15 February 2013

Utne Prints Loaded






About a month ago I got an email from an art director at Utne Reader asking for usage rights to three pieces from my Loaded series (about money) for their March-April 2013 issue. I was delighted to say yes, and this week the issue came out. My prints were used in an article about local economies.

It's an interesting twist for me, because during my entire 20-year career as an illustrator I never got a gig with Utne, even though I sent them promo pieces whenever I did a mailing. They came looking for me this time, and they found me because they were looking specifically for art about money. In the illustration world, selling usage rights to art that already exists is referred to as a "stock art" sale, and it stands in contrast to a "commission," where the artist is asked to create a work specifically for a given story. As you can probably guess, pricing is higher for commissioned work. When I was illustrating, almost all of my work was commissioned. I don't know for sure because I'm out of the loop now, but I suspect that at this point in the history of publishing most publications are using stock art as much as possible to keep costs down.

At any rate, I'm happy about the potential visibility in having my work reproduced in this issue. Thanks, Utne Reader!

3 comments:

Elizabeth Busey said...

Congratulations Annie!
Elizabeth

mizu designs said...

Great news Annie! I've had a food & health magazine pay me to reproduce my woodblock prints a couple of times now (Edible Austin) and each time I was utterly delighted. Prints are such a beautiful way to illustrate text.

Annie B said...

Thanks Elizabeth & Kylie! Kylie, I can so imagine your prints in a food magazine! I treasure my Kylie-print of the tea cup and whisk.