ASI 77 Speedball: It's More Than Just Art Supplies

Jeff: 0:06

Welcome back to Art Supply Insiders. My name is Jeff Morrow and today we're talking with David Valliere, who is the VP of Marketing and Business Development. David, did I butcher your last name?

David: 0:21

I've heard it every which way you did splendid.

Jeff: 0:25

Okay, thank you. Well, david is with Speedball, and Speedball is a company that we have been chatting back and forth with for quite a while, and we are really, really glad to have you on. So, david, tell us a little bit about Speedball's history and who and where you are today.

David: 0:46

All right. Well, thank you so much for having me. First of all, I'm excited to spend some time with you and your listeners, and hopefully we've got some fun stories to tell about Speedball.

Jeff: 0:58

Cool.

David: 0:59

The interesting thing about Speedball's history is there are kind of two histories. The company dates back, actually, to 1899 with the Hunt Penn Company and for the first call it well 90 years of existence we were part of a Fortune 500 company. We ultimately grew and we started. Our roots are with calligraphy and writing and through the years we expanded into things like block printing. We were pioneers in water-based inks, with block printing in the 1930s, water-based screen printing inks in the 1970s.

David: 1:37

And then, when we got into the 1990s and we were part of Hunt Corporation, they were looking to spend the company off and they had identified formulas and suppliers and they were packaging the deal, the sell-off of the art supplies business, as something that could be turnkey and run overseas. Well, we were purchased by our current ownership. We were purchased by Mr Walt Glazer in 1997 and he said why would we want to move everything overseas? He wanted to maintain manufacturing in the United States, here in North Carolina. So he purchased the company in 1997, kept the manufacturing here in North Carolina and he believes, and we believe, that that is the best way to serve our retail customers and, ultimately, artists throughout the world, in North Carolina, in North America and all around the world.

Jeff: 2:36

So you manufacture all of your products here in the United States.

David: 2:42

Not quite all products, but the vast majority. Where there are gaps in our manufacturing capabilities, we do source some items, but we are primarily a manufacturer. Our core competency is in light metal working, dating back to the calligraphy nibs in our early days. Of course, a lot of folks are very familiar with our linoleum cutters and other such light metal works, and then of course you have our expertise in ink formulation and so we devise the formulas and produce and mix and fill. Here in North Carolina and recently we've made a lot of investments and focus on converting paper, so taking big forms of paper and converting them to artist friendly formats rolls pads, journals etc.

Jeff: 3:34

You know speedball as I look at them, from where they were to where they are today, you have a lot of different product lines, it seems like. So before we get into that so I'm sure you have a website Tell us what the website is.

David: 3:52

Yes, the website is wwwspeedballartcom.

Jeff: 3:58

So that's S-P-E-E-D-B-A-L-L-A-R-T dot com. Right, correct. I was looking at your in fact I'm looking at it right now your website, and boy, you have a lot of information on that site, don't you?

David: 4:18

It keeps us busy and it's exciting when we recruit new folks, whether it's in marketing or R&D or shipping. I tell people it's a blessing and a curse, but mostly a blessing because we are well diversified and from a business perspective it's super challenging and a lot of fun. We have different competitive positions, as you can imagine, in printmaking versus ceramics versus paper. It's really fun, most of all, to get to know, ultimately, our consumers On the marketing side of things. I challenge our team. We are an artist-led company. We're a consumer-led company. If we can figure out what they need and develop the products that fit their needs and develop the programs that fit their needs, then everything else will fall into place. It's so much fun getting to work with all the different kinds of artists and the creativity that they exhibit and the different mediums. It's fascinating to see how that changes from category to category.

Jeff: 5:26

Isn't it a great industry. How tough is it. We have to get up every morning and go. How darn it, I got to go work with artists.

David: 5:36

I'll tell you. In a previous life, one of the main categories I was responsible for was cleaning supplies. As crazy as it sounds, there are people that are very passionate about cleaning and they love talking about it. It is nothing like art. It is so much fun, whether it's a hobby, or whether it's a profession or you're an art educator. Oh my gosh, it is so much fun to be able to work in this field work on product solutions for artists and hobbyists alike.

Jeff: 6:10

I'm looking at your website now and go down the different brands that you have. If you don't mind, Just give us a 40,000-foot view of all the different things you offer.

David: 6:23

Okay For doing a 40,000-foot view. I'm going to apologize in advance if I forget one.

Jeff: 6:30

That's fine.

David: 6:31

The company brand of Speedball. That's our heritage brand. That was founded on calligraphy, but the Speedball brand is very well known, of course, in printmaking as well, so block printing and screen printing. Through the years, we've acquired a number of other wonderful brands, primarily through acquisition, one of which would be the Beanfang brand, which dates back many, many years as well, so a complete line of artist papers. In 2011, we acquired the Akua brand, which is a wonderful, wonderful story.

David: 7:09

That was a brand that was developed by a professional printmaker, susan Rostow, and she developed the Akua Inc essentially in her kitchen. It was just a wonderful story, where her friends started asking her for it and she started producing it in larger formats. Next thing, you know, she's in the largest art retailers across the country and she didn't have time to be an artist. She was trying to run the business. When we acquired that brand, it allowed Susan to be an artist again and she remains part of the Speedball family, but it is a wonderful, wonderful brand. More recently, we've acquired the fluid line of watercolor papers, watercolor blocks, so an amazing range of watercolor paper that is artist grade at a phenomenal price point. Of course, the best test brand.

Jeff: 8:03

Oh yeah.

David: 8:03

Many people may be familiar with that, the Little Red Can another almost 100 years of history. So we really acquire brands. We really feel like we have a track record of nurturing and appreciating the history that is in the brands and folding them into the Speedball family, taking care of them, growing them and, as I said, serving the artist. Continuing to serve the artist as part of our company is something we take great pride in.

Jeff: 8:35

Yeah, as I'm looking, I see also pink soap. That's a brand everybody out there seems to know, right.

David: 8:43

Yeah, pink soap, the Mona Lisa brand with metal leaf and brush cleaners. Pink soap is we call it a hidden gem? Maybe it's not so hidden, I hope it's not so hidden, but it is just an absolute wonderful, wonderful, all-purpose cleaner. Great on brushes, but really on any art supply need. We've used it on many a roller for block printing, so a wonderful product as well. Thank you for reminding me on that omission.

Jeff: 9:13

Well, no, in a former life, my business partner Dave and I owned a company called the Brush Guys, and pink soap was probably one of the best selling products that we had, and also the Mona Lisa line with the metal leaf. I mean, I guess we're used to calling it gold leafing, but metal leafing is that the same thing as gold leafing?

David: 9:42

It is. The cool thing about that is there are numerous usages for the metal leaf everything from home decor. But from our perspective we love it when folks work across techniques. So we see people screen printing the adhesive and then applying the metal leaf as part of screen printing. Metal leaf is extremely popular, is part of ceramics world on clay, so it's a really neat medium that goes across categories in many instances, augmenting our roots in calligraphy and printmaking. Speedball in the last 15 years or so has really established and grown our presence within the ceramics world. So we acquired a company called Creative Industries which got us into the line of pottery wheels and then, around the same time, we developed and launched our own line of speedball underglazes.

Jeff: 10:41

There are so many cool product lines and for those of you listening out there, you really have to go to speedballartcom to see all of this.

David: 10:55

And then, in addition to the brands that we have acquired over the years, we've also established relationships with a number of companies where we are the exclusive distributor in North America. So, for example, the PH Coat line of Charcoal, and we work with Viarcho out of Portugal as their North American distributor. So, for those of your listeners who are familiar with the artcraft brand, just an amazing, amazing line of products, beautifully made, with a great, great story, that can be spread with wet media.

Jeff: 11:32

Wow, this is, I'm looking at it. I see you're right, putty Wow.

David: 11:39

The word playful comes to mind when you see an artcraft demo at NAMTA. Our friends from Viarcho were at NAMTA and it's just a demo that you have to see and we're working on ways to bring that brand to life even more. It's a brand that is playful. It just allows artists to use their imagination in ways that obviously they use their imagination a lot in all their creations. But this line just really lends itself to hey, what are new possibilities for all of these wonderful materials?

Jeff: 12:17

So as I'm going across, I see a category called Classroom and it underneath it it says lesson plans. I'm assuming that they can go to your website and get a lesson plan to teach on a specific product category.

David: 12:34

Yes, so that's another way that we feel we are very diversified, not only from a brand perspective and a product perspective, but we really serve everything from beginners students we have a rich heritage again with our water soluble ink solutions in schools all the way to the professional. So, yes, as it relates to schools and education, we have a number of resources and the lesson plans are a great example that help people get into project-wise block printing, screen printing, ceramics, et cetera. So those are available for download directly from SpeedBullArtcom.

Jeff: 13:16

And you really made it easy. So if somebody's in grade school, you've got on here like under gel printing, natural printing, grades three through four, but you go as high as grades eight, as high as high school, so you make it simple for them to be able to relate the product to the student right.

David: 13:37

We certainly do, and that's not isolated to our school business. Specifically when it comes to block printing and screen printing, to some extent calligraphy, those are mediums that sometimes can be intimidating. We get so many questions from our retailers and from artists alike. Oh, I remember doing screen printing in college and I did block printing, but it's been a long time and one of the things that we put a huge focus on whether it be the lesson plans, instructional videos, all of our social media content is very driven on breaking down the barriers that may exist, specific to some of our mediums that may be intimidating, and we try to inspire beginners or folks that don't have a ton of experience or confidence with ideas to get started. So, everything from a full-on project plan to just idea starters and inspiration on, you can do a tea towel In addition to t-shirts, you can do tea towels or curtains, and really just a good combination, I feel like, of instruction and inspiration.

Jeff: 14:48

Boy, the website is just kind of like a one-stop shop, regardless of where you are. None of it is. It's kind of like me If I was looking at this stuff. A lot of this stuff just goes completely over my head and I'm going what? But you've broken it down so that when you look at your website you don't walk away scratching your head wondering what the heck that I just look at.

David: 15:13

Well, I appreciate you saying that, and our teams worked really hard to present our products in a way that makes sense and are understandable, and the fun and the results that you can achieve with them. We try to make them as evident as possible and we've worked hard as well translating that onto the packaging. So, whether it's the physical packaging, when you're looking at a shelf in store or a listing on an online product listing, we try to be very clear about what's included, for example, in a kit and how this kit is different from that kit. In screen printing, there's different methods to create a screen. It can be as simple as making a stencil out of paper, and then what people most associate with screen printing is the photo emulsion method and, without getting into too much detail, that involves a light, sensitive emulsion, but it's super popular and once you learn the process it's a multi-step process it really is quite easy if you follow the instructions and really allows you to create incredible imagery, incredible detail, in a reproducible way.

Jeff: 16:28

And then, for those people that like to look at a catalog, you have a heading set called catalog and you literally have copied every single page of your catalog onto your website so that our audience can go and find exactly what the product skew is.

David: 16:49

Right, that's right and we broke it out by section and by brand to some extent. So I appreciate you kind of walking us through the website a little bit, because it's always fun when we hear from an artist or a new user saying oh my gosh, I didn't know Speedball had ceramics, so I didn't realize they had gel plates, and so we try to make it all as easy as possible to find, and we do. We're really proud of the assortment of products that we have and hopefully your listeners will have a look and maybe find something that surprises them and they can have some fun with.

Jeff: 17:28

Oh, believe me, when you're listening out there, you must go to this website because you will find something new that will probably excite you to try it. So now you know where to get it. Speaking about where to get it, do you sell direct to the end user? Do you basically go through brick and mortar?

David: 17:51

We essentially go through brick and mortar and traditional retailers. Of course, many of our retailers have very sophisticated and excellent e-commerce options as well.

Jeff: 18:03

Yeah, If you go to your retailer and you do not see a speedball product that you know you and your friends will be purchasing, talk to the management at that retail store and ask them to bring it in right.

David: 18:17

Absolutely. That is something that we tell people all the time. There's a limited amount of space. Obviously, the retailers are consumer focused as well, and I can tell you that in a lot of our categories, more and more people are learning about block printing and screen printing and a lot of retailers have been growing their assortment because people are asking for it.

Jeff: 18:42

You know, something else that artists, grafters, are very much wanting to understand is to understand how safe the products are, and many cases want to know what's in those products you offer on. It looks like all of your products the MSDS sheets for everything. Is that right?

David: 19:10

Absolutely yeah. We put a lot of work into our regulatory compliance and making sure that all the products are tested on a regular basis. All the new products are tested, and then we share all of the associated documentation right there on our website for people to check out for themselves. The vast majority of our inks or fluids do carry the AP seal, which means they're certified non-toxic for their intended use, and so, as I mentioned earlier, that is something that really is at the roots of our company in a lot of ways.

Jeff: 19:47

Yeah, because you know, we're very, very eco-conscious and we're conscious about how it will affect our health and especially our children's health. And I have to tell you I've not been to a website that takes the time to give all of this information, to keep you informed. That's amazing. So tell me a little bit about where do you see Speedball going? You know right now we are in the middle of summer 2023. You got any cool new products you can give us a look behind the curtain on or kind of tell us a general direction Speedball might be going in.

David: 20:33

Absolutely. One of the things I'm most excited about today is that, like everyone else, we've been battling the challenges that have been going on in our world, from the pandemic to supply chain and just making materials available. We're at a point now where we've been able to spend a lot more time forward looking rather than trying to react to the current environment, and for us that means really getting back onto the new product train. We've invested in our research and development team and we are working on many, many new products A couple that come to mind that will be available in the coming months. We have a new line of screen printing inks that are coming out.

David: 21:19

This new line of screen printing inks is going to be the most opaque and the most adaptive to all of the new materials that are out there. It's not just about 100% cotton shirts, all the synthetic blends, etc. Those have very different they take ink in very different ways, and so our core ink is wonderful on white fabric and it does well on some fabrics, but not all, and particularly with these new fabrics that stretch a lot. This new Flex Ink is going to be extremely opaque. It's our most opaque ink for screen printing that we've ever launched and it's going to stretch with those kind of new modern, stretchable, breathable fabrics, so that's something that we're extremely excited about.

Jeff: 22:13

I know that you guys are very much into helping people reach their full potential, whether it's from the artist or the teacher to the art material dealers. Talk a little bit about that.

David: 22:28

Yeah, we talked a little bit earlier about the lesson plans and the educational materials that we have available. One of my favorite programs that kind of touches on, I guess, both aspects of the end user as well as the retail trade is our demo artist program. So, as I mentioned earlier, we get a lot of questions from consumers and retailers alike about screen printing, about block printing, and so the power of the demo is extremely important. We can't be in all places at once. So in late 2019, we put out a call for artists and we ultimately hired or consulted with about 25 block printing and screen printing artists all across North America and we've got a nice dispersion geographically and we use this primarily as a service to our retailers.

David: 23:33

So if they want to have an in-store event that features block printing or screen printing, they can go to our website and they can request that a speedball demo artist come out to their store. Speedball compensates the artist and it's kind of a win-win-win. It's great for the artist because they're compensated, it's great for the store they can offer a wonderful service to their community and to their consumers. And it's a win for consumers to learn these great new techniques. And I guess selfishly for speedball, more people are printing. We love to spread the gospel of printmaking. So that's one of my favorite programs now and encourage our retail customers to take advantage of that program. And for your listeners, hopefully you'll have an opportunity in your area to come out and experience a speedball demo through the Speedball Demo Artist program.

Jeff: 24:32

When our listeners, when you go into these retail stores, I highly encourage you to talk to the management team and, if you want to see demo artists in that brick and mortar, ask for that, because that's the only way that these brick and mortars understand what it is that you guys have an interest in, right.

David: 24:57

Yeah, absolutely. I wouldn't even limit it to the retail store. For any of your listeners who are involved in an educational or studio or somehow otherwise in the art community, reach out and submit an inquiry to Speedball, because we can make the demo artists available to really any organization that wants to infuse some printmaking into their community. We want to be there to support you.

Jeff: 25:27

Okay. So if they wanted to make that inquiry, would they do it right through the website?

David: 25:35

So if someone's interested in having a speedball demonstration in their area, they can always email us at info at speedballartcom and mention that they're interested in having a demo artist in their area and we'll do the best we can. Depending on circumstances, we may not have someone extremely close, but we will absolutely respond and see what is possible.

Jeff: 26:01

The other thing that I see, which is a really cool feature, is that you list all of your stores, at least here in North America. Is that correct?

David: 26:17

We do try to keep our store finder as updated as possible. It is a challenge with the wide variety of products. We can't go down to the individual item level, so we do try to maintain the database at the category level. So the store has block printing or screen printing. So I would recommend for your listeners to check with the store locator. It's a great first place to start. If they have a particular specific product in mind, it's always a good idea just to call and see if they stock it. Most of our retailers again back to what we were talking about earlier if you ask about a product, maybe they won't stock it on the shelves permanently, but most retailers would certainly be happy to make a special order and we're happy to fulfill special orders as well.

Jeff: 27:05

David, we're coming towards the end of our time together here. Is there anything that I haven't asked you about that you wanted to chat about?

David: 27:17

No, it's been a lot of fun. I appreciate you using the website as your guide. I guess the one thing I'd leave for your listeners is another cool thing to check out to get a feel for our company. It's the company video that is on our website and on YouTube. It's called Together we Make. It gives what I feel is a very good representation of who we are as artists-ins-ourselves manufacturing products for artists. There's an open invite to reach out to us if you're ever in the Statesville North Carolina area. We love to do factory tours. We love for people to see how everything's made and see a little bit of what we think is the magic of speedball. We hope to see some of your listeners in North Carolina as the opportunity arises.

Jeff: 28:11

I got to tell you I love factory tours. You walk around and it seems like somebody has to remind you to close your mouth. As you're looking at it. You just look and your mouth is open and I didn't know you did that and I didn't know that was done. Please take them up on this offer. It's not something that you will ever regret, david. Thank you again. What a wonderful interview and what a great company. As you come out with new things, think about us and if you have interest in coming back on again and talking about it, boy, we'd love to have you back.

David: 28:54

Well, I appreciate you having us on and I appreciate everything you do for the industry and I would love to come back and chat in the future.

Jeff: 29:04

Thank you, and it's just as a reminder it's speedballartcom. You've been listening to the Art Supply Insiders. Check back with us often as we talk about the world of art and craft supplies. If you'd like to hear more of these podcasts, please hit the subscribe button on your preferred podcast platform, and we'd really appreciate it if you'd go out and tell a friend. If you'd like to show your support, please consider going to our website and hitting the support button at wwwartsupplyinsiderscom. Now go out and create something.