Who are Northern Fire?
Northern Fire is a group of artists who specialise in Celtic and Nordic artwork and was born in The idea was first conceived by Sean, Broc and Duncan after an evening discussing various projects that the two artists had wanted to undertake but were struggling to manage on top of their tattoo careers.
We realised quickly that many other creatives were in a similar situation and decided that forming an artistic collective would be beneficial all round. The artists who have joined us since this initial conversation were all hand picked by Sean Parry and are among the best the Nordic and Celtic world has to offer.
What is an artist collective?
The aim of Northern Fire is to provide a platform for artists and makers on which they can display and sell their creations. Instead of each individual artist having to bear the costs for setting up a website and deal with logistics like sending orders out, we formed a collective to share the costs.
Not For Profit
As our aim is to give as much of the sale price as possible to the person who created the artwork.
You may not realise that websites such as Not On The High Street, Etsy and Redbubble, which are commonly used by creatives to sell their work, all charge a commission. Whilst that is totally understandable as these websites have costs of their own, the artist has to pay the fee as well as writing all their product descriptions, marketing the store as well as packing and posting the items. To give you an idea, at the time of writing:
Redbubble defaults to 80% of the sale price.
Etsy takes a 5% commission but also has a complicated system of transaction fees, optional membership fees and random advertising fees.
Not On The High Street take a 25% commission but also have restrictions on any branding the artist is allowed to include...
Like these websites, we also have to charge a commission to be able to keep the business running but we have kept it down to the bare minimum of 20% and have a commitment where as the company grows, we will look to reduce the amount we take if possible. On top of that, we take all the admin tasks away from the artist allowing them to focus solely on what they do best; creating amazing art.
What makes us different?
Most other companies selling similar products to us will pay a set price to an artist for their work. As the company will then own the design, they are free to put it on t-shirts, posters, mugs, key rings and basically whatever they feel will sell.
Again, we don’t want to criticise businesses that work this way as that is just another way of doing things. However, we believe that the artwork should be as the artist intended and for anything we print or cast in house, we involve the artist at every stage of production to ensure that their vision is what is created.
We also strongly feel that the artist should be recognised for the work they do and although the company is called Northern Fire, we are always very clear who made the item you are purchasing.
At the same time, we are keen for everyone to feel involved with Northern Fire and towards this end, each of our artists has created their own version of our logo which you will see on some of their items and posts.
Sustainability
We are very conscious of the impact humans are having on the environment and have made a commitment to be as sustainable as possible. You can read more about our environmental goals in this blog.