One of my goals this year is to be better about getting installation shots of my work when possible. Whether from exhibitions or through licensing deals. A good amount of my licensing is through art consultants for hotels and corporate clients. Let me break down a bit how this whole process works. The art consultants pitch my work to their client, as I mentioned usually hotels or corporate offices. They’ll usually start by letting me know a particular image or group of images will be a good fit for the client. They’ll get my pricing to license the images for a certain number of prints, at a certain size, in a specified location, most often the guest rooms or lobby. From here I’m kind of in the dark on the specifics of all that goes on in sharing with the client but from my understanding, the brand, and the owner have to agree on the artwork. Once a decision has been made there can be some negotiating on pricing, once that’s resolved, a licensing agreement is signed between me and the art consulting firm, I send over the high-resolution file, and they produce the artwork. As you can imagine, these projects tend to have very long timelines. It’s not uncommon for it to take 6 months to over one year.
Throughout this process, I often don’t know who the end client is until I have a PO. However, when I do it’s a good opportunity to see my images in final presentation form. One project from last year was with an art consulting firm out of North Carolina for the Fairmont Chicago renovation. I recently reached out to their general manager and marketing department to set up a time to stop by to grab a few shots of the work in the guest rooms.
First, you see one of their large guest suites and my Blue Abstract image in the dining area. Giving the rough lighting conditions, I have a tighter shot above and a more contextual shot below.
Next, I have two images in a different guest suite, a smaller version of Blue Abstract and my image Caution. First, a bit of a detailed shot to see the artwork up close and then a wider shot.
A big thanks to the manager of the hotel and their social media team for letting me stop by to grab these shots. The rooms have pretty great views of Millennium Park and the lakefront as well 🙂 Stop by for a stay when you’re in town!
