Printable Wall Art....So I'd never heard of this (I live under a rock apparently) and was wondering what peoples thoughts were about it.

[randarrington]

@LauraA Actually I was referring to downloadable prints. Apparently it's a thing on Etsy. The customer buys the file and prints the art themselves. It seems odd and full of possible abuses to me....but who knows.

Thank you for the link to the podcast. I think I've already heard that one (I've been consuming about 12 to 15 episodes a week and I think I have about 25 more to go to complete them all) and I'm pretty sure they don't address the approach to delivering a product.

[von_Nimmermehr]

Hey,
so a former co-worker of me do this and i know she does it because she is lazy.
For me to make or buy print is about quality.

I just made some letterpress print and they just looks so crazy beautiful.
The printer i worked with was so nice and enthusiastic and made an absolute great job!
I love to put thoughts in to it, looking for nice paper and stuff like that. Also the process of packing orders, puting nice free stuff into the package. I just love it. It's personal and i get so much lovely feedback.

How should a downloadable print on cheap paper represent my art in an adequate way?

I follow some sweet illustrators who makes downloadable things like labels and stuff like that. thats Kind of sweet, for jam or gifts or so... but anything else. i don't know.
I would never buy a downloadable print.

I know its a silly thought but a file has no value for me. (Also not a fan oft NFT's)
When its for a job, a File is important, but thats two different things in my head. Does this sound in any way feasible?

I tend to think, peolpe should at least put a little bit of effort into it.
But also im oldfashioned i love to get letters. Also i love the feel of real things where people did put some thought into it, to make it perfect.
I'm not a fan of fast (Fashion) in our case fast illustration = easy money.

[randarrington]

So I came across the idea watching videos on YouTube to be honest and was curious what everyones thoughts were on doing it.

From one angle, I can see it actually be a good thing. You can offer people that are looking for decoration for a kids room the ability to use your artwork at a much reduced price. This would allow people that may not be able to afford art prints the ability to have and enjoy them. This would allow for the artists brand to be shared quickly and easily and hopefully reaching a wider audience. Of course you're right about the quality potentially being a problem....but the image and idea would still come though. It would also protect the artist from committing to the off-set printing. you referred to. I know that off-set and maybe a giclee are certainly the highest quality result but both are really expensive. This could be used as a proof of concept. Offer a small downloadable file that would only work at a limited print size but then offer a limited number prints at a much higher price point for collectors that want a higher quality image and experience with the artist. This allows all of the special interactions with the clients that you mentioned.

I really don't think that my work would ever be used to decorate a kids room so I'm guessing this would certainly not be an option for me. As a business though, I can see merit behind the idea and that it would allow access to your art by everyone. Which I think is a good thing. I think one reason art is so ignored by the masses is that's it developed into something only accessible by the wealthy.

In one of the podcasts, Jay and Lee were discussing printing out their prints which I found really confusing. Do they use an ink printer for this? Does anyone know what they use to create their prints?

Thanks for your thoughts. I love these type of discussions and getting peoples thoughts about them.

Cheers!!!!!

[NessIllustration]

Printables are actually quite popular on sites like Etsy. It's not even really because of the price, it's a convenience thing. You can buy it, print it, and it's ready in 5 minutes after your purchase. Great for last minute gifts. Many of the customers buying them are DIYers who have expensive tools like good printers, Cricut machines, etc. to be able to create a really good print. Some of them also just bring them to their local Costco for printing, either way they don't have to wait for it to ship and arrive possibly all bent and damaged in the post.

On the artist side, it's low effort income because after you've set it up in your shop, it can sell without you having to fulfill orders. I'm a big fan of the digital download product model. I have a digital download shop myself, although it's digital planners and digital planner stickers not printables. But it's really great. It took a bit of doing at first to get it to become popular, but now I can literally do NOTHING (not even a single Instagram post) and my shop brings in a consistent $1000 per month. Once in a while in between projects, I'll add a few products in there and go away again. Like right now, I'm adding a few things and prepping a Black Friday sale. It's lovely and low maintenance.

[randarrington]

@NessIllustration That's actually what the YouTube videos were saying. A truly passive income option for artists to consider.

Thank you so much for your insight and adding your ideas and experience to the discussion!!!! Congratulations on leveraging the option into a nice revenue source.

Cheers!!!

[hakepe]

@NessIllustration I am interested in how you build an audience for your work and also are you selling the printables on etsy or on another platform?

[LauraA]

Oh ok! Now I get what you're talking about! In fact, I only heard of this for the first time last week. I think it could be a good idea, especially for people (myself included) who live overseas from their primary market. Of course, the results will only be as good as the printing, and we can't control that completely, but the ones I saw last week looked pretty good!

[randarrington]

@LauraA I'm sorry I was so vague.....I'm going to blame my lack of sleep and old age LOL!!!!!!

I actually heard about it last week too!!!! I think it has some merit and was just curious what people thought of it and how many actually were producing this type of content.

Thank you for your thoughts and input on the subject!!!!

Have a great day!!!!

[von_Nimmermehr]

I see your points, but still i'm a person loving touching things and also loving to pay for good quality.

I'm a gumpy hating digital to a point person... so like i said i love to get letters and stuff and i also like beeing in control of things, like paper qualitiy, size and stuff.

Since i know a lot of my clients/customers in person, because i tattooed them, i know most of them would never think about anything like that at all. And i dont want my art in any way beeing represented cheap.

So this is the price i pay. i guess it's a choice. I'm not just doing it for the money and i don't care, also i may be a bad business person, but i made this choice.

Since i have so much fun with my shop, designing thank you card, giving free stuff...i think other people like it too and i like to honor it.

But like i said, everebody can make their own choices and it would never cross my mind to judge because it's not what i would do or what i believe it's right (for me).
Because there is no right or wrong.

greetings from Oldfashioned grumpy me

[randarrington]

@von_Nimmermehr LOL!!!! You're not grumpy at all it your perspective and it's a valuable and valid as everyone's. We all have to find our way and decide on what works for us individually. Like I said, I'm not doing this currently....mostly cause I don't have any customers LOL!!!! But I think it's a good idea for people to know all of the options that they may be able to leverage during their career.

Thank you so much for being a part of the discussion. I think these types of conversations are fascinating and helpful for all of us.

Have a great day!!!!!

[NessIllustration]

@randarrington I do have to say, there is no true "passive income". There is low maintenance income, but "passive" strategies still require maintenance. Also, it's a large time investment upfront to set it up and usually takes quite a lot of effort before it takes off. That being said, they're still worth it! Another great thing about digital products is that they're very scalable. Once you've made the product, you can sell it 1 time or you can sell it 10,000 times.

[NessIllustration]

@hakepe I'm not selling printables, I'm selling digital planners and digital planner stickers I sell on Etsy, my shop is https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/thedigitalsiren?ele=shop_open

I'm nearing 3000 sales!

How you find your audience entirely depends on the product, and where the people who want it are. For digital planners, it's a small and tight knit community that hangs out in Facebook groups dedicated to digital planning. So I went there, and got people on a mailing list by offering a freebie. It worked really well so I was able to launch to an audience who was waiting for it and started strong.

Afterwards, because of my sale numbers, my products started getting picked up by the Etsy algorithm and showing up in search. I still use my mailing list a lot (about 1200 people on it), but my products sell a lot just from showing up in search which is the ticket, because that's less effort. But I also set up a system for bringing customers who come from Etsy onto my mailing list as well, it's a whole cycle of life that runs smoothly, but it took a long time to set up!

[randarrington]

@NessIllustration I can see that. I kinda think of "passive" as doing a piece of artwork and figuring out how it can be leveraged to create a revenue stream. You always have to feed the fire . Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge!!!!

[NessIllustration]

@randarrington Yes exactly! That's my favorite way to work I've always had several revenue streams, but up until this year they were all separate and required different art. It was like having 3 full-time jobs! I've completely restructured this year so that instead of creating 3 pieces of art and selling each one once, I can create one piece of art and sell it 3 times This is so much more efficient, and allows me to spend more time on each piece. When setting up revenue streams, it's good to think about how they'll fit in with each other.

[randarrington]

@NessIllustration THAT IS SO AWESOME!!!!!! Congratulations!!!!!! That's honestly such a beautiful thing. I want to be like you when I grow up!!! Thank you so much for sharing!!!!! LOVE IT!!!!!!!

[K.Flagg]

I feel like it really depends on what you are offering. I don't think its a good idea for really detailed fine art. I don't offer digital downloads of my art because #1 yes it could be misused and uploaded on other sites. This happens on Etsy all of the time. #2 I want to control how my art is presented. I want to know that when people are seeing my art that the colors are correct and its presented on nice paper. But I have considered opening a second shop where I just upload a bunch of simple designs that I'm not emotionally attached to, that people can use in whatever way they want because it is a very popular thing now with so many people making their own products for fun at home using fancy printers for tee shirts and stationary, decal/sticker cutters, CNC machines, ect.

[NessIllustration]

@K-Flagg Very true, it doesn't work for everything!

[LouD]

Another option for passive income could be a print-on-demand dropshipping service. When a customer buys a print on your website or Etsy, the order is forwarded to a company who handles all the printing and shipping. You are limited to the paper and sizes they offer but I think it would be more quality control than the customer’s home printer. The printing company charges more per print than if you do it yourself, but you can also charge the customer more than you would for a digital download.
I’m looking in to this option as a step before I invest in products that may never sell. This way, if nobody buys a print, it doesn’t cost me anything. If anyone has used companies like Printful or Printify, I’d love to hear your experience!

[randarrington]

@LouD LOVE IT!!!! I didn't know about that option either!!!!

Thank you so much for sharing that information!!!!!!

[NessIllustration]

@LouD I've used Printful before and liked them. I recommend ordering a couple sample prints so you can check if you like the quality, as well as check their packaging and overall experience. That's what I did, and their matte prints came out really great. They had this velvety texture that was incredible and felt luxurious. My print shop did horribly bad, crashed and burned But I was only out about $40 and a month of my time so it was no big deal, like @LouD said.