Artcotic T-shirts collection are based on monthly open submissions by member graphic artists who are invited to submit their designs in three particular themes in Artcotic’s Collaborate section. Joining Artcotic as member is free while you're given privilege to submit your artwork as candidate which will be printed on Artcotic’s exclusive custom-crafted garments and sold in limited run of 500 pieces or fewer.
To invite more submission, Artcotic promises an attractive compensation package for the artist with selected design up to $1000 USD. Additional "prizes" include six tees artist's own design on them and a featured profile on the site -- like this.
If “Work for Hire” does not hold you back
Before working on your sweat and blood for this month submission, make sure you understand the terms. This is quoted from Artcotic rules of submission
If the design is chosen for the store, the design will become the rights of ARTCOTIC.COM and the artist will be paid the amount offered and will be considered “Work for Hire”. Therefore, ARTCOTIC.COM will retain exclusive rights to the design and has the right to make slight adjustments (size, color, etc…) to the selected designs for production purposes.
Talking about T-shirt graphic artists' compensation and rights in always remind me of Oddica-- another open submission tee shops that claims to have one of the fairest artist compensation called "Artist 41%" program. The program explains that:
No Work-for-Hire, no Spec Work, and no Public Voting. We are Licensing your Artwork, for specific uses only, and we are working on a Commission Model.
....
once you are IN as an Artist, you will receive lifetime Royalties for the Design(s) you do, as long as Oddica exists and makes a Profit
Why am I bringing this?
I'm not trying to say that Oddica "Artist 41%" program is better or fairer than Artcotic $1000 USD one-time fee. But I want to remind you that -- if you're an artist -- it's important for you know and explore some possibilities of different kind of compensations you will receive and make sure it match with, let say, your life style.
I've seen more and more vendors attracting talented artists to contribute their works -- be it on competition based website (like Threadless), open market (like Spreadshirt), submit-and-sell individually at low (or no) cost a la Bountee. If you're a T-shirt graphic artist, you're in better position than ever.
found Artcotic via T-shirt around, image shown above is Artcotic tee shirt by Supakitch
2 comments:
This is a valid question that every artist should consider but approach with a firm grasp of reality. I remember when the guy who runs Burnswell was trying to get designers who lost shirt.woot derbies to submit some of the better losing designs to Burnswell. There was some discussion about how long Burnswell would retain the rights to the designs, with the general attitude being, "there's no way I'd sell exclusive rights to my design! (except to woot, of course)". What these people didn't seem to realize was that their designs lost on a site where amateur, lowest common denominator designs often win the derbies, and they couldn't even win THERE. So where do they sell these losing shirts now? Nowhere. BestLosers and Pooky5 both sell losing woot designs but very few. The vast majority just languish on the designers' hard drives. Some of them could have sold some designs to Burnswell or elsewhere but their egos made them demand better terms, terms NOBODY is going to offer them.
Here's an example of someone whose ego cost him several hundred dollars. The guy who made the often-mentioned-on-woot "Calvinball" shirt decided to sell it himself on Bountee. He proudly announced it's available then much later said he'd sold three copies in the three months or so it had been on sale. THREE. What does that work out to, about $20 profit? Apparently the several hundreds of people who voted for it on woot and demanded they print it only wanted to buy it if they could "woot" it from woot. Here is what the guy said about printing it himself at Bountee:
"I started with a simple premise: I'd rather die than use Cafepress.
From there, i checked out the other options. Zazzle looked lame, goodstorm looked perfect, but got a big F+ on the woot forums (and I'm really wary of non-vector submission), Spreadshirt was next, but I spent several hours trying to get set up to no avail. Finally I tried Bountee. It was easy to set up and their staff has been very responsive to questions I've had. They also rank high in quality marks from what I've heard and they use vector images. In addition to all that, they have a very wootesque sense of humor and their staff claim they love www.shirt.woot.com.
Still, $25 is way too much for a shirt (sigh). Sadly, there is no perfect solution in the print to oder shirt world at the moment."
One thing is clear -- he made no attempt at selling the design to GoApe, Burnswell, Enclothe, or the dozens of other potential shirt printers. He also chose not to submit the design to any of the other shirt contest sites, even the ones like Threadless or DBH that pay more than woot. He thought he had a winner and wanted to maximize his profits by printing it himself. You can see where ego gets in the way. Don't make the same mistake he did.
There are some proven designers who have made a name for themselves and can expect multiple offers for their work and then choose the most favorable. For the rest of you, try to be realistic. Take a lesson from the real world. There are almost no industries where an inexperienced person can walk in and start at a top level. It just doesn't happen. You start off at or near the bottom and work your way up as you prove your worth. Artists actually have an advantage over everyone else -- if your talent is obvious enough you can, with your first DBH entry, let's say, leapfrog over your peers right into a position that would ordinarily only go to someone with much more experience. A shirt printer is not going to discriminate against you for a lack of reputation, so if they see your work and aren't throwing offers your way then get a clue -- you're no Shepard Fairey, at least not yet. If you offer your work to Threadless, DBH, Uneetee, Woot, etc. and it doesn't win anywhere take the hint, then take whatever you can get for your sub-par design. Make yourself some money, work on your craft, and maybe someday you can start being picky about who you work for, like guys like Jimiyo and Ray Frenden do. Be smart, not smug.
@anonymus,
interesting point you raise here. I guess this is much more toward reality check for newcomer artists (or for one-man-show tee companies). While it's getting easier to get their t-shirts to be printed (through cafepress, bountee, etc) -- it's also actually resulting in lower entry barrier and subsequently, increasing competition at entrant levels. What an irony
"If you offer your work to Threadless, DBH, Uneetee, Woot, etc. and it doesn't win anywhere take the hint, then take whatever you can get for your sub-par design."
...and yeah, I can't agree more with you on this.
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