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18 years ago
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I have noticed that graphics which contain various cartoon/animation characters are obviously popular with some (younger?) consumers. If you visit a Hot Topic store you are likely to see T-shirts, back packs, etc. with characters from Disney, Warner Bros., Cartoon Network and other graphic studios, including some "retro" designs from the "Atomic Pop" era. Characters like Tinker Bell, Pussyfoot (the little kitten form the Warner Bros. short cartoons with Mark Anthony, the bull dog), and some classic Hanna Barbera celebrities adorn the clothing and accessories. Since many of these characters were originally popular before many of the customers purchasing these items were even Born, I have to assume it is the design of these characters that are the major appeal. It may be quite possible that any well designed characters, with style and "attitude" would be just as popular. Perhaps even more so if they character designs were more updated.
Now, where do I see a lot of very clever designed and well rendered characters that would likely appeal to this market? The Furry Art community of course. There is nothing wrong with Furry artists creating for our community, but what if some of this art could be tailored to this obvious market? I believe that well designed and rendered characters need not be from any known existing media to be attractive. Some rather famous artists have become popular with semi-custom art themed for particular hobbies or businesses. I don't see why other Furry (anthro) artists could not find some success by presenting some of their art to the more main-stream market. Some fantasy artists have had reasonable success in the past, I I believe that the time has come for Furry art to become a part of the rest of the world, even if our community remains somewhat isolated from the "real world".
I wonder who will break through the barrier and succeed at selling to the consumers who are already showing some obvious interest in Furry. When will I be able to buy a T-shirt with Michele Light or Adam Wan art at the local Hot Topic? When will I be able to pick up the latest Blotch calendar at Barnes and Nobel? I think it's about time.
Now, where do I see a lot of very clever designed and well rendered characters that would likely appeal to this market? The Furry Art community of course. There is nothing wrong with Furry artists creating for our community, but what if some of this art could be tailored to this obvious market? I believe that well designed and rendered characters need not be from any known existing media to be attractive. Some rather famous artists have become popular with semi-custom art themed for particular hobbies or businesses. I don't see why other Furry (anthro) artists could not find some success by presenting some of their art to the more main-stream market. Some fantasy artists have had reasonable success in the past, I I believe that the time has come for Furry art to become a part of the rest of the world, even if our community remains somewhat isolated from the "real world".
I wonder who will break through the barrier and succeed at selling to the consumers who are already showing some obvious interest in Furry. When will I be able to buy a T-shirt with Michele Light or Adam Wan art at the local Hot Topic? When will I be able to pick up the latest Blotch calendar at Barnes and Nobel? I think it's about time.
Whoever agrees to completely surrender all rights to their creations, of course.
The thing is, those characters you see in hot topic are owned by big media. As such, they aren't being put on those shirts because they're trendy, but because both the store and the characters are owned by the same global megashell. Whatever individual creative people may have been involved with, or owned part of those characters, were taken out of the picture a long time ago.
And yes, big media will eventually come sniffing around to see what furry properties can be packaged and sold, but looking at how badly abused even rock stars are when it comed to IP rights, I don't hold out any hope of a furry creator getting a good deal.
In fact, I can tell you point blank, it's already happening. I narrowly avoided getting burnt on a deal involving one of my furry creations a couple years ago.
There's a reason it's called "selling out."
It's because you walk away with pretty much nothing.
I wasn't suggesting that an artist give up his rights to any of his personal creations. I know a lot of artists who do "one-off" creations. Even pokemorphs and other modified characters would not be infringing on extsing copyrights. I remember when Steve Martin was doing art for a local graphics company, and he designed a t-shirt for them to be a part of a line of beach-wear. It was a sexy tigress in a bikini, very cute, but not at all like his other art. They printed some up with high-quality process and they looked great. I got a lot of comments wearing one. The company they were doing them for eventually dropped the project, but I think it could have been a hit.
Eevn though a lot of the stuff I see have known characters from big franchises, I still believe that original material would sell. Yes, it would be difficult to get distribution, but some small groups have done well. The Homestar Runner and Ask a Ninja folks for example, have been able to quit their day jobs. Companies like Sofawolf Press and Rabbit Valley are proving that you don' thave to be big and established to find a market. I just think that too often we Furry types don't believe that anything we create would have any market outside the community.
If you need any more proof that you don;t have to be big to have an audiance/market for your product, check out what's happening to the music industry.
http://tangoland.com/
Featuring a promotional animation by Scotty Arsenault of Red Tango's characters. She analyzed how cartoon characters are used on clothing and accessories, and designed her characters to appeal to those markets. Most of the cartooners at Fur Affinity can look at her webpages and understand her savvy approach. I agree with you, Sysable, more furry artists could be doing this. (Not claiming that it would be easy every time! or that there wouldn't be pitfalls.)
Cobalt is also right. These Corporate Media Cartoons predominate as clothing and marketing icons because of the push and jostling between giant corporations to control markets. There is wheeling-and-dealing among these giant monsters to control what shoppers are able to see and buy in stores -- Massive money deals by the icon owners, the manufacturers, and the stores. It helps the money people that there are no inconvenient living creators in the mix, and that the images are owned outright by the salespeople in the large corporations. There is not much incentive to deal fairly with individuals or take the risk of dealing with individuals at all. Individual artists have to have a clear understanding of what they are getting into in dealing with even a tiny, local corner of these industries.
Or so it looks to me from the outside. 8D
specifically a skunk-striped hoodie. I want one so bad ;.;