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 […]
Archive | Art
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 […]
Design on Demand
The increasingly important role of print on demand in art licensing was one of the topics discussed in the “Spotlight: Art Licensing” session at Licensing University in late August. Licensing U was produced by Licensing International and took place alongside Licensing Expo Virtual. Print-on-demand platforms have had an ever greater impact as the technology has […]
Museums Mark Mid-Autumn
The Mid-Autumn Festival is a celebration of the Harvest Moon that takes place in China and other parts of Asia, this year on September 21. In the lead-up to this big holiday, designers and fashion labels, chefs, hotels, corporate brands, characters, and video game properties have increasingly partnered for gift sets containing mooncakes, a delicacy […]
Color Schemes
A number of museums have recently worked with licensees or collaborators on products that feature a work of art’s color palette as the core design element. This is in contrast to incorporating a full representation of the original work or a pattern or element inspired by it, which is the traditional route taken by most […]
The Many Facets of Diamond Painting
Modern diamond painting—a craft in which the user applies tiny colored resin “diamonds” to a canvas in a process sometimes described as a hybrid of paint by number and cross stitch—is a relatively new hobby, introduced in 2015 in Asia and brought to the U.S. in 2017. Its fast pace of growth has quickly turned […]
Collaborations Honor Black History
By Karen Raugust on February 18, 2021 in Art, Demographic groups, Design and content themes, Fashion, Licensing
Black History Month in February of each year has not traditionally maintained as high a profile within the consumer product and collaboration space as Hispanic Heritage Month, which takes place in September and October and has increasingly been seen as a time for licensors and their partners to create themed collections. IP owners and brands […]
Culture Club
A number of cultural institutions—the bulk of which have traditionally handled their licensing and product development activities (if any) internally—have signed licensing agents in the past year, with most of the announcements coming since the beginning of the COVID era: The Metropolitan Museum of Art launched a global licensing program, announced in July, with Beanstalk […]
Honoring Indigenous Artists
Indigenous artists from around the world have been at the core of several recent initiatives in the worlds of licensing, collaboration, fashion, and retail. Some announcements in the past couple of months have included: Last week’s debut of the National Indigenous Fashion Awards in Australia, developed by the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair Foundation. Nominations included […]
Sketches and Scribbles
Last week, Firefly Brand Management announced that it had signed on to represent professional doodler Todd Goldman for licensing representation. That follows on the heels of Striker Entertainment being retained by the Doodle Boy. It turns out that a long list of professional doodle artists from around the world promote their hand-drawn patterns and characters […]