I had no idea such a thing existed until in 2023 Saatchi Art reached out to me offering a licensing project.
In a nutshell, licensing your art is a little bit like selling a digital print for one-time use or repetitive uses.
You get to keep (and sell) the original, but the buyer buys your permission to use your art as art prints or as a pattern/design for pillows, stickers, or anything that can have a printed image on it (including book or music albums covers, imagine your art selling all around the world!)
(the licensed artwork, Personality Foundation, 2020).
But unlike selling a print, with licensing you can receive royalties OR a one-time payment.
That’s how your art can appear in IKEA and stores like that. Through licensing.
You can find contacts and pitch it yourself or your gallery/manager can do that. For ex., Saatchi Art works with the hospitality sector and that’s how I got my licensing project.
A new hotel was looking for some abstract art, and Saatchi Art curators showed them artworks that were eligible for licensing (you should opt-in for this) and the hotel representatives picked my work among others.
The downside of such “hustle” is that it takes a lot of time for all the negotiations and paperwork to be done when you’re dealing with big hotels or big retail chains. It can quite literally take months.
But, the good news is that if you’re doing it through Saatchi or alike, they are doing all the nego and paperwork for you.
Just like that, by allowing someone to use your art (and give you exposure in a nice place) you get either recurring payments or a nice bonus.
Another downside of licensing is that if you choose to go with a gallery you don’t really control how many projects you do. I wish I had more but I can’t manage it.
When you go directly to brands or work with a licensing firm (such exist too), you can have a more stable situation.
Note:
There are people out there selling courses on how to license your art for $2000. I think it’s not what you should do if you’re just starting out.
How much money I can make?
For my small print, I got $75. This is not the price for regular digital print - if you go on Etsy it can be 5-9 USD for a couple. And this price was also negotiated, so it could be much higher.
If you will have a royalties system or a commission system, the rate will probably be up to 10%.
It is not much but at the same time, your licensing partner will do all the printing, shipping, and marketing for you.
Important:
I want to really emphasize that licensing artworks lies in the contractual legal field. If you’re doing it all yourself you must consult a lawyer or licensing advisor on how to get the best terms for your contract and what are the options, because there are many things you can do in advance to protect yourself.
And always make sure that whoever contacted you is a legit person/firm and you’re not about to get scammed.
Ask in artists’ communities, do a Google search, and reach out to the company via official email/phone to double-check.
For ex., with Saatchi ALL the documents are signed through DocuSign, you have all the copies and it is transparent. As it should be.
Would you try licensing?