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032:Studio profile>Simon AldersonThe enterprising founder of online art companyPIXELbros is dangerous by design.

this pagelefttop to bottom:Real Kung Fu>PIXELbros:Origin. I had the idea around the timeJeremy Andrew and I finally realised wewere never going to have the paintingexhibition we had been discussing forabout two years because we were bothso busy. I paint canvases in between mygraphic work, but a large one can take methree months, so to get enough togetherfor a show would take a long time. Andthen I wouldn’t want to sell them. Sowe came up with the idea of producingcompletely digital art and then selling itfrom the web site, pixelbros.net. Since it isdigital I can keep a copy for myself andsell as many as I like, but we have limited itto 50 prints. It amazes me that some of thecanvases actually look like they have beenpainted, and painted exactly as I wouldhave done it with a brush.Concept. The whole idea behindPIXELbros is to get a network of designersand photographers to join our onlinegallery. We are actively targeting architectsand interior designers on big projects.An example is Andrew Parr from SJBInterior Design who has specified ourart packages for a multi-storey residentialdevelopment. Online it is very easy tochoose the art, nominate the requiredsize and specify required colours andamendments and be given an idea ofthe price. Art directors and ad agenciescan also use it to source stock art orillustration. We are developing a hardcopy catalogue that will be distributed sopeople can keep it in their product library.

The whole ideabehind PIXELbros isto get a network ofdesigners andphotographers to joinour online gallery.Development. The idea is starting totake off and we have a bit of a listof photographers and designers that areready to join. I decided the site wasn’tscaleable enough as it was. It was entirelybuilt in Flash and even though I was alwaystrying to persuade more clients to buildFlash web sites, I realised after a coupleof years that Flash actually pisses me offwhen I am browsing the web. I just wantto get information quickly and instead I amheld to ransom by some designer with hisown agenda trying to rob me of valuableseconds of my life while I wait for hisAcademy Award contender to download,which invariably disappoints me anyway.So I decided to use a lot more HTML eventhough Flash has snuck in again.Copyright. Perhaps the most valuablemember of the PIXELbros team is a lawyerwho specialises in intellectual propertyand copyright and represents a host ofpeople such as photographers, artists andfilm directors. Our terms and conditionsare pretty tight.Exhibition. We had the first PIXELbrosexhibition in April 2001 at Spence & Lydain Sydney, which is actually a showroomof mid-century American furniture such asEames, Knoll and Herman Miller. We werespecifically targeting this type of space asopposed to a gallery space because wewanted people to see what the art actuallylooks like with furniture. I know a lot ofartists would gasp in horror at such asuggestion but I’m not the starving artisttype. I want to turn my art into commerceand I don’t have any ideological problemswith that.Sales. I approached Spence & Lydaand they welcomed the idea becausefor them to take care of the artwork isjust a headache. So we had a fantasticagreement and I think they are true patronsof the arts because they didn’t take any cutfrom our sales. The whole idea behind theexhibition was to promote the web site.I was actually amazed because most ofmy sales were to people that weren’t atthe exhibition opening but were justin the showroom looking at furniture,picked up one of our flyers and wentonline and picked out artwork that wasn’teven in the show.The whole ordering process was doneusing email so I never even met the peoplewho bought my art. In a way it’s sad to losethat human interaction, but I like to workfrom home in my underpants so I guess it’sjust as well (joke).photographic paper, light boxes and rugs.We have even done projections. Theidea of ready to hang exhibitions is veryappealing to a wide range of showroomsthat see it as a drawcard for theircustomer base.Involvement. PIXELbros is also a greatway for artists to potentially commercialisea lot of stuff they may have sitting aroundin back rooms or filing cabinets, or artthat is left unsold after an exhibition. Wewelcome people to contact us to showus their work. It doesn’t even need to bestrictly digital – we are currently talking toan embroidery artist and a ceramicist. Ithink as the idea develops it has alot of potential for merchandising andalso as a general information site fordesigners where you can download fontsand screensavers as well. I’d love to getsome font designers involved. ●Output. We can output art to manydifferent surfaces such as canvases,