ARTSPROJEKT
Say hello to Andy Howell. For those of you that know him, rock on and keep readin’. For those of you who don’t (yet), get ready to be inspired – for Andy is one of the greats, the true artists and true to the core art lovers. His latest creation is ARTSPROJEKT – a playground in which the world’s most creative individuals and brands can turn unique ideas into dynamic product experiences that best represent each individual artist and brand. Check it out.
What is the best thing about helping people dream big?
Easy: helping inspire new generations of creative people to realize the impact they can have on the world.
What inspires you, personally?
Love is the most powerful emotion I’ve ever felt, so manifestations of love are naturally the most inspiring to me.
What music is playing in your office?
Supersuckers, Devendra Banhart, Valerie Carter, GC the EP, and the Ramones
Blog to recommend?
http://lostateminor.com
What is your favorite featured Artsprojekt product?
The homepage (http://Artsprojekt.com) is mostly the favorites and newness featured by me and the Artsprojekt crew, so there are definitely gems there. Special editions are a focus right now, creating collaborations with international artists and brands, crossing wires between cultures, geography, and matching emerging artists with global brands to see what kind of electricity erupts.
Andy Howell / Artsprojekt.comTKDA Blog Q & AWhat inspired this idea?Over the past 20 years I have been involved in various creative movements within the youth culture, and for the most part have been on the leading edges of the new markets and industries they are known to spawn. This has meant a lot of DIY entrepreneurialism, creating general awareness for new movements, and fostering creativity and community against a backdrop of ignorance. Examples are new art and fashion in the metropolitan environment, street skating, snowboarding, hip hop, punk music, and DIY publishing. In each of these my role as participant and also entrepreneur has helped to further the movements and push the creative envelope, establishing in part a template for future generations to expand and innovate.Throughout this period in my life, there have been constant challenges that I’ve seen stand in the way of success for “artrepreneurs,” these independent artists turned entrepreneurs. I use the term “artist” to describe anyone involved in an artistic pursuit, including painters, illustrators, graphic artists, typographers, animators, photographers, video game designers, vinyl figure designers, fashion designers, graffiti writers, and a host of others. The fundamental challenge for the artist turned business administrator is one of opposing passions competing for airtime. Right brain: art. Left brain: administration and business. Both are key to success. Most artists with an entrepreneurial spirit start out using 95% of their time to create art in one form or another, and maybe 5% handling the business side of their art. When their art gets traction with an audience and they start to build a business, they find that ratio reversed to a great extent, which usually brings dilution of their art’s impact. Eventually they lose the creative edge and become disillusioned.These artistic visionaries then have to choose between the daunting road of creating and running their own business with much less focus on their true artistic talents, and the prospect of freelance, consulting, or employment with a larger firm. Both paths have benefits and challenges, but for the artrepreneur, the latter feels like defeat. However, for the serial artrepreneur, as I define myself, these challenges fall somewhere between speed bump and lost battle.Having first hand experience and seeing this happen over and over for so many years with different creative visionaries, I actually became inspired to seek out a real solution for the artrepreneur. I created agencies, collectives and exhibitions to help bring light to creative talents, then a brand incubator to foster collaboration between business and artistic minded groups, and eventually combined many of the concepts for a truly global global platform enabled by the convergence of technology, community, and art.I founded Artsprojekt to bring independent artists and brands the knowledge and guidance needed to successfully navigate the landscape of the institutional art and manufacturing worlds, as the two have begun to cross pollinate and ultimately mesh. I aligned with museum curators, art appraisers, galleries, retailers, and product manufacturers to create funnels for creativity that led to exhibitions, commissions, products, and collections for cutting edge boutiques and big box retailers in the US.Then I was introduced to the powerful tool of technology as a means to connect large groups of creatives and allow them to leverage community and product manufacturing platforms to amplify their ideas to a global audience. Artsprojekt was acquired by Zazzle.com, Inc in 2008, and I began to work together with some of the most creative engineering minds in the world to build on Zazzle’s tools to allow independent artists and brands to create their own businesses using the platform. Artsprojekt allows artists to instantly manifest their ideas as products available worldwide, including reproductions of original art and designs as prints, posters, apparel, footwear, skateboards, and many more. There is no paid cost to take part, and we handle everything on the back end including providing the product configuration and virtualization tools, financing, inventory, production management, manufacturing, embellishing, quality assurance, intellectual property review, shipping, customer service, and platform maintenance.The revenue sharing model we work from is generous, even more economically sound than traditional inventory models in many cases, and every entity involved in the process of an online sale is rewarded, so the community is synergistic in the commerce sense. Now artists can truly focus on the most important parts of the process: following their inspirations in order to create unique and compelling designs, and sharing the resulting products with their audience and fans worldwide. The platform is becoming, by definition, the most immediately relevant cultural experiences and products from artists and brands worldwide, backed by a trusted backbone of quality and service that already reaches over 10 million fans a month.kind of electricity erupts.What is Artsprojekt doing for the environment?Artsprojekt is by definition a beautiful contradiction. It’s an immediately relevant platform for millions of people to express themselves in a fully-customized made-to-order manufacturing environment, two elements that have been silo’d in the past and rarely mentioned in the same sentence. But this idea of mass customization is the most empowering and environmentally friendly volume alternative to traditional manufacturing and distribution I have ever seen.Creatives can manifest any unique idea or design as virtual products using our technology platform, and post that product for sale in their Artsprojekt store and their own storefronts, sites, blogs, social networks, emails, anywhere. There is no upfront cost or inventory, because the products are virtual during the design, merchandising and transaction stages of their life. Once a transaction is complete, meaning once a consumer buys one of the products, it is then manufactured in a made-to-order environment by a manufacturing technician, and shipped along with other items in the order to the end user. There is no overproduction or wasted inventory, focused one-off manufacturing, one product path directly to the consumer as opposed to many inventories and shipping costs, and a less than 1% blended return rate due. All of these reduce expenditure of resources throughout the process, greatly reducing the footprint, while expanding the range of options to nearly infinite for the consumer.Its an entirely different commerce and manufacturing model than the one that has been used in the past, and we believe our platform for mass customization is the next wave of product experience controlled completely by the independent artist, brand, and consumer. It’s exciting to see the values I have held dear for over 20 years, independent and unique creative expression and entrepreneurialism, being resurfaced with such force through this alignment of technology, art, and consumer demand.In introduction of the concept I sometimes say Artsprojekt and Zazzle are “like iTunes for products”. That seems to make it more tangible for people.What art / artists are on your wall?My wife and I are both artists, so we are very passionate about collecting art that inspires us. This neo-contemporary movement we are involved in is at the forefront of the collection, along with some of the contemporary and pop artists that have helped inspire and enable it. Our collection includes Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Takashi Murakami, Erte, Shepard Fairey, Milo Manara, Dalek, Sam Flores, David Choe, Alex Pardee, Kathie Olivas, Ed Templeton, Mark Gonzales, Barry McGee, Howard Finster, Guy Burwell, Martin Ontiveros, Mike Burnett, Mike Keshnar, Jim Mahfood, Jesse Reno, and many other artists spread across conceptual, comic, pop, neo-contemporary, folk, and street art genres.What did you eat for breakfast?Toasted baguette with avocado and sea salt. Fresh orange juice. Coffee.Artists to recommend?Personally I’m watching Ray Ceasar, Yoko D’Holbachie, Four Yip, Jesse Reno, Victor Moscoso, Sesper, Mr Jago, Mimi S, Dan May, Nathan Spoor, Steven Daily, Food One, Mike Kershnar, and so many more, the list is increasing daily…Plans for the future?Yes.
Andy Howell / Artsprojekt.com
TKDA Blog Q & A
What inspired this idea?
Over the past 20 years I have been involved in various creative movements within the youth culture, and for the most part have been on the leading edges of the new markets and industries they are known to spawn. This has meant a lot of DIY entrepreneurialism, creating general awareness for new movements, and fostering creativity and community against a backdrop of ignorance. Examples are new art and fashion in the metropolitan environment, street skating, snowboarding, hip hop, punk music, and DIY publishing. In each of these my role as participant and also entrepreneur has helped to further the movements and push the creative envelope, establishing in part a template for future generations to expand and innovate.
Throughout this period in my life, there have been constant challenges that I’ve seen stand in the way of success for “artrepreneurs,” these independent artists turned entrepreneurs. I use the term “artist” to describe anyone involved in an artistic pursuit, including painters, illustrators, graphic artists, typographers, animators, photographers, video game designers, vinyl figure designers, fashion designers, graffiti writers, and a host of others. The fundamental challenge for the artist turned business administrator is one of opposing passions competing for airtime. Right brain: art. Left brain: administration and business. Both are key to success. Most artists with an entrepreneurial spirit start out using 95% of their time to create art in one form or another, and maybe 5% handling the business side of their art. When their art gets traction with an audience and they start to build a business, they find that ratio reversed to a great extent, which usually brings dilution of their art’s impact. Eventually they lose the creative edge and become disillusioned.
These artistic visionaries then have to choose between the daunting road of creating and running their own business with much less focus on their true artistic talents, and the prospect of freelance, consulting, or employment with a larger firm. Both paths have benefits and challenges, but for the artrepreneur, the latter feels like defeat. However, for the serial artrepreneur, as I define myself, these challenges fall somewhere between speed bump and lost battle.
Having first hand experience and seeing this happen over and over for so many years with different creative visionaries, I actually became inspired to seek out a real solution for the artrepreneur. I created agencies, collectives and exhibitions to help bring light to creative talents, then a brand incubator to foster collaboration between business and artistic minded groups, and eventually combined many of the concepts for a truly global global platform enabled by the convergence of technology, community, and art.
I founded Artsprojekt to bring independent artists and brands the knowledge and guidance needed to successfully navigate the landscape of the institutional art and manufacturing worlds, as the two have begun to cross pollinate and ultimately mesh. I aligned with museum curators, art appraisers, galleries, retailers, and product manufacturers to create funnels for creativity that led to exhibitions, commissions, products, and collections for cutting edge boutiques and big box retailers in the US.
Then I was introduced to the powerful tool of technology as a means to connect large groups of creatives and allow them to leverage community and product manufacturing platforms to amplify their ideas to a global audience. Artsprojekt was acquired by Zazzle.com, Inc in 2008, and I began to work together with some of the most creative engineering minds in the world to build on Zazzle’s tools to allow independent artists and brands to create their own businesses using the platform. Artsprojekt allows artists to instantly manifest their ideas as products available worldwide, including reproductions of original art and designs as prints, posters, apparel, footwear, skateboards, and many more. There is no paid cost to take part, and we handle everything on the back end including providing the product configuration and virtualization tools, financing, inventory, production management, manufacturing, embellishing, quality assurance, intellectual property review, shipping, customer service, and platform maintenance.
The revenue sharing model we work from is generous, even more economically sound than traditional inventory models in many cases, and every entity involved in the process of an online sale is rewarded, so the community is synergistic in the commerce sense. Now artists can truly focus on the most important parts of the process: following their inspirations in order to create unique and compelling designs, and sharing the resulting products with their audience and fans worldwide. The platform is becoming, by definition, the most immediately relevant cultural experiences and products from artists and brands worldwide, backed by a trusted backbone of quality and service that already reaches over 10 million fans a month.
kind of electricity erupts.
What is Artsprojekt doing for the environment?
Artsprojekt is by definition a beautiful contradiction. It’s an immediately relevant platform for millions of people to express themselves in a fully-customized made-to-order manufacturing environment, two elements that have been silo’d in the past and rarely mentioned in the same sentence. But this idea of mass customization is the most empowering and environmentally friendly volume alternative to traditional manufacturing and distribution I have ever seen.
Creatives can manifest any unique idea or design as virtual products using our technology platform, and post that product for sale in their Artsprojekt store and their own storefronts, sites, blogs, social networks, emails, anywhere. There is no upfront cost or inventory, because the products are virtual during the design, merchandising and transaction stages of their life. Once a transaction is complete, meaning once a consumer buys one of the products, it is then manufactured in a made-to-order environment by a manufacturing technician, and shipped along with other items in the order to the end user. There is no overproduction or wasted inventory, focused one-off manufacturing, one product path directly to the consumer as opposed to many inventories and shipping costs, and a less than 1% blended return rate due. All of these reduce expenditure of resources throughout the process, greatly reducing the footprint, while expanding the range of options to nearly infinite for the consumer.
Its an entirely different commerce and manufacturing model than the one that has been used in the past, and we believe our platform for mass customization is the next wave of product experience controlled completely by the independent artist, brand, and consumer. It’s exciting to see the values I have held dear for over 20 years, independent and unique creative expression and entrepreneurialism, being resurfaced with such force through this alignment of technology, art, and consumer demand.
In introduction of the concept I sometimes say Artsprojekt and Zazzle are “like iTunes for products”. That seems to make it more tangible for people.
What art / artists are on your wall?
My wife and I are both artists, so we are very passionate about collecting art that inspires us. This neo-contemporary movement we are involved in is at the forefront of the collection, along with some of the contemporary and pop artists that have helped inspire and enable it. Our collection includes Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Takashi Murakami, Erte, Shepard Fairey, Milo Manara, Dalek, Sam Flores, David Choe, Alex Pardee, Kathie Olivas, Ed Templeton, Mark Gonzales, Barry McGee, Howard Finster, Guy Burwell, Martin Ontiveros, Mike Burnett, Mike Keshnar, Jim Mahfood, Jesse Reno, and many other artists spread across conceptual, comic, pop, neo-contemporary, folk, and street art genres.
What did you eat for breakfast?
Toasted baguette with avocado and sea salt. Fresh orange juice. Coffee.
Artists to recommend?
Personally I’m watching Ray Ceasar, Yoko D’Holbachie, Four Yip, Jesse Reno, Victor Moscoso, Sesper, Mr Jago, Mimi S, Dan May, Nathan Spoor, Steven Daily, Food One, Mike Kershnar, and so many more, the list is increasing daily…
Plans for the future?
Yes.
so all you artists or peeps who wanna see your stuff on a tee, click here and open your arts project store now.
Say hello to Andy Howell. For those of you that know him, rock on and keep readin’. For those of you who don’t (yet), get ready to be inspired – for Andy is one of the greats, the true artists and true to the core art lovers. His latest creation is ARTSPROJEKT – a playground in which the world’s most creative individuals and brands can turn unique ideas into dynamic product experiences that best represent each individual artist and brand. Check it out.
What is the best thing about helping people dream big?
Easy: helping inspire new generations of creative people to realize the impact they can have on the world.
What inspires you, personally?
Love is the most powerful emotion I’ve ever felt, so manifestations of love are naturally the most inspiring to me.
What music is playing in your office?
Supersuckers, Devendra Banhart, Valerie Carter, GC the EP, and the Ramones
Blog to recommend?
http://lostateminor.com
What is your favorite featured Artsprojekt product?
The homepage (http://Artsprojekt.com) is mostly the favorites and newness featured by me and the Artsprojekt crew, so there are definitely gems there. Special editions are a focus right now, creating collaborations with international artists and brands, crossing wires between cultures, geography, and matching emerging artists with global brands to see what kind of electricity erupts.
What inspired this idea?
Over the past 20 years I have been involved in various creative movements within the youth culture, and for the most part have been on the leading edges of the new markets and industries they are known to spawn. This has meant a lot of DIY entrepreneurialism, creating general awareness for new movements, and fostering creativity and community against a backdrop of ignorance. Examples are new art and fashion in the metropolitan environment, street skating, snowboarding, hip hop, punk music, and DIY publishing. In each of these my role as participant and also entrepreneur has helped to further the movements and push the creative envelope, establishing in part a template for future generations to expand and innovate.
Throughout this period in my life, there have been constant challenges that I’ve seen stand in the way of success for “artrepreneurs,” these independent artists turned entrepreneurs. I use the term “artist” to describe anyone involved in an artistic pursuit, including painters, illustrators, graphic artists, typographers, animators, photographers, video game designers, vinyl figure designers, fashion designers, graffiti writers, and a host of others. The fundamental challenge for the artist turned business administrator is one of opposing passions competing for airtime.
Right brain: art. Left brain: administration and business. Both are key to success. Most artists with an entrepreneurial spirit start out using 95% of their time to create art in one form or another, and maybe 5% handling the business side of their art. When their art gets traction with an audience and they start to build a business, they find that ratio reversed to a great extent, which usually brings dilution of their art’s impact.
Eventually they lose the creative edge and become disillusioned.These artistic visionaries then have to choose between the daunting road of creating and running their own business with much less focus on their true artistic talents, and the prospect of freelance, consulting, or employment with a larger firm. Both paths have benefits and challenges, but for the artrepreneur, the latter feels like defeat. However, for the serial artrepreneur, as I define myself, these challenges fall somewhere between speed bump and lost battle.Having first hand experience and seeing this happen over and over for so many years with different creative visionaries, I actually became inspired to seek out a real solution for the artrepreneur. I created agencies, collectives and exhibitions to help bring light to creative talents, then a brand incubator to foster collaboration between business and artistic minded groups, and eventually combined many of the concepts for a truly global global platform enabled by the convergence of technology, community, and art.I founded
Artsprojekt to bring independent artists and brands the knowledge and guidance needed to successfully navigate the landscape of the institutional art and manufacturing worlds, as the two have begun to cross pollinate and ultimately mesh. I aligned with museum curators, art appraisers, galleries, retailers, and product manufacturers to create funnels for creativity that led to exhibitions, commissions, products, and collections for cutting edge boutiques and big box retailers in the US.Then I was introduced to the powerful tool of technology as a means to connect large groups of creatives and allow them to leverage community and product manufacturing platforms to amplify their ideas to a global audience.
Artsprojekt was acquired by Zazzle.com, Inc in 2008, and I began to work together with some of the most creative engineering minds in the world to build on Zazzle’s tools to allow independent artists and brands to create their own businesses using the platform. Artsprojekt allows artists to instantly manifest their ideas as products available worldwide, including reproductions of original art and designs as prints, posters, apparel, footwear, skateboards, and many more.
There is no paid cost to take part, and we handle everything on the back end including providing the product configuration and virtualization tools, financing, inventory, production management, manufacturing, embellishing, quality assurance, intellectual property review, shipping, customer service, and platform maintenance.The revenue sharing model we work from is generous, even more economically sound than traditional inventory models in many cases, and every entity involved in the process of an online sale is rewarded, so the community is synergistic in the commerce sense.
Now artists can truly focus on the most important parts of the process: following their inspirations in order to create unique and compelling designs, and sharing the resulting products with their audience and fans worldwide. The platform is becoming, by definition, the most immediately relevant cultural experiences and products from artists and brands worldwide, backed by a trusted backbone of quality and service that already reaches over 20 million fans a month. We’ll see what kind of electricity erupts.
The platform is becoming, by definition, the most immediately relevant cultural experiences and products from artists and brands worldwide, backed by a trusted backbone of quality and service that already reaches over 10 million fans a month.kind of electricity erupts.
What is Artsprojekt doing for the environment?
Artsprojekt is by definition a beautiful contradiction. It’s an immediately relevant platform for millions of people to express themselves in a fully-customized made-to-order manufacturing environment, two elements that have been silo’d in the past and rarely mentioned in the same sentence. But this idea of mass customization is the most empowering and environmentally friendly volume alternative to traditional manufacturing and distribution I have ever seen.Creatives can manifest any unique idea or design as virtual products using our technology platform, and post that product for sale in their Artsprojekt store and their own storefronts, sites, blogs, social networks, emails, anywhere.
There is no upfront cost or inventory, because the products are virtual during the design, merchandising and transaction stages of their life. Once a transaction is complete, meaning once a consumer buys one of the products, it is then manufactured in a made-to-order environment by a manufacturing technician, and shipped along with other items in the order to the end user. There is no overproduction or wasted inventory, focused one-off manufacturing, one product path directly to the consumer as opposed to many inventories and shipping costs, and a less than 1% blended return rate due.
All of these reduce expenditure of resources throughout the process, greatly reducing the footprint, while expanding the range of options to nearly infinite for the consumer.Its an entirely different commerce and manufacturing model than the one that has been used in the past, and we believe our platform for mass customization is the next wave of product experience controlled completely by the independent artist, brand, and consumer.
It’s exciting to see the values I have held dear for over 20 years, independent and unique creative expression and entrepreneurialism, being resurfaced with such force through this alignment of technology, art, and consumer demand.In introduction of the concept I sometimes say Artsprojekt and Zazzle are “like iTunes for products”. That seems to make it more tangible for people.
What art / artists are on your wall?
My wife and I are both artists, so we are very passionate about collecting art that inspires us. This neo-contemporary movement we are involved in is at the forefront of the collection, along with some of the contemporary and pop artists that have helped inspire and enable it. Our collection includes Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Takashi Murakami, Erte, Shepard Fairey, Milo Manara, Dalek, Sam Flores, David Choe, Alex Pardee, Kathie Olivas, Ed Templeton, Mark Gonzales, Barry McGee, Howard Finster, Guy Burwell, Martin Ontiveros, Mike Burnett, Mike Kershnar, Jim Mahfood, Jesse Reno, and many other artists spread across conceptual, comic, pop, neo-contemporary, folk, and street art genres.
Artists to recommend?
Personally I’m watching Ray Ceasar, Yoko D’Holbachie, Four Yip, Jesse Reno, Victor Moscoso, Sesper, Mr Jago, Mimi S, Dan May, Nathan Spoor, Steven Daily, Food One, Mike Kershnar, and so many more, the list is increasing daily…
What did you eat for breakfast?
Toasted baguette with avocado and sea salt. Fresh orange juice. Coffee.
Plans for the future?
Yes.
So all you artists or peeps who wanna see your stuff on tees, skateboards or art prints click here and apply to open your Artsprojekt store now.
