Studio F is a new art marketing platform through which artists can sell their work as high-quality vinyl decals and wrapped canvases on fathead.com. Part of the Fathead family of companies, Studio F uses the marketing prowess and reach of the Fathead brand along with Fathead’s digital graphic technology to reproduce curated artists’ work as decals that buyers can display as frameless wall art, furniture enhancements, or window art.
Colorful Launch over Thanksgiving Weekend
To demonstrate the full potential and scale of Studio F’s creative capabilities, Detroit artists Ellen Rutt and Patrick Ethen were commissioned to create RADIANT CITY, a large-scale public art installation that in downtown Detroit. The artists were commissioned to help create an exciting experience to unveil Studio F and the transformative nature of the product.
Fathead launches Studio F, a new artist portal, with stunning exhibit RADIANT CITY in downtown Detroit (PRNewsFoto/Fathead LLC)
The installation was open November 25-27 during the festivities surrounding America’s Thanksgiving Parade presented by Art Van.
Rutt and Ethen designed over 300 one-of-a-kind patterns that were sampled from Detroit architecture, printed on Fathead vinyl, and applied to the tops of tables by IKEA, the world’s largest furniture retailer. Using downtown Detroit’s beautiful, historic Grand Circus Park as their canvas, Rutt and Ethen arranged the tables to form an enormous mosaic and immersive color field around the Russell Alger Memorial Fountain.
“The patchwork quilt is a powerful metaphor for Detroit,” says Ethen, “there are so many people, ideas and cultures at play. This city is best understood as a plurality—nothing less than the sum of its parts.”
The duo explored Detroit to archive a collection of patterns from all over the city. “It’s important for us to make work that’s imbued with a sense of place,” adds Rutt, “There’s such a rich creative history in Detroit, so much inspiration surrounding us already, that sourcing patterns from local architecture was an obvious choice. RADIANT CITY symbolically references the present cultural climate, the energy and passion that is so tangible here.”
After the exhibit closed, some of the art-topped tables in RADIANT CITY for Studio F were donated to Humble Design, a non-profit group that provides furnishings and design services to families transitioning out of homeless shelters. The remaining tables will be sold on December 1 in celebration of #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back. All proceeds will go to Humble Design.
RADIANT CITY for Studio F was a colorful launch celebration for Studio F. Fathead worked with Minneapolis based advertising agency Fallon Worldwide to develop the launch idea and choose Ellen Rutt and Patrick Ethen as the first artists to be featured on the Studio F website.
“Studio F is the next evolution of Fathead,” said Joanna Cline, chief marketing officer, Fathead. “We can now offer our quality products, stellar marketing support and customer service to the artistic community.” Established artists and “artists to watch” will be able to expand their art collections to this dynamic new online gallery.
Information about how to apply for inclusion in the Studio F gallery and earn commissions for the sale of your work can be found on the Studio F website.
VirtuEye is a London-based company that develops non-gaming virtual reality applications.
VirtuEye is using virtual reality technology to make it possible to be in one place physically while looking around in another location. They are marketing their services to real estate companies and travel agencies who want to showcase properties and destinations and galleries and museums who want to disseminate or preserve exhibitions.
While using virtual reality to visit a location isn’t quite the same as being there, VirtuEye founders believe it can be an extraordinary and practical experience: “The times when you had to physically visit a place to see it have ended.”
They also encourage artists to consider using virtual reality technology to influence the way people see and experience the world.
On July 14, an audience in Brooklyn used VirtuEye technology to see three site-specific sculptures that artist MrToll installed in the middle of the Arizona desert as part of the Virtual Borders Arizona project. Experiencing the Arizona desert via virtual reality technology enabled New Yorkers to see that human-defined borders are insignificant in a terrain in which raw, unforgiving nature stretches for hundreds of miles. The borderless land existed long before humans arrived and it will continue to exist long after humans are gone.
The virtual reality sculpture exhibition, curated by Gabija Grusaite, also suggested that everyone who pursues the dream to succeed needs to cross a metaphorical desert. The artist believes all borders are virtual borders, and that our modern world is enabled by free movement of people, ideas, art, and cultures. Trying to control that free movement limits creativity and progress.
To learn more about how VirtuEye can help real-estate buyers visit properties from afar, view the video below.
In keeping with their mission of “changing the world through digital experiences,” Adobe has launched a milestone release of its flagship Adobe Creative Cloud tools and services. They also announced the availability of the new Adobe Stock content service.
The 2015 release of Creative Cloud includes major updates to Adobe’s desktop tools, including Photoshop CC, Illustrator CC, Premiere Pro CC and InDesign CC. It also provides new connected mobile apps for iOS and Android.
Adobe Stock is the first stock content service to be integrated directly into the tools creatives use every day.
Adobe Stock Content Service
Adobe Stock makes 40 million photos, vector graphics and illustrations accessible directly within CC desktop apps. You can launch Adobe Stock with CC desktop software, add watermarked images to Creative Cloud libraries, and then access and work with images across multiple desktop and mobile tools. When ready to license an image for finished work, you can do it directly within the CC desktop software application. You can also edit a watermarked image in an applications such as Photoshop CC. When licensed, the edits are automatically applied to the purchased full-resolution image.
Based on the acquisition of stock content provider Fotolia earlier this year, Adobe Stock is available in 36 countries and 13 languages worldwide, including the US, UK, Australia and Japan. It is expected to be available in India in the near future.
Because Adobe Stock is a standalone service, you don’t have to be a Creative Cloud member to download, purchase, or sell stock images. You can buy single images as needed or purchase a monthly plan.
If you are a Creative Cloud member, you can save up to 40 percent when you add an Adobe Stock annual plan to your Creative Cloud membership.
Adobe Stock may shake up the $3 billion global stock image market, because Adobe customers not only contribute to stock image services but are also regular purchasers of stock content. An estimated 85 percent of creatives who buy stock content use Adobe tools. More than 90 percent of stock content sellers use Adobe software to prepare photos and images.
Photographers and designers who contribute content to Adobe Stock can access a worldwide community of stock content buyers and receive industry-leading rates for content.
According to David Wadhwani, senior vice president of Digital Media, “Adobe Stock extends Creative Cloud’s value as a vibrant global marketplace.” When accessed through Creative Cloud, the new service simplifies the buying and selling of stock content.
“Our customers–the best photographers and designers on the planet–will have the opportunity to contribute millions of new photos and images to Adobe Stock,” says Wadhwani. “This is really going to raise the bar in the world of stock content.”
Improvements to Creative Cloud
Wadhwani believes Creative Cloud 2015 is Adobe’s most powerful and comprehensive release to date.
Since Creative Cloud was introduced in 2012, Adobe has championed the idea that mobile devices should be integral to the creative process, with free companion mobile apps working seamlessly with CC desktop tools. Adobe has now released Brush CC, Shape CC, Color CC and Photoshop Mix on Android for the first time, bringing connected mobile workflows to millions of creatives worldwide. Adobe has also updated many of its popular Creative Cloud mobile apps for iPhone and iPad, including Adobe Comp CC, Photoshop Mix, Photoshop Sketch, Illustrator Draw, Brush CC, Shape CC and Color CC.
In addition to these updates, Adobe debuted Adobe Hue CC. Hue CC provides an easy way to capture and share production- quality lighting and color schemes — for video, film and broadcast — by using an iPhone camera and then applying these light and color moods into a Premiere Pro CC or After Effects CC project.
At the heart of Creative Cloud is Adobe CreativeSync, a signature technology that intelligently syncs creative assets: files, photos, fonts, vector graphics, brushes, colors, settings, metadata and more.
With CreativeSync, assets are instantly available, in the right format, wherever designers need them — across desktop, web and mobile apps. Available exclusively in Creative Cloud, CreativeSync means work can be kicked-off in any connected Creative Cloud mobile app or CC desktop tool; picked up again later in another; and finished in the designer’s favorite CC desktop software.
Advances in Desktop Tools
With the 2015 release of Creative Cloud, Adobe magic and Mercury performance provide speed and technology breakthroughs across 15 CC desktop applications:
Photoshop CC: Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Photoshop CC introduces Artboards, the best way to design cross-device user experiences in a single Photoshop document and quickly preview them on a device. Photoshop CC also includes a preview release of Photoshop Design Space, a sleek new work environment focused on the needs of mobile app and website designers.
Lightroom CC: Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC both gain the new Dehaze feature, which appeared first in October 2014. Dehaze eliminates fog and haze from photos, including underwater shots, for startlingly clear images. Haze can also be added to a photo for artistic effect.
Premiere Pro CC: The new Lumetri Color panel facilitates powerful color corrections using intuitive sliders and other simple controls. Morph Cut makes it easier to deliver polished interview content. It smoothes jump cuts in talking-head shots to create a cohesive, polished sequence.
After Effects CC: A new Uninterrupted Preview allows artists to adjust the properties of a composition and resize panels without impacting playback. Also, the ground-breaking Adobe Character Animator brings 2D figures to life using a webcam to track facial movements, record dialog and apply movements in real time onto a pre-configured character.
Illustrator CC is now 10 times faster and 10 times more precise than CS6. Powered by dramatic boosts to its Mercury Performance Engine, users can now pan and zoom smoothly without delays. With the new Chart tool (preview), designers can create beautiful custom charts and share them with others via CC Libraries.
InDesign CC gets its own Mercury performance surge. Zooming, scrolling, and paging through complex documents is now twice as fast. InDesign now also allows users to publish and distribute documents with a single click.
Dreamweaver CC has new responsive web design capabilities that let designers quickly lay out and build production-ready sites that adapt to any screen size.
Adobe Muse now includes instant access to premium fonts from TypekitAdditional updates to these and other CC desktop applications make this one of Adobe’s biggest releases in years.
Creative Cloud for the Digital Transformation of Enterprises
Adobe’s expanded Creative Cloud enterprise offering includes enterprise-grade administration, security, collaboration and publishing services for design-driven brands, businesses and large organizations.
These enhancements are designed to help large commercial, education and government customers who want to speed the development and publishing of customer experiences, as part of their digital transformation strategies.
The new enterprise edition of Creative Cloud includes all the product features from the Creative Cloud 2015 release, plus expanded security options and deep connections with Adobe Digital Publishing Solution (DPS) and Adobe Marketing Cloud.
Two new security capabilities ensure protection of corporate assets, including customer-managed encryption keys and a new managed service hosting option, which offers dedicated storage behind a customer’s firewall.
Creative Cloud for enterprise also supports an upcoming release of DPS, empowering existing teams in organizations to rapidly design and publish mobile apps without writing code.
A public beta of this major update to DPS is available this week, with more information available here. Content from Creative Cloud for enterprise also syncs with Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), a key component of Adobe Marketing cloud, to accelerate marketing campaigns by streamlining creative-to-marketing workflows.
The days of paying commission to sell art are over, according to Maureen McCarthy founder and CEO of Artplode. Artplode is a cutting-edge platform where art is traded directly between buyers and sellers all over the world.
Artplode allows everyone – artists, collectors, dealers and galleries–to list art for sale for a one-off fixed fee of $60 per artwork with no commission charged to either buyers or sellers.
The site has attracted millions of dollars in listings of artworks from sellers in more than 40 countries since it launched in August 2014. Art can be purchased on Artplode at prices beginning at $1,000 to $126,000 for Andy Warhol’s Marilyn 26 lithograph.
Andy Warhol Marilyn 26 lithograph 1967 (PRNewsFoto/Artplode)
Artplode was created by the international art dealer to meet a gap she identified in the art market and to give art collectors a low-cost alternative to resell quality artworks.
McCarthy, who for 20 years was an agent for the publishing arm of the John Lennon estate, represents a number of respected dealers in works by the Masters including Monet, Picasso and Boccioni. She predicts Artplode will be a forerunner of the demise of auction houses that charge 40 percent or higher commission on sales and online art sales websites clinging to outmoded commission-based business models.
Prominent galleries in the UK, US, Europe and Australia have embraced the site where works by collectible artists Banksy, Andy Warhol, and John Lennon are for sale alongside art by savvy emerging artists who see value in marketing and selling their art alongside works by the Masters.
“The absurd rates of commission charged by auction houses to resell art, in some instances exceeding 50% of the hammer price has left many collectors looking for a better way to sell art,” McCarthy says.
She sees no reason why artists or anyone else should pay online galleries commission to sell art: “It is absolutely crazy that some websites are charging artists and collectors 30% or more in commission to sell their art online. Equally outrageous is the practice of some art sales websites requiring artists to sign exclusivity agreements that prohibit artists from listing their art for sale anywhere else.”
Artplode was created to be easy to use for buyers and sellers. Sellers list information about the artwork, upload photographs, discuss questions directly with potential buyers and arrange payment and shipping the art themselves. Specialist art consultants are available to assist buyers and sellers.
Collectors can quickly and easily navigate Artplode to find works listed by sellers in their own country or search by fine art category, subject, medium, style, country of origin of the artwork, size and price.
A new curated online art gallery is on a mission to make the process of viewing art online more like visiting a gallery than searching through a warehouse.
Crimson Lake by artist Alice (Hye Ryung) Yang
In the Love It Art online gallery, art lovers can discover and collect contemporary art and design from emerging artists in Vancouver, British Columbia and beyond.
“Love It” exemplifies the moment when an art lover really likes what he/she sees. To facilitate these types of moments, Love It Art gallery will have a year-round art calendar that showcases emerging talents from around the globe.
Love It Art is the brainchild of Mina Fung, a Chartered Accountant in Canada and a Certified Public Accountant in the US. After working more than 10 years in the accounting and corporate finance world, Fung found her calling in the art world in 2014.
After many attempts to find artworks she loved by visiting galleries and viewing online warehouse platforms, Fung decided to combine her passion for art with her business background to launch Love It Art. Her goal is to provide a personable and enjoyable experience for art lovers and offer a non-crowded space for artists to showcase their work and tell their stories.
“Art has been a passion since I was a kid.” Mina Fung says. “I have fun connecting with artists and learning about their creative processes. I want to bring the fun factor to the art lovers. When it comes to buying art, art lovers themselves are the experts on what they want. I just need to provide an environment for facilitating their discovery and selection process. With a diverse background, professionally and culturally, I can help source art to suit people’s taste, style and budget.”
The gallery has a roster of twelve artists including Vancouver-based artists Rebecca Chaperon, Sarah Gee Miller and Mira Song, as well as Seoul-based artist Alice (Hye Ryung) Yang. The gallery mainly shows original contemporary art and design that is visually stunning, vibrant and whimsical.
To see the scale and impact of the artworks, art lovers can visit the gallery’s virtual 3D exhibition anywhere and at any time, from desktop computers or mobile devices.
The first virtual exhibition is called “Transcendence” and showcases the large-scale works of Alice (Hye Ryung) Yang. This solo exhibition is on view through May 19, 2015.A
At the bottom of the FAQ page, emerging artists can find more details on the types of works Mina Fung is interested in displaying and instructions for submitting art for consideration.
CrowdPress is developing a crowdfunding platform for artists, photographers, and designers worldwide who want a hassle-free way to deliver printed rewards to their backers. A public Beta version of the site was launched in March. A full version is coming later this year.
“Current DIY crowdfunding platforms do not provide the support artists need once their projects have been successfully funded,” said Aaron Corson, founder and CEO of CrowdPress. “After backing more than 50 creative projects, I have experienced firsthand the challenges artists encounter after their projects were funded. With CrowdPress, I wanted to design a site that enabled talented artists to focus on doing what they love — create amazing art — without the hassles of working with printers, managing logistics, or dealing directly with customers.”
After a creative project has been funded, CrowdPress manages the printing, packaging, and shipping of the rewards to the project backers.
Artists, photographers, and designers from anywhere in the world are encouraged to submit their projects to the CrowdPress Beta. During the Beta phase, only poster projects are available. In the future, CrowdPress will expand to other printable rewards such as T-shirts, calendars, comic books, playing cards, phone/table cases, and 3D-printed items.
Art Hive Online is a new curated online art gallery. Focused on original art by emerging and established artists, the website is designed to facilitate social and business interactions between artists, buyers and art enthusiasts.
The multi-tier platform contains three main sections: Connect, Select and Collect.
The “Connect” section features artist interviews, video and audio elements and photo slide shows that give viewers a more intimate experience of an artists’ work.
The “Select” section offers galleries for browsing and purchasing works of art.
The “Collect” section is a virtual resource center where website visitors learn expert tips on art collecting. Topics include art as an investment, art history, art composition, art in the home, and how to care for your art.
“The word ‘Hive’ is about building a community,” explains Oyin Charles, founder of Art Hive Online. “We’re not just trying to be an art retailer, we’re looking to nurture a community of artists, art enthusiasts and collectors.”
The goal is to increase artist exposure through targeted marketing and outreach to the wider online art buying audience.
