The Way We Do Business — A Letter From Leo Blanchette
To all of my customers, a big THANK YOU! Doing business directly or indirectly, you’ve put JesterArts on the map in internet illustration. You’ve helped a family.
I’m changing the way we do business that will benefit both of us.
There is a lot that goes into the creating and marketing of these illustration’s you’ve become familiar with. Strangely, illustrating has become a small part of my illustration career due to the very high maintenance system of uploading to stock agencies, marketing, etc. This is going to change. Here are some things that are changing, and you as the customer will greatly benefit.
A Higher Quality Orange Man - JesterArts/Clipartof.com Exclusive
1. The little man is now working for the little man.
3. Changing pricing and usage structure.
5. Custom Work.
I’m no longer uploading to large stock agencies. See below for reasons why. The JesterArts product is now being brought to a higher level of quality and now being marketed to a smaller audience. What does this mean for you? A more polished and unique identity in your use of JesterArts illustrations. It will be less likely that people will have seen a particular illustration you’ve downloaded in use somewhere else. This is very good for YOU.
Time to let out a secret: This is becoming a family run operation. To accomodate my loyal audience business to business, more illustrating work has to be done — but I’m only one man. So it’s quite likely that Orange Men, AO-Maru, etc, will not be produced by just me any more. Also expect to see other artists coming into the game. These are relatives of mine, skilled and artistic.
You pay a bit more, but your allowances for use are much wider. Again, see reasons below. JesterArts is now striving for higher quality, more attention to you as a human being, and we are not peddling our designs like penny candy available to the masses any more. In a sense, we are now expert chocolatiers working over the counter for you.
- 4. Availability
My old stuff is staying where it is. But our NEW stuff is only going to be available on JesterArtsIllustrations.com and ClipArtof.com. The newer illustrations will be marked as exclusive to ClipArtof.com and JesterArtsIllustrations.com. When you see this, you can be assured that these illustrations are of a different caliber and significantly less available to the masses due to pricing and internet marketing. Again, this is no longer penny candy but gourmet chocolates. You get what you pay for. 
- 5. Custom Work.
Here is an apology: In the past you’ve probably e-mailed me and gotten limited response. apologies for this. This was due to my extremely busy way of working, creating, uploading, etc. I’m only one man, and it has shown. NOW expect meaningful responses and dedication to projects. It may be another competent artist besides me you collaborate with, but we communicate and help each other for a better result. Again, think gourmet chocolatiers.
Remember, our business structure requires us to do work on a NON-exclusive basis, because our entire business revolves around supplying graphics. So custom work is done at a lower labor rate because illustrations are added to the JesterArts library as we produce them.
As mentioned, I’m only one man. Writing a meaningful blog is hard to keep up with. Now a graphic designer will be writing it, giving tips on general design, web design, etc, using JesterArts Illustrations. It will be beneficial for you to read.
- 7. Logo design.
Yes, we will do logos. We get so many requests its silly to keep turning them down. These of course are exclusive to you but cannot contain existing JesterArts illustrations due to copyright laws.
These are the main need-to-knows of the changes, though other things are involved. Again, consider our snazzy new little shop open to the public.
I could write volumes concerning the microstock photography and illustration market, but a few simple things have surfaced that is endangering this operation of ours:
- 1. Cheapening of the professional’s work.
One might think from seeing my work all over the internet I must be getting pretty darn rich. No, that is not the case. I get only a small portion of what my illustrations sell for, and the agencies treat their supplying artists like hens laying eggs in a factory farm. We can’t produce fast enough, and our small commissions keep it this way. They dangle cute little incentives to keep us motivated and they have a few success cases they flaunt to keep us all trying to be like those few successful people. Its the typical corporate nonsense. Granted, I’ve seen an amount of success, but now for reason two:
- 2. Too many people flooding the market.
Its a natural phenomenon — the word has gotten out, now anyone with a camera or graphic tablet can join in the microstock factory farm operation as a fresh new hen. The original artists are finding it harder to stand out among the swarm of “copycat” illustrators who have joined in the trend. Do a search — how many illustrations are spin-offs from other illustrations?
- 3. Economy.
No explanation necessary.
So in essence, there is still a place for small businesses to work with small businesses and its becoming more necessary. Please visit Clipartof.com and JesterArtsIllustrations.com. Clipartof.com is run by Kenny Adams and Jamie Voetsch and they sell clip art supplied by small group of artists such as myself. JesterArts Illustrations is a collection of my own illustrations but run by Kenny Adams and Jamie Voetsch and shares the same pricing/allowances structure.
So I wish to thank you again, and please enjoy the JesterArts illustration experience with us. Its taken quite a long time to get to this point, and its due to customers like you choosing us from out of the crowd to give identity to your business.
Sincerely
Leo Blanchette
leoblanchette
Catalin Costea
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