I'd like to raise at least MY concern. for the prizes that are currently being offered for the remaining 11 series one designs . I feel that for us to create and give you our designs pretty much completely, that 5 of our designed figures is a pretty weak prize. I feel that if you are going to expand t0 a full series these designers will have just as much of a part in selling the series as Matucha. With that in mind this prize is really kind of an insult. Maybe this is just my opinion but when I'm designing something and losing the rights to it I need something a little more enticing then 5 figures to keep me interested. So what do other people think and can you please explain you reasoning behind this Guru?

the prize is that our design will be produced. i don't know, that alone is good for me. and hopefully our names won't go unnoticed. for some reason i don't think aarting will scoop up the rights and pretend none of us existed.....

but honestly, these guys didn't need to make a series. they could have just left it to one toy, and one toy only. but instead, now more of us have a chance to do something too. these guys have already stated that they have a budget their working with. to give all of us a box of 25 and more designer rights for the boxes or whatnot, will probably ruin the budget. i'm ok with 5 pieces if i win.

Ok, but you do realize that although they will acknowledge that you designed it, that design and all derivatives of that work are officially Aartings and you can no longer market them to any other companies or make a profit off of those designs for yourself. Think of it this way, If Frank Kozik had entered this competition with his popular anarchy or smorkin motifs Aarting is the only company that would be able to market this design that he has made lots of fame and money from by expanding it to multiple different platform toys throughout the urban vinyl world. Instead he would be limited to just this company and would never have been able to expand his influence. For Aarting to have exclusive rights to my designs or anyone elses I think more needs to be put on the table. If they don't want to or can't allot more to put more on the table then maybe they need to forfeit some of Aartings rights rather than making the artists, that will eventually make or break their series possible, sacrifice theirs. Kate! and anyone else reading this, understand your designs are valuable and aarting needs to acknowledge that, I guess in the end everyone needs to make their own decisions.

i would be happy enough to be part of the community and be able to buy one of my one designs in stores. i dont even need the 5 pieces i will buy them in stores myself
the guys from aarting are doing so much for us why bother them with mney issues and more production pieces talk no no no be thankfull and we will all be rewarded.
be greedy and our boot will sink


so guys from aarting keep up the good work... the black pearl is ours and no captain can take our ship away ahooooooooy

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mama mama help me i DIY again!

I'd have to agree with Kate! What with the official winner announced, the fact that any other design is going to be produced is icing on the cake. I am sure that aarting would oblige were you to want to remove your design from the running. Don't forget how much it would cost to manufacture a 'toy' on your own. Aarting has to make a profit somehow or they simply won't be around for further contests.

please let us stay focust on the community and on the art of blankie and not on the commercial values of designertoys. there are always better ways to work things out
but for me this is perfect... just hope one of the 11 is one of my designs and i would be more then happy to fly to aarting and make one hell of a good figure with them,.



and yes i will even buy them dinner and coffee ;)

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mama mama help me i DIY again!

[quote=George Gaspar of October Toys]For the first 3 series we gave the artists 50 of there piece, plus a set of the rest. We have since changed it to be 10% of the run size, plus a full set. That way if we only make 200 of a design we don't lose 1/4 of the run. Plus we try and throw in other stuff if we can, like other designs from other lines or whatever if the artist asks for it. We want it to be fair and worth the artists time.[quote]

This is what a company that cares about the designers does. end of argument

Mistuh_Thye brings up some valid issues. I’m proud that we can have these kinds of intelligent discussions here, it says a lot about the quality of people on this site. This might be a long post, I haven’t had much sleep the last few days.

I actually agree with you, Mistuh_Thye, YOUR ART IS WORTH SOMETHING.

Quick back story.

The idea for aarting.com came about earlier this year at New York’s Comicon. I was looking for a toy company to produce some of my new designs- coming originally from a background in animation, I had been lucky and already had a couple of toys produced by Toy2R and worked a little freelance for Kidrobot. Had some great meetings, made many contacts, then ran in to the young founder of a very well known and well respected Japanese designer toy company. Told him of my professional background in animation & toy design, had the chance to “pitch” him on my idea & and asked if I could send him some designs. His response:

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve never heard of you, sorry.”

That really got to me. I was very polite in leaving, but I began thinking about it. How many awesome artists will never get a chance to get their stuff out there because they’re not a “brand?” That’s crap. It should be about good art on hot looking toys, right? BAM! Aarting.com was born.

When we originally budgeted for this, our first competition, we were only going to make the winner’s toy. But we listen, discuss and take to heart what you guys say, and agreed with you- there’s just to many great designs to not make it a full series. But this also costs more money to do, and it wasn’t a planned thing.

It takes a lot of money to make and produce toys. Just to get that first sample sculpt can cost thousands. Then you have to pay to manufacture it, pay to ship it from china, pay the warehouse, pay the distributor, oh and don’t forget that the retailers get a discount so that they can make a profit. Point is, this isn’t a “get rich quick” scheme. We’re really just hoping to break even, so that we can keep doing more contests down the road. Any profit we do make, we’ll be putting it right back in to have better prizes for you guys, creating new toys for you to play with and adding new features to the site. We’re not pocketing any money on the release of these toys. NOT ONE PENNY. And probably not for a long time. The only goal I have is that maybe in a few years I’ll be able to do this full time because I love being able to do this.

We’re not some big super corporation. We don't have investors or a rich uncle. We’re a few people that have “real” jobs during the day and are willing to take a tremendous amount of time away from our families to work on this site because we really believe that aarting.com can be a great community for creative people. We’re having a lot of fun seeing it grow, too.

Gotta say the “greedy” comment got to me a little. Remember, we could have just as easily designed the toys ourselves. Or gotten a “big name” artist to do it for us. If this site was just about making money, why not commission some legend/illustrator/graf artist etc. to design it? After all, they’re “respected” and have HUGE fan bases. Just one of their toys will out sell and make more cash than our entire manufactured designer series 1 run.

But this site is not for the Frank Kozik’s of the world. They already have their opportunities. This is about helping to find and promote the talent of the NEXT Frank Kozik.

There are actually some great t-shirt companies out there that offer you $2500 if they use your design…but they started out by giving “1” single winner $100. If you guys really like what other sites offer, by all means enter that contest too! We think aarting.com offers something very different from those other guys, and my guess would be that all of those sites have been up for longer than our little 2 months, too ;)

And yes, we’re looking for you guys to design wallpaper, icons, etc. Again, we could have done this ourselves, easily. But that’s not fun, exciting or interesting. The prize isn’t just a “little blurb” on our site by the way. Many of the people coming to vote on your designs are regular people, but some are entertainment industry people we know from our own working history. And in two months, aarting.com has had tens of thousands of hits to the site. That “little blurb” (actually, a full interview showcasing your art and links to your website) is going to be seen by lots and lots of people, and it’s a great opportunity to be promoted. We think that’s an awesome prize.

Honestly. If you’ve got a design that’s the next big thing, the thing that’s gonna make you a super rich bazillionaire, the design that’s gonna revolutionize art, start a franchise and launch a t.v series, then DON’T SUBMIT IT. We don’t want it.

If we want to produce your toy and we contact you about it, and you don’t like the prizes we’re offering at the time, than DON’T ACCEPT IT. We’re not going to force you to have your toy made.

As the website grows, we promise to do what we can to hook you guys up with more great opportunities and great prizes.

Guru, thanks for the background, with the economic market the way it is and the last 8 years people are a little cynical when it comes to business. Glad to see you stick up for yourself. I think your idea for aarting is great, and if the people wanting to participate can live with the conditions then great. I have to say that there are not a lot of opportunities for artists to get exposure if you don't live in New York, California or Chicago. Those of us that live in smaller areas need a forum like this since we do not have the local support in our communities. So thanks for the chance.

Your right, the waiting sucks. Not because I don't want to resubmit designs, just impatient. I figure resubmit your designs and if it is one of the 10 Guru can move your resubmitted design to a different forum or delete all together. better to submit and be safe than sorry later.

First I'd like to thank guru for taking the time do write and address all the issues that were put forth yesterday. It's nice to see that you really did think about it didn't just put down some corporate slag.

I don't know though guru, I understand where your coming from but I still feel that it is unfair and inconsiderate to call the 11 other designer "runners ups" and give them a lesser prize when their design is going to be just as important as anyone else's. If you were unprepared and don't have the budget to make a full series where all designers are treated equally then perhaps you SHOULD have waited to make a full series. I do feel that unveiling a full series will be much stronger for your brand than one toy but that is again because all of these up and coming artists as a group are stronger than just one alone. The group as a whole is what makes this toy more than just a cool idea and changes it to a really powerful and great one. this is what should be recognized.

good call on that, I hadn't really thought of the legal conditions in that way.

Thanks for your respone Mistuh_Thye. I was honestly expecting to get "flamed", lol. I'm glad we can talk about these kinds of things, I agree that they are important and can only help make this community a better place.

Maybe you're right that calling the other 11 designers "runner's up" is insulting. If that's the case, than I apologize. It was never my intent.

You might be right when you say "If you were unprepared and don't have the budget to make a full series where all designers are treated equally then perhaps you SHOULD have waited to make a full series." Believe me, we really debated it here. But the large outpouring of community support for it dictated that we do it. We mean it when we say that we listen to you guys.

Your definitely right when you say "The group as a whole is what makes this toy more than just a cool idea and changes it to a really powerful and great one. this is what should be recognized." I couldn't agree more.

Please realize that we haven't actually sold anything yet. We don't have any way of knowing what will sell, or how much will sell, or even if there is any actual demand for designer toys from "non-famous, non-branded" designers. We're doing this because we have faith in your talent and ability- not in brand name selling power. We decided to put our efforts behind a new competition- "Series 2", so that we could guarantee that other designers would have at least another chance to be included- whether we sell a bunch of toys or none at all.



Since we don't actually have anything to sell on our site right now, every toy company on the internet sells more than we do, too!

:)

We're working on a TON of exciting things for you guys behind the scenes. And although I can't disclose any of it right now, I can tell you that we'll be able to offer you guys things that no one else can. This site will have evolved dramatically by this time next year.

I understand your concerns, and I hope that over time we can prove ourselves to you and earn your trust. We're planning to start pre-sales for Series 1 in December sometime, and if the demand is strong enough, the first thing I'd like to do is "upgrade" the prizes we currently have for Series 2 and maybe even the challenges.

I promise that the prizes will get better as we grow.

Like they said, they pay to get that first sample sculpt, pay to manufacture it, pay to ship it from china, pay the warehouse, pay the distributor and pay to get the toys on the store shelves. They also pay to give the winners copies of their designs, and (I’m sure) anything made from that design. They're promoting you, your portfolio, your winning designs and making your design into a real toy. Not a bad trade for the time it takes to create a single design.

If you want “profit” sharing, it’s only fair for aarting to ask for “cost” sharing, right? Would it be fair of the aarting people to ask you to pay them to do all of this? That would suck. Who’s really being greedy here?

The truth is, if you feel like your going to get ripped off, by any company, make and promote the work yourself. You’re guaranteed 100% of everything that way. Cost, profit and rights.