Apenest Volume 2
Apenest is an experimental publishing/printmaking project run by Cody Hoyt and Brian Willmont. They've published several print editions, as well two volumes of full color group art publications. The latest offering, Apenest Volume Two, is a tremendous compendium of contemporary artists and illustrators. Printed large (9.75" x 12"), thick (208 pages) and bright with lots of extras like stickers and postcard inserts, a slipcover, and a large offset print, Apenest is a steal with a retail price of $30. With a limited run of only 1000 copies, I contacted Mr. Willmont to find out just exactly what he knew that the rest of us didn't. It turns out that each artist involved donates an original to a portfolio that is then sold help cover the printing costs... an idea so simple and effective that I wish I had thought of it myself. Brian was nice enough to answer some questions for the Rowan Morrison Art Books blog.
Here is our interview:
How did Apenest get started? How much pre-planning and investment was involved and how much just evolved “organically”?
Cody and I were printmaking majors at MassArt together, we were already involved in a collective called “drawing club” with which we had done a small artist book with b+w and color photocopy and silkscreen. We got really into the book-making project so we decided to do something impossibly big (for us at least). It pretty much evolved organically from there, we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but I think its better that way. It’s a lot of work and who knows if we would have done it if we had known, I hadn’t even heard of InDesign at that point! We actually started making T shirts at first because we thought we’d make enough money for printing!
What is up with the name “Apenest”?
I like the name a lot; I think it implies community, that we’re all in this together. We actually made a huge list of names and wrote them on a blackboard, then we called everyone we knew and asked them to vote, it was a democratic process and I think the best name won!
How are artists selected for the books and prints? Is there a submission process?
We hand select our artists, many are friends and the rest we’ve admired from afar. We’ve only accepted one submission so far, though we love getting artist submissions, we’re pretty particular.
The work in vol. 2 is pretty diverse... Are there any overall themes that were intended or later discovered? Are there types of art you are drawn to more than others?
We seem to gravitate toward graphic work in general, the types of pictures that can grab you immediately but don’t let go as they’re layers unravel.
I think that with anything to do with art, you just have to believe in what you are doing 100% and you can’t let anything bring you down. We’ve had our share of people that we were relying on fuck us over, but we’ve been resourceful and everything has turned out better because of it. You have to roll with the punches, and if you want to get anything done you’ve got to do it yourself. Forgetting the problems helps too.
Where is the book printed and what was the process for finding a full color printer?
Our first book was printed by Thomson Press in India, we picked up a copy of “ZING Magazine” because we liked the look, I don’t remember if it had noted the printer or if we contacted them to find out. We ended up have ridiculous problems including strikes on the peir’s in India, customs holding up the book and then homeland security abducting it afterwards. It sucked.
The second book was Printed at ‘Shanghai Tenth Printing Factory Co. LTD.’ In China. My brother lives in Shanghai and hooked us up with his friend who is a print broker, this helped us a lot because he was willing to answer tons of questions and give us tons of quotes for all the different ideas we had.
It’s really important to shop around and get quotes from different companies, prices for different setups can vary a lot from printer to printer.
How has the project worked out financially? Is the selling of a portfolio to offset costs working thus far? Basically, how’s business?
The portfolio works great, it allows us to combine all of our resources and produce something way bigger and better and more affordable than we would be able to come close with otherwise. The portfolio for just the base price of printing, all of the import fees, taxes, posters and stickers that come with the book are paid for by a combination of proceeds from the first book (or in its case the proceeds from t shirts) and the design work we do. I'm not sure if we’re set up to make any money, our primary concern is making the next one way better and more involved that the previous. We’re still going and growing and we aren’t paying for it out of our own pockets anymore, that’s a good sign I think.
Is vol. 3 in the works or any other projects?
We just finished a Bill Dunlap print and an Apenest print that we’re really excited about. We have a couple of prints in the works and ideas for smaller books that might come before Vol. 3. We’re getting ready to begin Vol.3 and will be looking for new collectors who might be interested in the project.
We’re really excited about publishing prints, the whole idea behind making a book was the notion of the accessibility of art and I think that prints are the other side of the coin.
We curated our first gallery show this spring at Iceberger Gallery in San Francisco. It was a still life show called ‘Sunday Painting’, that was really fun and hopefully we’ll be doing more soon!
Any general (or specific) advice for folks looking to self-publish an art book? Any advice for artists wanted to get work published by others?
Find money, that’s the hardest part and without it you can’t do a whole lot, so don’t put something together and then go looking for money, it might take a while. Also a book can be anything, get resourceful and use a variety of printing methods to cut cost as well as increase the awesomeness of the book. Photocopy, silkscreen, digital printing, rubber stamps, stencils, and hand drawn elements are all great fun.
As far as getting published goes, I really don’t know. Be polite, don’t make anyone work to see your art, and don’t ask how to send a submission, just send it. People get a lot of email and have little patience so the best thing to do is get yourself a website, blog, or flicker and just introduce yourself, tell them you think they (they’re publication, gallery, whatever) are awesome and send a link.
I’ve got my own Jedi mind tricks….
Cody and I were printmaking majors at MassArt together, we were already involved in a collective called “drawing club” with which we had done a small artist book with b+w and color photocopy and silkscreen. We got really into the book-making project so we decided to do something impossibly big (for us at least). It pretty much evolved organically from there, we really had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but I think its better that way. It’s a lot of work and who knows if we would have done it if we had known, I hadn’t even heard of InDesign at that point! We actually started making T shirts at first because we thought we’d make enough money for printing!
What is up with the name “Apenest”?
I like the name a lot; I think it implies community, that we’re all in this together. We actually made a huge list of names and wrote them on a blackboard, then we called everyone we knew and asked them to vote, it was a democratic process and I think the best name won!
How are artists selected for the books and prints? Is there a submission process?
We hand select our artists, many are friends and the rest we’ve admired from afar. We’ve only accepted one submission so far, though we love getting artist submissions, we’re pretty particular.
The work in vol. 2 is pretty diverse... Are there any overall themes that were intended or later discovered? Are there types of art you are drawn to more than others?
We seem to gravitate toward graphic work in general, the types of pictures that can grab you immediately but don’t let go as they’re layers unravel.
I think that with anything to do with art, you just have to believe in what you are doing 100% and you can’t let anything bring you down. We’ve had our share of people that we were relying on fuck us over, but we’ve been resourceful and everything has turned out better because of it. You have to roll with the punches, and if you want to get anything done you’ve got to do it yourself. Forgetting the problems helps too.
Where is the book printed and what was the process for finding a full color printer?
Our first book was printed by Thomson Press in India, we picked up a copy of “ZING Magazine” because we liked the look, I don’t remember if it had noted the printer or if we contacted them to find out. We ended up have ridiculous problems including strikes on the peir’s in India, customs holding up the book and then homeland security abducting it afterwards. It sucked.
The second book was Printed at ‘Shanghai Tenth Printing Factory Co. LTD.’ In China. My brother lives in Shanghai and hooked us up with his friend who is a print broker, this helped us a lot because he was willing to answer tons of questions and give us tons of quotes for all the different ideas we had.
It’s really important to shop around and get quotes from different companies, prices for different setups can vary a lot from printer to printer.
How has the project worked out financially? Is the selling of a portfolio to offset costs working thus far? Basically, how’s business?
The portfolio works great, it allows us to combine all of our resources and produce something way bigger and better and more affordable than we would be able to come close with otherwise. The portfolio for just the base price of printing, all of the import fees, taxes, posters and stickers that come with the book are paid for by a combination of proceeds from the first book (or in its case the proceeds from t shirts) and the design work we do. I'm not sure if we’re set up to make any money, our primary concern is making the next one way better and more involved that the previous. We’re still going and growing and we aren’t paying for it out of our own pockets anymore, that’s a good sign I think.
Is vol. 3 in the works or any other projects?
We just finished a Bill Dunlap print and an Apenest print that we’re really excited about. We have a couple of prints in the works and ideas for smaller books that might come before Vol. 3. We’re getting ready to begin Vol.3 and will be looking for new collectors who might be interested in the project.
We’re really excited about publishing prints, the whole idea behind making a book was the notion of the accessibility of art and I think that prints are the other side of the coin.
We curated our first gallery show this spring at Iceberger Gallery in San Francisco. It was a still life show called ‘Sunday Painting’, that was really fun and hopefully we’ll be doing more soon!
Any general (or specific) advice for folks looking to self-publish an art book? Any advice for artists wanted to get work published by others?
Find money, that’s the hardest part and without it you can’t do a whole lot, so don’t put something together and then go looking for money, it might take a while. Also a book can be anything, get resourceful and use a variety of printing methods to cut cost as well as increase the awesomeness of the book. Photocopy, silkscreen, digital printing, rubber stamps, stencils, and hand drawn elements are all great fun.
As far as getting published goes, I really don’t know. Be polite, don’t make anyone work to see your art, and don’t ask how to send a submission, just send it. People get a lot of email and have little patience so the best thing to do is get yourself a website, blog, or flicker and just introduce yourself, tell them you think they (they’re publication, gallery, whatever) are awesome and send a link.
I’ve got my own Jedi mind tricks….
----
Thanks to Brian for taking the time to answer my questions. If your burning thirst for more Apenest info has yet to be quenched, check out this awesome Apenest interview recently posted over at Beautiful / Decay.
Obviously, you can purchase Apenest Vol. 2 at the Rowan Morrison online bookstore. You can also get it right on tap over at apenest.com. They also have Volume 1, lots of prints, and even more info.
Oh yeah, I should probably at least list the artists who have work in Apenest Volume 2. Some of them even have little interviews or artist statements.
John Copeland, Denise Kupferschmidt, Justin B Williams, Sophia Dixon, Bill Dunlap, Corey Arnold, Andrew Schoultz, Joseph Hart, Cody Hoyt, Paul Wackers, Grimaldi Baez, Brian Willmont, Corey Corcoran, Fighting, Mark Chariker, Eddie Martinez, Jeremy + Claire Weiss, Anthony Sobiech, Elton Lovelace, Zac Scheinbaum, Deep Slumber Lake, Whitney Claflin, Eric Saline, Meghan Tomeo, Chris Wawrinofsky, Travis Neel, Rebecca Gordon, Suzy Coady, and Alex Lukas
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