulations to illustrator Carlos Araujo who is once again featured in Lürzer's Archive 200 Best Illustrators.

The latest edition boasts an excellent mix of familiar names and new talents. Carlos is 1 of just 71 illustrators featured in the previous issues that managed to keep their place in the current 200 Best of, and they are joined by 129 new artists. Selection was made from 1,139 illustrators with 6,075 submissions received from 69 countries.

Do not simply be content with any kind of illustration. 200 Best Illustrators is the perfect
tool for those wishing to turn their advertising into little works of art.

Be sure to hit us up on our Facebook page for your chance to win one of four free copies!

Rescuing Lost Photographs

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:33:00 +0000

Screenshot Courtesy of "How to Geek".

How to Geek has a great article about recovering data -specifically photographs, off a damaged or formatted hard drive by booting from an Ubuntu Live CD and using a variety of open source tools to repair directories and recover the images:

There are lots of utilities to recover deleted files, but what if you can’t boot up your computer, or the whole drive has been formatted? We’ll show you some tools that will dig deep and recover the most elusive deleted files, or even whole hard drive partitions.

Continue Reading, "Recover Data Like a Forensics Expert Using an Ubuntu Live CD"...

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Irene Pena featured on FoundFolios

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 18:07:00 +0000

Photography from the series, "Desde el Pie" by Irene Pena.

Photographer Irene Pena is currently featured on FoundFolios.com.

FoundFolios.com (a division of Adbase) is reinventing the creative directory to bring you an easier, more powerful way to find and work with today's top talent.

Check out Irene's fashion and lifestyle portfolios, or search the site to connect with
hundreds of other photographers and illustrators by location or specialty.

Carlos Araujo Profiled on Communication Arts

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:34:00 +0000

Illustration by Carlos Araujo

Illustrator Carlos Araujo profiled in Communication Arts, "Fresh"!

"In 2008, after years working as a graphic designer, I decided to focus my career on illustration. Since then, wonderful things have happened..."

Congratulations, Carlos! Read More...

Giving It Away for Profit

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Sun, 31 Oct 2010 23:02:00 +0000

Cory Doctorow photo by Paula Mariel Salischiker

Science fiction author and Boing Boing editor Cory Doctorow was interviewed recently on
NPR's All Tech Considered. Doctorow discusses his use of Creative Commons licensing and lays out his plans for self publishing profits based on a business model that includes the word, "free". While Doctorow is an author, several visual artists have used similar methods to promote and sell their works by having the right mix of free downloads, print on demand from outlets like blurb or lulu, and limited edition (read expensive) customized books.

"In other words, Doctorow is giving away free e-books in hopes of getting people buy the paper books; he's offering print-on-demand paper books with four different covers through Lulu.com; he's soliciting donations; and he's printing 250 hand-sewn limited-edition hardcovers that will run $275 each."

Doctorow also touches on some of the concepts laid out in 1000 True Fans, and
The Full Monty Marketing Mix.

Listen to the full interview here, or read a brief excerpt on NPR.org...

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Raechel Running Scores Honorable Mention

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Thu, 21 Oct 2010 20:04:00 +0000

Photographer Raechel Running scored an Honorable Mention at this year's Santa Fe Photographic Workshop with her photo titled, "Mennonite Sisters, Chihuahua, Mexico".

The winners of FAMILY have been chosen and are proudly presented below. Judges Tony Bannon, Julie Blackmon, Brenna Britton, and Reid Callanan have honored 50 photographers for their poignant, heartfelt, humorous, and intimate views of family. From Australia to Venezuela, images came from 25 countries, and our contest inspired 702 photographers to enter 2544 images. Enjoy these 50 award-winning interpretations of FAMILY.

See all the winners...

Tracking Stolen Laptops and Phones

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 01:58:00 +0000

Prey is program that you install on your phone or laptop, and should the device ever get lost or stolen, you can remote trigger a number of actions to protect your data, and hopefully, recover your property. From the Prey Project:

Basically you install a tiny agent in your PC or phone, which silently waits for a remote signal to wake up and work its magic.
This signal is sent either from the Internet or through an SMS message, and allows you to gather information regarding the device's location, hardware and network status, and optionally trigger specific actions on it

Some of those actions include taking pictures of the thief, sending location information, taking screenshots and password protecting the computer. A lot like Apple's Find my Phone feature except it works on Android based devices, and laptops running Windows, Mac OS, and Ubuntu.
Free and open source.

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Promoting Yourself To Dream Clients

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 00:06:00 +0000

Our friend Speider Schneider is back with another great article on Smashing Magazine, this one titled, "Breaking Down Doors: Promoting Yourself To Dream Clients":

There’s a saying that the School of Visual Arts in New York City once used in its ads: “To be good is not enough when you dream of being great.” We all have dream clients that we would like to add to our portfolio, but either we don’t know how to reach them or have no idea how to even start. Promotion is not a big subject at art school, and I know way too many creatives who stare at the phone and wonder why it’s not ringing.

Continue Reading... There's even a bit in there about how Store 44 Reps uses Google Adwords for our regional advertising. All in all, a good read for freelancers.

The Smashing Book is available on Amazon.com

Raechel Running Interview

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 07:07:00 +0000

Viva La Vida: SIGN OF THE TIMES on the Borderlands: Sueños de Aztlan; A visual odyssey With Raechel Running.

Walking the borderline between Arizona and Mexico Raechel Running looked down the long. ominous fence as the sun was setting. She and Gil Gillenwater, founder of Rancho Feliz, a bi-national organization, were catching the last golden light of the day. Read more...

New Illustrations from Palmer Saylor

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 01:53:00 +0000

New pencil and painterly illustrations from Palmer Saylor.

Brian Belefant Interview on PDN

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 17:57:00 +0000

Photographer Brian Belefant was interviewed recently by PDN Magazine. In it, he discusses his reaction to judging the Western Region of the Student Academy Awards, and his popular new blog, The 60 Second Director.

Introducing Raechel Running

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:11:00 +0000

Store 44 Reps is proud to welcome photographer Raechel Running. Splitting time between her native Flagstaff, Arizona, and Chihuahua, Mexico, Running documents life along the border. With a background steeped in southwestern cultures, her work draws attention to the issues facing us today, including conservation, immigration, and tourism.

New Images from Carlos Araujo

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Sat, 01 May 2010 00:22:00 +0000

New illustrations abound from Carlos Araujo. If you're a fan of Carlos' work, you can also follow him on Flickr and Twitter.

Lavar Munroe Interview: The Spirit of Haiti

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 20:44:00 +0000

Illustrator Lavar Munroe was interviewed recently by the Savannah Morning News about "Yes We Can", a series of mixed media work devoted to larger, deeper explorations of Haitian culture and faith in the wake of the natural disaster. Read more...

Operation Design by Committee

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 03:37:00 +0000

Friend of Forty-Four, Kaboom Schneider, sent us this funny piece he penned about the perils of Design by Committee. He writes,

"I needed my appendix removed so while being wheeled into surgery, I told the doctor I only budgeted $200 for the operation but if I liked his work, I had other organs he could remove down the line at a higher fee." Read more...

New Images from Lavar Munroe

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 01:39:00 +0000

Enjoy these new paintings and designs from Lavar Munroe. Update includes personal work, designs for a local animal hospital, and Haiti Relief.

The Full Monty Marketing Mix

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:56:00 +0000

Selina Maitreya is back for another interview, this one from The Photoshelter Blog. She says,

"Photographers have asked me for years for the magic formula for success in business. I've said there was none. I was wrong. When I look closely at the steps taken by photographers who have achieved successes, I see a different variation of the same process; I call the formula, THE MIX."

Read on for more... Learn the benefits of leveraging all the promotional assets available to us in this modern age of Twitter and Facebook. I couldn't agree more!
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The Story Behind the iPad Wallpaper

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:54:00 +0000

The Unofficial Apple Weblog has an interesting post about the photograph used on the iPad home screen. They talk to photographer Richard Misrach about the process. Interesting to note this was his first "commercial" sale.

Article via TUAW.

Finding and Working with a Rep

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:41:00 +0000

I'm often asked by artists and students about how to find and work with an Artist Representative. I have assembled this post in an attempt to link to some relevant articles on the subject, and I will update it as I find new info on the web.

UPDATE 3/5/10

Photographer Raechel Running pointed us to this Q&A with photography consultants Amanda Sosa Stone and Suzanne Sease on APhotoEditor.com. Does a photographer need a rep and do they really get you work? Read on...

APhotoEditor.com also has a nice list of Photography Reps.

UPDATE 12/30/08:

Here are a couple of articles from the photographer's perspective for artists interested in getting a rep:

Getting an Agent on Avisualsociety.com.
Photographer Nick Onken discusses his process of getting a rep.

UPDATE 6/10/08:

I found this list of Visual Artist Representatives in our website referral list. It has a number of agencies geared towards the professional commercial artist.

Industry sites like AltPick, WorkBook, and Directory of Illustration have listings of artist reps available. The Alternative Pick has great interviews with Reps from around the world that shed some light onto how they think. Store 44 Reps was interviewed in 2005. Do you research, and see what is a good fit for you.

Selina Oppenheim Maitreya wrote a great piece, titled How to Find and Work with a Rep. I couldn't find the original article on her site, so link goes to cached version at Internet Archive. This article was last updated in 2000, so keep that in mind where prices are quoted. Selina is a portfolio consultant, and her book How to Succeed in Commercial Photography: Insights from a Leading Consultant is available on Amazon.

Joshua Kaufman, Lawyer and member of the Art Copyright Coalition, wrote an article that dismisses the analogy of an artist-rep relationship being like a marriage, and raises another point that can never be said enough: "Any artist who does not look after their careers in a business like manner, will eventually run into a great deal of difficulty and more often than not, fail as a professional artist."

For photographers, look to your local APA or ASMP Chapter. Required reading for photographers is the ASMP Professional Business Practices in Photography, which contains a sample Artist-Agent contract and additional information on working with a Rep.

For illustrators, Art Talk over at the iSpot has a couple of good threads on finding and working with a Rep. For further reading, pick up a copy of the Graphic Artist's Guild Pricing and Ethical Guidelines, which has a sample Rep contract, as well as more info on the subject.

Serious artists should also look to Tad Crawford, who has a cornucopia of books on legal forms for commercial and fine artists.

There is another facet to finding and working with a rep that I should mention, which is Portfolio Consultation. You can expect to pay a rep or portfolio consultant anywhere from 200 to 5,000+ dollars for this service, with varying degrees of intensity. Not every artist needs a full-service rep, sometimes a portfolio and/or marketing plan tweak can make all the difference. In this relationship, the rep/consultant is hired by the artist for a brief time to review the portfolio, recommend changes, new strategies, discuss market opportunities, etc. etc. 1 Port Authority, Shannon Associates, Chatterbox, and Bobbie Wendt come to mind. There are many other similar services, so do your research and make sure you're getting what you want. Store 44 Reps offers this service with an emphasis on portfolio creation and revision.

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iTunes Offering Print Magazines

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:40:00 +0000

Update: Four years after first posting about the prospect of magazines in iTunes, Condé Naste has announced its magazine lineup for the forthcoming iPad. Check out a video of the future of Wired Magazine.

Originally Posted 08 June 2006

As reported on TUAW, iTunes is now offering downloadable PDFs of magazines. First up is The Fader. It's good to see traditional print media find a new outlet. Links and discussion at TUAW.

Birthday Celebrations

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:45:00 +0000

Separated by 380 years, this week marks the birthdays of the original bad boy artist, Caravaggio, who among other things is credited with using an early form of photography in his groundbreaking work into Chiaroscuro, and the venerable Adobe® Photoshop® application, also capable of a little chiaroscuro, turns 20 years young. Lifehacker is celebrating with a list of favorite Photoshop tricks and tips.

Magnum Photos Sold to Michael Dell

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Magnum Photos announced the sale of its seminal photojournalism archives to Michael Dell (of Dell Computers) for $100 Million US (as reported on the NPR Pictureshow Blog and the NY Times)

Irene Pena featured on Production Paradise

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 02:55:00 +0000

Fashion photographer Irene Pena was featured this month in the Production Paradise Lifestyle Spotlight. Golf, yoga, and other lifestyle images here, and her signature fashion images here.

Production Paradise also launched a mobile version of their site, where you can search photographers, reps, and production facilities from around the world. Point your mobile browser to: iphone.productionparadise.com

Irene Pena's Afterparty on ArtStudio Mag

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 18:25:00 +0000

Irene Pena's collaboration with Spanish stylist Mariano Puente is on San José's ArtStudio Magazine. The essay features some additional outtakes from the shoot.

Click here for a bizzaro computer-generated English translation of the article.

Fashion Lifestyle Photography by Irene Pena

noreply@blogger.com (Store 44 Reps) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 16:49:00 +0000

From photographer Irene Peña and Spanish stylist Mariano Puente comes this latest series, "Afterparty!": A photographic essay showcasing the work of several Costarican fashion and jewelry designers. The series mixes Irene's traditional film style with her latest digital work.