Category: Website

Art Licensing Websites - What's the Good Stuff?

1/12/2012

I just took a walk through a new art licensing website - mmacgregordesign.com - and I want to recommend it to you as a really fine example of how simply, beautifully and cleanly an art licensing website can be done.

Tara Reed suggests - and it makes great sense to me - that when offering an art licensing website, you stick to art licensing and put nothing else in that particular website. In other words, if you want to sell your products yourself in a non-licensing manner, don't put that information into your art licensing website.

Marilyn MacGregor has stuck to licensing, and done it beautifully. Take a look at her website - www.mmacgregordesign.com while I tell you why I not only think that this is a tremendous sample website, but why I removed pages from my own and streamlined it using some of the ideas from her outline - e.g., showing the icons that make up the pattern, and showing the pattern as well.

Clean layout - Not a lot of extraneous wording, and not a lot of information on each page. Easy and quick to scroll through - quick is good when you're wanting busy potential licensees to take a look at your website. You've got about 2 seconds for a viewer to decide it's too much trouble to invest time in looking at you; so, quick is good.
Use of images - Marilyn did something that I think is brilliant: she shows four single images, and then shows the pattern she made from using them. This shows the viewer that she (a) understands how licensing works - that licensees are looking for patterns as well as single images, (b) that she is flexible - able to replace one image with another to create an entirely different pattern, and (c) that show knows how to do patterns. (If you have drop patterns and half-drops, it would be good to include those as well.)
Themes - She has different themes, so that the viewer doesn't have to wade through other types of themes that don't interest them, in order to find the one that they are looking for.

There are many licensing websites, and many ways to do them, based upon your particular artistic and business focus, but I do think that Marilyn's is a prime example.

I know she inspired me reorganize and redesign my own, and as a result my website has really increased the professionalism of its look, reflecting self-confidence, capability and style. Thanks, Marilyn!

***********************************
NOTE TO BLOG SUBSCRIBERS: Thank you for subscribing! I want to keep you with me, so I want you to know that I am considering making a move to Wordpress. If I follow through with that, you'll have to re-subscribe to keep the blog notifications rolling. So I wanted to give you a heads up and tell you that I will keep you posted!

Would you like to be on my email list? If so, let me know by sending your name and email address, and I'll send you a recording of my most popular blog - "It's All About You" - that you can play when you need to remember that competition is all in your head, and that you can change your thinking and get back on track. I am working on a workshop and an art journal, and I would love to keep you posted.

Cheers! Keep on keepin' on!

1 Comment

Copyright or Copywrong Chapter 2: Protection YOUR Way

9/19/2011

2 Comments

Here we are at the corner of Fascination and Say What? Welcome!

When your work is created, I have read, it is "automatically protected". Hey, all you'd have to do is show 'em your computer.

However, if you have to go to court to protect your work, you need to have that legal foot to stand on, so you want to copyright your work.

So, uh...say what? My work is automatically protected...except it's not?

So, which do you think is the better way to go? For $35.00 for countless image submission, I'm going with copyrighting.

But it doesn't stop there. We have some work to do, but we want to make sure that there's not so much work to do that we get overwhelmed and frustrated.

The big starting point is the website. How do you protect the images that you are putting on your website? There are several ways: (1) You can watermark your images; (2) you can put the copyright symbol and your business name on each page of the website; (3) you can make the 72dpi / 300-500 pixel versions of your images for your website, which makes them impossible to blow up if they are copied from your site. Fascinating.

Watermarking is seen as visually intrusive by some, but I have come down on the side - at least for now - of those who say that without the watermark, people who come across your work online won't know where to find you. I know that I have wanted to find an artist of a particularly tasty piece of work, but have been unable to do so. Frustrating.

Yes, watermarks are easy enough to get rid of by someone who knows photoshop, but not everyone will. And I want my work to be out in the world, generating buzz, as long as I know I can protect its unlawful use.

You have the following decisions to make, and actions to take:

(1) Either to watermark your work, or copyright your website images by putting copyright verbiage and markings at the bottom of each page. Or both!
(2) Create a folder just for website versions of your art - 72 dpi (dots per inch), and 300-500 pixels - so that you don't get confused in the future and submit a 72 dpi version of art to a client who asks for hi-res images.
(3) Create a naming convention for those low-res versions of your art. One possibility is a hyphen and the number 72 at the end so that you know that that image is the low res version.
(4) Save those 72 dpi / 300-500 pixel versions of the artwork that is going to be on your website (and that you are going to submit to people who are considering using your artwork).
(5) Watermark or put your website name on the image somewhere so that people can find you - or don't!

These are choices that each person has to make for her or himself, and it is based on how you feel about risk. There is, ultimately, no right answer that will keep you 100% safe, but if you do your due diligence, and make your choices, then whatever comes next will be something you can handle, because you will be empowered with knowledge.

And this is very important: While you create security for yourself in these important ways, don't forget to balance the usage of your time so that you do the art that you love to do.

All organization and no art makes Jill a dull girl.

I'm getting closer to doing my first submissions, because I'm getting so close to being done with putting together my first copyright submission!

So much to learn, and all of it fascinating.

See you on the web!

Lori

2 Comments

Author

Hi! I am a licensing artist, professional actor, and ardent lover of just about anything creative. My motto is "Enjoy! Succeed! Share!" This blog is a window into art licensing as well as my artwork and the creative process that feeds, delights and sometimes pummels us all. Here's to the artists!

Art Licensing Websites - What's the Good Stuff?

Copyright or Copywrong Chapter 2: Protection YOUR Way

Author

Archives

Categories