Art Licensing: Our Favorite Secret Income Stream for Artists & Designers | The Typecast Episode 9

In this episode, Katie and Ilana discuss art licensing and how artists can license their work for products like greeting cards, apparel, and home goods. They talk about how licensing differs from freelancing, how royalties work, tips for building a licensing portfolio, and the pros and cons of working with an art licensing agent.
While licensing can be a lucrative income stream, it requires patience and persistence as the process from creating artwork to seeing it on products takes a long time. They demystify the licensing industry and help more artists tap into this powerful (and potentially passive) income stream.
Here's what you'll discover in this episode:
• What licensing means, and how you can get paid to rent or sell a license to your work
• What it means to be paid in royalties, and how to weigh the risk and reward.
• How having an art licensing agent can help manage contracts and outreach - helping artists land or manage their opportunities
• Thinking about the context and products where the artwork could fit well, like greeting cards, fabrics, home goods, etc. - considering scale, colors, and themes
• How trend shopping and looking at what's already selling can help in identifying themes and prompts to create new artwork for licensing (and putting your own spin on them!)
• The importance of contracts and licensing terms to understand the scope of how clients can use the artwork
• Why licensing requires a ton of patience (it’s a slow game!) and why it’s worth it for artists
Mentioned in this episode:
Astropad: shop.astropad....
Free Training: Three steps to turn your art into Passive Income with Art Licensing: goodtype.us/al...
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About Goodtype:
Welcome to our channel! We're Katie & Ilana, two self-employed artists who find joy in sharing what we've learned about running our businesses with you! In our videos, you'll find all sorts of tips and tricks to help you turn your artistic passion into a real, sustainable biz.

[@nancye7520]

“Side piece” 😂😂😂 Laughing with you, not at you. ❤ thanks for this. Good insights. I’m 66. I could be dead before I get my first royalty check, have I got that right?? 😂😂😂

[@Goodtype]

I truly hope that's not the case for you, but it definitely is a long game! You got this!

[@Bettiero]

Did anyone stole your work and put it on an item to sell? Or what would you do if it would happen? (Not just the exact same image, but for example a n almost identical copy of your work).

[@Goodtype]

Filing for copyright protection on your art is really important incase this ever happens to you. You can definitely send a cease and desist too and get a lawyer involved as needed, but without filing for copyright you won't have a case to bring them to court. Protect your work and only work with partners that you feel confident in!

[@eyevan3rdi]

thanks for this info!

[@Goodtype]

Sure thing! Glad it helped!