Giclee: Allpconline Company Blog
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Art shows and giclee printing
I can't emphasize how important art shows are as a source of revenue for original art and giclee prints. I am not talking about shows in galleries (which will be the subject of another post). The kind I will discuss is large shows with tens or hundreds of exhibitors. We have many clients who make a comfortable living attending 20, 30 and more shows a year. The benefits are many: high turnout, a captive audience and the chance to see the competition. Art shows, the good ones, charge an entry fee that can range from $80 to even more than $1,000. There are shows for interior decorators/design that are in very high demand and expensive to enter. What you get is what you pay for: professionals come in the hundreds and they are always looking for artists who fit their style. The seeked after shows may be difficult to enter and often there is a panel that will accept or reject an entry depending on the work submitted when an application is made. Even if you hear that a particular event is filled, make sure you are put on a waiting list; people do cancel. Many shows will accept slides and some even CDs. Some artists will come out of an event with revenues in the thousands. I know of a very talented photographer who grosses over $10,000 on a good day. The other positive is that professionals, such as interior decorators, regularly attend and if you score with one of them, it can become a long lasting and fruitful relationship.
Now the downside: besides the entry fees, there are the costs of owning a booth, travel expenses possibly including hotel stays (although these are often tax deductible expenses - consult your accountant). Also, this is HARD WORK. I want to emphasize this because travel, mounting the booth, staying all day on Saturday and repeating the same routine the next day is taxing. Frequently, the travel can be long and exhausting. If you decide to go this route, the rewards are great: it feels good to see so many people loving your work and displaying their purchased art in homes and offices. Giclee printing is a great avenue in this type of market because it dramatically increases the number of products available for purchase, maintaining quality by printing on fine art papers. An oil painter can reproduce on canvas and even embellish the giclee. Often, it is not necessary to do the art show circuit for many years. If you can build a good customer base over a period of time things will start going on autopilot; your name and art will be known and there hopefully will be a following. On the other hand, I know artists who love to travel cross country during season and make a great living.
You can speak to fellow artists or search on the internet to find art shows. The companies that own and organize them have a web presence and will gladly explain the rules.
Now the downside: besides the entry fees, there are the costs of owning a booth, travel expenses possibly including hotel stays (although these are often tax deductible expenses - consult your accountant). Also, this is HARD WORK. I want to emphasize this because travel, mounting the booth, staying all day on Saturday and repeating the same routine the next day is taxing. Frequently, the travel can be long and exhausting. If you decide to go this route, the rewards are great: it feels good to see so many people loving your work and displaying their purchased art in homes and offices. Giclee printing is a great avenue in this type of market because it dramatically increases the number of products available for purchase, maintaining quality by printing on fine art papers. An oil painter can reproduce on canvas and even embellish the giclee. Often, it is not necessary to do the art show circuit for many years. If you can build a good customer base over a period of time things will start going on autopilot; your name and art will be known and there hopefully will be a following. On the other hand, I know artists who love to travel cross country during season and make a great living.
You can speak to fellow artists or search on the internet to find art shows. The companies that own and organize them have a web presence and will gladly explain the rules.
Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Top 3 positions in major search engines
I am happy to announce our company has achieved top 3 positions in Yahoo! and MSN search for the keyphrase giclee printing. This is in part due to the high number of websites that link to us. Demand for our services has increased exponentially and we are proud of the fact that to this date no client has used the money back guarantee policy stated on our site!
Choosing the right giclee printing studio
As we approach the new year, many of us make resolutions. Ours is simple: to increase our market share and keep providing the same level of service our current clients are accustomed to. This means to keep color standards as high as always and make giclee printing affordable. Too many companies charge outrageous setup fees or, when they do not, make artists sign contracts. Although I can't speak for everyone, I have seen examples where in exchange for a low price on the printing, the giclee studio reserves the right to market and sell some of the giclee art. This can work for somebody but we believe that when it is done the the artist loses control. Where are the prints going? How much are they selling for? What kind of impact in value is there if the number of giclees being sold is too high?
It is better for us to provide the best service we can, the best prices and let our clients control the marketing of their work. We may be losing revenue by doing so but we believe it is in the best interest of artists as well as ours.
We are confident in our pricing and have many references. We even let competitors advertise on this page. After all, we prefer that perspective clients make the most informed decision when hiring a giclee printer.
Allpconline.com
It is better for us to provide the best service we can, the best prices and let our clients control the marketing of their work. We may be losing revenue by doing so but we believe it is in the best interest of artists as well as ours.
We are confident in our pricing and have many references. We even let competitors advertise on this page. After all, we prefer that perspective clients make the most informed decision when hiring a giclee printer.
Allpconline.com
Monday, December 27, 2004
Link to us! Giclee printing
If you are an artist and have an Internet presence, we invite you to send a request to us to add your page to our web directory. All we ask is that you include a link to us. Both sites will benefit from the exchange, We have achieved high traffic due to top 3 positions in Yahoo and MSN search for giclee printing. If you are interested send us an e-mail. Please include site URL, description and the URL location of your link to us. We will include the site once we verify the link on your page. Below we have some (hopefully) useful information about fine art printing.
Sunday, December 26, 2004
What makes a good giclee
I frequently receive requests from people new to giclee who want to try this printing process. They obviously have many questions about what they can expect from the technology. Let's start with the digital file itself: there is absolutely no way to make a great print without a good quality scan or digital capture. You can't expect to receive an 20X30" giclee from a 2 megapixel camera. Also, lighting is important in terms of reproduction. An on camera flash will not do make acceptable copy art. What make a good digital file then? One way we look at a Photoshop file is to analyze the histograms and see if there is any information missing in the highlites or shadows. Once we have acceptable digital information, the next step is to color correct the image to match either a supplied proof or the original art. There is no reason why a giclee shouldn't look identical or very close to an original. The only exception is with colors that are extremely out of gamut, for example a blue that reads 0 0 250. This usually happens with people who create digital work and really push the envelope with RGB colors.
The substrates used for giclee printing must be of the highest quality. There is no shortage of high end manufactures such as Fredrix for canvas or Hanehmule and Arches for watercolor. Inks are also an important factor. There are many secondary market cheaper versions available. For example Epson Ultrachrome inks cost twice as much as some third party versions. You get what you pay for....
I have also seen some companies that print with the direct driver supplied by the printer manufacturer. I wrote a post about RIPs and their importance in creating the best giclee possible. I will also briefly say that a professional grade large format printer such as Colorspan, Epson or Mimaki needs to be used and I will leave it at that..
Finally, possibly the most important component: the human factor. It takes advanced Photoshop skills, a deep knowledge of color and an artistic background. In over 15 years I have never been so lucky to receive or create a file that didn't need some form of color correction. Then again we have very high standards and will not stop until we achieve the best possible match.
The substrates used for giclee printing must be of the highest quality. There is no shortage of high end manufactures such as Fredrix for canvas or Hanehmule and Arches for watercolor. Inks are also an important factor. There are many secondary market cheaper versions available. For example Epson Ultrachrome inks cost twice as much as some third party versions. You get what you pay for....
I have also seen some companies that print with the direct driver supplied by the printer manufacturer. I wrote a post about RIPs and their importance in creating the best giclee possible. I will also briefly say that a professional grade large format printer such as Colorspan, Epson or Mimaki needs to be used and I will leave it at that..
Finally, possibly the most important component: the human factor. It takes advanced Photoshop skills, a deep knowledge of color and an artistic background. In over 15 years I have never been so lucky to receive or create a file that didn't need some form of color correction. Then again we have very high standards and will not stop until we achieve the best possible match.
Friday, December 24, 2004
The importance of giclee
You can call it giclee, jet print, digiprint or any other terms coined by experts and curators; what can't be denied however is that the process has found its way in museums, galleries and auctions. To mention a few, the Tate Gallery, Victoria and Albert Museum, the Museum Of Modern Art (MOMA) as of summer of 2002 carried giclee produced artwork. The number of artists using or having used the process is growing wider: David Hockney, Annie Lebowitz, Roni Horn, Vinca Petersen, Stephen Shore, James Faure-Walker, Catherine Yass, Jim Dine, Sarah Lucas, Uta Barth, John Hilliard, Richard Hamilton, Matt Collishaw, Julian Opie, Catherine Opie, Robert Rauschenberg...the list goes on..
There always will be skeptics and naysayers. Pick up a book of art history and see how photography was received by art critics in the beginning: not well would be an understatement. Critics said it was instant imagery with no effort. Also, the photos could be reproduced in numbers and the medium did not use any paint, pencil or etching...Sounds familiar? Even when black and white became accepted and started to be traded in auctions for high prices, color was lagging behind and not considered serious art. This was until some ground breaking artists defied this belief.
Giclee printing is not for everyone. It takes selleable original art to make selleable giclee art. Fine art photography is bound to become a huge part of the giclee printing market. Film is going away fast (ask Kodak!) and there will not even be much of a choice for photographers in the near future. Giclee printing for photography now accounts for almost half of our output. Once the photographers see the quality, brilliance, resolution of a giclee on canvas or fine art watercolor, the decision is an easy one!
One final thought: pricing. Please check our competitors' pricing and compare. We offer very low cost printing without compromising quality. The company is owner operated and building and equipment are paid for. In other words, our operating costs are very low. We invite you to try us at no risk and see for yourself.
Merry Christmas!
There always will be skeptics and naysayers. Pick up a book of art history and see how photography was received by art critics in the beginning: not well would be an understatement. Critics said it was instant imagery with no effort. Also, the photos could be reproduced in numbers and the medium did not use any paint, pencil or etching...Sounds familiar? Even when black and white became accepted and started to be traded in auctions for high prices, color was lagging behind and not considered serious art. This was until some ground breaking artists defied this belief.
Giclee printing is not for everyone. It takes selleable original art to make selleable giclee art. Fine art photography is bound to become a huge part of the giclee printing market. Film is going away fast (ask Kodak!) and there will not even be much of a choice for photographers in the near future. Giclee printing for photography now accounts for almost half of our output. Once the photographers see the quality, brilliance, resolution of a giclee on canvas or fine art watercolor, the decision is an easy one!
One final thought: pricing. Please check our competitors' pricing and compare. We offer very low cost printing without compromising quality. The company is owner operated and building and equipment are paid for. In other words, our operating costs are very low. We invite you to try us at no risk and see for yourself.
Merry Christmas!
Sunday, December 19, 2004
Giclee Printing: Our Story
I was in LA in 1994 when giclee was a term known by few people. We hear many stories of people who were there and shops that now claim, with their own trademarks, they have the exclusive and best methods. The truth is that very few can claim to have been there when it all began (In Southern California). During the late 80s to early 90s Scitex was selling the Iris printers. The model 3047 is the first machine that had the capability to do true giclee printing. It was both a miracle of technology as well as a nightmare. If you didn't run the darn thing 24/7, it would clog. And clogging it did! I spent many days flushing those nozzles under running water and the next day it would happen again. The prints were excellent but it would take a few tries to get a giclee with no flaws. In 1995, the first archival inks came out with a rating of about 20 years. Before then, Iris was running vegetable inks, great for proofing but not permanent in the least. The papers we were using were uncoated and the results varied. Almost 15 years later life is much easier: better, cheaper printers that cost a fraction of the $100,000 of the 3047 and many premium art papers now coated with primers to better accept the pigmented inks. The truth is that no label, certification or trademark means anything. What it comes down to is the quality of the printing. We don't claim to be better than everybody but we are pretty sure that not many studios have been doing giclee printing as long as our printmakers have. What we ask is to give us a try and judge for yourselves. We have a money back guarantee and many references.
Thursday, December 09, 2004
Choosing the right paper for your giclee
Probably the most asked question by new clients is what substrate they should order for their printing needs. Although there is no right or wrong answer, if your original work is oil on canvas, you may want to stick to canvas. The same goes for watercolor artists. It wouldn't make much sense to put a watercolor image on canvas! This said, there is a market for people who do not want to spend a lot of money on a canvas or watercolor giclee. We have satin papers that are less expensive and provide a good compromise of price vs quality. The artist can display the canvas or watercolor limited editions and provide smaller prints on the satin. I see this all the time at art openings and by catering to different pockets it is possible to maximize profits.
The second issue we hear is about archival properties of each papers. I was on the phone with a new client a few days ago trying to convince him that the satin paper, although not acid free, is very lasting. I have a piece that has been carried to shows indoors and outdoors, exposed to sunlight for hours, had condensation on it and still do not see any changes after 2 years! Other papers we carry, such as the watercolor line, are truly acid free and they will last over 75 years. What we know about archival testing right now is mostly due to accelerated tests. Prints and film are exposed to massive quantities of light (ie UV), humidity and gases to provide an indicator of longevity. After all, nobody can wait for 75 years to see if their watercolor media will yellow or not!
The second issue we hear is about archival properties of each papers. I was on the phone with a new client a few days ago trying to convince him that the satin paper, although not acid free, is very lasting. I have a piece that has been carried to shows indoors and outdoors, exposed to sunlight for hours, had condensation on it and still do not see any changes after 2 years! Other papers we carry, such as the watercolor line, are truly acid free and they will last over 75 years. What we know about archival testing right now is mostly due to accelerated tests. Prints and film are exposed to massive quantities of light (ie UV), humidity and gases to provide an indicator of longevity. After all, nobody can wait for 75 years to see if their watercolor media will yellow or not!
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Using a RIP for giclee printing
Whether you are looking to hire us to print your giclee or you decide to go in house, make sure Raster Image Processing (RIP)is used. A RIP is software designed to interface with the printer at a level not possible by just using the manufacturer's drivers. The advantages of using a RIP are many; you can print multiple images on a sheet of roll of media by positioning them in the RIP layout. This factor alone saves tremendous amount of money in paper. Second, some RIPs use proprietary ICC profiles that tend to give better tonal rendition than direct printer drivers. Also, color, gain and other adjustments can be precisely applied through the RIP. As this type of software is updated, new features are added, such as precise commands to be able to print an image in neutral black and white with some colorized areas. Another great feature of a RIP is the ability to simulate press colors by profiling the proofer and the press output. Any professional grade shop, whether it is in the giclee printing or pre-press business uses RIPs. Raster processing software does not come cheap. For a large format printer it will cost a few thousands dollars. Believe me, it is worth every penny!
