ART AS BRAND, ART AS COMMERCE
And building the brand is what it’s all about. “This is not a project for the faint of heart,” Anderson says. “We’ve been working on this Pop Ink thing for four years, on top of the 20 years of experience we already have. There’s a reason why Michael Graves and Philippe Starck got into their 60s and 70s before they became brand names. This stuff takes a long time.” And making big bucks is not really part of the equation. “Our overly ambitious goal is that we just want to build this without going out of business,” Anderson quips. “How’s that for ambition? I guess I’ve replaced ambition with realism.”

Johnson points out, however, that Pop Ink is a real business. “It’s designed to create income from royalties and licensing fees rather than billing hours. The intention is that these income streams will exceed what we could make if we were actually doing all the work ourselves and billing for it.”

Both Anderson and Johnson note another critical benefit of working on Pop Ink: the unique pleasures of being your own client. Johnson says, “Working on Pop Ink has been one of the greatest benefits of working at CSA Design. It’s like a blank slate where, if we don’t have something to do for a client, we can figure out something to do for Pop Ink. It’s a dream project.”

Anderson says, “In reality, being your own client is a nightmare,” but goes on to say, “It’s still amazing to me to see the complete circle of concepting, producing, getting the stuff in stores, and having people buy it. This project is so intriguing because you can do your own ideas. And then, you can live or die by your own ideas.”

Through Pop Ink, CSA recognizes the art in ordinary things and elevating ordinary things into objects of art. If along the way, you make a little money and make a lot of female consumers happy, well, what could be sweeter than that?

CHARLES S. ANDERSON DESIGN | 612.339.5181 | www.csadesign.com