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Art Market(ing)
It was a pretty bad morning for the director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence last summer when he learned that one of his museum's prized masterpieces was being used to market porn. An image of Botticelli's Birth of Venus (in iconic tribute, above) linked erotic scenes from art history to the salacious site.

Where do the boundaries of culture, marketing, and IP (intellectual property) intersect? What becomes fair use when we're talking about masterpieces hundreds of years old? Who defines the limits of cultural public domain?

These are important questions for museums and other cultural institutions who license their masterpieces for everything from umbrellas to lingerie. The Uffizi makes an estimated €1 million annually from its licensing, and it threatened to sue to protect the Botticelli brand of innocence. While the offending site removed the images, I suspect it won't be the last time that lawyers are sending cease-and-desist orders.
We're welcoming 8 new subscribers this week. Welcome Jay, Lindsay, Tobin, Sarah, Jenn, Kristy, John, and K! I'm glad you're here — welcome to the community of folks who are passionate about visuals (including visual thinking, visual storytelling, visual everything).

As those who've been here for a while know, each issue is filled with 3 things related to Visual IP*. It's designed to quickly inform, then get you on your way. In each issue you'll find an inspiring quote, an image, and a link to an essay or resource.

* Visual IP (intellectual property) = proprietary frameworks, diagrams, and drawings based on your ideas, which help you explain, influence, and persuade

And if you're reading this from an issue that was forwarded, you can sign up to get your very own each week.

Quote

"Art is a line around your thoughts."
― Gustav Klimt

Image
Art on a Wetsuit?

This week's visual takes our imagination to the intersection of culture and commerce. The items above are designs inspired by Hokusai's The Great Wave, often considered Japan's most famous work of art. The original is a series of 1830s-era woodblock prints by the Japanese master, and these designs are based on a print at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. 

I'm not 100% sure what to make of this marketing pitch. There's definitely some humor here. Placing the iconic wave on a surfboard, swim trunks, and a wetsuit? Is this the new way to appreciate art?

Yes, it is. Digital natives are discovering art, well, digitally. And one Chinese entrepreneur is helping Western museums expand their audiences (and their coffers) through creative licensing deals in China. Yizan He explains that the design items are carefully curated and that they "do not simply slap paintings on things." There are thousands of different products, however, from stationery to home furnishings, scented diffusers, apparel, surfboards, and bottled drinks. His Chinese site attracts visitor numbers that dwarf any typical museum attendance.

The enthusiastic entrepreneur says that "It is now normal for the younger generation to learn about art through social media." And, it seems, a surfboard.

Resource
Free-to-use Media Libraries

Have you ever scrambled to find a visual for a newsletter, landing page, website, or other digital use? The stock image sites can be pretty bland.

Next time, turn to Wikimedia Commons. There are more than 81 million (!!) images, sounds, and videos awaiting your keyword search, all available for public use.

This media repository is part of Wikimedia Foundation, and bills itself as "the world's largest free-to-use library of photos, illustrations, drawings, videos, and music." You can search by any term from the main page, or use the category links to get you started.

Searches for objects seem to give better results than concepts — for example, "feather" turned up a large collection of beautiful photos, which searching for "innovation" returned meager results. As with most free sites, YMMV (your mileage may vary).

If you're looking specifically for artworks, check out the online collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (be sure to click the "Show public domain images only" box in your search). You'll find more than 20,000 images of artworks from hundreds of time periods, movements, and artists.

You can also access more than 1,700 images of artworks available for use from the collections of The Met in New York City, America's premier art museum. Not a large number, but very high quality — and you are free to use, modify, and distribute those in Open Access, even for commercial purposes.

A Sold Out Pilot Cohort of Authority By Design

Celebrate with me, dear readers! The Pilot cohort of my new cohort-based class, Authority By Design, was fully subscribed, hours before the deadline. Fifteen phenomenal entrepreneurs and big thinkers are joining me over the next 3 weeks to learn how to design and use visual frameworks.

Thanks to so many of you for your ideas, enthusiasm, and support over the past few months. It has been a remarkable experience of "building in public." I look forward to sharing more from the class in the weeks ahead.

Thanks for joining me. May you find news ways to put artistic visuals to work this week.

As always, if there are others you think might enjoy these types of ideas and resources, please forward this on.

Until next time: Make something happen!

Terri
PS: Was this email forwarded to you? You can sign up to get your own copy on my website. There's also an archive of past issues for browsing.
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