Episode Transcript
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Jeff (00:08):
Welcome back to Art Supply
Insider.
My name is Jeff Morrow.
Today we've got a reallyspecial edition.
We're talking with Steve Ross,who is the founder of Encore
Artistic Solutions.
Steve, how are you doing today?
Steve (00:25):
I'm doing great, jeff,
nice talking with you.
Jeff (00:28):
Well, thanks for coming on
.
Dave and I first became awareof Encore Artistic Solutions
when we were back in NAMTA lastyear.
My goodness, what a fascinatingstory and product you have.
Steve, tell us a little bitabout who Encore Artistic
(00:51):
Solutions is and how did you getstarted?
Steve (00:56):
Well, first I want to say
thanks for the opportunity to
share, because our intentionsfive and a half years ago were
really to build a community ofartists that, while they were
creating and using their giftsto do what they do, they were
able to make a differenceoutside of just a creative gift.
(01:17):
My background was productdesign and about three years
prior to that I had stumbledinto a waste stream that I
thought would be a viable basefor our product design project
here back in the day.
It was architectural paint Inmany markets and I think your
(01:41):
followers would understand thiswe all have paint in our garages
, left over, paint from projectswe've done in the past.
Back in another project I wasinvolved with, I was figuring
out a way to use that wastestream believe it or not in
concrete.
I was taking that acrylicmaterial and modifying it for an
(02:02):
aggregate ad mix.
It was to really solve thechallenge we all have in that
there's about 70 million gallonsof discarded residential paint
every year in this country.
Every year there's 70 milliongallons discarded.
It's just an staggering amountof material.
(02:23):
During that process we had hadsome success with some aggregate
production and some differentconcepts with concrete, but I
live in a wonderful town thatsome of your followers may be
familiar with, and it's LagunaBeach, California.
I'm surrounded by talentedartists.
A lot of them are my friends.
I was kind of strolling throughtown with my wife one day and
(02:45):
I'm looking at a gallery friendof ours, Hugo Rivera.
actually, I was looking at hiswork and I'm thinking, gosh,
I've seen some material thatlooks like, if it's modified,
would be appropriate for anabstract artist or a fine artist
, or it really would be up to usto sort of let them help us
design the product.
(03:06):
I presented this opportunity tothe people that manage that
supply stream you know, thewaste material at the state
level and I said I have an ideaand I want to try it.
And that is kind of how thiswhole ball got rolling.
I took some product, looked atthe comparable material that was
(03:28):
available within thedistribution and I tried to
match some color and viscosityand some qualities that I could
pick up through looking at theirchemistry and I started to hand
it to artists with noexpectation of anything other
than getting criticized.
you know, I wanted them to tellme what they liked and what
they didn't like, and primarilywhat they didn't like.
(03:50):
So the cool thing here is thatthis product line and this
concept has really been designedby the artist.
You know they've given us thedirection and we've responded,
and that process went on forthree years.
So, you know, in Ernst, we kindof really pushed our team based
(04:11):
on feedback.
we got from about 15 artists indifferent categories, from, you
know, fine artists to crafters,to students and you know some
artists that had been sellingtheir work for 30 or 40 years.
So we kind of spread it out andwe just started to respond to
the community and develop thisproduct, knowing that our
(04:32):
primary goal and our mission andit is today the same mission we
started with is to utilize asmuch of this waste treatment as
we can to make a viable, highquality product that an artist
can be proud to use and helpsolve a monumental problem along
the way.
Jeff (04:50):
Wow, so you're currently
making and selling product.
It's basically acrylic paint.
Is that correct, correct,correct.
And so, before we get too farinto this, if our audience
wanted to see more about thisand go out and purchase the
(05:14):
product, i'm sure you have awebsite that they could go to to
learn more.
Steve (05:20):
We do.
We do.
We actually have a couple ofinitiatives going on, but the
brand of material that'savailable online is called
Tomorrow's Artist and the URL istomorrow-artistcom.
And.
Jeff (05:42):
So let me, i want to spell
that out.
so that's T-O-M-O-R-R-O-W dashartist, a-r-t-i-s-t.
dot com, correct, and they cango and actually purchase this
acrylic there.
Steve (05:59):
Correct, Now that was a
plural tomorrows.
Did you have an S in there?
I did not.
Jeff (06:05):
So it's not tomorrow, it's
tomorrow's, with an S, correct.
You said you had another site,possibly.
Steve (06:12):
Well, that, and then the
created with on core, which is
just created with on core dotcom, will give you a backstory
to the actual business side ofwhat we do.
What we realized early on inthe journey is that we were
going to build a brand andvalidate the quality of the
product with our own community,which is on our Instagram site.
(06:34):
It's about almost 8,000 strongof people that follow the story
and the journey and they posttheir work and so forth and they
acquire the product through thewebsite.
Now the good news is next yearand the reason we were at NAMTA
is to secure distribution, whichwe've successfully done for
next year.
So you know you'll be able tofind the product in different
(06:54):
channels and so forth, but theidea here is to build that
community out and have themaccess a product with our own
tomorrow's artist brand, whichis really focused on, you know,
that artist from like sixthgrade on up And it's been tested
by that category.
We are and I think I can sharethis openly is we're in the
(07:17):
latter stages of a process toget our AP certification.
So we've been working reallyhard with the compliance teams
to so that they understood ourprocesses, so that we could
become compliant and grow withinyour industry with really worth
bringing product into it.
That's unique And so we'velearned and worked with people
(07:40):
in your industry to come up withall of the regulatory
compliance things that we neededto do to make it compatible for
crafters and kids and you knowstudents and fine artists So I
think we're successful in thattoday, so we're excited about
that.
Jeff (07:57):
Wow, it's so fascinating.
And without getting into anyproprietary stuff, in essence,
your company goes out and findsthe sources for the paint that's
been sitting in our garage andyou take and turn that into
(08:18):
acrylic paint.
So that's basically as simpleas it is.
Steve (08:23):
Well, it's interesting.
It's a little different in thatthe sorting and the collecting
process has been established.
It's unique depending on whatstate you live in.
Certain states have a veryaggressive collection process
and it's funded by a groupcalled Paint Care and the
manufacturer.
(08:43):
So the funding group would belike the Sherwin-Williams PPG,
bear Dunedwards all of thebrands And they help support
Paint Care as a non-profit andthey support the events that you
in many states will hear about.
You know you can go to yourwaste management on a certain
weekend and drop off thatresidential paint at no charge.
(09:05):
In other states there's a feeassociated to dropping off the
paint, so then the consumer paysto wait to deliver that
material to waste management.
But they're learning out therethat you can't just throw it
away, because what our fear hasalways been is that the paint
ends up in landfill, and that'swhat you don't want to have
(09:26):
happen.
You do not want this materialto end up in landfill.
So depending on the statethey're set up a little
differently.
There's 13 states, i think nowthat have the aggressive
programming you know, so thatpeople know where to go drop it
off and the marketing of it, andthen the other ones are kind of
a little looser.
But my job early on was to setup contracts with those sources.
(09:49):
So we don't actually we go inas a customer of that aggregator
and we collect and sort throughthat material to sort of take
the base product that we need tomake our model work, but it's
at a large scale.
So we have contracts that, forexample, i have 100% of the
(10:09):
access to the material in thestate of California.
We have Texas, we've got othermarkets that I'll mention.
Like I said, i got to becautious about some of these
things but we've got multiplestates now lined up.
So we go in and then set up ourprocesses around that supply
chain.
Because currently what they dooftentimes is they do make an
(10:32):
architectural product that'sgood, you know, and if you'll
find it generally at likehabitat for humanity, things
like that, but that's just kindof reef packaging, just sorting
it, cleaning it a little bit ofcolor, and then they drop that
back into architectural paint.
We do a little different.
We take the.
We kind of cherry pick theacrylics that we want, materials
(10:54):
that we want, and then weactually start there and then we
start to reformulate So westart adding things to it to
make it function.
Like you know, a heavier bodyart material, we have just a
little different processing thanyou would an architectural.
It has a different need, butwe're starting in a very high
quality base right out of thegate.
(11:15):
So our you know ourcharacteristics have been
appealing to artists as they'retesting it And some of our
partners now are setting it outfor testing with their customers
outside of our network andBlind testing it against the
competition and we're, but we'rejust doing exceptionally well.
Jeff (11:34):
It's exciting for us to
hear.
I'm actually looking on thetomorrows-artistcom website and
And, frankly, i like your, ilike your, your packages and so
forth.
So how many colors do you offerin the Neapolitan line?
Steve (11:54):
We offer 15, 15 colors.
Jeff (11:59):
Okay, and it looks like
you offer it in a jar and a tube
, right?
Steve (12:06):
We do right now and I'll
share something with you and
your audience.
That's really exciting and youwere part of this because when
we went to NAMTA, for us it wasa learning experience.
We were fortunate enough to beinvited And share some space
with Jack Richardson and Decoart.
They were just super, just sokind and and Just count the
(12:29):
caliber of the people that wehad to spend time with.
It was just the best experience.
And I come out of a differentindustry and Your whole category
, the whole everyone that wasthere was just so happy to be
there, was.
For me, it was a very differentexperience.
And going to a product designshow with a bunch of engineers,
you know.
So this was just a really greatexperience for us.
But we learned an awful lot andwhat we were told is that you're
(12:54):
trying to learn how to serveyour community, and So we
modeled our packaging after whatthe norm it.
You know what the normalpackaging sort of Process would
be, which is something.
That's the one thing that wereally couldn't re-engineer.
You know there and we looked itIt's really difficult to find
(13:15):
appropriate tubes and you knoweverything we do here is to the
benefit of The supply chain,managing that supply chain.
In fact, we're moving ourequipment into the source, where
it's aggregated, so thatthere's not that extra leg of
distribution.
So we're putting all of our youknow we have an eye on
Sustainability and and thingsthat are positive for the
(13:37):
environment when we makedecisions.
The packaging for us has beenthe hardest thing to solve.
It to us was the most difficultthing, and across the board.
And Look at the great brands inyour category and in your
market where you know they'reall using the similar Parts to
kind of distribute their paint.
So we got back from the Nantishshow and That seemed to be the,
(14:04):
for us, what we really Learnedthe most about, and it was a
statement that was made bysomeone that's Been in your
category for 50 years and it waslook, what you're doing inside
of that tube is so special, yep,and the challenge you have is
that You're having to physicallytell me the story because it's
(14:27):
You know, it's so unique andit's such a great benefit, but
you're having to put it in thesame tube that we all use, right
?
so we got back and our team wentto work and I'm excited that
Next year, when you see ourproduct in the marketplace,
you're gonna see a whole newProcess as far as distribution
goes.
It's gonna be a new containerand the container is gonna be
something that an artist isgonna be able to use over and
(14:50):
over again if they choose, andif they don't, then they can
simply put it in there,recycling, and You know, they
can just kind of use the paintright out of it.
They don't rinse it, they don'thave to worry about getting
that acrylic material in thewater system and throwing down
the drain.
They just use it right out ofthe out of the tub or the jar
and they can recycle it.
(15:10):
And we're super proud of that.
We think that was kind of forus.
That's what we needed to hear.
We needed someone to tell usall hey, you've, you're almost
there, you guys, you're almostthere, but you just, you got to
work harder on the packaging andwe took that to heart and we've
reset our whole packaging plan.
Jeff (15:30):
You know, in our industry
we have been struggling for a
very long time to become moreand more sustainable, and Most
of the biggest artists out there, that's a very big passion for
them and it's been difficult forthem to find the products that
(15:52):
meet their passion and It soundslike you have just filled that
gap.
Steve (16:00):
You know, i Appreciate
that and I'm hoping as we grow
we continue to learn because,you're absolutely right, the
artist Are way ahead of everyoneon this.
Yeah, they really do care,because the subjects they're
studying and that they'repainting, it They're trying to
share with us, are often timesthis beautiful nature that we
(16:21):
all sometimes say granted, andYou know, living in Laguna Beach
, you know we're in the waterall the time and we've the whole
team here is a keen eye on Theimpact of everything that we do,
and I kind of use that exampleearlier We've made a huge
investment in relocating To thesupply source, where that
(16:45):
material is aggregated at astate level, so that then we can
take that Transportation legout.
That's a big savings when itcomes to that Movement of
product and then it moves fromthere into dreaded, into
distribution.
Same with packaging.
Now You know the big shift forus.
Jeff (17:03):
And you know you mentioned
Laguna Beach and for our
audience out there, Laguna Beachhas always been a very high end
artist community And everysummer in Laguna Beach they have
a thing called the Festival ofthe Arts and that's where very,
(17:25):
very, very fine painters andsculptors go And one of the
things is called Patent of theMasters And that's where on
stage, they completely reenactfamous paintings throughout
history.
I'm sure you've seen this anumber of times, steve.
Steve (17:42):
I have.
It's something that I remember.
My first memories of that are,I dare to say, probably in the
late 70s, Because a little kid alittle kid you know and it's
something that I'll never forgetAnd my wife and I now attend
every year.
It's magical.
It's a magical experience.
In fact.
It sells out pretty much everynight And people come from all
(18:04):
over the world, all over theworld, to see it.
One of our artists that helpedme really define and build this
product, you know one of ourtest artists.
She shows there And she sellsher work there and she uses our
product there.
So that's at the pageantgrounds, a very high end venue,
(18:25):
and a selective collector willgo there and buy And she's on
that kind of level of artiststhat we aspire to have our
quality and our product matchand satisfy, because we had to
satisfy her needs.
It's very critical, in fact.
She told a story about sixmonths ago, after our first
meeting, after she evaluated theproduct, she told her husband
that she didn't think I'd evertalked to her again Because she
(18:47):
was so critical.
She was very kind but she wasso critical.
And then we adjusted in 10weeks later she got the new
batch and she's like you'relistening to me.
I said absolutely.
I said I'm here to serve you, ineed you to tell me the truth,
you know, and then that's.
That was through us four yearsago.
So yeah, it's, can you share?
can you share her name?
Her name is Lynn HeinerL-Y-N-H-I-N-E-R.
Jeff (19:13):
And if people wanted to
see more about Lynn Heiner, they
could go to tomorrows-artistcomand look under the artist tab
right, she does.
Steve (19:25):
Yeah, she's featured
there, and then you can learn a
little more about Lynn.
She's fantastic.
Jeff (19:31):
I'm just looking here and
I see that you've got eight very
, very accomplished artists.
So you're working with alleight of these artists with your
acrylic And how you grow yourbrand.
Steve (19:46):
That's right, You know it
really is in community with
them.
We're not just a product, we'rea movement.
So to satisfy that community ofartists, we need to listen to
them.
Jeff (20:01):
My goodness.
So this is a paint that isacceptable for kids, beginners
and even fine artists, right.
Steve (20:13):
It is.
It is.
You'll see some strata in themarketing of that.
You know a little bit oflayering with age groups.
We have, you know, the craftside of our business and the
segment of paint is an overallcategory in art and craft.
The craft segment is so largeAnd so we knew that, going into
(20:38):
that, we needed to partner.
So we were fortunate enough toget the attention of a major
brand that you're all familiarwith that will release product
next year.
So I'll be cautious aboutsaying who they are yet, but
we're, we're currently providingthem with material that will be
marketed under their brand.
But what it's really excitingfor us is and this is, you know,
(21:02):
my background in product designI knew that I needed to put a
plan together that wouldinfluence the people that were
already established with greatreputations to make a change,
and it's really hard sometimesfor a major brand to change.
It's a big ship.
But fortunately we were luckyAnd I think you know they
listened and fortunate enough tohave really accommodating
(21:26):
people on the other side of theconversation And they've
invested in their line Andyou'll notice, on a brand that
they'll introduce next year, acreated with on-course sub brand
, kind of like an Intel inside.
So we've been providing thebase material to that team and
then they formulate on top of usto make it work for them.
(21:48):
So you'll start to see brandsthat are willing to invest
because no doubt it's aninvestment to sort of change
some of those processes to builda product line that's utilizing
60 or 70 percent of theirchemistry from a product that
was discarded.
And that really is the story.
The story is taking anestablished brand and letting
(22:12):
them bring in another productline under their existing
channel and say we're going tohelp you utilize this waste
stream, steve.
And that, for me, i knew wewere really onto something when
we got the attention ofestablished brands like that,
because we just couldn't do iton our own.
Jeff (22:28):
You did, because here's
the issue It's been in the art
industry is for years.
Artists and crafters arelooking for what's new And, in
essence, in the art industry, ifyou're producing color, you
just make another color or youknow, or line extensions, and
it's been difficult to come upwith something new.
(22:51):
You have come into the industryand are kind of turning it on
its ear and making everybodytake a look at how they've been
doing it and how they need to doit going forward.
Steve (23:08):
I appreciate that.
You know it's funny.
I kind of get goosebumps, youknow, when I hear that.
you know when we're in theseconversations, because our
intention, we're just laserfocused on building high quality
product out of that greatmaterial that's been discarded.
And you know the process.
You know it's part of itsorting, part of it's
(23:29):
identifying.
You know what colors are goingto go into what batching and all
that stuff and then developing.
The process is to create theend result.
But the mission is the same.
The mission is we've got 70million gallons of paint that
people are just willy-nillydiscarding and we need to corral
that material in and figure outways to use it.
So it truly is a consumptionissue.
(23:49):
You know this.
You're buying more materialthan you need on the
architectural side and thenthere's no outlet for it.
So I will, yeah, we have, weare the first ones to sort of
identify it and it was fortunatethat we were in the right place
at the right time.
And then the artists.
You know you had mentionedLaguna earlier and I will.
I want to give a lot of creditto a festival that is featured
(24:13):
every year in Laguna Beachcalled the Sawdust Festival, and
you know if you're familiarwith Southern California the
Sawdust Festival is.
It's a world-renowned craftfestival And it's there's fine
art in that sawdust grounds.
Some great artists And in factsome of the artists that make
the that will jury into thepageant, will opt into the
(24:34):
sawdust because they get morefoot traffic and they can.
They can make more money.
It's a high caliber show Butover the last five years they've
consumed 650 gallons ofpost-consumer waste paint
essentially Paint that wasdiscarded.
Then we took it in, reformulatedit very early on in the journey
(24:57):
when we were still developingproduct.
They were using it not only insome of the art, but they were
using it on the boost.
So we started to supplymaterial for the artists to use
to paint the boost.
So they've made a significantimpact in a good way just by
choosing to use our material.
And so there are two thingsthat I hear internally around
(25:20):
our operational audience Youknow we have paint with a
purpose and I get really clearlyand simply defines our product.
And then as a company, becausethere's a lot of activities and
a lot of things we're doing toeducate people on the
opportunity to use these typesof materials.
But it's creativity with aconscience.
Jeff (25:43):
You know and, speaking of
conscience, I also know that you
guys do a lot of charitablecontributions.
Can you talk just a little bitabout that?
Steve (25:57):
Yeah, i can, and we do it
because it's the right thing to
do.
So you know we've got programsthat we're familiar with around
us, that that you know, fromlike restorative justice
perspective.
For example, we've got a muralprogram at a state prison in San
Diego where about four yearsago we embarked on supplying
(26:22):
paint for a mural program.
That has now snowballed into aprocess where the it's a male
prison and they're part of agroup of inmates that are in
some self-reflecting group.
You know where there's some,you know, an opportunity to kind
(26:43):
of get into some accountability, counseling and all these
things that are sort ofdifficult in that environment,
to kind of come to terms of whythey're there.
And if they do that they get afew extra yard.
You know hours in the yard andthey get to paint and they teach
these folks how to paint.
They're great artists.
Some of them, as it come inthere, can really paint.
But they've embarked on.
Their goal there now is topaint the largest mural in the
(27:07):
system, a continual mural, Sothey're.
Imagine these walls are insideyard walls are 18 feet tall and
there's 3100 linear feet.
So that's a lot of footage.
So we've provided material tothat program And for us it's
just something one, they'reclose to us, they're in our
market And we thought this is aprogram that helps, sort of a
(27:30):
this.
Folks are going through aprocess, accountability process
So we thought, hey, this is coolto be part of that.
So we've seen some and receivedsome good feedback from that
program, and then classes at thesawdust and different types of
channels like that that we getengaged with.
So we're always open and havean open ear to things that are
community based, where we canserve you know when we can.
Jeff (27:53):
Well, you said a word and
we're coming to the end of our
time And it seems like it's goneby in about two and a half
minutes.
But you said paint with apurpose, and I probably would
expand that to a company with apurpose, and it's very clear as
to the why you are doing this.
(28:14):
You're doing it for the planet,you're doing it for the artists
, you're doing it for charity,for people that need it, and
giving back, steve, this is sofascinating.
Congratulations on what you'vebeen doing, and, man, are we
excited to see what's comingsoon.
Steve (28:34):
Appreciate the
opportunity to share with you
and to be part of the journey,And we're all in it together,
right?
We?
Jeff (28:40):
are all in it together And
we are going to reach out to
you And hopefully you will comeback on as your journey
continues And we can keep ouraudience up to date on how they
can help contribute to theplanet by utilizing more
sustainable materials.
Steve (29:01):
Look forward to it.
Thanks, Jeff.
Jeff (29:03):
Thanks, steve.
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(29:27):
Now go out and create somethingWhen we're ready.
It's one we have, and tonightwe'll take a look at Robbie Boyd
on our live show.
We're going to do the workforce.