This is when and how the Love series took on a commercial twist and eventually became a full e-commerce brand. I’m not certain how long it will take to tell the complete e-commerce story, but I will continue posting consecutive parts of the story in this blog until the story is told. My hope and motivation for telling this story is that it may be of some inspiration to other artist/entrepreneurs and for sake of posterity.
Part 1: The road to Loves Everywhere - in a sticky place.
Buy the end 2018, I had dozens of sketches, finished vector drawings (a type of computer generated drawing used for signage, embroidery, t-shirt prints, and stickers), and enough finished paintings for an initial debut exhibition. You can see the first showing of original love paintings in the previous post.
Fast forward 8 months to September 2019 and I now had enough original “Love” works for a robust solo exhibition. Still riding high by the encouraging response to the Love Series, I began thinking of ways to get more eyes on the work. Then a serendipitous crossing of several things occurred.
First, I joined Artlink as an artist member. Artlink Phoenix is a non for profit organization that helps local artist find an audience using their connections to museums, galleries and other venues for artists to get audience exposure and make sales. I searched their website postings for exhibition opportunities and immediately submitted an application for an artist residency at the prestigious 5 star Hotel Palomar in downtown Phoenix Arizona.
Thankfully, my Artlink application was accepted and I would soon be working in the Lobby space of the hotel for a 3 month residency starting from the beginning of February to the end of April, 2020. Hip Hip Hurray! Right!? Yep 2020 (more on this later). At that moment, I was jazzed. This would mean great exposure of my work including the new “Love” series.
A few weeks later, I was in a meeting with the Hotel Palomar’s marketing director to talk about what expect during the three month residency. He said, “Truth be told, as cool as the opportunity may be, people moving through the lobby are not necessarily there to buy expensive paintings and sculptures. Look yes, buy no. This was an opportunity for exposure.” He went on to point out that if I wanted to make some money during the residency, that would most likely be found in what he called “low-cost products.”
The main take away from that meeting was that I should have something inexpensive for guests breezing through the lobby to purchase. It didn’t take long for me to use the vector art for the Love Series to make Love stickers. The stickers would cost me about 50¢ each and I'd net $4.50 on each sticker sold. Low-cost products indeed. Ladies and Gentlemen, come get your Love Stickers - just $5! The seeds of a business were in hand.
Remember the dates I mentioned. Exactly. My residency at the Palomar Hotel lasted 9 days. 9 days instead of 90. Best part of the residence, I sold $500 worth of $5 stickers in 27 hours with little effort. Love was a hit.
Here’s a picture of the "Love" stickers assortment available during my Palomar residency, and the box I sold them out of.