Joan Beiriger
Booth 662
www.jmsartlicensing.com
Retailers continually search for innovative products to sell in order to
diff erentiate themselves from their competition. This is especially true
for the holiday season because it equals approximately 50 per cent of
their total sales for the year. In this tough and challenging economic
time, it is more important than ever for manufacturers to off er trendy
products and to do so they are looking for fresh new art.
Artist Joan Beiriger believes that her nutcracker art creates an
emotional response with consumers and off ers manufacturers that new
look they seek. “For years wooden nutcracker fi gures have been popular
during the holidays but there has been little nutcracker art available
for other products. As a result, nutcrackers have been limited mainly to
fi gurines,” said Beiriger. “Nutcrackers have the potential to expand onto
a huge variety of holiday products that has not been yet tapped. In
Surtex preview
fact, I believe that nutcrackers will soon compete with the popularity
of snowmen and become the latest trend. Snowmen will always be a
holiday staple but consumers still want new themes to decorate their
homes.”
When asked why she thinks the new trend will be nutcrackers and
not something else, Beiriger stated that: “I’ve seen nutcracker wooden
fi gures in many chain stores for the past three Christmas seasons and
they seem to sell really well. Also, nutcracker postage stamps were so
popular last December that the United States Postal Service sold out
well before Christmas.” Judging from the positive response Beiriger
received when she exhibited her nutcracker art in the License and
Design section at last January’s Atlanta Gift Show, manufacturers are
ready to jump on the nutcracker bandwagon. Joan Sargent, president of
JMS Art Licensing and Beiriger’s agent agrees: “Recently manufacturers
have been asking my agency for nutcracker art. Joan’s bright and
Kate Knight
cheerful nutcracker collections are perfect for holiday products because
Booth 527
she has composed not only central images but a variety of borders and
www.kateknight.co.uk
patterns that are suitable for a large selection of products.”
To view Joan Beiriger’s nutcracker collections and other images for
Kate Knight is a young Scottish designer who produces fi ne art designs
licensing, contact JMS Art Licensing, LLC on +1 802 724 9010 or at
using a vivid and positive style. Kate was born and brought up in
joan@jmsartlicensing.com.
Edinburgh and she holds an Honours Degree and a Masters Degree
in textile design. This young artist loves experimenting with a bright
palette and her bold approach to design allows her to produce artwork
that is full of exciting and contrasting colours.
Kate’s fi rst love has always been fl ora and fauna and she is best
known in art circles for her imaginative fl oral work. Her designs can be
seen worldwide on art prints, greeting cards, wrap, gift bags, clothing,
textiles, stationery, craft paper, cross stitch and tableware. Kate has
won a number of awards and is now considered to be one of Scotland’s
brightest up and coming artistic designers.
The craft market in the UK is currently proving to be very fruitful
for Kate. Craft products containing her artwork are generally sold in a
way that promotes the name ‘Kate Knight’ – this is a conscious move
on the part of manufacturers and it forms part of their sales strategy.
This method of selling branded artwork has helped to make Kate very
popular with craft customers throughout Britain. Just recently Kate
discovered that one of the British companies she deals with, Trimcraft, is
hoping to expand into the USA. This should provide Kate with enhanced
exposure in the United States, which in turn will hopefully open doors
for her in extended markets.
Stationery products featuring Kate’s artwork have always sold
exceptionally well in the Netherlands (published by a company called
Interstat), and just recently an American publisher has asked for a fairly
large selection of Kate’s work for presentation to Target Corporation
(one of the largest retailers in the USA). That this could be another step
towards making consumers in American markets more familiar with
her designs. Kate’s business has growen steadily over the last six years
and she knows that this, in part, has come about through making the
fi nancial commitment required to exhibit her work in both the UK and
16 the USA. Contact on +44 (0) 131 477 4524 or at mail@kateknight.co.uk.
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