A while back I met Simon Wadsworth at Manchester print fair whilst he was working his stall, this stall turned out to be for Wraptious Art, his own company. Since then I have stayed in touch with Simon and learned all about his company, the following is an interview he has kindly done for me, but before you do, head over to wraptious.com if you havnt already. Incredible company that is definitely onthe rise.
Firstly, could you give a few words about yourself and just what Wraptious is.
Sure. I launched Wraptious just over a
year ago, having previously worked in strategy for a large retailer. It
was a fun and challenging job, but an office job nevertheless and I'd
been wanting to do my own thing for a while. I launched Wraptious as a
way of supporting emerging artists (Wraptees), giving them a platform to
showcase their work, which we sell as a growing array of gifts and
homewares.
What inspired you to start up your own business in the art world?
It was quite random inspiration
actually. I was doodling away on some post-it notes during a dull office
meeting, and colleagues exclaimed my doodles would make great gift
wrap! So for fun I thought I’d give it a go. However I soon realised
that it’s not as easy as it sounds – support for startup artists in the
UK is extremely limited. It’s inherently difficult for anyone creative
to make a name for themselves – time, money, skill, opportunity, even
confidence can all act as a barrier. There is a lot more talent than
opportunity in this world! So what started out as a bit of fun,
developed into a business plan for a new art platform – which ultimately
led to me quitting my career and launching Wraptious.
Have you encountered any copyright problems along your way to this?
Not
with Wraptious yet, no. We follow all the usual procedures -
copyrighting all work, and keeping a trail of the work's origins where
possible. We also have a contractual agreement with all our artists, to
protect them as much as us. However, we're fully aware of friends in the
industry where this has been a big issue for - either exactly copying
work, usually abroad in India or China, or copying the style - which is a much harder thing to control.
How does Wraptious pick and choose what artist/artwork makes it to your stands?
We're
really flattered as we get many emails a week from budding awesome
artists sharing their portfolios, and we would love to say yes to
everyone. Unfortunately, until we provide drop-ship capability and a
crowd-sourced web platform (2 years away - you heard it here first!), we
can't accept everyone. Instead, we run competitions twice a year
seeking new artists - everyone is invited to share 3 pieces of work
which gets voted on by the public. A lot of fun and a lot fairer than us
deciding!
Do you have any regrets or anything you would change/do differently given the chance on your Wraptious journey so far?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter once said that CEO should stand for Chief Editing Officer,
as the hardest challenge for the founder is to edit down the 1000s of
good ideas to the one or two ideas you want to focus on. In our early
days - and we're still victims of this today - we have fingers in lots
of pies as we test the waters to see what works best for us. Some of
these involved a lot of wasted time, and we're a lot more focused now
that we were when we launched!
Who has been your biggest artistic inspiration in your own personal work?
Man,
that's a tough question. I remember back at school that the first
artist I really admired and studied was Roy Lichtenstein. I found his
work so fresh and confident, especially at the time he was creating it.
In the last few years, I've become more focused on graphic design, so
designers like Stagmeister, Paul Rand and Peter Saville have been big
influences.
And finally, what advice would you give to any aspiring artist/entrepreneur on there way up in the art world?
Just
get out there! Confidence in your work will grow as your develop your
style and encouragement from others. Do some market events, join Etsy or
ArtFinder, contact galleries. Be professional and have a social media
presence. If you're passionate, work hard and not afraid to shout about
your work, you can't go wrong! Good luck. x
Big thank you to Simon.
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