Creative Sparrow owner Hannah Curtis has made her life as an art licensing agent a whole lot easier thanks to a grant which has helped her develop a bespoke portfolio app.
The client-facing app means Herts-based Hannah no longer has to lug around a huge metal case housing a screen to be connected to a laptop to show designs to publishers from a CD, or an iPad plus portfolio boxes of printed sheets.
After nine months of work with developers, the agent who matches many artists with greeting card, stationery and calendar publishers now has a bespoke, custom-built app ready for her upcoming trip to the US greeting card show Noted in San Francisco – and will also be showing it off on stand 244 at PG Live in June.
“I’ve been in the art licensing industry for almost 20 years,” Hannah told sister title PG Buzz, “and always looked to find a solution to showcasing artwork while on the road and at trade shows but there were no off-the-shelf apps that arranged and showcased the portfolios as needed.”
She’d worked with developers at each of the previous agencies for whom she worked and has a great understanding of tech development so, now she has her own company, Hannah successfully secured a Hertfordshire Start-Up (HSUP) grant enabling her to commence the nine-month project to build the app ready for the trip to the US GCA’s Noted event on 27-28 April, having trialled it first here in the UK.
The HSUP programme gives free access to 12 hours of business support worth £1,400 as companies get started, along with the grant scheme of £500-£3,000 which has to be match-funded, and it has been a big development project for Creative Sparrow.
Hannah added: “The app makes viewing art, as well as making and receiving design selections, simple. It’s the first of its kind and 100% bespoke to Creative Sparrow so this is an exciting development for the agency and my clients.”
The app can be seen in action on Creative Sparrow’s stand at PG Live, which takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday, 6-7 June, at London’s Business Design Centre, you can register to attend here.
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