John Chester, Wild Apple

In Good Time

Sometimes things just take a while to percolate.  This week we were delighted to receive a portfolio submission from an artist we had originally contacted in 1993 - along with a copy of our original WIld Apple letter.  This artist has a long memory (and a durable filing system), and whether or not we end up publishing the artwork, we really value the chance to see the portfolio. 

I imagine many artists hesitate before submitting artwork for review.  It must feel very risky.  We are always looking for fresh imagery and encourage artists to take the risk of showing us your art.  Yes, it's true that we only publish a fraction of what we see, but your odds are way ahead of the lottery! 

Good things take time, we know, and we're ready when you are.

Sparkle

Is everything interconnected?  I didn’t think so until one day I remarked on the sparkles adorning Kat’s face.  I thought they were there on purpose. 

“Oh those?  They’re because of the chipmunk in our house.”

“Huh?”

“Well, you see, our cat brought a chipmunk inside.  Didn’t kill it – our cat seems to have some sort of ‘catch & release’ policy toward rodents.”

“I’m not making the connection with the sparkles.”

“Bear with me.  The chipmunk took up residence in the living room curtains, only to jump out and scare the daylights out of us at random intervals.”

“And therefore…?”

“Well, we finally did get the chipmunk out of the house.  And then I insisted on washing the curtains.”

“Uh huh…”

“And the curtain material left a bunch of sparkly specs all over the washing machine.”

“Aha.  It’s becoming clearer.”

“And our clothes are picking up the sparkles when I do the laundry.  And they stick to my face when I get dressed.” 

A lot has been made of the butterfly effect.*  It appears chipmunks deserve equal time, philosophically speaking.

May your day sparkle.

*Small variations of the initial condition of a dynamical system may produce large variations in the long term behavior of the system.  The phrase refers to the idea that a butterfly's wings might create tiny changes in the atmosphere that ultimately cause a tornado to appear.

Good Cheer!

It's great to end the year on a high note.  Historically the last two months of the year see a slow down, but lo and behold, this November and December have been frenetic, and January orders are already rolling in. 

All's well that ends well; 2006 was not the easiest year for Wild Apple.  Changes in the retail environment, price pressure, and shorter product life cycles led us to become a smaller, leaner, more efficient company.  In the spring we said good-bye to some great people, in as humane and supportive way as possible, and I'm happy to say they have landed right on their feet.  I detest downsizing, since what I love about business is building community.

Amazing what half a year can do.  We're publishing artwork more often, our artists are on a roll, our website has made it much easier to search for images and see them in a "portfolio," and in general doing more with less.  It's great that we're profitable and debt-free, but what's most important is the upbeat momentum in art and creativity.  I thank our artists, customers, employees, and vendors for working and playing with us.  Here's to a fantastic 2007!

Have fun, go wild, buy art...and happy holidays!

Price of Creativity

Capitalism is alive and well in the print and poster industry.  To compete we have to keep our pencils sharp.  While customers certainly discern the difference between various artists, everyone pushes hard on price.

We frequently get comments that such and such poster could be printed for $ X, so why is it so expensive for them?  If there weren’t any cost to develop the image, say an out of copyright image, I might agree.  The printing is only one part of the equation.  When you take into account the royalties to the artist (and we have never missed a payment), the high end digital photography, the exacting color correction process, the design and layout, the research on trends, the widespread search for artists, the contract negotiations, the continuous communication on artistic concepts…well, it takes a village, as they say, and it all adds up.

We’re hungry and we always aim to be competitive on price – though we’re rarely the low cost publisher.  We devote a lot of our resources to developing art – we believe in the value of creativity, and believe creativity deserves a fair price.

China

I just got home from a week long trip to China.  I definitely caught the first-timer's paranoia virus:  it feels like China is an unstoppable force, so big, so energetic, so much momentum.  The quip that we should start learning Mandarin soon has an element of truth to it.  Their low wages, aggressive business culture, and lax regulatory / environmental climate are hard to compete against.

There is some good news for a company like ours, however.  While the Chinese can mimic artwork with impresive technical skill, creativity and original artistic expression is exceedingly rare.  And when it does occur, it has to luck out to be the kind of work that gains widespread acceptance in the market.  It's not to say that it can't happen eventually, but until their artists are traveling the world and connecting with global trends (not just copying them), we'll have a strong advantage in creativity and design.  And that's where we will continue to focus harder than ever.

Another bit of positive news is that the level of piracy of our images at several trade shows appears to be down somewhat.  There's still plenty of illegal copying going on, but government focus on copyrights and our own efforts to combat rip-offs is resulting in some progress. 

Respect Art!

We don’t get no respect. 

The art and framing industry sure doesn’t get the respect it deserves.  Despite the PPFA, despite the Art & Framing Council, despite Larson Juhl’s advertisements in home décor magazines, art is more often that not an afterthought in the decorating process!  People buy paint, furniture, rugs, wallpaper...and then maybe think about the art. 

A framed piece of art changes a room faster than any other single element.  Art is far more personal, more expressive, and more eye-catching.  And it does not have to be expensive, as there is an enormous range available.

The good news is that there’s a book just published that hits this concept right on the head.  The book is The Fine Art of Wall Design, by Suzanne Gallagher.  It’s a great contribution to the art & framing industry, as it is written for the consumer in a straightforward, upbeat style.  She includes Wild Apple artwork (not enough, in my opinion, but what would you expect from me), and we like the book so much that we feature it on our website (see the bottom right hand link at http://www.wildapple.com/fineart/catsearch.asp). 

Here’s hoping you get the respect you deserve…

Buy Art (of course)

When you put your thinking cap on, how about making sure it contains the thought "Buy Art."  This was our gimmick at the Atlanta Decor Expo art & framing trade show last week.   Over the years we have had Buy Art bumper stickers (still available), Buy Art buttons, and even Buy Art temporary tattoos (they were applied with water, and wine worked too...but that's another story). 

Buy Art is a fun slogan, being so in-your-face direct, and it's certainly the right message for our industry.  Of course, we have the Wild Apple name and logo on the back of the cap in our shameless self promotion efforts.  We only made enough caps for the show, but we are considering offering them for sale to the trade for $10.  If you have an opinion, hit the comment button below!

On Notice

First timers on Wild Apple's website, www.wildapple.com, will see an intro page with a severe copyright warning in multiple languages. 

Wild Apple is a particularly friendly company, so it feels a little strange to put such a stark warning at the forefront of someone's experience with us.  But it's an important enough issue that anything we can do to discourage copyright infringement seems worth it.  Over the years Wild Apple and our extended family of artists and employees have been ripped off more times than I care to imagine.  It is an especially vexing problem in China.

Wild Apple pursues all infringements we find in the US with good success, and go after many cases outside our borders - even though it is much more challenging in countries that offer lackluster support for international copyright law.  We have been a part of the Art Copyright Coalition (www.artcc.org) since its inception, and work with other publishers in the industry to crack down on illegal cases.

Once you have seen the web page with the stern message once, it doesn't come up when you return to the site - we really do want to be the friendly company!

Trade Show Obsessing

With the Atlanta Decor Expo trade show coming up (September 8-10), there is a lot of rushing around here to make sure the booth and its hundreds of details will be just right.  We always have one point person in charge – that’s Maureen now – and I’m sympathetic to the position, having lived it for several years.

Trade shows are great events for obsessive people like me, because you can create minutia-filled lists and fixate on packing technique.  Our first show ever was in Chicago, and I had every picture, order form, thumb tack and staple perfectly organized in our car (yes, we drove from Vermont).  Set-up went pretty darn smoothly.  It wasn’t until the morning of the show that I realized I had forgotten to pack my pants.  For some reason, my less organized wife considered this humorous, while I scrambled to find an open clothing store.

Thus began a weird phenomenon for me of forgetting some item of clothing at each show (belt, socks, tie).  I assure you it was not a conscious action; I’m not sure what the psychological implications are.  The low point was finding myself buying briefs, and not the legal sort, in High Point, NC.  I’d keep that to myself, but Laurie has been kind enough to share the story with enough people that this blog won’t have much impact.

I seem to have strayed, some distance in fact, from my original point:  When you see Maureen at the show, be nice to her!

Choices We Make

The moment of truth.  You arrive at the airport just after they "close" checked baggage for your flight.  Your bag is small enough to take as a carry on, but with the new security regulations, you know you'll have to throw away a lot of your "stuff."  What do you do?

An unnamed Wild Apple salesperson was faced with exactly this dilemma today.  She (or he) chose her (or his) stuff over getting home fast: it meant getting home at midnight instead of late afternoon.  And what it came down to, she (or he) confided, was the really expensive shampoo that she (or he) didn't want to part with.

I loved that she (or he) was willing to tell me what happened, question aloud her (or his) own sanity, proclaim embarrassment, and laugh and laugh about it.  I like that this person made a choice, maybe the right one, maybe not, and instead of stewing about it like I probably would have, rode it out with humor.