Archive | Art

Apparel in the Picture for Photographers

Photographers are less frequent participants in apparel collaborations than artists, in part because photographs offer less flexibility in design than is possible with art imagery and in part because the pool of high-profile photographers is smaller than the pool of artists, among other factors. But there are opportunities, not just for graphic t-shirts but for […]

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Monkey Business

The licensing landscape surrounding NFT images is highly fragmented. That is because, in the most popular NFT projects, owners of each unique image typically retain the right to commercialize that image and its derivative works (e.g., slightly manipulated versions for use in merchandise). Many of the licensors do not know how to go about licensing […]

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Artists Navigate NFTs

Right from the beginning, artists and the art community were expected to be among the beneficiaries of the rise of NFTs. And many artists, from the biggest names in fine art to digital artists who have become known specifically for their work in the NFT space, are carving out a niche in this market. Some […]

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Picture-Perfect Beauty

Art museums, and the fine artists whose work appears in those institutions, have increasingly been forging licensing and collaboration deals in the beauty category—especially in fragrances—resulting in creative interpretations of key works of art, not just on packaging but in the formulation of the scents and color palettes themselves. Products range from exceedingly limited and […]

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Painting a Picture

One of the products in the gift shop at this year’s sold-out Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is a licensed plush figure depicting Dick Bruna’s rabbit character Miffy as Vermeer’s The Milkmaid. This is the latest in a small but growing group of collaborations, mostly taking place in Europe or Asia, whose design inspiration […]

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Down to a Fine Art

The concept of “artist series,” consisting of in-and-out collections featuring the imagery of a variety of artists, has been with us for decades. But the strategy is certainly experiencing a surge in recent years. Apparel, accessories, and footwear are the most frequent sectors where artist series take place; however, marketers in a growing number of […]

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State of the Art

Museums, from the V&A in London to MoMA in New York, have been involved in both inbound and outbound licensing for a long time, and several players have been entering and expanding their licensing activities at a fast pace over the last two years. Institutions including The Met, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Oxford University’s […]

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Gnome Décor

Gnomes have been an integral part of home décor, and popular culture in general, for decades, always an evergreen presence with waxing and waning popularity over time. Sales are currently in the midst of a long uptrend, with the latest resurgence ongoing since the mid-2010s. Google Trends, which measures interest based on the number of […]

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