I have long wondered how textile designs are selected for production. How does Amy Butler become the current phenomenon – besides being extremely talented, of course? Talent will only take you so far; what is the rest?

Design Sponge does a three day review of Surtex, the “International fair for the sale and license of design and artwork for textile fabrics, apparel and contract textiles, wall and floor coverings, …” Who knew there was such a thing? And it looks so cool!

Stationery show 2007: part one and Stationery show 2007: part two begins at the related National Stationery Show, which is filled with pattern and stitchery. There are some cool stitched wallets, stenciled tee-shirts, and of course, lots of pattern.

Day Two, entitled so, about surtex… covers the work of Julie Rothman and some terrific embroideries by anonymous Savannah College of Art and Design students. The concept of surtex appears to be similar to the local craft fair, except instead of having families stroll by to see your work, you get to have agents and licensers stroll by. These are the folks who will transform your designs into objects for sale in stores.

Day Three, covers the related icff show (International Contemporary Furniture Fair). Lots of home furnishings, rugs and a few quilts. Denyse Schmidt is smiling from her booth. Dang! Even the stars have to stand on their feet all day!

How hard is it to sell your work to the world, Susie Lee Jin offers her experiences in her blog post: May 14-22, 2007: Surtex Journal, or Musings of a Newbie Art Licensor.

“I’ve decided that the most draining part of manning a booth is what I will term “anxiety of anticipation.” It’s like the Pavlov’s dog experiment. People walk by, your heart races and you salivate. Well, it’s something like that. You wait for companies to pass, and when throngs walk by, you are on the edge of your seat to see if they will stop and consider your work. You see a fair share of smiles as well as stone faces. You get nice comments now and then, but that validation is mostly from friends/family and artists who want to get into licensing. But what you truly crave is for a company to walk by, see your stuff, love it, and want to work with you for a zillion dollars for the rest of your life. What this boils down to is that in the down times, you may experience low self-esteem. You then ask yourself, “What am I doing here? Can I make this business work?!”

The good news, by the end Susie writes, “By four o’clock, I had several more leads and new artist-friends. Very cool.” Her conclusions?

- Licensing is a long term endeavor. It’s true- you have to be in it to win it. And then you have to practice the fine art of following up….
-Salesmanship has nothing to do with it. I’m all about smiling at people from my booth and saying hello, but the truth is, even that much salesmanship isn’t necessary to drum up business. Your primary job as an artist exhibitor is to create amazing artwork and show it. As long as you do that, I’m pretty sure you could frown at all the passersby, and it wouldn’t matter. Your work is your best representative. If it’s a good fit for a company product, that company will stop and talk to you about working together.

Visit Design*Sponge and browse Susie Lee Jin’s site. There is probably enough inspiration in those two places to keep you riding high all summer!
parkhaus berlin feltworks to the right!