Art Print Issues by Barney Davey

What is a Giclée? Summer Repost

2009-07-07T01:03:20-07:00

Ed. note: I'm taking some time off for vacation. It's a good time to repost some of the most popular articles from the past. Here's one from April 2007 that gots lots of comments. Read it and you'll see why.

It can be a humorous adventure to go on Web sites where digital reproduction are sold under the Giclée moniker and read the vain attempts to explain: what the word means; its genesis; how to pronounce it; or to accurately describe the process of creating digital reproductions.

Poor desciptions and explanations are a detriment to true acceptance

The reality for the art industry is it really isn't a laughing matter. There literally must be thousands of poorly informed and worse written descriptions floating around cyberspace these days. Many with futile attempts to inform collectors and surfers what the heck is a giclée. The term has become as nondescript and amorphous as the word "print." The more the word and its description gets mucked up, the more confusing the term becomes to the public and the less ability it has to be a powerful valuable descriptor.

The information to learn about the word and its genesis is easily available

There isn't enough space here to go into the history and meaning of the word. However, I do commend to you the following information and strongly suggest any who are truly interested in understanding what a digital print or giclée is to spend time with these links. They provide the best most accurate detailed history I've seen. It is from Harald Johnson, author of Mastering Digital Printing (Digital Process and Print). Johnson generously offers these excerpts on his Web site pulled from the above-mentioned book: What's in a Name: The True Story of "Giclée" and Digital, Fine Art Printing Comes of Age.

If there is a soapbox here, it comes from the frustration some artists and printers have with the loose use of giclée to represent digital fine art reproductions. When a term can be used to describe a homemade print coming off an Epson desktop printer based a low resolution digital photograph or worse, an image scanned from a garden variety photograph and also a meticulously produced digital print that might have taken hours just to setup the image capture and more hours to thoroughly manipulate the RIP software and printer calibrations to produce a masterful faithful reproduction on fine art paper or canvas, then the industry has a problem.

It's only taken a short time to marginalize the term

In a nutshell, the term "giclée" has become nearly as generic as Kleenex. Did you know that the words aspirin, thermos and fridge all started as a trademarked name and look at them now. Giclée itself has never been trademarked. But there are many companies now trying to incorporate it into a trademark, Tru Giclée, UltraGiclée and a handful of others are being bandied about as companies such as Epson attempt to get their brand into the process. News flash, these marketing maneuvers are not going to help the industry as a whole; collectors are never going to clamor for an UltraGiclee or any other trademarked process. They will continue to trust dealers and gallerists to guide them to purchases based on their interest in the artist and the art.

Another debate regarding digital printing is there are those who think it is bad for business for companies such as Epson and H-P to be exhibiting at shows such as ArtExpo. They believe it confounds the pubic, confuses artists and does nothing to elevate the process. Remember, the whole reason giclée got into the vernacular was an attempt to move away from techie terms like computer generated digital print. That sounds like something you can make at home whereas giclée has that hoity-toity je ne sais quoi quality to it.

Does the term serve your needs today?

I don't blame anyone for using the term giclée, but I also don't blame those artists and printers who are moving away from it either now that it has come full circle and no longer has the cachet of something special. To be honest, seeing pixellated digital prints from well known highly publicized artists at ArtExpo adds yet more negativity and cynicism around the giclée moniker. That's another post, but anyone looking at this can see it is problematic for the business.

Back in the day long before the first digital print hit the market when Bill Humberg was editor and publisher of Decor magazine, there was terminology used to delineate a fine art print such as an etching, mezzotint, etc., from a reproduction. Graphics were used to describe high-end pieces designed as originals in the print medium of choice, i.e., serigraphs, linocuts and so forth. Prints was used to describe those pieces that were reproductions. At that time they were primarily offset lithography on paper. Even then you saw poster publishers using graphics in their company names, but at least there was an effort to bring order to the confusing array of terminology.

Lack of governance means its the wide open west when it comes to adopting standards

The problems with getting everyone in the industry to use standards for descriptions will never cease. There is no governing body, no real authority to monitor usage and make positive changes where necessary. Where we go from here is anybody's guess. As individuals you can help by becoming and staying informed about correct terminology, printing processes and the business of the art print market. If you can clearly articulate what is a giclée to a lay person, you will help yourself and the industry in the process. If you can suggest changes to someone using the term inappropriately, you will help. With the ease of access to voluminous information available to all consumers these days, it's more important than ever for all involved to be forthright and clear on what we are selling to the public. It's harder to fool them, although my recent posts on convicted felons Kristine Eubanks and husband Gerald Sullivan and cruise ship art auctions belies that notion.

If you have followed my musings, you know I champion having open editions on giclées unless the editions are truly limited to very small sizes such as 95. Consumers realize it's easy to run off more copies once an image is digitized. With open editions, there is never the worry that more than the stated edition size was sold...it is a non-issue. To me, the issue ought to be selling the intrinsic value of the art on the paper or canvas without having to resort to a limited edition marketing gimmick.

The need and desire for limited editions will never completely pale

There will always be a place for limited editions, I just believe the giclée market is not the right place for them. Some limited edition prints might sell well for years if they were open. Imagine how much money is left on the table when something like that happens. Sure an artist can continue to paint more like before, but there is magic with some pieces that can't be recaptured. Often neither artist or publisher can say with authority that a certain piece will get legs and sell through the roof. But experienced ones know it happens and they can count on it, but can't tell you why. Limited edition giclées shut the door on such possibilities.

See you soon!

If you want to follow the comments follow this link: http://www.artprintissues.com/2007/04/what_is_a_gicle.html

Mostly Art Business Retweetables Volume Two

2009-07-01T23:25:09-07:00

I find myself exposed to far more items of interest than I can possibly blog about. Twitter has been a great way to pass the best of what I find along. But, Twitter is much like listening to the radio. If you aren't tuned in at the moment, you don't get turned on to the content coming your way. Using the blog this is a way to encapsulate them for you.

These tweets, as they are called in Twitterland, are culled from what I think are the best and most worthy to pass along for your enjoyment, enlightenment and elucidation:

This moving music vid compilation is so inspirational. Ben E. King would be proud to stand by it. Thx JD http://bit.ly/odSTg
What Does it Mean to Make Commercial Work Too? http://bit.ly/e5clE
100 of the late Charlie Harper works found - I love his unique whimsical style. This is great news! http://bit.ly/9EmTk
Checking out It’s Not the Recession, You Just Suck - http://outspokenmedia.com/s2a2 Ballsy take for sure!
Uncool. @msofficeus is using Word to render emails in Outlook, killing standards support. See http://fixoutlook.org and RT
"You can be better than you have ever been" John Gorka Morningside http://bit.ly/s6DSp
RT GuyKawasakiTwitter users buy more music than average internet Joes: http://trkk.us/?gZq AC What about #art ?
Ambition will where talent will not. We root for the underdogs and buy the winners. Never sell with your wallet. Offer Big! - Barney Davey said that
Closed Car Dealership Finds New Life as an Art Gallery http://bit.ly/MJ1iv
Fun film on typography. If you design create or direct design, you need solid typography skills http://bit.ly/102Drp
Pics from Phoenix pub art project, Her Patience Is Waiting. Must be seen. Big file takes time to load but worth it http://twurl.nl/r132kv
The Business of Art opens at The Art Gallery - What a unique idea to present artists! Check it out. http://twurl.nl/a3huf8
$2.1 million suit against Thomas Kinkade upheld - one commenter dubs him Painter of Sleight http://twurl.nl/u1bnct
9 Reasons Your Website Can Have a High Bounce Rate http://twurl.nl/1h4ltu
Art is a gift to the future. With any luck and a little conservation, it will last much longer than the artist.undefined - Barney Davey said that.
Is an art kiosk an idea you can get behind? For the right artists, this could be fun and profitable! http://twurl.nl/n2dlo5
Peter Green - Albatross this sweet soulful peaceful instrumental sweeps you away-works for me every time http://twurl.nl/eljggz
The demise of arts education? Not so fast. http://twurl.nl/qhgrkl - This is encouraging news. We need more of it
I take issue with using confusing terms such as Original Giclee (Reproduction prints). Huh? http://twurl.nl/dgo324
What kind of art gallery has giant televisions showing the NBA playoffs? Is bold alternative marketing in your future? http://bit.ly/bVJVp

Easy Way to Put Your Website on Mobile Devices with .Mobi

2009-06-25T22:29:27-07:00

Read Art Print Issues formatted for your mobile phone at:

www.artprintissues.mobi

If you don't have an iPhone, you surely know someone who does. The statistics for percentage growth of those using mobile devices to connect to the Internet are growing rapidly. Here is part of a recent comScore press release:

comScore: Mobile Internet Becoming A Daily Activity For Many

Number of people accessing news and information on their mobile device more than doubles in a year

Reston, VA. March 16, 2009 –comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today reported that the number of people using their mobile device to access news and information on the Internet more than doubled from January 2008 to January 2009. Among the audience of 63.2 million people who accessed news and information on their mobile devices in January 2009, 22.4 million (35 percent) did so daily; more than double the size of the audience last year.

Now, if you have a blog or Website and can afford $4.99 a year, you can get your website formatted for mobile phones, or Mobilized, using GoDaddy.com's free Mobilizer software.(For full disclosure, I work there for GoDaddy. However, there is no monetary gain for my mention here. And, all ideas and opinions expressed here are mine and do not represent the company in anyway.) Follow this Mobilizer link to test the software. It will let you see how your site will look using it. It's a free look and if you want to buy the .mobi domain, you can get it on sale for $4.99 a year. That's $10 off the list price of $14.99.

Notice the new formatting for Art Print Issues?

I have moved the left column to the right side of the page. That allows the blog posts to download first. This better accommodates mobile device users. Also, it helps those with slower Internet connections be able to start reading the blog post without having to wait for the left column content to load. I already had been contemplating doing this for the latter reason, the addition of .mobi to my communication arsenal sealed the deal for me.

Five Opposing Thoughts on an Art Career

2009-06-24T00:15:06-07:00

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.
~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

With apologies to F. Scott Fitzgerald, I offer this set of five opposing ideas for your perusal and contemplation:

It's Never Too Late - don't let your age or any other potential drawback mess with your mind. Get started today.
It's Never Too Soon - if you are lucky enough to see your future and desire it; don't let anything get in your way of getting there.

You're Not As Good As You Think - no matter how smug you feel, or how much praise you reap, you are not near your potential. Coasting is the best way to get passed and become unintentionally marginalized.
You're Not As Bad As You Think - on the days when it seems like you chose the wrong profession, take a break, take a walk, drive, hike or mini-vacation, even if just in the backyard. Relaxation helps lower the anxiety that creates negative feelings.

There Will Always Be Somebody Better Than You (Unless you are Tiger Woods or Pete Sampras) - the nature of people is to create competition and a pecking order around it. Keep in mind no matter how good you get there are others already poised to surpass your deeds. Learn to cheer them on.
It Will Surprise You Sometimes How Much Better You Are Than Some Established Artists - there is an observable correlation between luck and charisma having as much a profound effect on some successful artists' careers as pure talent. Sure, most aren't going to be Chuck Close, Picasso, Michaelangelo or the best selling artist in your local art guild. But, there will be times when you extend your reach and create something supremely compelling and profound. Learn to be rightly proud of those works. Learn to capitalize upon them too!

There Will Be Art You Are Sure Will Sell Well That Doesn't - while you might have a feel for what your collectors want, there will be some pieces you would bet the ranch on that just don't live up to your expectations.
There Will Be Art You Are Ambivalent About That Draws Great Interest - Trace Adkins, the country music star, had an emotional tribute to his daughter. He didn't even put it on an album made at the same time. He thought it was too personal. Instead it became a huge crossover hit.

You Will Make Money In Places You Didn't Think Possible - the first wave of alternative marketing and distribution has come about courtesy of the Internet. What happens next is sure to make those changes seem minimal.
You Will Lose Money Trying To Make Traditional Marketing Pay - sometimes it's really hard to let go of the things we have held dear and believed in for years. Your traditional marketing plans already have undoubtedly been altered by circumstances. While the old ways are not yet moribund, they for sure aren't the basket to carry all your marketing eggs.

How to Promote Artwork

2009-06-15T02:26:50-07:00

I met Contemporary Folk and Urban Pop artist Anne Leuck Feldhaus on Facebook and am glad I did. Shortly after that encounter, I saw a mention from her about her first billboard.

Immediately, there were two things about the notice that impressed me. To begin, the implied confidence when one reads, "My First Billboard" is great! It says the artist is already thinking there are more in the future.

Confidence is contagious folks, let yours out of the bag. And, if you have to, fake it until you make it. Outsiders can't see you shaking on the inside. You will always be your own best promoter. No one can ever explain what is going on with your art or your career they way you can. Just don't let yourself get in the way.

The second thing I like about Anne's billboard is that it is striking and unusual. I realize if you are a landscape or portrait artist, you may have less opportunity for landing a billboard like Anne, but that should not stop you from seeking unique ways to get your art into the public eye. If you are a sports artist, can you find posters, programs or promotional literature in your area to vie for? If you are a pet artist, how about finding the local Humane Society, a large vet practice or an animal shelter group to work with?

There are synergies and opportunities just waiting for you to find them and to do something about them once you do. Get the idea for the connection first, think it through how your art can make a difference to the group you want to pitch. Don't think that because you don't know anyone that you are stuck. Last August, I published a post, Six Degrees of You. It offers lots of suggestions on how you can use your current relationships to reach out far beyond what you might consider possible.

Start to train yourself to think about ways to get noticed that are out of the mainstream. There is nothing wrong with pursuing galleries, building a following on Facebook or Twitter, or having an online presence on any of the myriad art sites aimed at collectors and consumers. Working at those activities is advisable, especially when one sees what have been traditionally reliable venues slipping closer to obsolescence than ever.

The reports from attendees and exhibitors at tradeshows this year have not been optimistic. One can count see the size of the venues dropping and feel the attendance has grown smaller. The trade magazines in their current slim sizes bear witness to their own lessened importance and impact in the market place. While they are not moribund, they are far from the peaks when a consistent program with them would reliably drive traffic.

While in the past it has been important to promote your art in creative ways. Now, it is critical. The attention span of consumers is fractured more than ever. The readership of newspapers and magazines is dwindling. Network audiences are growing smaller while online video viewing is increasing along with time spent on social media sites. Many expect to get breaking news on Twitter, not CNN and that trend is growing.

Thinking about and acting upon how to get your most striking compelling image or images placed or used in unusual ways ought to be moved to the top of your art business promotion criteria. It is okay to feel nostalgic for what was, but don't let it stop you from moving forward on what is. People are always going to want to own art. That is no different from the past. What is different is how they will first encounter art and artists. Seek ways to uniquely promote your art, you will be glad you did.

Making Fine Art Prints - Perspective from a Photographer

2009-06-08T16:57:18-07:00

Whether you are making digital fine art prints from photographs shot with the intention of recreating them as prints, photographs or scans of original 2D flat art, or creating something wholly digital through the array of tools for such purposes, you still need a way to get the product of your creativity on some substrate, usually paper or canvas.

There are different paths depending on where you start in the creative process. For photographers, it's going to be different from painters. This post is to alert you to a series of blog posts on fine art printing from Brian Auer, a San Diego based photographer. This description is taken from his website:

Brian Auer is a photography enthusiast from San Diego, California. He's also the guy behind the Epic Edits Weblog. As a hobbyist photographer since 2003, his passion has been to constantly improve his photography skill set, to share his own knowledge with others, and to become an integral part of the photographic community.

Brian is proof positive that one turned on person can make a difference. His Feedburner subscriber shows nearly 6,500 other enthusiasts share his passion for photography. To get that many subscribers, it takes more than passion. One has to impart knowledge, wisdom and insight in such a way that others want to tap into it. He serves a great role model for anyone looking to build a following, a Tribe, as Seth Godin accurately calls them in his bestselling book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us.

To give his readers easily digestible amounts of information, Brian has broken his article on Making Fine Art Prints into four parts. I am sure you will find it worth the time to review his thoughts on this subject. While you are on his site, check out the rest of what he offers his readers. There is a reason he has a large following.

While what he offers in the way of advice and insight is solid, it won't apply across the board to every artist. Nevertheless, there is useful information in his series of posts on making fine art prints. Perhaps just as importantly, there is much to be gained from studying how an self-proclaimed amateur photographer can carve out a meaningful place against the Internet's constantly changing means of putting together like minded folks. Bravo to Brian!

Milton Glaser Raffle Winners Announced

2009-06-04T22:22:39-07:00

Thanks to all who responded to the offer to my blog post offering to register for the drawing to win a free poster signed by Milton Glaser promoting the new documentary about him: To Inform & Delight

I took all the names and put them in a spread sheet then used a random number generator to come up with three winners. Congratulations to David Morrell, Charlie Osborn and Maya Vivian. Maya won the Drawing is Thinking book, the posters go to the other names. Winners can look for their prize coming via USPS in the next two weeks.

Thanks again and regardless be on the lookout for this documentary coming to an art house near you. I heard from an AIGA member in Tucson. That chapter has arranged its own showing of the film. What a great way to get the folks out and maybe raise some money at the same time.

Artist Drew Friedman Launches Fine Art Print Publishing Company

2009-06-01T13:35:04-07:00

Dean Martin - by Drew Friedman

Renowned illustrator Drew Friedman, in collaboration with Irwin Chusid and Barbara Economon, has launched a new Web site at: DrewFriedman.net. The site is the exclusive source of fine art prints featuring new works by the iconic illustrator.

The art, much like the artist's career, is exceptional and eclectic. In our age of celebrity worship, e.g., 3 million Twitter followers for Ashton Kutcher, (no offense AK, I get you are riding the wave, but really, who cares and who are those people?), it's refreshing to find an artist who chooses mostly offbeat, anti-celebrity subjects to immortalize in his unique style.

Many who have followed this blog for the past three years know I am not a fan of limited editions for digitally printed art. That is, with the exception of very low numbers. It's arbitrary, but I have put the number at 100. Otherwise, it's just a marketing gimmick in my humble opinion.

Friedman and his experienced art professional partners have launched the site and the publishing business on a model of using the extremely low number of 30 in their editions. Now, if you are an artist who creates slowly, this can be a financial problem. On the other hand, if you can turn out the work quickly enough, a low-numbered edition model puts you in a league of your own. Friedman's achievements and oeuvre already put him in such a league. Following up with this daring and unique idea of very small edition sizes is sure to create devoted collectors for his work.

The flip side of low numbers is unlimited numbers. I'm not necessarily suggesting the idea for Drew Friedman and company, although I think it could work for them with the right image. As always, I feel the way to make unlimited editions have value is to number them sequentially. If the artist sells thousands of an image, everyone in the distribution channel, including buyers, gets to enjoy the art.

With nothing but brave conjecture to back up the theory, I go out on limb to say the low numbers of a sequentially numbered edition would have more value than higher numbers. In other words, they would be collectible despite freshly minted reproductions being available. Perhaps some other numbers would be valuable as well. If a date was painted in the picture, or perhaps the number correlating with subject's birth, death or debut date would have more value. Collectors tend to make up their own rules about what aspects make an item dear to them.

Best wishes to Drew, Irwin and Barbara for tremendous success in their new art publishing venture!

Art Licensing Links

2009-05-30T22:15:00-07:00

With the recent conclusion of the Surtex show in New York and The Licensing International Expo taking a bow for the first time in Las Vegas on June 2, the licensing season is in full swing. If you follow my Tweets, which are also posted on Facebook, you might have clicked on the link to this post from art licensing veteran, Carol Eldridge: Insightful report on the Surtex show. Another indication how things are not the same or likely to be the same again http://twurl.nl/0lezal.

The digital version of The Licensing Magazine came out today. And, as is customary at this time of year, it's supplement, The Art of Licensing, arrived as a separate link. It has lots of interesting articles and links to art licensing companies. You will find a wide variety of artists advertising in it as well. Things continue to change in the business and for the magazines and tradeshows that serve them, but there obviously is still life left in these traditional means of gaining awareness that can lead to business for all involved.

Tara Reed is one busy person in the art licensing field. In addition to being an artist and licensing consultant, she also pens the Art Licensing blog, publishes numerous e-books, and leads seminars at shows such as Surtex. She also founded The Art Licensing Forum. And, she just announced another Ask Paul Brent teleseminar. Go to the forum for more details. If you want to pick the brain of one of the most successful art licensing artists, don't miss the call. If you can't make it, you can purchase an audio download.

Licensing your art is a way to create yet another income stream from your original work. It takes time to build a following and gain enough licenses for it to make a major impact on your cash flow, but for those who master the process, it can be quite lucrative.

Is an On-site Print-on-demand Giclee Printer in your Future?

2009-05-28T22:52:33-07:00

Living in the future, none of this has happened yet - Bruce Springsteen

Lightning Source International is the printer of my book, How to Profit from the Art Print Market. The company does a great job of making it widely available to booksellers both online and traditional with its print-on-demand technology. I can order one or 100 at great prices, but I don't bother with fulfillment. It's easier to let retailers such as Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble handle it for me. Today, I got what could be a glimpse of the future for the art print market. It's the Expresso Book Machine.

Brick and mortar retailers of all kinds are now going to be able to offer high-quality books delivered immediately on site. This development has interesting and potentially widespread implications for retailers. Can you imagine buying your favorite book while waiting for your Caffe Latte at your favorite coffee shop? I can.

Can Giclee prints delivered on demand be available in retail stores be far off?

With the constant evolution of digital printmaking capabilities, I imagine it is only time before Epson or HP, or one of their many competitors comes along with a plan to put on-site on-demand digital fine art prints in local retail stores. If a company such as Allposters.com, which along with its sister site, Art.com are the largest retailers of art prints worldwide decide this is a market it wants to be in, it could bring yet another game changing development to the art print market. Granted, the print speed for making digital prints, aka giclees, is nowhere near the speed of making a book as shown in the video here. But, quality and speed continue increase dramatically.

Should such technology come along for the art print market, it wouldn't necessarily be just to the advantage of the big retailers like Art.com. I think it could be a way for local artists, perhaps art guilds, to level the playing field. As threatening such a development could be to established fine art giclee printers, it could also be an opportunity for them to create new markets for themselves as well. This is high concept thinking. There would be a multitude of details before an idea like would come to fruition.

Nevertheless, as much as things have changed in the business over the past decade, I think we are just beginning to understand the dramatic developments of the way visual artists will get their work to market in years to come. Stay tuned, the future is just around the corner. It's only promise is it will not be as we know things now and opportunities will abound for those who embrace the changes.

P.S. The deadline to register to win a Milton Glaser signed poster is May 31. Here is the scoop:

Milton Glaser Documentary Premiers May 22: You can win a signed poster promoting it or his book! ' http://bit.ly/bBxor