What Types of Art are Companies Seeking?

Companies seek artwork that will become an integral part of their products, and ultimately will help those products appeal to the consumer. Representative categories of products these companies target for licensed art include:

What Should I Expect From A Licensee?

As a prospective licensor, be astute in seeking out licensees. Make your licensing decisions based on a licensee’s ability and commitment to add value to your overall licensing program. An inappropriate licensee can actually damage you’re a licensor’s overall program as well as his or her reputation. Seek out licensees having experience creating products matching (or enhancing) the property’s image, and whose programs have benefited other licensed properties in the past.

A prospective licensee should be prepared to match your financial expectations, in terms of the royalty rate on each sale, a minimum guarantee amount based on an agreed-on minimum percentage of expected sales, and/or payment of an advance to you up front.

Depending on the nature of the licensee’s business (i.e. manufacturer or distributor), they should have appropriate contacts and distribution channels, and/or an adequate customer base. Do your own independent research on any company you are considering licensing your art to. Get references from these companies from property owners they have worked with in the past, and follow up by contacting and interviewing these references.

Before formalizing any business terms with a potential licensee, thoroughly check out the company that you will be entrusting with your art. For any particular program, request, receive and review their projected sales figures for your proposed program, their sales figures from past comparable licensing programs, and a marketing plan tailored to your property. Reputable licensees will be happy to provide you with these figures prior to finalizing a licensing agreement.

Licensable Art That Works Big!

As with licensing of other types of properties including sports, entertainment, and brand names, art licensing has exploded as an industry segment over the past ten to twenty years. Once limited to a relatively narrow segment of properties and product categories, art licensing is adding value to a wide variety of products through the creative application of fresh and inviting imagery. Besides the “traditional” arenas of publishing, collectibles, and stationary, entirely new product categories such as furniture, home décor, apparel, and several new incarnations of licensed giftware are opening their doors to licensed art. And licensees are continually seeking out artwork that will help sell these products!

For an art licensing program to be successful, the product by itself must be desirable and/or useful to the end consumer, and the art to be applied to it must complement and be appropriate for this product. This seems readily apparent, but is all too often overlooked.

In our experience, a few genres of imagery seem to work again and again for a large pool of potential licensees. The more “timeless” the theme or subject matter, the greater likelihood of licensing success. Contemporary or “abstract” artwork can work for certain niche sectors, but is less versatile in its application.

Subject matter should be chosen to draw from the largest audience possible, and thus be somewhat “general” in nature. Examples include children, scenery, ethnic themes, fine art and decorative designs.

Licensed art in recent years has shifted noticeably toward the mass market, and is now seen quite often with products in mid-tier venues (such as Target) as well as in the traditional collectibles and publishing markets. It behooves the potential licensor to keep in mind that the largest market segment of purchasers of products bearing licensed art are married females. Thus, an art licensing program geared to fit this demographic profile stands the best chance of appealing to the widest audience.

Development and Composition Guidelines

Composition of licensed art adheres to certain “truisms” in successful product applications. Most frequently, licensed art originates as two-dimensional imagery (i.e. a painting, as opposed to a sculpt or statue). Further, a “standard”, roughly square composition ratio of width to height is prevalent. This ratio can more easily be manipulated by publishers and manufacturers to suit a wider variety of products, and required less of these companies’ time and cost for adaptation.

Licensed art typically originates from compositions using traditional media (oil, acrylic, water color, etc.) or digital format, applied to a flat (versus relief) surface (canvas, paper, etc.). Color compositions are favored over black-and-white. Stand-alone or “logo”-type design with no background has very few applications to art licensing.

Art developed for licensing should emphasize the artist’s competence with and understanding of design and composition, as well as color and light. The “focal point” of the work is often complimented by an appropriate but subdued background. This focal point combines with the background to create a compelling composition that seems to “pull” the viewer into the image.

Often, licensees expect an artist’s licensing program to stick to a consistent theme and style in their compositions, versus a hodge-podge of styles. Licensees often develop programs using a series of images, as their end products can then be sold in a “series”. Besides increasing the likelihood of more of your images being licensed, a successful, consistent style will help licensees more easily associate your artwork with a particular theme.

The above being said, there is really no “formula” for determining what will work and what won’t for a licensee. In fact, we often find ourselves surprised when an image we are certain will be a “top performer” fizzles on the marketplace! In the past, we’ve relied on sophisticated marketing and testing techniques, and less on our own instincts when working with artists to develop imagery for licensing programs.