
- #REGISTER AS ARTIST GREETING CARD SHOP HOW TO#
- #REGISTER AS ARTIST GREETING CARD SHOP FULL#
- #REGISTER AS ARTIST GREETING CARD SHOP LICENSE#
You’ll consider things like exclusive vs.
#REGISTER AS ARTIST GREETING CARD SHOP FULL#
There are a lot of variables involved that can effect the price you can negotiate for, including things like the value of your own brand, the kind of rights the company is asking for, the size of the company, etc… (For example, if you’re allowing a company to use your design on several products, or offering a full buyout of all the rights, that should cost them more.)Ĭontracts: You want to be really clear about what rights the buyer has and what rights you have pertaining to your art. If you’re being paid in royalties, you can potentially earn more (or less) than that flat fee amount, depending on how the product sells. Greeting card designs usually go for a flat fee of around $300–$500.
#REGISTER AS ARTIST GREETING CARD SHOP LICENSE#
However, the great things about licensing are that: 1) you can license the same art multiple times, 2) a single buyer usually wants to license a few pieces at once, and 3) when you have many licenses going, they can really build up and create a more consistent income. Industry standard licensing fees may sound low compared to what you can get from, say, a national ad campaign. Rather, the client will share their typical arrangement or give me some options of what they typically pay for cards, and I’ll negotiate from there. I haven’t usually been asked for my pricing up front unless it’s a custom job. Pricing: Very often, in my experience, buyers have some standard fees in place. This stuff can get really complicated, but I’m going to do my best to give you a digestible introduction to some things you’ll run into in this biz….įee structures: Buyers pay either with flat fees, royalties (a % of sales), advances, or some combination of those things. It’s a whole thing, guys.īecause there are so many people making and licensing art, it only makes sense that there are some unique industry practices and standards to learn about. There are art licensing books and conferences. There are art licensing agents (I have one of those). Bedding, wall art, clothing, gift wrap, greeting cards-those are just a few of the items you’ll see that feature art licensed by artists like you. Go to a big box store and take a look around at all the products you see. WHAT ELSE SHOULD I KNOW ABOUT ART LICENSING?Įven though you may never have even heard of art licensing, it really is a GIGANTIC industry. It’s your job to be aware of the buyers’ needs and to base your portfolio around those things. Sometimes they will even put out open briefs explaining what kind of art they’re looking for in a bit more detail. Many greeting card companies look for art created for specific occasions at specific times throughout the year. While you may have to create art from scratch in the beginning because you don’t have a portfolio ready to go, serious art licensing artists have portfolios full of art that’s ready to be licensed. While custom requests can definitely come up with art licensing, more often you’ll license art that you’ve already created. With “traditional” freelancing (think branding, editorial, advertising, etc…), we’re used to a client coming to us with a very specific request for custom work. IS CREATING ART FOR PRODUCT LICENSING LIKE MY OTHER FREELANCE WORK?Īctually, it’s a bit of a different ballgame. In the land of greeting cards, rights are King! You even have the power to turn over all the rights and ownership to someone else entirely if you so choose.

That means you have the power to negotiate what specific parts of those rights you’re willing to loan to your clients, and for how long.

Basically, a buyer (like a greeting card company) pays an artist (you) for the rights to use your art on a product.Īs the artist who makes your art, you’re the rightful owner of all the rights to your images. I googled the heck out of all my questions, and eventually discovered that greeting card design falls into the strange and magical world of something called art licensing.Īrt licensing basically means to “rent” your art to someone.

#REGISTER AS ARTIST GREETING CARD SHOP HOW TO#
I come from a more “traditional” freelance lettering background and, while I had some idea of how to approach things like branding or editorial projects, I had no idea what industry standards were around making art for products.
