Artwork Designs for Profit?

[Oldskool]

Here's an idea.

Being as how I'm incredibly challenged when it comes to anything artistic, I WILL be buying a pre-designed marquee from one of the fine printing services out there.

I do find that when I'm browsing the designs on their websites , I'm not incredibly impressed with what's available.

There's the plain MAME logo, the improved MAME logo, the slightly altered MAME logo, etc.  I'm not saying that they're all bad, it's just that I'd like to see more variety.

Lately, I've seen some amazing artwork in this forum. The "Arcadia 3" and "Mamestrosity" marquees are beautiful.

It would be great if the talented people out there could submit their marquee / CPO / sideart creations to one of the printing services such as classicarcadegraphix.com, or mamemarquees.com, AND they were in turn paid a "royalty" for every marquee printed using their artwork.

If this idea has already been discussed, please excuse my ignorance.

[Generic Eric]

eh

don't think its all that simple really.

I think the work you are seening is from people that:

Like to draw
Can produce quality artwork "drawn" on a computer
Are good natured enough to share and aren't concerned about money to begin with.

Are you a representitive of classicarcadegraphix.com ?  The address at the bottom almost looks like a signautre?

Either way.
I would be against donating my work to a printing service so they could make money off of it.  The roalities would have to be substantial not to mention that I would but an intial sum of money.

I would rather donate the artwork to the individual and they can send it to the printer.  

Here is another issue.  In general, the artwork may have copyrighted material in it.  Or may be close to original artwork to infringe on the copyright.  

I dunno in general its not a bad idea.  I just don't know, I'd want more money from the printer because they would be making money off of it.  Its a good idea.  I was never too handy with the mouse though.  I just bought a wacom tablet, we'll see how it works for me.

[mahuti]

As an artist, I should be disgusted by other people making money off of my work... but if I created a custom marquee, and someone that I *gave* it to was making money off of it, I wouldn't care.

Here's the deal.. if classicarcadegraphix takes care of us, and does excellent work, and treats their customers well, I don't think it is unreasonable to give them a few freebies. I don't create marquees, and trace artwork to make money. I do it to make myself happy. I don't create a ton of it either, just a little here and there, so it's impossible for me to really consider it a money making venture. I'm generally against other starving artists/designers doing clip art, because it takes away from the ability for *real* professionals to make money on custom art. In this case, there are no professional marquee designers (at the consumer level, anyway) So, in general, supporting a good company in this way makes sense to me.

As far as copyright... I can't expect to make royalties off of other people's artwork that I traced, manipulated, and repurposed. If c-a-g.com wants to make money through what is effectively *pirating* then that's up to them. At a mom and pop level, I don't see a big issue with this type of copyright violation. Even as an artist... I know it could could be ravenously argued both ways. I guess my ethics only extend to a certain point.

[Oldskool]

Are you a representitive of classicarcadegraphix.com ?  The address at the bottom almost looks like a signautre?

    No!  I have no affiliation with classicarcadegraphix.com whatsoever, or any other printing service for that matter.

That was an example of bad message composition on my part. I copied and pasted that URL into the message so as I wouldn't have to type it in, and mistakenly left it at the bottom. It's since been removed. LOL.

Now back to the discussion......

Personally, I don't see it as the printer making off like a bandit. I see it as everybody wins.

Legal issues aside, if someone was to create a nice piece of artwork, and receive a few bucks ($5 perhaps) everytime it's printed out, then they win.

The printer, because of increased sales, also wins.

The consumer then has a better variety of artwork to chose from, and pays the small fee that goes to the author.

I understand that artwork can be a very personal thing, and that some people may want to own unique machines, but if someone has created something special that he / she wants to share with others, shouldn't THEY be entitled (if so desired) to be making a little coin?

God bless those who do it for free.







 

[zorg]

hint:
check this thread
subliminal side note: Frosty I'll take a comission.

[Frostillicus]

hint:
check this thread
subliminal side note: Frosty I'll take a comission.

heh  thanks

[JoeB]

I emailed you yesterday, when you get a chance please PM me.

hint:
check this thread
subliminal side note: Frosty I'll take a comission.

heh  thanks

[nipsmg]

Oldskool:

I hear what you're saying.

However, the Arcadia 3 artwork I designed was PURELY for my machine, and would not want it on someone else's.

I AM however willing to do some artwork for a small fee.. -- as long as I'm not stepping on Frosty's toes.  I was actually going to have him do MINE, but I found out I'm better at it than I thought.

--NipsMG

[nipsmg]

Oldskool:

I hear what you're saying.

However, the Arcadia 3 artwork I designed was PURELY for my machine, and would not want it on someone else's.

I AM however willing to do some artwork for a small fee.. -- as long as I'm not stepping on Frosty's toes.  I was actually going to have him do MINE, but I found out I'm better at it than I thought.

--NipsMG

Also, note,

that while I'm flattered by Oldskool's comments about the Arcadia '3' artwork, I don't consider myself in the same league as Frosty. He's done some BEAUTIFUL work, and I commend him on it.

--NipsMG

[nipsmg]

Sorry about the triple post, I obviously can't collect my thoughts all at once today.


One more thing to note:

I don't do vector art, unfortunately.  ALL of my art is raster, I've got no experience in Illustrator.  Granted I can make correctly sized control templates and arrange a CP in illustrator so that the size is correct, but I immediately import that into Photoshop, and use photoshop to design all my work.  

For me to offer artwork to printers would make some sense, as it'd be a one time download, but it'd take some serious hosting and bandwidth to "share" my art with individuals.

A print quality (300dpi) copy of my CPO comes in at over 300 megs, my marquee at over 100.

--NipsMG

[Stingray]

Seems a good enough idea, but it would be up to the individual artists to approach the printing companies who may not even be interested in the first place. My guess would be that at the prices they charge for printing, there's not a huge profit margin in it for them to start off with.

-S

[Pixelhugger]

A print quality (300dpi) copy of my CPO comes in at over 300 megs, my marquee at over 100.

Yeah, it would be hard to share most raster art at a decent res.

On a related note, I've been toying with the idea of posting free semi-custom marquee and CP "templates" in vector form on my Mission Control cabinet website (once I get it online). Ideally, I'd design something in Director that would allow visitors to experiment with previews of different typefaces, and layouts using their projects' names, and then download the final vector file as an eps. But then, that would entail studying Director. Does anyone think there would be enough interest to warrant lifting the hood on Director to do that? At a minimum, I plan on posting examples of marquees and customizing them for individuals, since most of the work is coming up with the look of the marquee, changing the type on an individual basis is quick and simple.

As far as profiting off artwork, IMOHO I don't think there's a right or wrong to this. It comes down to each individual's personal situation, interest and goals. For someone who provides a service someone else values enough to pay for, I certainly think it's only right to charge for the time spent if the artist wants to. Likewise, I think that for someone who's situation or interest is based on other factors, it's understandable that they would want to dontate their time. Frosty for example, has already donated a huge amount to the BYOAC community through his Vectorial and graphics projects. If he wants to be compensated for future work, I think that's only right.  

[patrickl]

Maybe an unfeasable idea, but maybe their could be a way so that BYOAC profits from the artwork that people post her. We profit a lot from this site knowledgewise and I really feel that selling rights for a few bucks a print isn't very useful (profitable) for indiviual artists anyway. As Stingray pointed out, there probably isn't much margin and I think the costs for getting the people their few bucks would eat up most of the fees anyway. For BYOAC all these small amounts together might help support the site though.

[Frostillicus]

Funnily enough, I am in talks with some of the printing guys on the boards who want to offer some custom designs.  Still trying to hammer out details.  

As for helping to fund the BYOAC boards, that's up to the business owners.  If you check the donations page there are some of the niche businesses here listed, some more than once I think.  Support them.  And through projects like Pixel's hat and my t-shirt, a good portion of the proceeds go back to Saint as a 'thanks for the boards.'  And there are always giveaways and contests going on, so if it's not money, it's encouraging more board traffic, which in turn helps advertise the site (and Saints soon-to-be-bestseller ), which helps him obviously and leads to upgrades, etc etc.  Turn turn turn, circle of life and all.  (OT - for a sneak preview of some of the artwork in the book...well...check out my webpage...)

You guys have no idea how cool it is we have a real artwork forum, and I am by no means the only talent here.  I remember when we switched to the new boards there was a little interest in artwork...and this thread made me think of some type of tutorial.   There are some real artists here taking it all to the next level, and it's only gonna get better  

[Stingray]

There are some real artists here taking it all to the next level, and it's only gonna get better  

I agree completly. I've seen some amazing designs since I started frequenting this site.

-S

[Harakiri]

I'm gonna post my 1941 marquee soon! I read some pretty good critiques about it, i'm sure that it's not that bad...

BTW: Try to ask people about making one for you and give some WIP opinions, that's how i worked for 2 weeks!  

[SNAAAKE]

Uh...wanted to show off a little(*ducks*)