Posted by Pedro Bento on September 29, 2008 at 12:19 PM
One of the best ways to increase your sales is making some exhibitions and sell your work.
I´m considering buy 10 or 15 frames and put some of my pictures inside them. My idea is every month find a new place (coffee, restaurant, or other commercial store) that can receive my work and display it for his visitors/clients. The method consists in have the frames displayed in the stores for a period of one month with a number and the interested people buy the print, not the frame, to give you the chance of use the frame in the next month.
This will be my 1st attempt in that kind of contact with stores to display my work. How do you recommend this first contact and how the store take a commission. In most cases you are offering decoration to the owner of the shop. Do you have any experience in this kind of exhibitions, articles you have read. Ideas, like cards, calendars, anything you can display in the exhibition to promote your work in the best and efficient way.
Thank you very much for your help.
Posted by Mike Moats on September 29, 2008 at 11:06 PM
Hey Pedro, I have tried this method with very limited success. You may make a sale or two but you won't set the world on fire. If your looking to make any respectable sales you have to show in front of a large mass of people. I find the art shows to produce the best sales, due to the large volume of people. My smaller shows draw about twenty thousand posible customers, and the largest show, estimated attendance of a half a million people (Ann Arbor Art Fair). The only store that has sold well for me is in a mall, which has around 30,000 people a day visiting. Same goes for starting a photography gallery, the ones that make it are in tourest traps, again places that draw large masses of people. What ever you decide good luck
Posted by Pedro Bento on September 30, 2008 at 6:06 AM
Thanks Mike for your feedback!
Posted by Younes Bounhar on September 30, 2008 at 3:57 PM
I don't mean to discourage you but I think your assumption is largely false...I am not sure exhibitions are really cost effective...tried that route...very limited success (even in one of Ottawa's highest regarded galleries). People love the pictures but are not willing to dish out the cash.
As for contacting potential exhibitors, there is nothing like walking in with your portfolio and asking to see the manager... Galleries take a huge premium in the order of 40% (making even harder to sell ), pubs and cafés may not charge anything at all (in my experience at least).
Posted by Pedro Bento on October 2, 2008 at 5:58 AM
Hi Pedro, I'm new at this also. It does sound like selling your photos at events with more people should increase your chance of a sale. If it in a tourist area the pictures should be of the area, something to remind people of there vacation.
Posted by Emily Rich on October 10, 2008 at 1:24 PM
i am getting ready to display my work in a coffee shop and they dont charge... they just like having local artist work up - hopefully giving the customers something to come in for and talk about....
Hi Pedro. This is my main way of selling. Local libraries have meeting rooms, nature centers like to hang nature images, even a car dealership in the area hangs pictures from local artists, but the most profitable was the common halls in a busy office building in a major city. Here again, a large audience. A few hints... animals sell best, black mats are more popular, and images of the area you are showing in. I wish you luck selling on the local level. Its not much income, but at least it pays for lens now and again.
Discussion
7 repliesI´m considering buy 10 or 15 frames and put some of my pictures inside them. My idea is every month find a new place (coffee, restaurant, or other commercial store) that can receive my work and display it for his visitors/clients. The method consists in have the frames displayed in the stores for a period of one month with a number and the interested people buy the print, not the frame, to give you the chance of use the frame in the next month.
This will be my 1st attempt in that kind of contact with stores to display my work. How do you recommend this first contact and how the store take a commission. In most cases you are offering decoration to the owner of the shop. Do you have any experience in this kind of exhibitions, articles you have read. Ideas, like cards, calendars, anything you can display in the exhibition to promote your work in the best and efficient way.
Thank you very much for your help.
As for contacting potential exhibitors, there is nothing like walking in with your portfolio and asking to see the manager... Galleries take a huge premium in the order of 40% (making even harder to sell ), pubs and cafés may not charge anything at all (in my experience at least).