Art Licensing Insights
How to Sell on Spoonflower: The Basics and Getting Started on POD
A lot of people have asked me how to sell designs on Spoonflower.com, since I have been selling there since 2012 and was consistently a top-selling artist.
I laid out exactly how to create, digitize, and upload to Spoonflower and other platforms for my business. Most importantly, I will walk you through the basics of how to grow your sales by thinking about trends and connecting with your audience. Most of the learning and figuring out how to sell happens through the exercise, and an evolving formula.
The Technical Stuff
If you are intimidated by putting patterns into repeat, thanks to the fact that we are living in a digital age with the internet, there are lots of FREE resources on sites like YouTube, and Skillshare. Once you start putting patterns into repeat, you'll get the hang of it and that will become such as small part of being a surface pattern designer.
Here are a few ways to prepare artwork into digital files:
Scan artwork at 300 DPI TIFF format
Work in sRGB color mode
Use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator to digitize artwork and create seamless repeat patterns
Check saturated colors for out-of-gamut colors and correct (any colors with !)
Check and correct repeat seams for errors using the Photoshop offset tool. I am oldschool so I’ve always used the Adobe programs and prefer Photoshop for repeats because Ilustrator is great for creating art I prefer Photoshop. There are also other design programs which I don’t use so I don’t speak to those.
Print designs out before uploading to get an idea of how the colors print
Upload a PNG or JPG format file to Spoonflower. My preference is GIF format, because it’s a compact but mighty file perfect for printing, but it is no longer supported
Order a swatch to proof. This is done digitally now, but it’s still a good idea to order swatches with common background colors to see how it shifts from fabric to wallpaper and screen appearance. Note that to order a sample you first have to enable the design for sale, and if you make any changes after recieving the print, then you’ll have to creat a whole new design so I wouldn’t bother marketing the design until you settle that it’s good to sell.
NOTE: Order a Spoonflower swatch for tricky colors like blues, dark, or saturated colors, or create your own color map with HEX codes. Colors vary on different fabrics. If there is a substrate, or colors you use, or is trending in your sales history, create and order a Color Map on any particular fabric or wallpaper that you find is common for your audience. HEX codes are used on the Color Map and are universally easy to use across most design programs.
There are two types of printers for digital fabric printing, either natural or synthetic fabrics:
Natural – Non-reactive dyes are used in printing, which can sometimes be tricky in achieving dark or saturated colors
Synthetic - Sublimation printing can achieve rich, saturated colors
Money
There have been some changes with that but mostly it’s a baseline of 10% commission on what Spoonflower collects, there can be a 3% or 5% bonus for meeting sales numbers which can bump up your commission to either 13 or 15 percent in total for the sales period.
Design Challenges
These have been promoted more to encourage innovation and keep the Spoonflower library fresh with new designs and ideas. As an artist I have only participated in a couple because I didn’t feel it was the best use of my time as opposed to marketing my work more broadly. That said, many newer artists feel that the design challenges present an opportunity for a smaller pool to be seen with less competition than the entire Spoonflower marketplace.
Follow the Trends
After getting the hang of creating patterns, the next step is to learn about trends and marketing. If you made some sales on Spoonflower or another platform, then you are one step ahead because you now have sales trend information to start with. If you haven't made sales yet, look at what others are selling, seeing what ranks for search queries for search terms outside of "(excluding sponsored content).
I wrote a blog post titled Trends with Benefits for Societyt6, which is a good read for diving deeper into trends.
Staying on top of trends is essential for your business. A trend is a current style or preference that generates interest, especially online or in social media. Trends are recurring patterns of what’s in fashion in the market, in your shop, on social media, in stores, or on a platform.
Keep in mind that a trend for someone else doesn't mean that it is a trend for your shop. It is best to evaluate the overall trends and see which fits your creative style and audience.
Several trends to pay attention to are:
Sales trends within your business (what’s selling?)
Marketplace trends (what’s for sale in other shops or other platforms?)
Specific trends (color palettes, subjects, style, product, or brand)
Microtrends - niche market trends (what’s happening in a distinct segment of the market?)
Seasonal trends - i.e., holidays, summer, or back to school, etc., if applicable to your work.
Get Social!
Connecting with other artists, influencers, or makers who you relate to is a great way to get to know your potential audience, which will ultimately help you design better and sell more. These are some examples of related hashtags that may change over time, but these can get you started in finding other artists to learn more from by following:
#surfacedesign
#spoonflower
#patterndesign
#fabricdesign
#DIY
#handmade
Follow hashtags to find other designers who influence the market, and use relevant hashtags to get exposure to your designs. Additionally, look for product-specific hashtags that relate to popular products made with Spoonflower goods.
Popular products made from Spoonflower fabrics include:
Baby Products: nursery decor, baby and children’s clothing, and accessories
Fashion: women’s wear, clothing, DIY projects, and fashion accessories
Home Decor: interior design projects, bed and bath, and soft home products
Stay in touch with customers and build relationships. The more interaction you have with your customers, the more you will know who they are and what is important to them in terms of designs they already buy and evaluating what their preferences are. A few great ways to engage with your audience is to do the following:
Follow your customers on social media to see how they are using your designs
Engage with customers about their creations
Feature customer creations with your designs and tag them
Create a community around your shop
Spoonflower customers sell handmade goods through a variety of marketing platforms, including Etsy, their own e-commerce websites, and other marketing platforms for small businesses. Your audience could find and purchase your designs through places like Etsy, Amazon, Wal-Mart, Wayfair, eBay, and other affiliate sites that Spoonflower has an affiliate partnership with, so it's always a good idea to get familiar with those platforms to see how your customers are finding you.
The last thing is, don't forget to take advantage of these resources on Spoonflower:
Designer analytics
Design challenges
Affiliate program
Spoonflower tutorials
Staying tuned into marketplace trends and connecting with your audience will help you to create relevant designs that will improve your sales or help you start making sales. Building a community of like-minded designers, creating a meaningful association with your brand in the minds of your customers, will help sustain your business relationships and bring new business. Engaging and marketing with your audience will ultimately enable you to create salable and trend-forward designs that your audience will be excited about.
My designs are available globally on a variety of products and consistently top sellers. Here, I discuss aspects that impacted my ability to create a flourishing art licensing business.
Licensing seems overwhelming!
How much do you charge? How do you get buyers?
It takes time, patience, and learning. I became interested in pattern design in high school, which led to textile design in college. After college, I worked for 10 years as a designer in home decor, stationery, and fashion, and eventually started my own business in art licensing. This was my path, but there are different ways that artists come into surface pattern design and art licensing.
HOW
Before becoming an independent designer, I thought about the idea of licensing my artwork and having my own business, but I honestly didn’t know how. Soon after the POD (print on demand) market was born in 2010, I saw colleagues using Spoonflower and Society6, and I was able to create a vision for my future business.
MARKETING + EXPOSURE
Connect and stay in touch with your audience. Follow a mix of inspirational artists, customers, companies, or organizations that have meaning to your art brand. All of these connections have the potential to lead to licensing! Gaining visibility to engage with prospective clients and build licensing partnerships is vital. Here is how art licensing leads can happen:
EMAIL Start small with an email newsletter, monthly or quarterly.
BLOG Tell your story! Speak to your customers, clients, and partners. Write about what matters to you.
SOCIAL MEDIA It’s a no-brainer to create a presence on social media where people already spend lots of time. Connect and stay in touch with your audience. Follow inspirational artists, customers, or companies. Follow artists, hashtags, brands, and other sources of inspiration.
COMMUNITY Go to: Trade shows, networking events, and join artist groups
WEBSITE Connect your site to all your channels and create a space that truly communicates your brand.
ART AGENTS can be great to partner with a well-matched agent; you might get more licensing deals, so paying the varying commission can make sense.
POD can add visibility and exposure that fosters additional leads and gets your name out there.
PRICING
There’s no empirical answer to this question, so instead, I’ll provide context from other companies that I’ve worked with that bought artwork, and practices that help with pricing. With practice, confidence in your ability to propose fair competitive pricing will come.
POD
5-15% royalty on retail price is common. Most POD platforms offer an average 10% royalty on retail price. It can also be a fixed amount, such as per unit sale, and royalties can be subject to cost deductions, including promotions and discounts that should have a cap.
Buyout
Many companies prefer buyouts to use art how they please for as long as they want. Here are figures for purchased artwork by companies that I worked with, from 2005 to 2015, for art bought through agencies specializing in either fashion, home decor, or illustration. This pricing is for artwork with copyrights that convey on purchase, which means that the ownership rights transfer with purchase to the buyer also known as a buyout.
One important factor with respect to a buyout is that the company will want to know that the art they are buying is authentically original, which is why they would often buy from a reputable agent who has vetted their artists to know that the artists are credible when it comes to original artwork. If it turns out that the art is infringed, the company, especially a big retailer, will end up being responsible for paying damages, and no one wants that.
The average range for files that were high-res, color-separated, or vector art:
$400-$600 for fashion prints
$800-$1200 for rug art
$500-$800 for wallpaper art
Stationery - small-scale dimensions, illustration, typography, and less pattern. Maybe more vector art, but there is still a good amount of watercolor, too.
Fashion prints a variety of scales from small to large. Trend-forward content, sister prints, and collections.
Home decor -large-scale, woven construction, texture often fundamental to print for rugs, and wallpaper
Licensing
I market my art, which allows me to gauge what is popular, and inquiries are for published designs that are marketed, so companies have historically pitched to me. I retain ownership of the art, “renting” rather than selling. When renting, there are 3 common ways: non-exclusive, exclusive (category-specific), and custom commission, with proprietary levels varying and pricing that reflects that.
Term
The term of the license is based on the typical life cycle of the product; a year is common, but it could vary, and many licensing partners opt to renew. For renewals, pricing based on production is fair, but another way is renewal increases that are staggered or stepped for each renewal cycle, with full disclosure in your contract.
National retailers
Retailers that sell thousands of products to hundreds of stores typically offer low single-digit royalties, and they should offer an advance (a non-refundable deposit that is applied to future royalties and meant as good faith). The advance is deducted from sales and royalties due. Carefully review the terms, especially if the offer is royalty on wholesale, NOT retail, which is a major difference, and confirm a cap on cost deductions. It’s not fun to look at the fine print, but it's less fun to find out later that you didn’t get a good deal after all.
Good Questions to Ask
The best tools in terms of pricing are asking the right questions to decide if it’s a good partnership or opportunity for you. One of the best parts of being a licensing artist is being able to choose your business partners. Here are questions that identify opportunities and information to help with pricing.
What is the budget?
Which designs are of interest?
How will they use the design?
What is the retail price?
How much product or yardage will be made?
How long do they want to use the design?
Do they want exclusivity?
Additional Pricing and Licensing Resources
Negotiations
When it comes to art licensing, my gut feeling is that a lot of artists don’t negotiate. If this is true, this is a lost opportunity. In any other business, negotiations are expected, and why should the art business be different?
With one particular license, I counter-offered 4X the initial amount offered, and the company accepted! The truth is, I didn’t arbitrarily come up with that number. I based it on the quantity of products and what seemed fair.
Contracts
You absolutely need to have a contract to license art. Even if you start with something basic. Have a lawyer draft a contract. Here is a sample to see what is included in a basic licensing contract.
Graphic Artists Guild Handbook is an incredible resource that has sample contracts for a variety of purposes. The book elaborates better than I can on pricing based on industry standards that are based on real data.
That covers the essential aspects of art licensing. If you have questions, feel free to reach out and ask.
©Crystal Walen