17 Aug 2015
Time to keep on with our interview series, right? But this time we didn't talk with an illustrator, but with a unique, very special publisher.
Ceferino Lopez is the founder of Chucherías de Arte (spanish for "Art Treats"), a publishing micro-firm that produces small illustration gems: illustrated badges with booklets, photocollections and unique illustration sketchbooks. He has published work from illustrators such as Paula Bonet, Enrique Flores, Laura Castelló and many more.
Tell us a bit about yourself: how did you end up doing proffesional photography and later publish with Art Treats?
I've always worked on photography, but since new technologies began becoming more affordable, I got into editing, graphic and web design to add more value to my current customers with a competitive edge. This was on the 80s-90s (last century, actually!)
Photography helped me to understand the visual foundation about compisition, color, perspective, etc; graphic and web design broadened my visual language getting me more close to the publishing world in the design and layout phases.
Finally, with this experience background I began crafting at home unique formats with illustrations and photography from a variety of authors. The resulting work seemed to fit in the publishing world, hence see me becomed a publisher without knowing a lot about it.
We know you do everything in the production process (printing, packaging, ). Could you tell us about the craftmanship behind Art Treats?
When I get the digital files with the author's work, I begin with layout and share the process with the author, until we both are satisfied with it. Then I begin with the printing process, which I do on a Xerox Workcentre 7232. It gives me a superb quality over Fedrigoni special paper.
Once a series is printed, is time to cut, (guillotinar, plegar, alzar, grapar, repelar), make the badges, package, label and store. Then I made photos and videos to the final product, upload them to our website and spread them through email and social networks.
And the process is far from complete. Now is time to contact the "real world". Through all the year I travel to art fairs, festivals, markets and everywhere I can show to people our publications.
Fancy a bit more? At the same time of all previous work, we have to research and design the stuff that comes along with the publications, such as packaging, publicity, stands designs, events research, etc.
And aside all that there's still room to manage your stock, sales, make repositions, support online sales, invoicing, shipping, etc.
What do you seek on an illustrator to work with her/him on a project?
I want to see her/his work talking about personal, complex, intimate matters. I'm not interested in posing or appealing the market.
We see a lot of startups and projects appearing lately around the world of illustration. Do you think this will continue to grow, or is it some kind of "heat of the moment"?
The worst thing that can happen is that the one thing you most love becomes fashionable. I'm quite concerned with that.
And last but not least: any advice to aspiring illustrators who seek to work with publishers?
Be sure and clear about the road they want to walk and know as precisely as possible where is the food and where are the emotions.
Thanks Ceferino!
13 Aug 2015
Some weeks ago, we launched our Stores Beta. Most of the first users who were invited to it have already set up their shops and products, and we made a little selection of some of them so you can experience what can be done with the stores in Drawfolio.
If you want to give it a try, we still have room for you!. Just fill in this survey and we will send you an invitation.
Paula García
On Paula's shop you will find undead bags, prints where the winter is coming, y and mugs featuring the most fabolous four from Britain.
Bolita de pelo
Susana sells postcards and posters where nature is illustrated. You will find from whales to dogs!
María Arencibia
Maria has everything: bags, mugs, badges, bookmarkers, bag hangers... Her Geisha-Cat is among our favourites.
Carlos Hebles
Carlos sells original art pieces where he visually explores his home city of Granada with a unique style.
La Chica de la cinta
Lara, better known as La Chica de la Cinta (spanish for The Ribbon Girl) sells illustrated bags and notebooks. The perfect combo to start a journey in search of inspiration!
03 Aug 2015
Even in August, we made time between visits to the beach to keep improving Drawfolio. This time we bring small featues which arised from conversations with you, specially from the users who are trying our stores beta right now.
By the way, if you are still interested on trying out our Stores Beta, we still have room for you! Fill in this survey and we will send you an invitation.
So, without further ado, here are the improvements:
- Subpages: Now pages support a two-level hierarchy, just like Galleries do. Go edit a page and select its parent page, easy!
- Enable and disable store products: Some times hiding a product temporarily without deleting it can be useful. Actually, when you have order data with that product, making a "hard delete" of that product can be dangerous. That's why all products can be disabled and enabled anytime.
Generated SKU: The SKU, or Stock Keeping Unit, is an internal code most e-commerces use to identify a product, so the name or description of it can change in time. You can set the SKU you want for the products of your store in Drawfolio, but if you don't want to think one for each product we will automatically generate one from the name of the product.
Optional stock control: Until now, all products in a store had stock control, but we found out that some users on our stores beta are using their shop to sell services or comissions that have to be payed up front. Stock control does not make sense for this kind of items, so now you can enable or disable stock control for each product whenever you want.
For any doubt, question, suggestion or problem, please contact us at uservoice or write us at [email protected].
17 Jul 2015
Ilustratour 2015 is next week, and we are super excited! Ilustratour is the most important illustration event in Spain, and has a strong international projection. This year the venue will be Matadero Madrid, and we will be there since Friday 24th with a stand on Ilustratour Market. We also will be advising illustrators about their personal brand on Ilustratour Network
If you come visit at our stand, you got yourself a nice badge! We also will be meeting a lot of our PRO customers in person, so we also got an exclusive badge for them.
We will happy to talk you about Drawfolio and answer all your questions. You can also bring your work in an usb pendrive and we will help you to build your portfolio website live. See you at Ilustratour!
