How we picked the three Global Talent Search winners: Nine points

1. Here’s the equation. It’s where a recognizable, masterful style with a strong point of view meets a highly marketable look for a range of markets. The larger the overlap, the better. Here are my notes written during our team meeting.

Here’s Kate Mason’s work for the final assignment. It’s got it all.

Can we envision getting loads of work for the artist in a number of categories such as home décor, bolt fabric, children’s books, magazines, wall décor, gift, paper, apparel, advertising? Yes.

2. We look at the body of work on the artists’ websites. Is it consistently strong? Are there plenty of images? Does it excite us?

Here’s Katie Vernon’s map from her site done for the Make Art That Sells ecourse. This stunning piece can get map work in editorial, and there are loads of icons here that can be repurposed for other markets, from bolt fabric to home décor.

3. Is the winner a good fit for the prizes, such as a home décor line with Margo Tantau, VP of Creative at Midwest CBK, a Dot&Bo product, etc?

4. How are the drawing and painting chops? Masterful use of color?

As our artist Flora Waycott says “That Kate knows how to work her paintbrush”.

5. Is there work which embodies non-commercial exploration? This bodes well for career longevity. What’s too edgy now will be marketable in the future. Another way to say it is ahead of trend.

6. Is the design of the piece impeccable? We are talking design elements like balance, unity, movement, contrast, conflict as evidenced in Clairice Gifford’s work. Not to mention color.

7. We love lettering. Lettering gets work from greeting cards to ad campaigns. We loved the very polished and exciting typography we saw from Clairice Gifford in her final assignment.

8. Is it a look that we don’t currently have, and that we’ve been looking for? We don’t want to cannibalize a style we already represent. It’s great to broaden our reach with new looks.

9. We pride ourselves on representing artists that maintain the utmost in professionalism. That means they meet deadlines, are pleasant to deal with, and so forth. This was evidenced in our communications with them in email and skypes, and how they delivered work of a consistently high standard in my courses and for the Global Talent Search.

So that’s the thinking behind making our selections. It’s an art, however, not a science, and it has to do with which artist is a good fit for our brand.

We truly loved all seven Finalists. We wish we could have taken them all on, and hope they’ll try again next year. (Both of our artists Flora and Kate entered the Global Talent Search two years in a row!)

Thanks to all of our judges!

Lilla and the Studio Ladies