Collections pairing the imagery of established artists with high-profile apparel and accessories labels have represented a trend in the licensing and fashion businesses for some time, and that continues, as recent deals attest: Keith Haring’s estate and its agent Artestar are collaborating with Coach on a spring/summer 2018 collection of handbags and wallets, representing the […]
Archive | Art
Conference Conflict: Decision Time for Artists and Agents
Next year’s earlier dates for Licensing Expo—May 23-25, compared to mid-June in previous years—creates a conundrum for artists and art agents that exhibit at both Licensing Expo and Surtex. The two shows will overlap in 2017, with Surtex taking place from May 21-23, its traditional timeframe. In the past, a large number of artists and […]
More Trends in Adult Coloring
Even as it starts to slow, the adult coloring book sector remains both a product category of interest to licensors and, increasingly, a source for licensed properties. As Publishers Weekly put it in an April 29, 2016 article, “Adult coloring book sales have slowed somewhat since the holiday frenzy of 2015, but the category is […]
Out of Sight But Not Out of Mind
Camouflage licensing, an already-significant sector that encompasses proprietary camouflage designs and brand names such as Realtree and Mossy Oak, has continued to evolve and grow in a number of ways over time: New brands. Camouflage suppliers beyond the big two have entered licensing, as U.S. military specialist Tennier Industries did when it retained The Brand […]
Heading for the Finnish
By Karen Raugust on March 14, 2016 in Art, Character/Entertainment, Digital, International, Licensing
Properties from Finland, especially from the worlds of design, digital entertainment, and publishing, are expanding their activities on the global market this year. Many are classics, or at least well established, but their profiles are on the upswing, each for its own reasons. On the design side, Marimekko, which has been known for its brightly […]
The Many Hues of Adult Coloring
Although publishers report continued strong sales for adult coloring books (at least in the U.S.), and licensors are still entering the market or looking into doing so, this now-crowded sector is starting to mature. One indication is its diversification and expansion in several directions: Adjacent categories. Buffalo Games has a line of puzzles that come […]
True Colors, Part 2
If you’ve done any holiday shopping this year, you certainly have noted the prominent and often vast displays of adult coloring books in stores of all types. Nearly every publisher seems to offer at least one adult coloring book, with more to come. Less than a month ago (November 19), we noted the rise of […]
Man’s Best Friend
Art trends come and go, but photographs of cute dogs and cats—often dressed, digitally or otherwise, and/or behaving anthropomorphically—always seem to be in style. That ongoing popularity has translated to well-established global licensing programs for pet photographers based in territories all around the world: American Keith Kimberlin offers a large archive of photographs of kittens […]
Made by Hand
A trend in the world of commercial art and surface design—and, by extension, in the world of art licensing—is an affinity for imagery that is hand-created. Even when digitized for production, the hand-made qualities, such as brush strokes, show through and give the work a singular look. A couple of the artists and art studios […]
A Tale of Two Art Shows
Artists often seem to weigh the positives and negatives of SURTEX versus Licensing Expo as if they are similar opportunities, with the main difference being their respective locations in New York and Las Vegas. And it is true that there is some crossover between the two when it comes to the artists exhibiting. But a […]