Pricing - Industry and market research

To get a sense of the value of my own work, I need to research what is being sold out in the market already and also look at potential printing outlets available to me. High quality digital prints and zines are mediums that really suit my style and i have worked within these mediums on this module.

Zines

This zine being sold at no guts no glory, by Jamie Morrison is being sold for £6, with only 20 editions available and contains over 50 photographs. The black and white style and nature of photography as a medium, I feel that this was a very low input zine to produce, with not much labour intensity. I think the price refects the content and value of the product especially considering the amount the artist would recieve after commission is deducted. The lo-fi non colour style however then benefits with cheap reproduction costs that maximise potential profits and limiting the print run increases value.

Another no guts no glory zine, this time priced at only £4, this collation of pre existing artwork is reflected in the price and also the recycled paper its made with. I am not sure if a cut of the profit has to go to every artist featured or wether they volunteered to have work featured for free as self promotion, but the resources already available cut down labour intensity and produces a product that is still desirable.

Steve Larders zine Rumlad issue 4 sells for only £2.50 at no guts no glory. A surprisingly low cost but i think that is due to the black and white, low production value and the 'issue' nature of it.

This NoBrow press concertina style zine by Kavel Rafferty is being sold for £7.50 but compared to some of the zines above is less, for a higher price, which is interesting.

From the nobrw small press this Thomas Rowe zine, which is hand printed is sold for £50 a pop. This price reflects the high quality and hand made labour of the product. This is a limited edition product with a quality unlike any of the other editions due to the reproductive inconsistency of print which makes each one unique.

Jack Teagles fight comic is sold on nobrow for £7.50 This is a very competetive price for this kind of product, it is affordable for the amount of artwork and jacks style acts as an efficient way of communicating a narrative in a fairly simple style.

Art Prints

This awesome digital painting by the freelance artist and illustrator Nicholas Kay sells for $20 at 12 x 15 and $40 for 18 x 24. This is a super desirable print for someone with my taste and is a price that Would glady pay for the product.The quality of the artwork is high, yet the artist has the digital file and can choose to reproduce any time he wants. This is a great advantage of producing digital artwork but the quality has to be very high to be desirable. I can imagine that this kind of print is only produced on demand, that way no money is wasted as ordering is only available online. To sell at conventions and shops, producing stock in batches then becomes an issue of profit vs production, at least on a more risk taking level.

This is an art print for the online webcomic series megatokyo by fred galhager, and is currently on sale for $12.50. It is interesting to compare the price of a digital print such as this to a piece of original art being sold on the same shop.

This original pencil drawing is being sold for $250.00 dollars which shows the kind of value an artist can put on his orginals.
I feel i could only sell original artwork if i had a portfolio overflowing with cool illustrations which wouldn't hurt me too much to lose one or two for the sake of a big profit. However this is something that, working mainly digitally, i cannot really take advantage of. So for me i can consider selling my digital prints at lower costs and maximise profits from a single high quality piece.

Selling work

Looking at where different artists products are sold and the prices they are sold for allows me to see what kind of outlets are available. As an artist i have to decide what kind of outlet is best for my product. Having a company such as NoBrow or No Guts No Glory selling work can help an artist reach audiences in different places but you have to suffer a commission cost. However selling alone requires much hard work from the artist themselves, perhaps utilising free internet space such as blogs to reach potential customers is a good option, promoting on facebook and going out to conventions and paying for a small selling space for a day.

Printing in Plymouth

The art side
Plymouth College of Art
Bretonside Copy
Kenroy and Thompson

These are places I have utilised printing from locally, offering a range of different printing services at varying prices. There are also online places that can be used who will send and post such as ripe digital.
I found that using local printers seems like a more sensible option as proofs advice and discussion with the printer can happen on the spot and postage prices can be avoided.

Free online art forum Deviantart also offers digital printing services for its users to buy and sell artwork to ther users and deviantart handles all the printing and postage services saving the artist alot of work.