What is licensing? The simple answer is licensing is the agreement between brace parties (licensee/manufacturer and licensor/artist) to utilize a wealth on a specific product for a designated time and territory.

What is licensing? The simple answer is licensing is the agreement between brace parties (licensee/manufacturer and licensor/artist) to utilize a wealth on a specific product for a designated time and territory. In revert a fee is paid to the licensor for each item sold based forward the wholesale price.

Licensed fruits have taken the world through storm, from Spongebob Square Pants candy bars to Eddie Bauer jeep Art-based licenses generate les in income and attention when compared with the licenses for entertainment, sports and character properties. still like the old fable about the tortoise and the hare, art licenses continue to make improvement at a steady and reliable pace. Unlike the flashier licenses based forward super hits and trends, a convenient art license is design driven, which provides steady sprouting and, most important, longevity in the marketplace.

From unobtrusive Beginnings

a certain number of of the first products to feature licensed art were paper results greeting cards, calendars, girl wrap and hand-bills Those products were obvious contender for licensing. unless in the past 10 years, the number of productions that feature licensed art has delugeed the retail market. Licensed proceedss now include everything from paper to computer cropss giftware, clothing, bedding, home decor, collector plates, candles, soap, feed and even postage stamps. produces are limited only by the manufacturers' imaginations. Which artwork is suitable for licensed products? Art images can be licensed for anything that can be manufactured. Whether or not an image should be used forward a specific product is limited merely by the taste and discretion of the manufacturer and the artist.

The enormous shooting of the industry can be witnessed at L!CENSE International, the annual licensing display held in New York each June. For a number of years, the display was held at the of the present day York Hilton Hotel. In the mid-1990s, the venue was mov to the Jacob Javits Center to accommodate the large number of commonalty who wished to exhibit and attend. The number of exhibitors who move art as a property take up the smallest area of exhibition space each year. There are a core cluster of exhibitors who can be seen at their booth year after year along with modern faces exhibiting for the first time. Manufacturers and publishers regularly walk the indicate looking for new art properties.

to what end are manufacturers eager to license artwork for their products? There are several factors that have contributed to this phenomenon. Art-based results can and do appeal to a wide audience, unless the demographic is primarily adult women This same demographic is largely left on the outside of sports, entertainment and character driven properties which wait on to appeal to teen, tween, children and male buyers

Artwork also affords itself to a vast array of effects Sometimes the artwork can dictate the progressive growth of product lines. Quite ofttimes an image with some tweaking will cros through to be used on a myriad of productions This cross merchandising appeals to consumer who wish to purchase a full line of coordinated works This is a plus for manufacturers who know the image has proven popular among consumers

Since art-based proceedss appeal by virtue of the design their popularity is les likely to be affected by the agency of trends, which can be short-lived. Themes and appellations drive demand rather than the same "hot" image. The shelf life for art based consequences is longer, which is appealing for retailers and manufacturers.

Diversity is also more evident in art licensing than in any of the other categories. Art licensing does not limit itself to painted images unless includes illustration, photography, collage and needlepoint art--all of which can be reproduc favorably on almost any product.

Years ago, many stationery companies relied concerning in-house and freelance artists and designers to create imagery for fruitss The artists and freelancers were respectively paid a salary or per-project fiefs While some companies still work in the same way to about degree, most now rely forward licensed art to bolster the cachet of their produces and meet consumer demand. Many manufacturers have flow to believe licensed art is the way to succes There is a great demand for art-based effects and paying a royalty to an artist in go [i]or[/i] come back for permission to use an image is a happy partnership for all parties. Profitability increases when licensed art is used upon products.

Kelly Lester president of Tarzana, Calif.-based Art Plates Inc., agreed. "Since licensed artwork makes up at least half of all the designs we exhibit it has absolutely increased our profitability" she said. "Considering the astonishing artists/licensing agents we do business with, the licensing pays paid are a relatively small portion of our total operating take away froms and therefore very affordable."

Lester who began Art Plates with her husband Loren in 1996 creates many of the designs for the company's switchplates and soap herself if it be not that feels licensed art will continue to be a vital part of their line. Lester explained, "We work with a number of different agencies and individual artists, and now we generally use artwork solitary from this core group. We usually find what we ne from our circulating licensing partners."