Creativ Market …?

Andreas Stötzner

As a Fontspring vendor, I got a message from CM to complete “my account”. Apart from the fact that the Login or Reset password process seems to be rather annoying (I’ve never been there before), is it advisable to embark there, at all? I know there was much discussion about CM some time ago.

I had the idea that, following the FS-CM liaison, they would just duplicate a foundry’s font program into the other place. Apparently they don’t.

The CM page with my name is just a generic page for the time being, no fonts to see, nothing.

Experiences?

Matthew Smith

My foundry is not on Font Spring or Creative Market, however, I did speak with a Creative Market rep a while ago to hear their pitch on why we should join.

From my understanding, the two being separate is entirely intentional for a few reasons, but they may slowly move towards one another over time (but with something as big as CM—that would be a very long time).

For example, on Creative Market, customers can only buy entire font families rather than individual styles. (Admittedly, this may have changed by now). I also think Creative Market has a universal license used for all foundries, which is not the case on Font Spring. To migrate everyone over to Creative Market would likely ruffle a few feathers.

Igor Petrovic

CM enabled purchasing single-family styles a few months ago. But at that point, I already decided to withdraw from there. That's because sales dropped for me during the time to the point that it didn't pay off to adjust the listings to the new functionality. But I guess designers with larger catalogs may benefit, not sure how it is going now.

Earlier CM covered a different market niece with single-style display/decorative and cheap fonts, which paid off for customers even if used just once. That was ideal for me because I earned while learning. And before, you could communicate directly with editors, to feature your new font in articles like "HOT NEW FONTS", "TOP 5 FUTURA ALTERNATIVES" etc.

Over time they increased the fee from 30% to 50%. After their cut, they automatically deduct 30% tax for USA purchases. Maybe some other membership discount, I have never figured out the structure exactly. For cheap fonts like $15, the designer often gets $4 or so at the end. It takes forever to collect $100 that way.

Also, as they grew, the only contact you could get was support who couldn't help you with any promotion arrangement, only with technical issues.

At last, their Desktop license allows unlimited physical copies of the designed material which (as I see it) jeopardizes selling enterprise licenses.

But I also guess that there are designers who still successfully ride the CM wave.

Ray Larabie

Based on my experience, CM manages enterprise license inquiries directly instead of referring customers to FS. This approach has been problematic for me, leading to my decision to withdraw all of my font offerings from my CM store. There were other reasons, but that was a big part of it.