John Chester, Wild Apple

Alternative Art Approaches

One of the biggest changes in the art print and licensing industries over the last decade is the growing amount of digitally generated and digitally manipulated artwork.  It can be a sensitive subject because some view digital art as soulless, unauthentic, and lacking the richness of painting.  Indeed, a lot of work on the market appears unfinished and hasty, and comes under the heading, “Just because you can use photoshop doesn’t mean you should.”

 

But just as paintings can be poorly or beautifully executed, so can digital art.  At Wild Apple, we are playing a little bit of catch up in the digital design world, but we enthusiastically embrace both traditional and digital approaches.  There’s no question about the importance of oil and acrylic paintings, as they account for 8 of our 10 best selling prints and over 80% of our top 100.  The picture is similar in licensing, though there is more of a pronounced movement toward flexible artistic components that can be readily adapted to a variety of product shapes. 

 

We intend to keep our creative juices going on multiple fronts, constantly introducing beautiful paintings and artistically layered digital imagery – all to feed the ever present hunger for new artwork in a variety of styles.

Gadget Lust

Vermont is sort of like purgatory for gadget lovers. Beautiful mountains and valleys make for limited phone service coverage.  We thought the oh-so-unsexy bag phone was a big deal in the early 1990’s.  I sat on and broke several precursors to the palm pilot, then owned the latter for what seemed like forever as I waited and waited and waited for the  blackberry to be serviceable in our area (I had the very first “Upper Valley”-based blackberry, even though they had been around for almost a decade in the city).  The iPhone became available in Vermont this January, and I have been exercising extreme restraint waiting for the next version to come out.  WHICH IT HAS.  My birthday is coming up very soon and I’d sure appreciate it if you’d casually mention to Laurie that the iPhone would make an ideal gift…

Taking A Break

Laurie and I recently celebrated our 25^th anniversary with our first non-business, no-kids trip in 20 years.  There are a thousand reasons why it was such a great trip, and I’ll spare you the details of the sights, scenery, food, wine, and gobs of photos.

A big part of such a great trip was that for the first time in many years, I unplugged completely.  No laptop, no smart phone, no blogging, no emails.  I wasn’t sure it could be done, and surprised myself with how fast I let it go.  It was rejuvenating living in the moment, just the two of us, in a place we love to be, without the To Do list sitting on the shoulders.

So basically this is a blog about how great not blogging can be. Now I’m all plugged back in; re-entry was surprisingly OK after a refreshing break. I just hope I can remember to take that kind of true vacation before another 20 years sneaks by.

  

Me and My 200,000,000 Best Friends

Being right on the cutting edge, I recently joined the tiny group of only 200 million people with Facebook accounts. And created a Facebook page for Wild Apple. 

 

I’m still trying to figure out what all the fuss is about. I resisted for a long time, but despite my negative predilection, I’m enjoying it.  Maybe too much, as it tends to eat up a lot of time. I like the fluidity and inter-weaving texture of the site, though it can be confusing at times.

 

So if Ernst & Young, an accounting firm, has 28,000 Facebook “fans,” can’t a creative art company like Wild Apple build a strong base? Trouble is, we don’t hire so many people… I look forward to creating more dialogue and getting more feedback over time via Facebook, this blog, LinkedIn, and who knows – Twitter?

Taking Stock

Just recently a number of industry magazines have posited that inventory management is the key to surviving and recovering in this challenging economy. But surprisingly the point was not about reducing inventory, but making sure there is enough stock.

Warren Shoulberg, publisher of HFN and one of my favorite industry commentators, notes "stock outages, slipshod displays and just plain poor execution on the selling floor" at a chain whose stores usually look great. In Home Accents Today, Lisa Choate of CAS is quoted, "Wall décor is a business of choice, and if there isn’t a breadth of selection, the sales in the category will start to decline... The more that is stocked, the more that will sell."

Self-serving as it may be, I agree wholeheartedly. Empty shelves, messy displays, and tired same-old-same-old artwork give consumers no reason to buy. No question that wall décor is a notoriously difficult category to merchandise. How many times have you seen the wall décor section of a major chain store in shambles? At the other extreme, highly organized plan-a-gram peg-board walls make stock-outs stick out like a sore thumb.

Every product category surely has its own set of challenges. For retailers, framed art is still a great category – it takes relatively little space and generates high revenue per square foot, with good margin. Art is (duh) a visual product, and it’s gotta look good in the store. Tired, messy, and especially empty shelves & walls don’t look good.

Positive Prognostication

On Monday, I sent an email to everyone at Wild Apple “officially” declaring that we have hit bottom and the economy is going to start a slow steady climb.  It was pretty lucky timing, as by the end of the day the stock market was up 500 points!

The downturn is largely due to a simple lack of confidence.  For months the media has been feeding the downward spiral in our confidence, pouncing on every bit of bad news.  I have been anxiously awaiting a shift in the overall tone in the media, and over the last couple of weeks I think it has happened.  At least there is some balance between bad and good news – a marked changed from the daily (hourly?) deluge of nastiness.

I celebrated my increased confidence by buying a cup of premium coffee at the local shop (we don’t have those national chains in Woodstock) instead of waiting to get to the office for the shared pot.  Hey, it’s a small step, but maybe it’ll lead to bigger things.   

Go Team Go

    WInter is long in Vermont. But it's OK with me because that means it's ice hockey season.  Our team, the World Famous** Woodstock Woodies, just ended its best season ever. All that means is we weren't dead last in the league. However, we do claim the best website in the entire world of mediocre adult hockey www.woodieshockey.com (some of it is a little off-color).

My wish is for business to be as much fun as playing on the team, with similar camaraderie, competitive drive, team spirit and sense of play. In this fearful, nervous economy, that's a tall order, but at Wild Apple I think we hit it more often than not. Fortunately our win-loss record in artwork is a lot better than my hockey team's!

**a guy in Denmark knows about us

Artexpo NY

Not exactly the ideal way to run a business...but kind of fun in its own way.  At 4:00 PM the day before set-up, we made the decision to exhibit at Artexpo NY at the Javits Center.  A mad scramble to pack the car, speed to NY, and 28 hours later the booth was set up and ready to go.

We had debated whether or not to exhibit our new Wild Apple Open Studio line of prints on acrylic, metal, bamboo and birch at Artexpo.  Prospects for the show sounded lukewarm, a number of exhibitors had dropped out, and of course the economy isn't making us particularly comfortable taking on new risks and expenses.

We're awfully glad we went. Despite all the general negativity in the industry and the world at large, we made some sales and more importantly made some great contacts. We know that it's a tough time to introduce a new line of products, but it's a great time to be really innovative. And people were drawn to the creative way the artwork interacts with interesting materials. 

I wouldn't suggest leaving trade show decisions to the very last minute as company policy.  That might be an exciting way to live, but kind of stressful.  In this strange economy, however, it does make sense to jump on opportunities to get innovative products in front of your audience.

A Prettier Picture

How refreshing to experience a vibrant show in our industry!  The West Coast Art & Frame Show in Las Vegas this week gives cause for (cautious) optimism in a time when we’re all deluged by negative news. 

 

The booth was busy – you know it’s a good show when you can’t get a bite to eat until 4:00 o’clock.  Not surprisingly in this economy, official attendance was down from last year (credit to the organizers for being open about it), and it is a shame that this show did not coincide with the Las Vegas furniture market this year.  But somehow it did not feel like attendance was down.  Buyers attending the show were serious, well-informed, and positive.  International business was much higher than expected.  While over the past few years trade shows have been “show & tell” events, this one brought quite a number of good old fashioned on-the-spot orders (including ones for our new Wild Apple Open Studio product line).  And to top it off, we ran out of catalogues.

What’s behind the positive blip?  If you know, please fill me in – meanwhile I’ll offer my limited-perspective hypotheses.  First, WCAF has become the one viable domestic show for the industry, and if you want to play in the business, you have to be there.  Email, websites, catalogues, and sales calls are great, but the industry benefits hugely from a successful trade show.  Hopefully the positive energy of the show goes long beyond a temporary phenomenon and leads to a slow, gradual climb.

 

There are a number of key large retailers who are paying attention to wall décor and keeping their offerings fresh and exciting.  One theory I think is true – and I really want to be true – is that in this difficult economy we are in a good position by supplying the affordable end of the art and home décor market.  People are not building and buying houses or starting major renovations, but an affordable framed print can fit a stressed budget and have an immediate big impact on a room. 

 

Not that I think we’re out of the woods yet by any means.  Our stance is to be aggressive in publishing fresh new art, and remain very careful about expenses.  But it is fantastic to come away from a show feeling really good!

 

Our next show is Quadrum/SACA in Bologna, Italy (February 19-22), where you can find us with distributor Print Portfolio/Devon Editions.  Ciao.

Artist Letter

It made my day to get the following letter from artist Helen Shulman:

"A couple of days ago I received a letter from a lady who had seen my web site and was inquiring about whether a couple of paintings were for sale.  Since, from time to time (rarely, thank goodness), people who have seen work in galleries make direct contact in the hopes of bypassing the gallery's share, it is my habit to ask how they found me.  Here comes the cool part.  It turns out she and her husband saw a poster of "First Light" in a local store.  They decided they wanted the original!  As it happens it has been sold, but she expressed a lot of interest in my work and said she plans to contact one (or more) of my galleries.  I thought that was neat and wanted to share it with you.  It doesn't do anything for Wild Apple's bottom line and may not do anything for mine either, but it made me feel good and is a nice benefit for me. Thanks."