By Lisa Marks, Founder/President, LMA, Inc.

Since 2001, Lisa Marks Associates, Inc. (LMA) has been well-known for extending established brands and character properties in the world of licensing.  The agency, which has handled such American biggies as Campbell Soup, Pepperidge Farms, Pepsi, and Deepak Chopra, has now expanded into art licensing.  We asked President Lisa Marks to tell us why.  Also, what makes a brand successful?  And what LMA looks for when considering a new artist to represent.

Following our passions over the years, we have been able to work with several talented and creative artists on a more personal level (as opposed to established brands and characters). We've represented a few select artists who have an extremely strong sensibility and connect with people’s emotions through a compelling and unique art style.

These artists and properties have completely different aesthetics, but possess common elements that we as agents feel are integral to succeeding in the marketplace.

Each property is appealing and cohesive as a brand collection and recognizable as such: the art has consistency, a distinct point of view and a story behind the collective body of work. Also, wide varieties of graphic assets can be creatively combined and adapted to a number of product categories. The creators understand the process of product development and can engage with licensees to translate the art to various formats and merchandising concepts. Lastly, the properties have been created for long-term viability and success at retail. The artists identify and leverage trends but are not dictated by them, as the goal is always to create enduring licensing programs.

One of these great artists, Billy Attinger, reflects this creative range and longevity with a portfolio of brands from Inconceivable Studios. In a variety of voices and characters, Bill illustrates diverse perspectives on everyday life, whether that of a baby in From the Crib® or the King of Leisure, Jack Squat® or with Stick World® and Palitos Locos®, where witty stick figures rule.  All of Bill’s brands have been licensed across various product categories, selling successfully throughout major retailers around the world.

Ronnie Walter is no stranger to art and licensing, with over a thousand licensed products on the market during the course of her illustrious career.  Her new brand, Me and My Girls!™ celebrates the busy lives of modern women who are juggling home, family and work, while hanging on to those all-important friendships that keep them sane. In Real Women…Real Country™, women work hard and take pride in their home, their family and their community. With style and humor and grit, the brand resonates with the woman who “really doesn’t care how they do it in the city”!

Scarlett & Crimson®, created by Ged Backland and Coolabi in the UK, are loyal best friends who play in a rock band. They epitomize self-expression and non-conformity in everything from their mischievous attitude to their vintage rock fashion sense. Strong individual style, deep friendship and inclusiveness characterize the Scarlett & Crimson brand. Anchored with a four-year cosmetics program at Boots in the UK, the brand also has a cosmetics program launching in the U.S. shortly.

With dedication and a tremendous amount of work, these artists have laid the groundwork for their properties for years to come, through art, design, characters and stories.  This blending of creativity, persistence and passion ignites our enthusiasm too.

This is LMA’s first year exhibiting at SURTEX, and we are thrilled.  It’s a perfect opportunity to showcase these jewels of properties and artists for whom we have a real affinity. We look forward to sharing these wonderful art and design properties with SURTEX attendees and wish much success for all the participants at the show! 

By Penny Sikalis, GLM VP/SURTEX Manager

Real estate agents aren’t the only ones who know that the three secrets of success are location, location, location! 

Set on the western edge of the most stimulating city in the world – and not by accident – SURTEX is your open-sesame to a wealth of new ideas, fresh inspirations, and sheer excitement. 

Some come directly to you: SURTEX’s co-location with two other exciting shows, the International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF)®  and the National Stationery Show® pull in a different crowd of retailers, manufacturers, product designers and other attendees who invariably venture through the aisles of SURTEX.  You’ll want to walk their aisles, too: both shows are newsmakers, leading-edge sources of ideas and trends.

Speaking of which, plan to take advantage of the Trend Theatre during SURTEX.  A first-time-ever added attraction, the Trend Theatre will offer three days of 30-minute presentations by top trend forecasters.  They are coming from around the globe to share their perspectives of color, design, lifestyles and attitudes that will be impacting us all in 2013 and 2014.

Then when you walk out the doors of the Javits Center, you will step into the fabled energy field that is New York City.  Keep your eyes – cameras and notebooks – open.   This is a happening town.  Uptown, downtown, midtown, in Brooklyn and Long Island City, too, there are take-away ideas and inspirations here for the lifting. 

We’ve spotlighted a few in Only in New York.  But don’t stop there.  The City is not only rich with world-class museums, restaurants, and shops, its very streets are a unique resource where creative minds can find ideas, freewheeling and free for the taking. No wonder many SURTEX participants add extra days to their New York visit!  

All of us at GLM are looking forward to meeting and greeting all of you in person at the show….a tall order, but we’re New Yorkers, too -- we walk fast! Wave me down if you see me zipping by.   

If fact, we’re looking ahead to 2013.  Plans are already on the drawing board for next year’s SURTEX.  We’re just like the City That Never Sleeps! 

While you’re in the City, get out!  Get out to the streets, to the museums, the restaurants, stores…to Broadway and special events, like the famed Kips Bay Designer Show house that happens this month.  There’s an incomparable world of excitement, inspiration, ideas, and information out there and it’s virtually free for the taking.  Here’s a short-list of must-sees to get your creative juices flowing.

AT THE MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art): Two highlight exhibitions not to be missed: “The Steins Collect” (Gertrude, Leo, and Michael Stein and their buddies, Matisse, Picasso, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir, and the rest of that crowd); and “Schiaparelli & Prada: Impossible Conversations,” packing tout New York into the Costume Institute.

You can also see the history of American decorative arts from the 18th to the early 20th Century in the newly reopened and splendid American Wing.  1000 Fifth Ave @ 82nd.

AT MoMA (Museum of Modern Art):  Walk through the evolution of art as we know it today, from 1880 to 2012, in MoMA’s Painting & Sculpture galleries. 

Special exhibitions include Cindy Sherman Photographs, 170 of them, all starring the artist herself, and Ellsworth Kelly’s Sculpture for a Large Wall (and how! It’s 65.5-ft. long).  11 W. 53rd St.

AT PS1, MoMA’s edgy offspring in Long Island City, Queens:  Happening-now art by the likes of Lara Favaretto, who famously sculpted 20 historical figures in a Venice swamp.  12-25 Jackson Ave. @ 46th Ave.

AT the NOGUCHI MUSEUM: Everything cool by Isamu, including his Akari Light Sculptures and iconic cocktail table (for sale in the shop).  Worth the schlep to Long Island City, 9-01 33rd Rd. @ Vernon Blvd.

KIPS BAY DECORATOR SHOW HOUSE:  Lucky you: it’s here while you are, and on the West Side for the first-time ever so it’s a straight subway shot up to the sleek new Aldyn Residences overlooking the Hudson River. See drop-dead rooms crammed with innovations by the crème of New York decorators.  60 Riverside Boulevard (not Riverside Drive). 

BROADWAY BOUND?  Check out TKTS Discount Booth first.  The bundle you can save on same-day shows justifies the waiting on line, as New Yorkers say.  Broadway @ 47th.

FOODIES’ ALERT:  Jeet yet?  If not, a few suggestions about what’s new or nostalgic on New York’s dynamic dining scene.  Bobo oozes charm in the West Village, all antiques, candlelight, good food, and – hear this – quiet: you can actually talk over dinner (101 W. l0th @ 7th Ave.)  Further downtown Bouley is chef David’s newest venture (see the master at work in the kitchen). Big bucks but bragging rights come with dinner.
163 Duane St.  Stars sparkle all over Ciano, country-Italian newcomer to the hot-hot Flat Iron district. 45 E. 22nd.  Chez Josephine is run by two of the Baker boys, Jean-Claude and Jarry, who celebrate their famous mom’s fabled esprit (with/ without bananas) through-out this theatre-district favorite.  Think retro French cuisine and jazz at the lively piano bar.  414 W. 42nd St.   

Volume 5, Issue 12

FROM WHERE I STAND: You'll Take Manhattan!
GUEST SPEAKER: Lisa Marks, LMA
MINDING YOUR OWN BUSINESS: Tara Reed
PREVIEWING THE PROS: What's New at SURTEX
UPDATES & UPGRADES
ONLY IN NEW YORK: The City As Resource

It’s been a year in the making…Long days and nights at the drawing board, both virtual and hard-copy.  And now – mirabile dictu – SURTEX 2012 is here! We invited artists and agents to give us a preview at what they’ll be showing when the curtain goes up on the excitement next Sunday morning.
 

WHO’S NEW AT SURTEX?  A whopping one-third of the 300 or so exhibitors who are coming to the 2012 show, that’s who will be new to SURTEX.

“That means lots of new creative energy,” says Penny Sikalis, GLM VP and manager of the show. Some of the exhibitors are also new to the surface design business, she points out.  “Others are broadening their reach into multiple categories.”

In all, the work of more than 1,000 artists and designers will be shown.  “All fresh, new collections for tomorrow’s most saleable products,” Penny reports.

Some 78 percent of the exhibitors are based in the US; the other 22 percent represent a dozen different countries around the world: Canada, England, France, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South America, and The Netherlands.

Of the nearly 300 exhibitors, 22 percent will be primarily selling designs; the balance of the exhibitors, some 75 percent, will be focus on licensing designs.  That group includes textile designers, graphic designers, illustrators, licensing agents, well-known brands (among them, National Geographic and Williamsburg), photographers, and fine artists.

ATTENDANCE IS UP, WITH MANY NEW FACES.   Pre-registration for SURTEX is “significantly higher than years past,” Penny says.  “It’s tracking at roughly 30 percent more than last year.” 

Moreover, 44 percent of the pre-registrants are new, coming to SURTEX for the first time.

Pre-registrants represent what Penny calls an “excellent cross-section” of manufacturers from diverse product categories, including importers, publishers, and wholesalers involved in product development.

Some 18 percent of the pre-registrants are retailers seeking new artwork for direct import and private label, Penny points out.

WELL-WORTH NOTING:  A number of special features highlight the SURTEX calendar:

• ReSource HuB will include trend forecasting companies.
• CONFERENCE PROGRAM offers 10 info-dense sessions taught by industry gurus, that cover everything from learning basics through the most timely issues affecting the art and design business (some space still available; $90 per session; daily tracks and full-conference packages also available).
• TREND THEATRE – Brand-new feature!  Seventeen 30-minute presentations from nine world-class trend forecasting firms.  Complimentary to SURTEX attendees and exhibitors.
• designext WINNERS:  Presentations by student winners from four colleges/universities.  Grand Prize Winner announced Monday, May 21, at 1 p.m.     
• ARTIST SIGNINGS/ EVENTS IN BOOTHS. Happening throughout the show. 
• SPOTLIGHT  on SURTEX:  Café offers new food for thought – highlights from select exhibitors in multi-media format, on view throughout the show
• SURTEX HAPPY HOUR: Exhibitors and press are invited to meet and mingle: Monday, May 21, 6 – 7 p.m., North Concourse of Javits.
• SPECIAL AMENITIES.  Private rooms on the show floor for exhibitor/customer meetings, including early hours (8-9 a.m. daily); Café and on-floor rolling food cart (lunch, snacks, drinks); Shuttle buses between Javits Center and designated hotels/ transportation hubs; Free entry (with SURTEX badge) to the National Stationery Show® and The International Contemporary Furniture Fair (ICFF)®. 
   

TRYING TO TWEET YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS? HAVING A WEB PRESENCE MATTERS,
BUT MARKETING, IT AIN'T
By Tara Reed, Licensed Artist, Founder, ArtLicensingInfo.com

If you’ve heard it a thousand times – blanket statements, like “all businesses need to be on Twitter or Facebook, or Google or LinkedIn,  or… or… or….”

The real question is this: How can social media be used to further your art licensing business?

I’m a big user of social media.  Twitter and Facebook have been wonderful tools for me to build a network of peers, other artists to connect with so I don’t feel so isolated in my studio.  They have been a great way for me to share what I’m doing on the information side of my business; they let me reach other artists wanting to learn about licensing.

But are social media websites strategic venues to promote my art and find manufacturers who license it? 

I don’t believe so. 

I think there is value in being online and having a web presence, but I don’t feel it’s the most efficient way to market my business.   

Don’t Twitter Your Chance Away

I am friends with many of my clients on Facebook (and don’t know of any who are investing time on Twitter).  We connect on a personal level – building the relationship – not “working”.  When I have new art to submit, I email them at work: I don’t chat about it on Facebook.  I don’t tweet “check out this great new collection,” expecting a manufacturer to find it.  

Does that mean that no artist has ever been “found” on Twitter? Absolutely not.  I’ve also learned about new manufacturers on Facebook through status updates of friends.  But those are the exceptions and not the rule.  Those are the examples of how having a web presence can bring you the occasional unexpected deal. 

The unexpected bonus deal should not, however, drive your marketing efforts.

Marketing = B-to-B

Marketing for us is a business-to-business proposition.  What are the best ways to connect with manufacturers who need art?

The internet is like a double-edged sword these days: it makes finding information and contacts easier, but it is also more impersonal and disconnected.  Manufacturers are receiving record numbers of submissions each month because they are easier to find. 

So how can you make yourself stand out?
 
In my business, I have found face-to-face interactions to be the most fruitful.  When I am in my booth at SURTEX and a person comes to look at my portfolio and have a conversation, they have my full attention and I have theirs.  I am not one of 50 emails in their inbox while the phone is ringing and they are late for a meeting.  We are talking, connecting, and learning about how we might work together.  Exhibiting at SURTEX and attending other key trade shows are my main marketing efforts.

LinkedIn = Business

Can social media play a part?  Of course.  But be aware of what people expect on the different sites and don’t expect them to be the only source of business for you.  LinkedIn – the premier business-to-business social media site -- is a great way to become known by connecting with others, getting involved in discussions in groups and learning about different companies.  The tone and expectation are more business-oriented than Facebook and certainly more so than Twitter.

There is no “one way” to market your work and what works for one artist might not work for another.  The key is to look at the many ways of learning about and connecting with manufacturers and find the mix that works for you.  Balance your time between creating, marketing and connecting on social media. 

Be online but don’t let it be a substitute for good old fashioned communication – don’t let your keypad be your only voice! 

 

Name this mystery SURTEX exhibitor who traveled the globe in search of inspiration (and themed outfits) in preparation for SURTEX. His identity will be revealed in our early June issue, along with everyone who correctly named the mystery man.


Click here to submit your guess.