More Passive Income + Summer Break

Hello everyone,

The last weeks have been a bit wild with, as usual at that period of the year, a lot of work. I have been several times away, which means that I did not find the time to be regular on my newsletter. But I think this is ok. I do my best, but sometimes things are too complicated and I have to take care of myself. I hope you understand.

So the last weeks have been busy and exciting. I did a screen printing workshop at Invox and went to Berlin Letters. That was all fun! And exhausting :D That was great to meet creative people during that difficult politic period in France.

Printing Workshop at Invox

Berlin Letters with a talk of Ximena Jimenez

Great lunch with friends Martina Flor, Jamie Clarke, Elliot Jay Stokes, Marc Thiele and Emma Luczyn

Now I am back, done with all my projects and I am going to take the summer off. Just like the other years. That is also why may and June and so busy too. But yes, summer time if mostly for family.

But before going off for some time, I wanted to share with you an new “experience” I had recently that helped me develop a bit further my passive income activity.

More passive income with Art Licensing

A few months ago, I came across the words “Art licensing”. I was not sure what it was so I look for answers on the Internet. To make the answer short, it means renting artworks to companies for a period of time and geography. You can be paid with a flat fee or with royalties (sometimes both).

After searching, Instagram proposed to me an ad (I think) from Goodtype offering a whole course on the subject. I did check it out, watch a few videos where the owners said: “Do you know that you could make money with all these designs you have and forgot on your computer or iPad?”. I was like “ohh interesting…”. After watching the free webinar I understood I could offer some of the MANY designs I made over the years to companies who would like to licence them.

I found more than 50 designs I could offer for licensing!

Art Licensing Board on Procreate

And that was not actually something I just discovered. I did already “sell” or “rent” designs before to graphic t-shirts companies for example. Since the end of last year, I think I did sell 5 or 6 of them. But I did not know that was called “Art Licensing”. But I was “kind of” already doing it

So I took the whole course and decided to rework my website to make these designs visible for Art Licensing. The website is still WIP, I want to modify the portfolio but the designs are already there and ready to be seen like a catalogue. Also I did change my wording for a better SEO. This is far from being good yet but it already something.

Getting discovered on other platforms

On the side, I also updated my Pinterest profile to create a board called “Art licensing Portfolio”. It seems that many Art Directors scroll Pinterest in order to find new ideas and designs. I did modify my account into a “pro” account and got access to my stats. Within less than a week, the content of my portfolio has been seen nearly 10000 times. We will see in the future if Pinterest has an impact. I will let you know.

I also plan to update Dribbble and Behance. Many prospects for licensing come from Dribbble. I am always surprised to see so many companies shopping on that platform. And for Behance, I don’t really use it, but again, Art Directors seem to use pretty much. Also these two platforms are well referenced on Google for “Art licensing”, “graphic T-shirts”, etc.

So my goal is pretty clear and my niche is also pretty clear. I want to attract outdoor and camping apparel and clothing companies. And the 50 designs I found on my iPad and computer are 100% about Outdoor, Nature and Mental Health.

We will see where it goes and if it was worth it. But you know, you have to try to know if it’s worth it. So I try :)

A bit of Wholesale?

There is another subject I want to study in the coming months: wholesale. I was thinking maybe I could sell prints (and maybe t-shirts) to shops, like indie shops. I actually plan to open my own shop next year and was thinking it could be an idea. I did register on Faire but I don’t know yet if I am accepted or not. We will see but that is not my main focus right now.

Summer Break

For now, I am going to take a really needed break. I need to empty my head and take a break. So during the summer you will take a break from this publication too :) I will be back beginning of September hopefully more regularly. The agenda is going to be busy too until Christmas with 2 exhibitions, 1 Christmas market and one IRL workshop in my studio.

But for now, I am off. I wish you a great summer, take time off! Creative people like us need a mental break to refresh our ideas and avoid an overload. It is never easy, especially when you are freelancing. But your health should come first.

Take care and talk to you in September :)

Francis

PS: FOR PAID FOUNDERS: I sent you an email some time ago asking you for a t-shirt size, as it will be your next gift. Please don’t forget to reply to it so I know what I will send you :)