Artist > General Art Discussions
The importance of art
Clark:
Where do ya'll place the importance of the design in your work. For us, when we do retail work, it is the single most important aspect of our sales pitch. We believe that if you don't want to pay for good art...move along. There's plenty of guys that will throw some Bull S on a t-shirt and sell it to you...we aren't one of them. It's amazingly easy to sell good art, you just have to target the right customers to do so. I walked into a restaurant this week, and the guy was visiting with a dozen other printers this week. I brought in a half-dozen very nice samples with great illustrations on them. Walked out with a $250 deposit for artwork that will be going on 150 shirts. Just finished up a couple other jobs where the client paid $525 for two designs, each going on 70 shirts. That's well over a $1.00 + average per shirt that goes to the artist, and it's worth every penny to me. In my mind, art is so important and can make or break a printing company...
I am continually appalled at the level of crap art that some people put out. It does the entire industry a disservice. We basically go into every quote looking to give the artist $1.00 per shirt. So a 400 piece job will yield a $400 piece of art, etc. Obviously there are times when the numbers are significantly skewed, but that is the goal.
Curious as to where some of you print shop owners put the importance of the design work in your business plans.
JBLUE:
This is a great point. This is something that we try to do as well. Even on customer supplied art. Its the art that is on the shirt that sells the shirt, not the brand of shirt itself.
ZooCity:
I was just talking this over with my co-worker yesterday.
I put art way up there. Probably too far up sometimes and, earlier on, I did graphic design for clients when printing was slow so I certainly made some crappy art in the early days and now really appreciate the value of good, ready for press art. I got better at it over time and incorporated what I was learning into our retail line designs as well as client work. Now many of my clients want our "look" and, lucky me, I'm the only guy who can generate that specific look. What it means is I wish to god I could hire an artist and that clients in my area would pay for him or her to generate their art. Hell, I'd be the artist man if they'd pay me, but they just don't pay for art it seems.
Nobody around here is going to pay $250 for art going on a 130 pc order. If I quoted that out they would just go to another shop and take the lower quote. That great you can get that but doesn't seem possible out here.
Clark:
You're area maybe different Zoo. I am friends with a printer near me, and we are good ways away from the big city. It amazes him that I charge for art on every job...every single one. He does all his own stuff using clip art and the regular templates, etc. Now, we are only 10-15 minutes apart from each other. How is it that I can routinely get $1-$3 per shirt for art and he can't even get one penny for it. It's my belief that you have to have a solid portfolio and then put a monetary value to the difference between your work and someone else's. Then build value in the design work by showing the customer that people will continue to wear your designs over and over instead of becoming a grease rag out in the garage after their customer wears it once.
Of course my friend can't charge for art he's doing the same thing day in and day out. You have to be different, and better. But, if people are seeking out your style and you're the only one who can do it in your area how can it be that you can't profit from this situation?
killergraphics:
--- Quote from: ZooCity on May 27, 2011, 11:58:30 AM ---I was just talking this over with my co-worker yesterday.
I put art way up there. Probably too far up sometimes and, earlier on, I did graphic design for clients when printing was slow so I certainly made some crappy art in the early days and now really appreciate the value of good, ready for press art. I got better at it over time and incorporated what I was learning into our retail line designs as well as client work. Now many of my clients want our "look" and, lucky me, I'm the only guy who can generate that specific look. What it means is I wish to god I could hire an artist and that clients in my area would pay for him or her to generate their art. Hell, I'd be the artist man if they'd pay me, but they just don't pay for art it seems.
Nobody around here is going to pay $250 for art going on a 130 pc order. If I quoted that out they would just go to another shop and take the lower quote. That great you can get that but doesn't seem possible out here.
--- End quote ---
I'm in their too. And Yes good art sells much better.
There are highend printers just as there are highend artist.
I'm just further down the ladder.
Its a tuff job...but somebody has to do it.
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