December 4, 2008
hugh’s new secret evil plan: fine art prints
1. Sometime in the next few weeks I shall be releasing my first big, proper edition of signed, fine-art lithographs.
2. These will not be sponsored “social objects” from Stormhoek, Microsoft or whatever. These will be for sale. Cash. Moolah. Via this blog. No galleries.
3. They will be high quality. Very high quality.
4. I plan on using color for the first one, maybe black and white in the future– though I haven’t really thought that far ahead yet.
5. It’ll be an edition of 85 prints. I’m not planning on selling them all. I want to hold on to some of them, for posterity’s sake.
6. They’ll all be signed and numbered by hand, by me.
7. I plan to be blogging a lot about the whole process in the next few weeks. As with any new adventure, a lot of stuff still needs to be figured out long-term– I hope by talking about it with everybody, it’ll help me make better artistic decisions.
8. Though my work covers a lot of different themes and emotional states, for this first one I’ll be focusing more on the business-culture, Hughtrain sensibility. I want the print to be the kind of thing you’d want to hang up in your office.
9. This is not some groovy little side project for me. This enterprise is going to be a major part of my life over the next few years. Just letting you know.
10. We’ll be printing them up in mid-January. If you want to get in early, I’m going to make 20 prints available; you can pre-order one before the printing date for $175. Just ping me an e-mail. After they are printed the price goes up, to around the $250 – 300 range.
11. Thanks Again.
[Update:] Just got back from dinner. Tired. So far I have 24 requests for the 20 pre-orders. Looks like I may have to disappoint 4 people. Long day. Going to bed. Will talk in the morning. Thanks, Everybody!
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Very cool! Way to jump in to a new medium, bravo. Printmaking is an ancient art, on the verge of coming full circle to cool again, when interesting artists like you discover it. I can’t wait to see your lithos. Can you do some YouTube videos of the process for us?
price too low
Hey Hugh
) x
Sounds great! All the best — Give it Horns!!!!
Could you post info on the size, please? Thanks, looks like you are off to a good start if people are pre-ordering without knowing that small but important detail
Hi Hugh, glad to see you’re doing the fine art prints. Very nice. I agree though, price too low. Great work.
Your price is fine for testing the market, particularly if the prints are commercially printed lithos rather than being printed by hand by the artist on limestone/zinc plate.
Better to increase the price over time than to have it flatline. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with, next.
This sounds a lot like ArtMarket 2.0
Hugh, hughfully wonderful. so exciting. someone finally stopped talking and started doing. In your wildest dreams, on your first day as a copywriter, could you ever have imagined.
rock on!
bonnieL
triiibe on!
I agree with the above: Your price is far too low. I’d test the high hundreds if I were you — $700-$900 per print.
You have enough of a following to warrant it. If you don’t feel you personally need all that money, then donate some to charity, or invest it. No one will fault you.
Last year I spent $12,000+ on original art. All of the pieces I bought (even the seriolithographs) were more than you’re charging, and those are considered low-end, mainstream art.
Raise the bar!
Good luck,
–Erica
…
reminds me of mad blake.
[…] the producer of value. There has to be a better way that meaningfully yet fairly rewards endeavour. Hugh MacLeod found a model by ignoring everyone and trusting that those who like his work would find it valuable when repackaged and personalised. […]