Art Prices for Medical facility

Hello Members:

I just got another email from this lady regarding what she wants to do. What are trade discounts?

I don't really know what to charge. Normally for a 16x20 I charge $110.00 would I just do the same price? Or do I up the price a bit? Please Read below. I would like to email her back tomorrow.

Cindy

Hello Ms. Garwood;

I represent Art Source Inc., a manufacturer/wholesaler of decorative artwork for senior living and healthcare facilities. We’ve been in business for over 35 years and work directly with the A&D industry on a project by project basis - - in essence, no gallery and no retail trade.

I am sourcing Wisconsin color photography by WI artists for two projects: a corporate entity and a medical facility. Both projects are budget-conscious and do not require fine art. As a manufacturer, we purchase prints direct or digitally reproduce them.

Do you sell your photography direct or are you exclusively contracted with the retailers on your site?
If not, I am interested in knowing the sizes of your photography that can be reproduced and if you give trade discounts.

Thank you,

Connie Jones

Art Source wants to buy "art" as cheap as they can and made that clear with the statement that they do not require fine art. Or the proper way for them to put it would be, "we want to buy cheap art."

There are two ways an artist can proceed with their endeavors of monetary gains from their works.

First, they can attempt to become the low cost producer and always try to be cheaper than the other guy or gal. This requires constant attention on low prices and high quantities with quality obviously a non issue. A word of advice on this, you will "never" be the lowest priced supplier and will always be struggling to lower your prices to satisfy businesses/companies such as Art Source Inc. Art Source Inc. does no favors for artists and in fact it can be said they are detrimental to the art community.

Or you can maintain the quality and pricing that "You" decide your art is worth and in doing so take great pride in what you produce and offer to the public.

Alain Briot has written a great book on this, Marketing Fine Art Photography. Alain also has many other very well written books with tremendous information in them.

The choice is obviously yours Cindy but since you asked you now know my opinion. And by the way, "Trade Discounts" are just another way of you lowering your price more for them. They really aren't satisfied until you just give them your work for free.

I agree with Brad. I would charge them your normal price (or more). You have nothing to lose if they say no.

As a general rule of thumb you should have a retail price and a wholesale price. Retail being what a gallery or deal you work through would charge and wholesale being the portion of that price that you would receive. The wholesale price can vary anywhere for 50% to 70% depending on the arrangement you have with your retail outlets. When selling direct you should not undercut your gallery by offering to sell wholesale to people who are not wholesale buyers. If this is a legit wholesaler then offering work at wholesale is appropriate.

When we've sold photos for installations larger than standard photo sizes (around 40x60") we've always based our price quote on the square footage. We've used fotoQuote successfully not just for developing a price quote, but especially for help in negotiations. I think you'll be able to develop a very fair asking price using fotoQuote, but based on their rep, I'm betting ArtSource isn't going to like it one little bit. Sometimes you just have to walk away from a potential sale if you can't come to terms agreeable to them and to YOU.