Live video from Art Dallas!
Art Dallas is busy this fall with 3 trade shows. We have two in September and one show in November.
First we are off to the windy city of Chicago for the Health Care Symposium. http://www.hcarefacilities.com/ . Stop by and see us in booth 533. We are right across from the Learning Lounge. This show is on September 9 and September 10. We will have new products and new artists on display. Please stop by.
Our next show is the following week Miami at the HD Boutique. Show Dates are September 17 and 18 at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Stop by booth 827 and see our latest products. We have added 2 new printers and will be showing lots of new products and new artists for the hospitality industry. http://www.hdboutique.com/hdboutique/3570/index.jsp
Our November show takes us to Washington DC to the Gaylord National Hotel and Conference Center for the Health Care Design Expo 2008. The dates for this show are November 8 through November 11, 2008. The link to this show is http://www.hcd08.com/ME2/Default.asp. Please stop by and see us at booth 1038. While you are there, be sure to look around the Gaylord Hotel. We did all the guest room art and the public space art.
Michael
As the guy primarily responsible for the “long view” at Art Dallas, New Year’s has a special significance for me. It’s far more than the “out with the old, in with the new” we all think about . It’s more global. Long-term, complicated projects like the new, interactive web-site and the decision to expand our physical plant to accommodate a more diverse product mix come under intense scrutiny.
In both cases, the decision to proceed represented large commitments of capital to expand and, in some ways, redefine our market presence. Will these decisions prove to be profitable? I don’t know. What I do know is that these decisions, properly implemented, will further serve to differentiate our little company from others in our field. Hopefully, our customers will find the new changes useful, helping them be more efficient and productive in their work. To the extent we’re successful in accomplishing this goal, the long-term effects will be beneficial to the company. If we’re unsuccessful in accomplishing this goal, for whatever reason, the decision to proceed will have been a bad one. It’s too early to tell. So the evaluative process continues.
How does someone with that sort of process going on spend New Year’s Eve? Why, he finds a good old flick on the tube and settles in with his thoughts.
Last night, Judy and I found one of our favorites, a movie called “Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?”, starring George Clooney, John Goodman and several other wonderful actors. Usually, I’ll watch this movie just to hear the music; old-timey gospel/bluegrass performed by a number of insanely talented artists. But the movie and its message is just as good and just as relevant.
For those of you who’ve been deprived by not ever seeing this movie, it is the (fictional) 1933 story of the escape of three inmates from a Mississippi state prison, theoretically to recover the “buried loot” Everett (George Clooney) stole and had the opportunity to hide before he was incarcerated. Actually, we learn somewhat later, the “loot” was a ruse used by Everett to convince his compatriots (an aggressive, but nearly normal fellow named Pete and the ever-gentle-but-impossibly-dumb Delmar) to make the break with him. You see, they were all three chained together when Everett saw his opportunity to escape. For Everett to break out of prison (and get home to his wife and 6 little girls), the others had to come with him. So Everett lied about the loot.
Like most Clooney pictures, “Oh Brother” has several levels of interpretation and meaning. First, there’s the observation that everyone, even the impossibly obtuse Delmar, has gifts. Whether they’re the result of a beneficent deity or random acts of genetics isn’t resolved. What is resolved, however, is that it’s not the gift itself, it’s how the gift is used that differentiates one segment of society from another and the long term outcomes that result. For instance, Everett’s gift is the ability to verbalize, hypothecate and manipulate others. As he says, he “has the gift of gab”. During the up-and-down course of their luck and status as they flee the wiley and relentless sheriff and his posse, Everett makes the mistake of showing a large roll of bills at a diner, attracting the attention of an itinerant Bible salesman named “Big Dan Teague” (John Goodman). From the outset, it’s obvious that Big Dan and Everett share the same gift; they can sell anything to anybody. The difference is that Everett uses his gift to get closer to his family, while Big Dan the Bible salesman (he declares himself to be in “the religion business”) uses his gift to beat up and rob Everett and the boys, laughing and saying, as he leaves them beaten and broken, “see ya in the funny papers”. In this case, the same gift is used to achieve wildly different objectives with enormously different social consequences. Everett and the boys find another common gift in their ability to make music which ultimately frees them. Big Dan is crushed by an enormous burning cross standing vigil to a huge Klu Klux Klan rally he’s a major player in. Fair’s fair.
Second, the role of hypocrisy in shaping societal outcomes is examined in several ways, but none so clearly as contrasting Homer Stokes (Wayne Duvall), the “reform” candidate for governor, with Pappy O’Daniel (Charles Darling), the crooked encumbent. Turns out, Homer’s not only the “reform” candidate for governor of Mississippi, he’s also the Grand Kleagle of the local Klu Klux Klan, a fraternity he ultimately makes the mistake of assuming includes all the voters of his state. With the O’Daniel camp all but ready to concede the election to Homer, he recognizes the “Soggy Bottom Boys” (Everett, Pete, Delmar and an African-American guitarist named “Tom”) as the desperadoes who broke up his Klan meeting (who’s agenda was to lynch Tom, an act Everett et al prevented) as the boys begin to play their hit song “I am a Man of Constant Sorrow”. Homer becomes something of a persona-non-grata to both the KKK and the rest of his fellow Mississipians by stopping the act because (among other things) the group “interfered with a lynch mob in the performance of its duty” and “desecrated a burning cross” (and besides, “they ain’t even white”). Since the event was being broadcast live on the radio, Homer, the head of the world’s most secret hate group, admitted to the whole world illegal and highly secret acts. Needless to say, Pappy was back on top after the klansmen collected Homer and removed their former Grand Kleagle from the hall. The message? How about, sometimes bad is as good as it gets and what advertises itself to be good just isn’t.
Third, and perhaps most important, is the role of fate in our lives and the factors which may (or may not) influence it. Basically, the “Soggy Bottom Boys”, while criminals, meant no harm, regardless of what they’d done to get into prison. After all, it was the depression. Vast segments of society had no option other than crime to survive. So the moral question was countered by the question of desperate need, not intent. This set these “criminals” apart from the citizens at large, whose intent was guided by hate and bigotry, but who were held to be “respectable” by society. That the smallest random act of bad luck could easily have put any of them in the same position as the “Soggy Bottom Boys” was ignored. Life went on, betting that bad things wouldn’t happen to them.
The issue of fate is addressed directly in the prophesy of the Blind Seer, a character reminiscent of the commentator in Greek plays (or, more recently, the Stage Manager in Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”), who (miraculously) appears on the scene to give Everett et al their first break; a ride away from prison on a small, manually powered railroad cart. When asked what will happen to them, he replies:
“I cannot tell you how long this road shall be, but fear not the obstacles in your path, for fate has vouchsafed your reward. Though the road may wind, yea, your hearts grow weary, still shall ye follow them, even unto your salvation.”
which is exactly what happens in the end.
The changes we’ve made at Art Dallas over the past year were intended to increase and extend our usefulness to the architectural and design communities. Hopefully, the cost of the changes will be made up for by increased volume and efficiency. Given time, we will be able to quantify how successful our decisions have been. That will help us understand where we need to go from here. If fate is kinder to those whose acts are driven by good intent and whose gifts are used in positive ways, then Art Dallas will be fine. Serving our customers better is our only goal. I believe that given time, the changes we’ve made will accomplish this goal. Barring some unforeseen disaster like 9-11, I think the new year will bring good things to Art Dallas through the new avenues we’ve developed. I would like to think we’ve stayed true to the principles we had when we started our little company. As the seer suggests, I intend to follow them “even unto (our) salvation”. Should the path get unsure, I pray that the many friends and associates we’ve had over the years will bring the need for a “course correction” to our attention.
Had Enough Yet?
Of the several business models available for contract picture framers, the “outsourcing” model is the one that seems to have produced more problems and ill-will than any other. Unlike other fields, “outsourcing” has been around in our industry forever and still exists today. Briefly, the traditional “outsourcing” model I’m referring to involves a gallery owner with a contract framing job buying the materials and dropping them off at the “framer’s”, often a lone picture framer working out of his garage. A wrinkle on this model is when the gallery owner takes materials for a single job to two or three different lone picture framers all working out of their garages. Usually, the picture framers do the outsourced work in their time off from another framing job. It’s tough making a living from your garage.
Of course, nowadays, “outsourcing” has a much broader meaning, involving jobs produced at another factory, perhaps “offshore” from the US. The “offshore” location that gets the most press today seems to be China, so I’ll use that as my “offshore” example.
But the fact is, regardless of whether a gallery owner “outsources” a framing job down the street or half-way around the world, it really doesn’t make any difference. The issues are the same.
The first issue is quality.
When I walk the factory floor at our facility in Dallas, it doesn’t take me long to figure out how things are going. The questions are obvious. How’s the moulding cutting? Any glitches with the (computerized) mat cutters? Are the “drops” being collected so they can be used as the mat on the bathroom piece? How many staples are going into the back of the big pictures, anyway? What’s being done with the moulding “shorts”? Is the chopper realizing the yield we need while being careful to cut around any blemishes? How big are the crates we’re filling at the end of the production line? Will the on-site staff be able to move the entire crate, without unloading it, to the floor where the art’s needed? When i’ve got workers I’ve trained, who work for Art Dallas and who know I know each of them, I don’t usually find many surprises when it comes to quality. My employees take a lot of pride in their work and would be very embarassed to have someone find anything they’ve produced of questionable quality. What was it Ford said when they were trying to change their image? Something like “quality is job 1″. At Art Dallas, that’s where it starts and I can monitor it throughout the production process. When I outsource the job, whether it’s down the street or around the world, I lose that ability.
The second issue is reliability.
When Art Dallas was doing all the display work for all the Hard Rock Cafes in the world, no matter where it was, at the agreed-upon time, a truck would pull up to an urban storefront location, offload two to five 4′X4′X8′ crates onto the sidewalk and drive away. A team of installers which might have arrived a few hours earlier, would meet the truck, unscrew the top and front of each crate and begin unpacking (screws, not nails on the front and top, please. Easier and faster to unload, knock down and ship back). The street and sidewalk would be clear in a few hours at most. For eleven years, thousands and thousands of unique pieces of rock ‘n roll memorabilia went through our factory. In all that time, only one piece “disappeared”, a small slip of paper with somebody’s signature on it. When I produce product at my own factory, I have personnel who’ve been there for ever and who guard our stuff as if it were their own and a crating and shipping department I can control directly. I know it’s more reliable (and secure) than it could be if I relied on someone (anyone) else.
The third issue is price.
This is where the argument for “outsourcing” comes into its own. I recently got a bid from a Chinese source for suite art, delivered to my door that would cost a little more than half of what my cost was if I made the same thing in Dallas. Obviously, it was tempting. All I had to do was send off a sample and they’d send back a sample showing what all 7,000 pieces would look like. I must admit I didn’t do it — or at least I haven’t yet. Art Dallas has very good Chinese connections and if price is your main concern, this might just be the way to go. However, I’ve heard absolute horror stories of whole shipments of art that simply had nothing to do with the original even though the “sample” the factory supplied was pretty good.
A lot of what differentiates my factory in Dallas and a similar factory in China is the degree to which the employees are empowered to affect production. In China, the individual workers are rewarded if they keep production going even though things “on the line” might not be right. At my factory in Dallas, I want to know when things aren’t going right, so I’ve had jobs stopped to verify a worker’s understanding of a detail or to check the dimension of moulding from a different “run” to see if it would match (exactly) frames made from a prior run. It’s not cheap, but it avoids mistakes getting out the door. When i’ve asked, my Chinese sources have told me this is not realistic within the Chinese business model. There, the worker population is trained to do, not think and “automation” means more bodies on the line, not more (or better) equipment.
But we all think of “price” too narrowly if we think of it as just the unit price of the artwork. Unless you calculate the cost of the art CORRECTLY INSTALLED at the project site, then you’re apt to be in for a surprise. Take hanging hardware, for instance, installed on the back of every piece of art. One of the many arguments against using multiple, independent “garage” framers instead of a single, well-organized factory is the fact that each of those framers probably has a different idea of where the hanging hardware goes. This means little until it comes time to install it. Then, instead of just putting up a single template on the wall to mark where the screw-holes need to go, the installer has to install each piece as if it were a single. Measure the hardware on the back of the picture. Transfer that to the wall. Install the wall hardware and HOPE you measured correctly. Do that a few thousand times and any savings realized through cheaper art is soon offset by cost of the longest installation in hotel history. In a similar vein, hospitality venues have an alarmingly wide array of on-site facilities to handle freight. Sending a 4′X4′X8′ crate to a hotel with a 6′ elevator is simply asking for trouble.
The object is to get the art from the truck to the room without damaging the art. Sounds simple enough. But it’s not. Any time the art has to be uncrated on the receiving dock, damage goes up a lot. It’s not that the handlers are being less than “attentive” when single, unwrapped pieces of art have to be moved up to the 20th floor, it’s that they’re hurrying, carrying more than a couple of pieces and trying different ways to make the job go faster. Inevitably, art gets to the floor with enough dings, dents and scratches that people wonder who on earth did such a lousy job of framing the art. So, our designers are taught to ask what facilities are available at the site and we work out packaging that allows the art to be brought to the floor IN THE CRATE it was shipped in. Typically, we design our (wooden) crates so two normal guys can carry it loaded onto a normal people elevator and deliver it to the floor without opening it. We’ve had very good results using this approach, but we’ve been told that our goods from China can only be packed in cardboard.
Obviously, there’s more to the price of art than what appears on the invoice. Obviously, there’s a place for out-sourcing art and/or framing for large, multi-piece jobs with tight budgets. As I said, Art Dallas has great Chinese connections and we can easily outsource a job through those connections. Is it a good solution for every job? I don’t think so. Is it something you might consider as an option? You bet.