THE LEASON ELLIS MONSTER
Good afternoon. How are you? Thank you to everybody who’s joined the site over the last few weeks. I’m sorry the updates are so sporadic right now. New Monsters are very much in the works, along with a new book, and lots of new graphic design. But today I’d like to introduce you to a new Monster I made for my friends at Leason Ellis, a group of intellectual property lawyers in White Plains, New York, just down the road from a great friend of the Monsters, animation god J.J. Sedelmaier.
About a year ago one of the partners, Peter Sloane, contacted me about helping the firm with a graphic design project, which has led to a lovely exchange of ideas and skills. For one thing, Peter has given me a great education in intellectual property law by helping me file trademarks on the Daily Monster™ and 344 LOVES YOU™. With a little luck, I’ll soon be the proud owner of my very own ®.
It ain’t as easy as it looks. I didn’t realize, for example, how strictly trademark law binds you to protect your intellectual property. You’re basically forced to send out onerous cease and desist letters to anybody who comes near your trademark — not because you’re a mean corporation bent on destruction, but because you risk losing the protection of the law if you don’t. It’s an odd setup, and I’ll write about it in more detail down the road.
This post is about a new Monster that Leason Ellis commissioned for their conference room. Wrap your head around that: A law firm with a custom Daily Monster™ in their conference room! You don’t see that every day. A Belgian ad agency, sure. But a law firm? Whoda thunk it? They’re cool guys!
And it is a tie-wearing Monster, of course, but one of loosened knot. (The tree with fallen apple in the background is their Newtonian logo.) You can click on the image to see a larger version:
Once we had the art approved, my friends at Typecraft made a glorious 72″ x 24″ print, and the guys at Fine Art Solutions took a break from handling Jill Greenberg and John Baldessari pieces to mount our guy. Take a look:
They even made a custom crate for him:
And here he is, properly installed in New York,
in the company of his legal guardians:
(Yuval H. Marcus, Peter S. Sloane, David Leason, Edward J. Ellis)
Thank you to David Leason and Peter Sloane and everybody at Leason Ellis for letting me play, and for giving a great new home to this Monster. It’s a good day at work! And, I hope, a further reminder that 344 LOVES YOU
That’s pretty awesome! I have been finding out a little about trade mark law recently as well. I have been working with a guy I freelance for to help him in getting his logo i designed trademarked. And as you say, a very pain staking process.
FYI, my Mom loved your poster of the Monsters that you signed for me.
Interesting stuff, right? Opens one’s eyes. I’m glad your mom loved the poster. Please tell her I said Hello.
Stefan,
I really like how spontaneous your monster art is and the way you have marketed it online. I am also an artist. I haven’t found my niche yet and am hoping to find something a little more whimsical than what I have been doing. I love ink work but don’t know if there is much of a market for it in rural Colorado.
In your “about” page on your 344 store you said “This store is an experiment to find out if it’s possible for an independent artist to make a living cooking up quality goodies and selling them directly to you without a middleman.” …Well what’s the verdict? Can an independent artist make a living this way?
Looking for inspiration,
Dina