Adding & Subtracting

+Senior consultant: Beau Thebault will be consulting on business development special projects. Beau brings a wealth of knowledge as a operations and growth executive, experienced in understanding the needs of a business organization then driving dramatic growth through innovative planning and effective implementation. He has led the needs of artists into profitable business structures with brand extentions in private and retail label merchandise.

-Fashion publicist: Our dear Sophie Conti is headed to Paris for a project with Dior but will return to our open arms mid-2009. Sophie will be keeping her eyes and ears open for any new opportunities in France, while Portia will continue to take the lead on publicity for fashion clients.

Going Solo?

I was recently fortunate enough to stumble across and speak with a well-kept industry secret for artists, Katharine T. Carter & Associates

While Agrani Consulting offers services to artists and art organizations with specific business development and marketing needs, Katharine and her associates (including William Zimmer, Richard Vine and Jonathan Goodman) focus on securing one-person museum exhibitions for their artist-clients. The firm focuses on the serious development of the artist's career in the non-profit area, and Katharine uses her incredible wealth of contacts in the art publishing, museum and gallery worlds to accomplish this mission.

One of the most intriguing program on offer is their New York Presence Program , a program designed for artists who have had several one-person museum exhibitions nationally or internationally or who have had 10 years of exhibition experience.

If you are a mid-career artist seriously considering the next step in your career, please take the time to visit this site.

Fashion Passion

Do you decide what you will wear based on mood?
Do you choose clothes based on comfort, to show off, or to hide and disguise?
Do your clothes need to say something about your position in society, your professional status, your social concerns?
Do you feel that what you wear says more about you than anything else?

As frivolous as fashion may be, to some it is a very important part of their lives. Although most don't want to admit it, there is a high emotional and psychological link to fashion and as marketers it is important to understand those links and to help fashion designers feel more comfortable with the realization that not everyone will like what they design and that's ok. More times that not, I have found that fashion designers are just fine with that.

For a fashion designer, it is important to understand what you are trying to communicate in your designs, selected materials, etc. in order to translate that philosophy into your brand and further infuse it into the lifestyle and psyche of your consumers.

Portia in Shadows & Dust original Ruffle Jacket

The marketing communications mix of branding, advertising, marketing and public relations stems from the careful study of what you as a designer are trying to communicate and for you to get a better grasp of how to convey that mood or essence. Sometimes it is indeed intuitive, but even the most successful brands have participated in exercises which clarify their brand message as well as clearly identify their customer.

The current state of the US economy demands that fashion brands re-examine their positioning in the marketplace to both consumer and wholesalers alike and not be afraid to change the mix or streamline the process. In the end, this process may lead to the discovery of methods to make the business more profitable, and to lead to the road of finding a consumer that is much more loyal to their brand.

Image: Shadows & Dust Dress Jacket 2007. Photo by Amanda De Simone

Art is Smart

So why do I feel so dumb?

If I go to museum and look at a piece that gives me absolutely no thrill, joy or understanding, yet it's worth $2.6 million dollars I do feel a bit dumb. What am I not getting?

This is the thought that goes through many people's minds. They feel that they are too dumb to appreciate art. And sometimes (gasp!) there is art that dumbs itself down so that people will buy it. While one can argue that there are many out there that are simply swapping artwork for profit and gain, the bottom line is that one should be passionate about artwork. Whatever role one plays in today's art market, the purist would hope that artwork has moved a person on an emotional level.

As a marketer who has not been academically trained in art,  but has worked in the art sphere of galleries and museums (Milwaukee Art Museum, The Bronx Museum of the Arts), my instinct with contemporary art is to find things that are easily relatable.  To help bring those that don't understand art to begin discovering good artwork. "Hey that's cool," or "Wow," or "this is interesting," is the response that I seek from consumers when they see artwork created by the artists I collaborate with.

I select artists based on the fact that in one or many of their pieces, there is commercial viability. I want to market artwork that inspires an instinctive response and that gets people excited. Yes, critical accolades plays an imperative role in the market, yet the current trend is to brand the artist/artwork in both the art and business world in a manner that never degrades or lowers the artists standards, rather, lines their pockets and increases the awareness of their viewpoint, talent and brand.

Now that's smart art.

Image: Bow (girl on beach) 2005 Enamel on wood. Arnie Arnold's Dripscape series