Milton Glaser Post Goes Viral - A Lesson for Not Limiting Giclees

Back in February of 2008, I wrote to ask the incomparable Milton Glaser for permission to republish his seminal speech give in 2001. It was titled 10 Things I Have Learned.

I had stumbled across it somewhere and was moved by the straightforward candid advice he gave to an AIGA gathering in London. I heard back from someone on his staff who not only gave permission, but also sent along the splendid image you see here.

It was around the time that The Secret book and videos were going viral themselves. As such, the image was very timely and clever in many ways, which is a Glaser hallmark.

Two years later the Milton Glaser post goes viral

The post received an average amount of unique visitors and pageviews for the blog at the time. Fast forward to 2010 and it was picked up by a couple of influential and well trafficked illustration blogs and went viral getting thousands of hits.

Then just as things seemed to have returned to normal, it got picked up on Stumbleupon, which is a site developed to help you discover and share interesting websites. The post has had more than 9,000 hits on it just from Stumbleupon. This on top of the thousands that have come from other bloggers.

What you potentially limit the most with limited edition giclees is your income

The point is you never know what is going to happen to the work you create. Sometimes things can get legs and be in demand that you have never seen before. Knowing this dynamic works and is real is one of the primary reasons why I believe digital prints should not be sold in limited editions.

Just as I could not fathom more than 10,000 hits on a single blog post, you cannot judge how an image you reproduce as a giclee might sell. It is entirely possible you could create a print that would have enormous demand beyond your imagination. If the piece is limited, it can cost you and your heirs a tremendous amount of lost income. 

Related Links

• Limiting Success
• The Secondary Art Market - Bev Doolittle's Beyond Negotiations Sold Out & The Lunacy of Limited Edition Giclees
• The Double Entendre of the Artist Selling Out