Almighty painter

Chapter 157 is not like the world (greatly changed for Alston-King leader)

(Thanks to Alston-King for the great reward! Although the writing is slow, there must be an attitude.)
The observation report room of the marketing department is actually a brightly lit conference room.

The difference between this meeting room and other meeting rooms is that the decoration of the observation report room cost a lot of money.

It is only separated by a wall from the 1:1 [bookstore] experimental field built by the marketing department in the building.

The main wall of the lecture room is covered by a double-sided mirror with a height of two meters and a width of five meters. Opposite is the reading sofa in the rest area of ​​the [Bookstore].

From the side of the volunteers in the bookstore next door, you can only see a reflective mirror, but everyone in the observation room can clearly see the various activities and expressions of the volunteers.

in fact,

When the test tasks are all completed, reading the various questionnaires filled out by the volunteers can also have a similar effect.

However, the written questionnaire is far less clear and intuitive than the one that can monitor the scene at any time.

There are also various camera screens and sound recording devices in the observation room, so that the VIPs in the observation room can keep abreast of what is happening in the [Bookstore].

"It's well prepared."

The chunky director Morgan looked at the staff of the marketing department behind the screen with a smile. They were pulling fairy tale books neatly arranged like bricks with a small cart, and busy arranging the shelves and counters in the children's literature section of the bookstore.

The marketing department has bound 50 volumes of "The Little Prince" in the [Detective Cat] version and 50 volumes of "The Little Prince" in the "Wehrlein" version overnight.

of course,

Both of these are hand-bound versions. After simple typesetting and printing of the cover illustrations provided by the two illustrators, they are glued to the blank text.

There is only a book cover, and the content inside is blank.

But as long as the outer plastic seal is not removed, it looks not much different from the final commercially available version.

In addition to the new version of "The Little Prince" by the two illustrators, the marketing department also put on the shelves several old versions of "The Little Prince" that are currently in circulation in the book market, both hardcover and paperback.

Since market research is to be done,

While deciding the pros and cons of the two illustrators, it is also possible to investigate the volunteers’ acceptance of the group’s upcoming “The Little Prince” compared to the old version of “The Little Prince” sold by competitors for more than half a century degree.

In this way, we can have a rough estimate of the market share and annual sales volume of the new version of "The Little Prince" by Scholastic Group after it is actually put into the book market in the future.

"If all the volunteers have arrived, let's start. I will fly back to North America in the afternoon." Director Morgan touched his chin and ordered.

The marketing department selected several groups of volunteers from various age groups, each group consisted of 100 to [-] people, and they would enter the bookstore as "buyers" and choose their favorite "The Little Prince".

The test content is not complicated, not including the time to rearrange the experimental field.

Each set of tests will take about 20 to 25 minutes, and one morning and one afternoon should be enough.

Director Morgan was prepared to look at the quizzes of one or two groups of volunteers before leaving.

In his experience,
Unless the gap between the two painters is very close, whoever draws well is the one who draws best.

Whether to win or lose is basically determined after the first group of volunteers enter the field.

Market research is not a bloody variety show.

It is very difficult for the first few groups of volunteers to respond badly to your illustrations, and then there is a reversal in the subsequent survey groups.

Director Morgan even rejected the marketing staff's plan to send two different versions of "The Little Prince" sample books, Detective Cat and Wehrlein, to the observation room for everyone to read.

Market research is market research.

Mr. Director does not want to establish any subjective tendencies, and let the final data speak for everything.

……

Separated by a wall,
[Bookstore], under the leadership of the staff, volunteers entered the venue one after another.

These volunteers are diverse,
From five to sixty-year-old gentlemen, college students who are graduating from internships, to little girls who look like eight or nine years old led by their mothers, there are people of all ages.

Kelly is one of them.

She is a third-year student at the Royal College of Art, considered an art professional, but Kelly majored in fashion design.

She has loved illustration art since she was a child. If it weren't for the pressure of AI to draw, the career prospects of middle and low-level illustrators are mediocre.

Kelly may seriously consider becoming a professional illustrator.

Appreciating the colorful illustrations can always bring Kelly a sense of relaxation full of free imagination in addition to the heavy academic pressure.

This is what more serious art venues such as art exhibitions and art galleries cannot provide her.

Because she likes it, Kelly has a better understanding of the illustration industry.

Large publishing houses and high-end illustration studios are the best options for illustrators to find employment.

There are only two giant publishing groups in the European and American markets that attach great importance to the quality of illustrations—Scholastic Group and its main market competitor, Townsendsman Publishing Group.

These two publishing groups have a market value of more than tens of billions of dollars, and together they almost monopolize the entire children's literature market.

Numerous famous illustrators have cooperated with them.

For this reason, when Kelly was in a bookstore near the school, she met the little brother who was handing out leaflets and asked if she would like to participate in an internal survey organized by the Scholastic Group as a volunteer.

Kelly did not hesitate too much and chose to agree.

"As expected of a giant-level business empire, it's just that it's rich, and it actually built such a large physical bookstore in a financial building!"

Kelly looked at the simulated test field in front of her, which looked exactly like the chain bookstore near the school, smacking her lips, secretly amazed.

"Welcome all volunteers. Please queue up in an orderly manner to enter the venue. Before entering the venue, please collect your task card from the marketing staff in gray uniforms!"

Staff with loudspeakers directed everyone to enter.

When it was Kelly's turn to enter,
The staff glanced at Kelly's age and gender, then handed over a blue shopping basket and asked her to take an envelope from the basket.

[Scenario setting: You are a young girl who loves literature and art, and the Christmas holiday is coming next week. You are going to buy a fairy tale book "The Little Prince" from the bookstore as a Christmas gift for your boyfriend. 】

[Budget: £40 (choose one book only!)]

[Please complete your selection within 10 minutes. 】

little Prince?
The task cards she drew were very carefully crafted, setting up relevant plot backgrounds for the volunteers, so that they could be easily substituted into the actual purchase scene.

"It seems that the rumor that the Scholastic Group is about to release a new version of "The Little Prince" is true. This is a preliminary market research? I don't know which illustrator is writing it."

The thought crossed Kelly's mind.

The time of 10 minutes is not very tight. First, she walked around this large [bookstore], and at the bar of the bookstore, she asked the waiter for a free cup of Americano coffee.

"Merry Christmas, miss."

The little brother from the marketing department who was acting as a temporary clerk at the bar was very attentive. It was early spring, but he still said a Christmas greeting, and the Christmas greeting song "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells" was also playing in the bookstore.

After turning around,

Kelly actually got a little involved in picking out a Christmas present for her boyfriend.

"The Little Prince... If I had to choose a book as a gift, I would probably choose the classic Townsendsman."

Kelly had only had an impression of this version of "The Little Prince" before.

She remembered that Townsendsman's hardcover edition was beautifully printed, with the original Saint-Exupéry illustration on the cover.

It is indeed a good choice for literary youths to choose holiday gifts.

"I don't know if the new version of "The Little Prince" by Scholastic Group can surprise me and make me reverse this plan."

Kelly thought as she turned to the shelves in the children's literature section.

On the first row of shelves, in the most conspicuous place was a new style of "The Little Prince" that she had never seen before.

【Work title: "The Little Prince"】

【Original Author: Saint Exupery (France)】

[Translator: Charlie Hawke (UK)]

[Illustrator: Jan M. Wehrlein (UK)]

Kelly could tell at a glance that the illustration on the cover of "The Little Prince" was a very delicate watercolor painting.

"It turned out to be a work written by the artist Wehrlein. It seems to be okay!"

With well-known painters like Wehrlein creating illustrations, Kelly understands the confidence of the Scholastic Group to dare to challenge the classic version of "The Little Prince" by the competitor Townsend Mann.

Artistic occupations die from drought, and die from flooding.

With the pressure of AI painting to grab jobs, the income of small illustrators has dropped sharply, but the name of first-line painters like Wehrlein is still a guarantee of quality.

The exquisite brushwork of the illustrator and the soul fit with the theme of the original work are still cold AI, which is far from being comparable.

Kelly can even be regarded as half a fan of Wehrlein.

In my sophomore year, I wrote a sincere self-recommendation letter, hoping to go to the other party’s illustration studio for an internship in the summer, but unfortunately, I didn’t get any reply.

This did not affect Kelly's admiration for Mr. Wehrlein. She queued up in the early morning to snap up the commemorative album "Green Shade Wilderness" released by Wehrlein.

Compared with Mr. Wehrlein's past works, this painting is also of the very careful kind.

It is also the same as the original author Saint-Exupéry, expressing the content of the little prince sitting on the beach watching the stars, Wehrlein is obviously much more professional than Saint-Exupéry.

He swept away the shortcomings committed by the original author as a non-professional artist,
Wehrlein completely reconstructed the composition of this picture, using the golden ratio of a professional portrait painting, to draw the image of an aristocratic young man sitting with his knees hugged.

Moreover, taking advantage of the realistic advantages of watercolor, the little prince's face and facial features are three-dimensional and exquisite, which is more than an order of magnitude more handsome than Saint-Exupéry's style of children's stick figures that can be finished with two eyes and one nose.

It can be directly used as the mobile phone wallpaper of adolescent girls.

Kelly's eyes lit up first, and then he hesitated.

"This is a very good illustration...but is this really the little prince?" After the love at the beginning, such thoughts popped up in her mind uncontrollably.

Kelly squatted down, and took out a classic version of Townsendsman's "The Little Prince" from the lower shelf for comparison.

The composition of the classic version of "The Little Prince" is much more unprofessional.

The sky is extremely far away, the desert is wild, and the image of the little prince only occupies a small part of the picture.

The painting of the little prince is not pretty.
The composition has a strange and long-lasting temperament, which is the unique temperament of this lonely fairy tale.

Wehrlein's paintings are of course very beautiful,

This is a very good illustration, with a standard composition idea that can be used as a textbook for art classes.

The problem is that it's too standard,
It is completely in accordance with rigorous art theory, like a model produced by a certain mold on an industrial assembly line.

Kelly looked at the two illustrations in front of her.

She suddenly felt that the little prince described by Mr. Wehrlein had a beautiful smile.Just like the Korean plastic surgery star who was once a smash hit in Europe.

Beautifully unreal, and also beautifully empty.

In addition to the Saint-Exupéry version, it is a supporting illustration created by the original author himself, which is an obvious plus.

If she could only pick one book, even if she was a fan of Mr. Wehrlein, Kelly would be more inclined to choose Townsendsman's classic version.

"By the way, the budget on the task card is forty pounds."

Kelly suddenly remembered something.

The budget column on the task card is randomly selected for each volunteer, and each volunteer has a slightly different budget, some high, some low.

Forty pounds for a book of fairy tales is quite rich.

The two books in front of me are paperback editions,
Townsendsman's classic edition of The Little Prince is priced at £19, and Wehrlein's new version, handwritten on the price tag, is exactly £18 cheaper at £[-].

And if she remembers correctly, Townsendsman's hardcover version of "The Little Prince" should be priced at £32 on the market.

Might have to hesitate before two books if her budget is £20.

With the current budget,

As a gift for others, the more expensive and more exquisite hardcover version is obviously a better choice.

Kelly stood up and walked around the shelf for this volume, and sure enough, on the other shelf, she saw Townsendsman's hardcover Little Prince gift box with a more gorgeous coated paper as the book cover.

The area of ​​the [Bookstore] is not small, but a lot of people have gathered in front of the bookshelf on this side, at least a dozen people are gathered in front of a shelf.

"Is everyone here to pick up the hardcover edition of The Little Prince?"

Kelly took a few steps forward.

Huh?
She suddenly discovered that the volunteers here were not around the hardcover version of "The Little Prince".

The focus of their discussion was another set of "The Little Prince" that Kelly also had never seen, placed on the right side of the hardcover edition.

"so beautiful."

"It's heart-pounding."

"Wow, this painting method is so unique. I have never seen such ethereal and dreamy colors."

People talk about it.

"This is... painting with a knife, a very unpopular method of painting." Kelly narrowed her eyes and said softly.

She made her way through the crowd and picked up this edition of The Little Prince from the shelf.

The label on the cover is similar to that on the cover of the previous version of Wehrlein, only the column for the illustrator was replaced by Wehrlein——

【Illustrator: Detective Cat (Algeria)】

this painting……

There is a very special ethereal feeling.

She adopts a picture composition that is almost the same as that of Saint-Exupéry, and exquisitely retains the original author's temperament with a touch of Zen.

And it's much better drawn.

Not only is it much better than the half-assed Saint-Exupéry, but it is also much better than the artist Wehrlein.

In principle, works of art of different styles cannot be compared.

But this is Kelly's current subjective feeling.

The yellow sand is long, the desert is empty,
The blurry waning moon, the twinkling stars, the boy with slightly moving shoulders is sitting sideways on the high sand dunes, as if he will turn his head and smile at you at any time.

The moment Kelly saw this illustration, Kelly felt that this portrait was suspended on a hydrogen balloon, and would fly away or shatter in his hand at any time.

This illustration is really beautiful, a perfect and unreal work.

(End of this chapter)