At the Licensing Expo in Las Vegas, Licensing Magazine has met Soula Zavacopoulos, Director of The London Studio, an art licensing and design studio full of interesting and successful projects, such as The Art of Drag.
What is The London Studio?
Soula Zavacopoulos
The London Studio is an art licensing and design studio. We specialise in designing top-selling products for retail, developing commercially successful brands and developing creative work for clients including celebrities, international retail chains, blue-chip corporations and charities.
We also have an artist agency side, where we represent some of the most exciting, up-and-coming indie artists worldwide, as well as established artists and designers. For the art-licensing side of the business, we develop successful ranges of cards, gifts, homeware and apparel which are sold through major high-street retailers via the licensing model. Some of our ranges are designed in-house, others by the incredible artists we proudly represent.
We largely work in two way, our in-house team and our London Studio artists usually develop our own brands, properties and/or artworks that we license to companies. Alternatively, we work to brief or develop ‘own-brand’: we create bespoke designs for manufacturers, retailers, charities and celebrities.
What is Art of Drag and how do you describe describe it?
Art of Drag is a new brand we’ve developed in-house with our incredibly talented LGBT+ artists. The amazing thing with Art of Drag is that as soon as you see it, you get it! We take famous works of art and swap the principle subject with a gorgeous drag queen or king. Each piece serves a unique, provocative, and glamorous twist on established works of art. And like the queens themselves, every single one is a MASTERPIECE!
Drag is exploding right now. Worldwide, Ru Paul’s Drag Race has obviously been a huge driver in this, but also the idea of gender and gender roles are being positively questioned right now. And I feel that Art of Drag fits perfectly into this cultural landscape. It’s fun and playful while representing values and ideas that are out there in society. Now is the time for Art of Drag!
What kind of projects are you doing and looking to do with this?
What kind of projects AREN’T we looking to do with this, more like?! We’ve already signed a fantastic deal for dated stationery, T shirts and prints in the UK. We’re talking about apparel, health and beauty, cosmetics – even jewellery. And we’ve just signed with the phenomenal Firefly Brand Management for the US markets – just before Licensing Expo 23 – so watch is space for more exciting updates to come!
