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My name is Camilla d'Errico
and I'm the artist and
Creative Director
of d'Errico Studios Limited
and I'm AdaPia d'Errico and I'm
the Managing Director of d'Errico Studios Limited
and we are sisters. What d'Errico Studios Limited does is we created this company to promote
and manufacture products based on Camilla's artwork. As one of the top pop
surrealism artists and
character creators and comic book artists, we just create a program that promotes her
art using
product, using licensing
and various other methods that we just put together programs through the company.
I was fascinated by the Japanese culture and the way that they
told a story and the way that they created characters and paint -
not necessarily painted, but just the styling
and I fell in love with it and I realized that it was
very different from the North American styles that I was used to, I grew up with. All we knew was that Camilla
loved the idea of product and having her art on a lot of products
and that connection that it makes with fans so it was really easy also to do that because
there's a misplaced stigma or belief that if your art is on merchandise then you've sold
out, or it's not fine art
and we've worked really hard to remove that perception from people because actually
that's the beauty of her art, it's that it can be shared, that it is accessible to as many people as
possible and a testament to that is the tens of thousands of fans that you have.
Yeah, well and I mean it's also ...I love, like
if I can get a pillow with my art on it, oh my god, I'm excited about it. We've
done a lot with our own investing and reinvesting our money
to make things happen, but at a certain point
to become
bigger even
to reach a larger audience we need
more money - that doesn't always come from
from what we do, so the business plan was really essential also
for us to be able to go and look for funding, whether lending from banks or government
programs.
So far, we've applied for the Leadership Grant and we also applied for some funding
at the bank. Camilla went in with the business plan
and that was
a great meeting because we got the funding, and
it turns out that they were big fans of my art, as well, so that was also a fantastic thing.
But it was a great business plan, you know
it was very well written. I would encourage every artist that if they want to do
more brand building and to develop more merchandise, that they need this
because people take you much more seriously when you have a business plan. I think it was worth
the cost because it's time and concentration that
I can't always find, something that if I were to try and do the same thing myself
could potentially take me months, and it's essential because I'm dealing with
licensing agencies and retailers and really
you know, big let's say business people and they expect you to speak on their terms and
to really know what you want, and that business plan gives us, it gives us the numbers
it gives us the information that they're looking for - I can just show them this, and this
is who we are, and this is why
Camilla and her brands are what you want to have in your store.
We're really going for it -- we're going for Helmet Girls as a graphic
novel and entertainment property and lifestyle brand and
it's all really, really coming together now so that'll be something
that'll be out there in the very near future. I hope that
you know, we can
still be doing this, like, twenty years from now.
I think the best thing about owning your own business and for us it's special because we're
sisters and so we're doing this together, but
the best thing is that
your vision is what you're going for, so all of your blood, sweat and tears is for something
that
belongs to you.