Follow ID-WALL & Canvas Club on Twitter

You can now follow ID-WALL and Canvas Club on Twitter.

What is this Twitter thing that everyone’s talking about?

Well, Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates – which are known as ‘tweets’.  Every tweet has a maximum length of 140 characters.  Still none the wiser?  The best way to understand the world of Twitter is to jump right in.

So check out our page and look out for future posts on tips on how to get the most of Twitter.

http://twitter.com/CanvasClub

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Art – QUANTUM BRANDING JP TREVOR

JP Trevor - Leviathan

QUANTUM BRANDING JP TREVOR

By P. Scott

JP Trevor - Leviathan in the making

You’re an art student fresh out of a degree show and Saatchi wants to rep you and eventually brand you. Fine.

 But what if you’re already an established artist with serious collectors’ critical praise, even having been bestowed with the title of creative ‘genius’, and you want to be branded – because until you are, nobody in the ‘Frieze’ contemporary art scene, where the stakes are highest – will take you seriously, nor will your work reach well-deserved branded prices, but people like Saatchi, Gagosian, Serota, Joplin, don’t want to know about you. What do you do?

Unless your Rolodex includes these ‘superstar’ dealers of the contemporary art world, you’re excluded from receiving the wave of their wand that can transform art like JP Trevor’s, into a multi million pound commodity. The solution is to wave your own wand, gather together a marketing and PR team and do it yourself like Jack Vettriano and Damien Hirst, the wealthiest living artist.

Some critics might wince at these two names together, but they both use the same tools: marketing and PR.

 This paper is about branding A-list artist JP Trevor, also known as ‘Phoenix’, without the blessing or endorsement of the Gagosians and Guggenheims of the tightly controlled ‘members only’ elitist art world, who would like you to believe that traditional branding is a complex process, that only they understand it or have the power to make happen. In fact it’s a very simple equation; it’s a marketing exercise par excellence accessible by whoever wishes to carry it out.

The book, the $12 MILLION DOLLAR STUFFED SHARK, by Don Thompson, exposes contemporary art branding and the elaborate smoke and mirrors these people have a vested interest in to use, to manipulate the art market at the top end of the pyramid. So far they have kept the market small and opaque, and hugely profitable, through a strict control of supply and demand, showbiz tactics, ego, lashings of hype, fear, greed and even underpinning – tactics that are essential when considering that much of the art on the uber contemporary scene cannot stand on merit alone – but some of these tactics, when applied to great artists, magnify the economics. 

With books like SEVEN DAYS IN THE ART WORLD by Sarah Thornton and the one above by Don Thompson, the veil of mystery is lifting off the branding process, revealing a gleaming template that in the hands of a crack marketing team can be very rewarding.

THE BRANDING TEMPLATE EXPOSED

Esquire 2008 – ‘THE ART OF THE MATTER’

An explanation from an ‘elite’ art panel interviewed by Esquire, of the benchmarks and factors that determine which works are good and which are not, that make a JPT more desirable than a work by X, are as follows:  ‘The answer lies in a complicated and elaborate system of approval and endorsement by which an artist’s work has to be talked about, written about, sold, bought and selected for exhibition by a network of experts in both the public and private sectors. If a sufficient number of these individuals hold the same view, this consensus amounts to an endorsement and the quality of the artist’s work is assured’.

Sound familiar? It’s marketing.

JP Tevor - Blue God III - Stripes

These same principles, used with hype and Hollywood showbiz, are very powerful, so much so that they can sell coloured dots – that the artist did not even paint – for six figures, a couple of square metres of canvas painted in the same colour for £10M  if painted by Yves Klein.

And they will insist that to be branded successfully, the artist’s work has to be in major public institutions, reputable collections of contemporary art, have an auction record, museum presence, and although some of this helps, it all sounds very worthy; they will deny that these pre-branding ethics are not nearly as pure as they appear – but at an auction at Sotheby’s Sept 15 2008, the sale was underpinned by the artist’s very own primary dealer, who bid on an estimated 44% of the multi-million pound lots in the big evening sale.

And they will probably not even answer your question; how did Jack Vettriano become branded without their blessing? His works are hardly in any of those ‘established’ places, and he is rejected by the ‘Frieze’ art world. So why is he a ‘brand’ nevertheless? Because of intelligent marketing that means one of his paintings recently sold for £700,000. 

THE BRANDING SPARK OF LIFE

During my research into the ‘mysterious’ world of branding, I was determined to find someone ‘inside’ to confirm that branding depends on one thing initially. A pivotal moment of truth happened when I walked into a gallery in London’s West End on Feb 6 2009 and said to the director that a well known institution and general opinion had put a value of £1M on JP Trevor’s thirty foot painting LEVIATHAN. The director said, ‘I cannot see how X, who I have a great deal of respect for, can just put a value of £1M on it, I mean people will want to know why it’s a million, there’s a reason, what’s the reason?’ I said nothing and let the moment of resistance pass. Then he said, with great courage, ‘But then again, all it can take is someone to say ‘I love his painting, I love him, how much do you want for it, a million? OK, let me write a cheque’, and that does it (branding)’. The director’s three words, ‘that does it’, and admitting ‘there’s a lot of froth in the branding process’, blew the veil of mystery and the ‘rules’ outlined in SHARK clear out of the water. Quantum branding was born.

JP Trevor Canvas Print - Leviathan #2

To illustrate further:

Hang two paintings side by side at Frieze Art Fair. Apply the full branding hype outlined in SHARK, to one painting, but no buyer comes forward. Then X comes in, looks at the other painting, and writes a cheque for £1M. Which painting will get instant media interest, world coverage and offers to the artist of PR representation?

Therefore a high profile sale of a flagship work is essential to establish ‘branding’.

QUANTUM BRANDING

The dynamics are mostly the same as covered in SHARK, but more streamlined due to less self-serving politics, hence the term ‘quantum’. The primordial soup of the branding equation is ignited when X purchases a stunning work like LEVIATHAN, valued at say £1M. A publicist and marketing team takes it from there.

Post Branding Management:

SELL / PROMOTE / CURATE / ENDORSE.

JP Trevor Canvas Print - Gotham City

INVESTING IN JP TREVOR

JP Trevor, also known as ‘Phoenix’, is an artist who has exceeded the boundaries of excellence. He is a diamond in the rough; whoever cuts it stands to gain. His rich artistic history, body of work, and maîtrise in the purist sense makes branding essential. Not to do so would be a serious cultural and social faux pas, and an insult to the artist himself, when a pile of fortune cookies (Christies May 2003) sells for six figures and an actual pile of dirt sells for €17,000 – ‘Der Letzte Dreck’ ‘A pile of Dirt’, 2007 by Hans Schabus at Art Basel.

JP’s art is in collections all over the world including that of Florence Jay Gould. He’s considered by the film and design industry as one of America’s top ten artists. In 2001 Christies gave him a whole page to himself in their Film and Entertainment catalogue and sold one of his original ‘pre-production’ oils of GOTHAM CITY (BATMAN I). In 1998 he was flown to Russia by the ex-Soviet Union’s leading star to design a major rock musical next to the Kremlin. The Russian press dubbed it ‘Best Concert Design by a Foreign Designer’’. His awards include the coveted CCA and Lurzer Archiv for best TV commercial design.

JP Trevor is frustrated at being told he’s a ‘master’, that he should be ‘worth a fortune’, of receiving critical praise, and yet when he approaches Tate Modern and the Larry Gagosians of the art world, the door is shut, preventing branding, when it’s clearly obvious to his reputable collectors and serious critics this accolade is long overdue.

JP Trevor - Blue Gods

It’s a basic industry tenet that if the mammoth work LEVIATHAN by A-list artist JP Trevor, is bought by well known X for the magic seven figure, and exacting and intelligent marketing and PR management is in place, branding will occur and the post-branding harvest from his future works, especially considering his rich and controversial back story – a publicist’s dream in itself – stands to be very profitable to whoever carries his career forward. The momentum, the body of work, the credentials and the story are there.

JP Trevor, ‘I have the right stuff for this to happen. I want my life’s work so far, to be acknowledged and capitalised on; branding me makes sound financial sense. I’m not where I should be in the art arena and serious collectors and critics know it. I’m not yet branded because my speed-dial doesn’t have the right names in it. But I’m now better informed about the concept and process of branding – it’s marketing. I realise, like Sarah Thornton, that I can write my own branding rules, so I’m looking for a team’.

LEVIATHAN

This is modern art at its finest – in technique, skill, beauty and spirit – and was inspired by film design. The thirty-foot painting is meticulously fabricated by hand in fine draughtsmanship. It is a painting that’s pushed the boundaries of excellence, that was in itself a test of technical stamina and physical strength.

At the unveiling in 2004 of LEVIATHAN, an ‘unknown metropolis’, that took one hundred and ten days to create without a break, two hundred people, including disciples of Norman Foster and Richard Rodgers broke into spontaneous applause as the cloth came off.

Some who have only seen a large print of LEVIATHAN, refuse to believe it was created by hand, but Harrison Ellenshaw who trained ‘Phoenix’ in California and knows of his skills, said of LEVIATHAN “Very, very impressive’.

JP Trevor Canvas Print - Leviathan #1

INVESTING IN ART – A SAFER TANGIBLE CURRENCY

Even without the branding effect, ‘good’ art is an investment. Great art takes the stakes higher when adding branding.

‘AN’ 2008. ‘As record sales draw in more and more buyers of contemporary and modern art, more financial infrastructures get into place. Launching 1 July 2007, the London based organisation Artistic Investment Advisers (AIA) set up the Art Trading hedge fund – an investment fund charging a performance fee, open to a limited range of investors – signing up established artists and aiming for an annualised return of 30%, claiming to have found between ten and fifteen economic indicators and securities that make it profitable’.

‘Art is viewed more and more as an alternative asset class, an investment category compared to cash, property, bonds, shares’.

Owning top end art that you love also announces that you are cultured and refined; it becomes part of a positive identity. Savvy collectors buy not for always for display (showing only reproductions) but as negotiable assets to be locked away. With the crisis and with tangibles like gold on the rise, great art has never been a more solid investment.

Contact ID-WALL for more information : info@id-wall.com

JP Trevor - Blue God AH I Burst

Essential reading:

THE $12 MILLION DOLLAR STUFFED SHARK

SEVEN DAYS IN THE ART WORLD 

 

www.thinkshapes.com

ID-WALL Launches new personalised print service

ID-WALL is proud to announce the launch of it’s personalised print service.  You can now transform your original photographs and digital images into stunning works of art to hang on your walls.

And that’s not all…   Spend over £100 and receive a free £20 gift voucher !

Simply choose a product, select a style and size, send a personal photo, confirm and sit back and wait for your print to be delivered to your door by secure courier.  Delivery typically takes 10-14 days.

Pre Framed Photographic Print

From £29.99!

High quality heavy weight photographic paper supplied in a deep edge frame with hand cut mount board giving that gallery finish.

Canvas Print

From £34.99!

Used by many of ID-WALL’s professional clients including high street lifestyle photographic studios. The 2 inch deep frame is constructed using a high quality European dry pine supplied from sustainable resources. The image is printed directly onto a 100% natural archival heavyweight canvas using archival pigment inks.  The canvas is then hand stretched across the frame and is finished using artists backing tape.  This product has received critical acclaim for it quality and attention to detail – it is supplied with either a white border or image wrap (dependant on image) around the return (depth). Fixings supplied.

Acrylic Wall Mount

From £54.99!

Supplied on 8 mm thick acrylic with diamond polished edges with four pre-drilled holes supplied with 4 aluminium spacers. This product is extremely modern and is ideal for kitchens and bathrooms.

 

For more info, please visit – www.id-wall.com

 

Ideal Home Show – Alison Cork’s Bargain Hunter LIVE

ID-WALL have teamed up with Alison Cork’s Bargain Hunter LIVE at this year’s Ideal Home Show to showcase a handpicked collection of art prints and wall stickers.

Carles Gomila - Good Luck - Limited edition fine art print

We are also offering 10% off ID-WALL products for all Ideal Home Show visitors who register and shop online.

Online discount code = IDHSBHL10  (Just enter on your “Shopping Basket” page)

Standard delivery leadtime is 10-14 days – worldwide shipping.  FREE UK Shipping on orders over £100.00 inc VAT.

http://www.id-wall.com/brands/61/0/1/bargain-hunter-live-ideal-home-show-09-prints

The War of The Worlds – Exclusive Fine Art Prints

Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of The Worlds

“The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one, he said…….”

ID-WALL are delighted to announce the official launch of the new and exclusive  Jeff Wayne’s The War of The Worlds fine art collection.

Thunder Child - The War of The Worlds - Limited Edition Print

Jeff Wayne’s musical adaptation of H.G. Wells’ classic novel The War of The Worlds is one of the best known and best selling musical works of all time.

Canvas Prints and Acrylic Wall Mounts are available in this stunning collection of original album artwork.  ID-WALL ships these limited edition prints worldwide in 10-14 days.

Artists include Michael Trim, Peter Goodfellow, Geoff Taylor and Stephen Doig.  The print collection consists of  paintings and pencil drawings reproduced to Fine Art Trade Guild standards in two high quality numbered formats.

Brave New World - The War of The Worlds - Limited Edition Print

To date the Jeff Wayne album has sold over 15 million records around the world and has been adapted into several foreign language versions. It has charted in no less than 22 countries, been number 1 in 11 of them and achieved gold or platinum status in all but 5 of them including a staggering 10 times platinum in the UK, 10 times platinum in Australia and 13 times platinum in New Zealand.

The album has topped the charts in both English speaking and non-English speaking territories, has won two coveted Ivor Novello awards, and, significantly, remains today one of the consistently best selling albums. Three decades on, world-wide sales show no signs of faltering.

Handling Machine Designs - The War of The Worlds - Limited Edition Print

2009 sees the 30th Anniversary of the release celebrated by a worldwide tour of the musical.  For ticket information and more details visit the official website : www.thewaroftheworlds.com

© Copyright Ollie Record Productions 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Soundtrack :

Jeff Wayne\’s Musical Version of The War of The Worlds

For prints go to the website :

http://www.id-wall.com/brands/48/0/1/the-war-of-the-worlds-prints

Sylvia Ji – Amazing San Fran Artist

ID- WALL are now showcasing Sylvia Ji limited edition fine art prints.

http://www.id-wall.com/canvases/1215/sylvia-ji-rose-catrina

Sylvia Ji - Rose Catrina - Limited edition print

Sylvia’s gorgeously creepy paintings are brimming with a mixture of sexual provocation and consternation.

Images of beautiful women resembling Marie Antoinette in Día de los Muertos face paint.

http://www.id-wall.com/canvases/1214/sylvia-ji-delfina-y-maria-poquianchis

Sylvia Ji was born in 1982 in San Francisco to artistic parents. Ji’s interest in art was implanted at a very young age when she would look through her mother’s sketchbooks and watch her father paint. In her art, she explores themes of beauty, sexual provocation, and social notions of femininity juxtaposed against the dystopian reality of modern cities to create highly charged paintings of women. Some of her paintings are symbolic reflections of herself, portraits of people she knows or just nameless faces set in a landscape of fleeting beauty. She graduated with distinction in 2005 from the Academy of Art University of San Francisco with a Bachelors in illustration and already had her first ambitious and successful solo show while still in her last year of school. Since then she has been in high demand, keeping continuously engaged in an onslought of numerous shows on the West Coast.

www.id-wall.com

August 2007 : ID-WALL to launch DOMO art

ENTARA DEVELOPS LICENSING PROGRAMME FOR DOMO WITH NEW LICENSING AGREEMENTS

Domo’s cult presence to build in the UK through agreements with The Monster Factory and ID-WALL

Domo DJ #2 - Limited edition print - From £49.99

Entara Ltd, global entertainment rights company, has granted licenses for Domo to The Monster Factory, stationery, gift and mobile accessory company, and ID-WALL, art and graphics producers of exclusive art and print products.  The products are available in store and online and form a key part of Entara’s licensing programme for Domo, building on the success of the previous licensing agreement with Underground Toys for plush and Fashion UK for Domo t-shirts and sweatshirts due to launch in store this Autumn.   

 

ID-WALL produce and distribute Domo canvas and poster prints as well as large format photo wallpaper to order with bespoke sizing options.  Specialising in providing licensed imagery from well known organisations and brands such as Star Wars and Virgin Comics, ID-WALL will retail the Domo range on their online outlet, www.id-wall.com, and aim to augment the animated character’s appeal among creative enthusiasts.  

Domo reached iconic status as the mascot of Japan ’s sole public broadcaster NHK and has over 400,000 fan websites around the world.  A TV series is in development with NickToons in North America and Nickelodeon Worldwide and scheduled for launch in 2007.  

 

Karen McNally, Vice President Licensing & Marketing, Entara Ltd, comments; “Our aim is to build onEntara is a worldwide entertainment rights company founded in 2001 to develop its debut award-winning property Jakers! and now manages and represents a diverse portfolio of kids, tween and fashion brands.  Their property portfolio includes Those Scurvy Rascals, a quirky short-form CGI animation series recently aired on Nickelodeon; Domo, a property which has already gained cult status in Japan and worldwide with over 400,000 fan websites and is set to become a big hit in the UK; and the new children’s animation The Adventures of Dex Hamilton: Alien Entomologist.  Entara are third party agents for Habbo, the largest online teen community worldwide and Entara have also acquired the UK licensing rights to the cult classic, The Magic Roundabout.

Domo’s iconic status using a variety of platforms in key product areas such as mobile, fashion and art that will allow him to strengthen his presence in the retail market.  With highly skilled, design-focused licensees on board coupled with Domo’s quirky, unique character and strong brand values, he is set to increase his cult following in the UK and European territories before taking on world Domo-nation!”

 

 

 

About Entara

 

www.entara.co.uk  

 

 

About The Monster Factory

The Monster Factory was founded in 2000 as a greetings card publisher, initially specialising in handmade cards and has since become synonymous with imaginative, eye-catching consumer products.  The current portfolio ranges from such diverse items as furry bookmarks to licensed children’s books.  Its characters now feature in a range of key product categories around the globe and the unique MoPod® mobile phone accessories and Scary Monsters™ have attracted particular attention. Monster plaudits also include winning the Gift of the Year Awards 2006 for Fuzzy-Felt® cards.

 

About ID-WALL

Founded in May 2005, ID-WALL specialise in providing licensed imagery from well known organisations and brands to produce affordable iconic art canvas prints, photo wallpaper and traditional framed prints. Distribution includes online retail and to a host of 3^rd party retailers online as well as the high street. The CANVAS CLUB™ galleries offer officially licensed canvas prints along with a “Create Your Own Art” service. ID-WALL’s photo wallpaper microsites provide access to hundreds of images that can be printed to exact specifications with the aim of creating a unique look for the home or workplace. www.id-wall.com

Synonymous with imaginative and eye -catching product, The Monster Factory license Domo to produce its unique MoPod® mobile phone accessory as well as Mobile Danglies (3D Moulded) as part of their portfolio of quirky and design-focused products.  Retailing at £3.99 RRP, the mobile phone accessory is already proving popular amongst the tween and teenage market through distribution online and in stationery, gift and specialist stores.

Domo Wave - Limited edition print - From £49.99

 

 

July 2007 : ID-WALL Launches Gordon Barker canvas prints and originals

 

“PICTURES THAT MAKE YOU SMILE”

 

ID-WALL are delighted to officially announce the roll-out of a new art management programme with artist, Gordon Barker.

 

Gordon Barker presents originals at AC Gallery, Huddersfield

 

 

Gordon has been painting commercially since 1983 and has sold over 500 original acrylic and water colour paintings in UK, USA and Germany.  His work has been commissioned by major international brands such as GAP and MTV Europe.  ID-WALL launched an exclusive limited edition canvas print collection in April this year and will be extending the range over the coming months.

April 2007 : Comedy fundraiser raises £23k for One Parent Families….

Comedy fundraiser raises £23k for One Parent Families 

 

One Parent Families raised £23,000 at it comedy fundraising evening at Café de Paris last week. Generous guests donated over £11,000 on the night from the raffle and auction, with Neil Morrissey paying £2,500 at the auction for a first edition of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince signed by JK Rowling, the charity’s president. A  signed copy of David Tennant’s script from the latest series of Dr Who sold for £2,200 with Dr Who producer Phil Collinson, who attending the event adding to the prize by organising a trip around the set for the winner.

 

 

Images of Love – Infatuation #2

 

July 2007 : ID-WALL set for further growth

ID-Wall Set for Further Growth with £50,000 Loan

03 Jul 2007

ID-Wall, a large format picture, art and graphics business based in Huddersfield, has secured a £50,000 investment from Partnership Investment Finance as the company gears up for further growth.

 

Tim Bennett, left, and Ian Howson, Fund Manager at Partnership Investment Finance.

 

ID-Wall specialises in creating large format canvas prints, photo wallpaper and traditional framed prints which have proven hugely popular with large corporates as well as for the home market via the company’s website www.id-wall.com.

Partnership Investment Finance is a £37m investment fund aimed at supporting growing businesses in Yorkshire and the Humber.  It aims to encourage enterprise and economic regeneration by providing equity investments and loans to eligible businesses in the region’s Objective 2 areas.