A few years ago, we brought 10 Amazing Artists’ Storefronts to your attention. We’ve decided to do that again! Storefronts are a wonderful way to showcase your artwork and are available to our Pro and Platinum Members. Take a look at these eye-catching designs from your fellow artists. We hope their efforts will inspire you to enhance an existing storefront or to upgrade your membership and create a new one!

It’s no secret, we’re big fans of Facebook. We believe it’s an excellent way for artists of all stripes to promote their art online. Artists can build a fan base from Facebook users opening up a world of possibilities not available even a few short years ago.

That’s why we’re happy to announce today that platinum level Imagekind artists can now get their own art shop setup on Facebook for free!

We’ve teamed up with Wishpot – the best free online wishlist – to provide our artists their own Imagekind Facebook art shop.

It’s super simple to get setup with your own Facebook storefront. Simply click this link and follow the steps.

Sign up here!

Please note, If you’re a new member, or just updated to the platinum level, please know it will take a day for your products to be available through WishPot. Additionally, once you do sign up, it can take up to 24 hours for your products to show.

The Imagekind Facebook shop is currently only available to platinum level artists. If you’re not a platinum level artist, you can upgrade your account here. If you’re not yet an Imagekind artist, sign up here.

Update: It appears some members are confused when asked to enter their Imagekind screenname. Your Imagekind screenname is your user name on Imagekind and can be found by going to your Imagekind profile page. Your screen name is listed directly under your full name where it says “Screen Name:”. Please make sure to enter your Imagekind screen name correctly, or your feed will not show up.

Update 2: If an image is marked as “mature content” on Imagekind, it will not show in your Wishpot store, nor on Facebook.

**Need help? Check out our forum discussion! Also, read the FAQ’s

How to Setup your Imagekind Facebook Storefront

Sign Up

Click this link to set up a Wishpot account. Sign up and complete the Wishpot login wizard.

Upload your Imagekind feed

Upload your artwork on Imagekind by entering your Imagekind screen name in the box.

Your Collections

Wishpot will automatically create collections for each of your Imagekind galleries. (Note, to make any permanent changes to your collections, they must be made on Imagekind). Once your feed is uploaded the first time, Wishpot automatically updates your feed several times a week.

Customize your Profile

You can fully customize the look and feel of your Wishpot Profile which will be your FB shop tab. Click customize in the right hand corner of your banner. You can upload a single image and/or choose a color scheme. You can also choose what you’d like visible on your profile banner: Account Settings>Storefront Appearance (Note the banner dimensions on your FB are 748×205 pixels while on Wishpot they are 1012×205 pixels)

Connect to Facebook and enable your shop tab

Once your Wishpot profile is ready, connect your Wishpot profile to your Facebook Fan Page. To do this you need to log in with FB connect and install the Wishpot Facebook application. (You also need to be an admin for your Fan Page) In Wishpot go to Account Settings>Social Networks and connect to Facebook. .

To install the Wishpot Facebook Application click this link (Note that Facebook does not enable tabs by default, so make sure to click on the plus sign in the tab bar on the Fan Page and select ‘Shop.’)

Connect auto-posting features on Twitter and Facebook

Once your Wishpot profile is ready, connect your product feed to your Twitter feed and FB Fan Page status updates. Select the frequency and the text you’d like to use. Wishpot’s auto-posting features save you time and can be fully customized to reflect your audience and brand. You can connect your auto-posting features here: Account Settings> Social Networks

You’re done!

At this point your social networking shop is live. Wishpot will automatically spotlight new items you add to your feed, and any items that drop in price. We also make it easy for visitors to click the share button and post your product to their wall and newsfeed. We recommend that you let your fans know they can now find your Imagekind collections on your social networks. For additional assistance feel free to reach out to us feedback@wishpot.com, @wishpot, @gift_girl, facebook.com/wishpot

For more information and screen shots, you can download the get started guide we put together by clicking here.

Be Selective

While it may seem good to give your customers the largest array of choices possible, narrowing your selection will actually work to your advantage. Customers want an easy, effortless purchase – make the choices for them! Keep your work on a theme, and pick only your very best images to show.

Group Accordingly

When choosing work for your galleries, take time to showcase your very best work. Go through all your art work, and group your images together by a theme. It could be by time period (by month or year), by medium (photography, watercolors) or theme (flowers, portraits, etc). Be sure to choose a grouping that makes sense visually as well and name your galleries according to how you’ve chosen to group your images.

Thoughtfully Arrange Your Images

Take care when organizing your images, so you can showcase your work most effectively. Move a few of your most striking images to the front of your gallery so your buyers can see them first. Organize the images so that complimentary images are next to each other. As a final touch, choose an image as your gallery cover that has a lot of impact, and that accurately describes the contents of your gallery.

Refresh your Selection

Be sure to keep adding new work! Shoppers like to see what’s new and what you’ve been working on. So, add new images often to keep people coming back to see more!

Cutout the Distractions

Premium members can open their own, customizable storefront that features their art, and their art only. This way, your shoppers can focus on your art and not be distracted by other member’s artwork. If you are not a premium member already, upgrade your account now to open your own online art store!

Friday Favorites are my weekly wrap-up of the cool happenings going on around Imagekind over the past week. This week saw some very exciting things including the addition of one of the most prolific American turn-of-the-century cartoonists, Zim Zimmerman. Also, one of our member artists posted a great review about Imagekind on our blog that I have to share! Lastly, make sure to check out the latest updates to Imagekind.

Zim Zimmerman Cartoons on Imagekind

Eugene “Zim” Zimmerman was one of the most prolific turn-of-the-century American cartoonists. Who has, however, been since largely forgotten. Founder of what is known as the “grotesque” style of caricature for his use of overly exaggerated facial and bodily characteristics in his subjects.

A Truce, or How Two Wrongs Made A Right by ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

With over 40,000 illustrations published in his lifetime, Zim’s body of work were often political in nature, highlighting the “melting pot” of American culture and ethnic minorities in the early part of the century. Though many might appear as politically incorrect in our time, the cartoons provide a historical look and critique of American culture during his. Immigrating to the US from Switzerland in 1869 at the age of seven, you can imagine Zim was all too familiar with the struggles immigrants and minorities often faced at the turn of the century.

Good Poker Hands, or Fooling the Talent by ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

Most prints were originally featured in the two top humor magazines of their day: Puck and Judge magazines. Now, in conjunction with Imagekind, ASIF-Hollywood Animation Archive has provided a collection of Zim’s cartoons for sale as high-quality framed art prints.

Presence of Mind by ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

Imagekind Review

After ordering one of his prints one of our member artists, Rubens LP, provided a fantastic review of Imagekind on his blog. He even includes pictures! You can see the full review on his blog here. Rubens LP’s conclusion? “WOW!!! Nice surprise… Very impressive.”

Thanks Rubens! I am a total fan of his work so it was especially great to hear he is a fan of Imagekind!

Imagekind Review Print: Smoke by Rubens LP

We love hearing reviews about Imagekind. If you have one yourself on your own blog, send it along! It’s like my birthday when I hear how excited people are to receive their artwork.

More Updates

We’re always updating. This week brings two! First, we released an oft-requested feature: the ability to add images in forum posts. Second, we’ve included the “AddThis” button in Imagekind Storefronts to easily share images found in an artists Storefront with your community around the web. This way, visitors can share artwork for sale on Imagekind to sites like DIGG, Facebook, Twitter and more.  It’s an opt-in feature so you can control if you want your images shared or not.

You can read all the details on the updates in the forum, here.

It’s ok, don’t panic! We are undergoing some routine, scheduled site maintenance and hope to have the site back up and back to normal shortly.  Hang tight and we’ll be sure to serve you up some better-than-awesome artwork again real soon.

In the meantime, how about connecting with Imagekind on Facebook and Twitter?

Or, look at this; it’s funny:

Disco Elephant by John Lund

I mean, come on! It’s an elephant at a disco! How can that not be funny?

Ok, if that’s not quite your style, maybe you’ll want to check out some of these popular blog posts to quench your art-lovin’ appetite:

• 25 Amazing Typography and Poster Artists on Imagekind
• 10+ Excellent Art and Photography Tutorial Sites
• Major Updates: Unlimited Uploads, Custom Storefronts, and More!
• 31 Amazing Photo Manipulation Artists on Imagekind
• Imagekind Artist Interviews
• Imagekind Friday Favorites

Or, if you’d rather just make some art, visit jacksonpollock.org. Who knows, you might be the next splatter-paint-art-master who starts a whole new trend that really takes off in the 80′s.

If none of those suite your fancy, how about just watching this funny video:

It’s Friday! And on Fridays, I share some of my Friday Favorites. This week, Imagekind artist Rob Dobi released 9 new killer designs in his fullbleed 9 series. You can buy fullbleed series 9 prints right from Rob’s fullbleed Imagekind Storefront.  Check it out!

fullbleed Series 9

Rob Dobi, premier artist and t-shirt designer whose client list includes notables such as Warner Brothers, Urban Outfitters, Atlantic Records and many more, released his newest series of fullbleed designs on Monday July 27. His loyal fan base continues to grow with each new ironic illustration and compelling conceptual design he releases; propelling him to become one of the most popular independent designers around. In addition to “[drawing] pictures and [making] t-shirts” he’s also a really good photographer.

You can see all fullbleed series 9 prints in Rob’s fullbleed Imagekind store. Also below. For fullbleed t-shirts, check out fullbleed.org for more info.

Mind the Gap - Fullbleed 9 by Rob Dobi

Color Theory - Fullbleed 9 by Rob Dobi

Shoot for the Moon - Fullbleed 9 by Rob Dobi

Disasterpiece - Fullbleed 9 by Rob Dobi

Time Flies - Fullbleed 9 by Rob Dobi

Nail in the Coffin - Fullbleed 9 by Rob Dobi

Curtain Call - Fullbleed 9 by Rob Dobi

Art is Hard - Fullbleed 9 by Rob Dobi

Vicious Cycle - Fullbleed 9 by Rob Dobi

Friday is here again! And on Fridays, I share some of my Friday Favorites. This week I wanted to take some time and highlight some of our amazing member artists taking full advantage of their Imagekind Storefronts. Also, member artist John Kraft just announced the release of his new children’s book featuring artwork for sale right in his Imagekind gallery!

10 Amazing Imagekind Artists’ Storefronts

With the recent launch of Imagekind Storefronts a few weeks ago we have seen some truly amazing artists take advantage of the customizing features. Customizing your Imagekind Storefront can help make it more personal and showcase your artwork, your way. There are so many different customization options available and each of the below has set theirs up a little differently than the rest.

Take a look at 10 of the top Imagekind Artists’ Storefronts.

John Kraft Releases New Children’s Book “The Little Lost Boat”

Imagekind artist John Kraft has been busy the past several months creating his first ever children’s book, The Little Lost Boat. John just released the book for sale this week and you can order a copy from his website. In addition to writing the book, he also did all of the artwork and illustrations included. It is really cool to see the level of creativity Imagekind artists have.

John has made some of the artwork and illustrations included in the book for sale as framed artwork on Imagekind. Stop on by his gallery where you can purchase artwork from the Little Lost Boat!

Also, if you love John’s work as much as we do, be sure to visit the Facebook Fan page he created for the book here. And check out the really cool video that features some of the artwork in the book. Take a look!

Friday is here again! And on Fridays, I share some of my Friday Favorites. There have been some great things happening around the site including some very useful updates and a special Summer Sale! Also, several of our members’ artwork was featured in one of the leading photography blogs! Check out all the sweet happenings below!

Forum Improvements

Yesterday, we rolled out some improvements to the forums which now allow you to keep up with your watched and group discussions much easier. We’ve added two new tabs to make it easier for you to stay up to date with the conversations in the Community that matter to you most. Check out the forum, to see the new tabs in action!

More Updates to Storefronts

At the beginning of the week we released some more updates to the Imagekind Storefronts that make it even easier to customize. With the new updates, you don’t need to know any CSS to change the colors of your Storefront, simply select the color of your choice from the color options. There are tons of options available, so you can really make your Imagekind Storefront truly customized.

We’ve also made it easier for shoppers to find your Storefront through the drop down menu listed next to your screen name. You can read about these and other updates in the announcement post.

Imagekind Summer Sale!

Love the sun? Celebrate summer with 20% off custom framing at Imagekind! Simply use promo code IKSummer09 at checkout to automatically take 20% off the frame when you choose to custom frame it. But hurry, because the promotion expires Monday, July 20 at Midnight PST. You can find all the details about this promotion here.

If you’re an artist on Imagekind, be sure to pass the promotion along to your shoppers! You can easily copy and paste the image URL to your website, blog, or (better yet!) your Storefront! That way, your shoppers can take advantage of this special summer sale too. Also, don’t forget to share it with your followers on Twitter and Facebook!

Featured on DPS

Desperation by Josh Sommers

Like a braggart parent, I am always looking for ways to show of our amazing member artists around the web. This week Darren over at Digital Photography School, was cool enough to let me show off some of our incredible Photo Manipulation Artists. If you’ve never heard of the Digital Photography School, you definitely need to check it out. There are all kinds of tips and resources shared to help improve your digital photography techniques. Stay tuned though, as you might see more incredible Imagekind artists showing up there in the coming months!

With the release of Imagekind Storefronts, Portfolio Manager and more last week, we have seen some truly amazing customization from a variety of artists. It’s really cool to see how various artists customize and use features differently. We’ve noticed some artists go for limited customization, sticking close to the defaults, while others seem to change the look of the whole thing. Because we give artists the control of their Storefront, we are excited to see the different varieties. But, with our newest release…

Customization just got a lot easier

We have just released a new set of upgrades for the Imagekind Storefronts which are sure to make customization even easier. Now, even if you don’t know CSS, you can customize just about the entire look of your Storefront. Some of the features in this release include:

Customize Page Body & Surrounding Background

Don’t know CSS? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered! Changing the CSS of your Imagekind Storefront can be daunting. That’s why we’ve made it easy to skip the technical stuff and get right to the customization. In this update, you can now customize both the page body and surrounding background of your Storefront. Just go to the Options tab in your Storefront admin.

Hide Header Text

If you’ve uploaded your own header image, we have now provided an option for you to disable the header text. This way, the text will not display on your Storefront behind the header image. If you want to hide the header text, simply go the Options tab and click the box next to “Hide store name” under the “Page Header” section. If you do choose to hide the header text, make sure you still fill out the information under the “Name your Storefront” section. This will help ensure you get found in search engines, which will help increase your sales!

Dual CSS Views

For those who do want to continue modifying the CSS of their Storefront, we have now made it much easier with dual CSS views. Now, when you choose to edit the CSS, we provide two screens. One shows your current CSS configuration. The other shows the current default CSS version. We have realized that new features and bug fixes will cause changes in the default CSS which will not be picked up by those who have saved a modified version of the CSS. To make it easier to deal with this future issue, we are now including within the CSS files, a clearly visible tag at the beginning of the file. We also mark every line change from version to version with a specific tag and will add new CSS properties in new, marked sections at the bottom of the CSS files. We have also added an experimental highlighting of line changes from the original launch version, which should make it easier to find lines with CSS changes, which might be different from the saved (edited) version.

Preview Improvements

To make it easier to modify your store without exposing your construction mess, you can now pause your storefront and the preview will still work. We have also fixed a number of issues with the previews including the ability to see modified CSS.

Artist Drop-Down

In addition to the various customization updates we’ve made, we are also releasing an easy-to-access link to any artists” Storefront, right from their drop-down list. You can access the “Shop My Store”  link by clicking on the artist’s screenname where available.

Various Bug Fixes

We have also taken care of most of the bug that typically accompany a release of this magnitude. If you encounter others that we are not aware of, please do let us know in the bug section of the forum. We will be sure to address it as quickly as we can.

Thank you to everyone for the great feedback and support as we continue to bring more options to our artist community of buying, selling, and creating art.

Friday is here again! And on Fridays, I share some of my Friday Favorites. Check out this week’s and you’ll see Imagekind seemingly pop up all over the place. From Smashing Magazine, to AOL Home and even USA Today. Also, don’t forget that today we celebrate a very special holiday in honor of one of my favorite foods animals; the delicious mighty cow. And if you missed the big announcement about Imagekind, make sure to catch it below.

AOL Home

Ah, AOL. It brings me back to my first forays on the internet. Anyway, AOL Home’s blog ShelterPop gets it exactly right in their blog post of 5 Sites for Affordable Art. Check out what they say about us below. We are super stoked for the inclusion!

Smashing Magazine

I love Smashing Magazine. And no, not just because they mentioned us in their 35 Beautiful Photography Websites, but because they are constantly posting super helpful and relevant content. They really live up to their motto to “Smash you with the information that will make your life easier. Really.” We are totally thrilled, and humbled really, to be listed among such amazing photographers as a place where they can sell their artwork online. We are glad we have built a reputation that supports such fantastic artists. Thanks Smashing Magazine!

USA Today

I wanted to give a quick and big congratulations to our own Rajesh Srinivasan for taking second place(!) in USA Today’s Picture America Contest. Well done Rajesh! You can see and purchase his winning image right in his Imagekind gallery.

Rainbow Passage by Rajesh Srinivasan

Cow Appreciation Day

I love beef cows. But today might just be one of those days when I put down the cow, and trade it for it’s feathery counterpart. Today, July 10, is Chick-fil-A’s 5th Annual Cow Appreciation day. The deal is, if you dress like a cow and go into any Chick-fil-A’s restaurant, you will get free chicken meal. So what’s this got to do with Art and/or Imagekind? HA! Very little… But to show our support of one of America’s best-loved animals, I thought I’d give them their day in the sun and feature some inspiring cow art on Imagekind! Heck, we have a whole homepage dedicated to them.

Holy cow! I was just told about this: The Cow Appreciation Day photo contest. I love it! If you submit a photo, upload it to Imagekind too! And please show me!

Major Updates to Imagekind

We hope you didn’t miss our big announcement this week. But if you did, no worries, I’ve got you covered. I mean, you could just scroll down a bit and see it on the blog yourself, but if that requires to much time and/or effort, here is the quick version:

1. We’ve removed the upload limitations and implemented unlimited uploads.
2. Premium Members can now create their own customizable Storefront.
3. We also unveiled our new Portfolio Manager to help batch-edit your galleries.

Need more details on the features? Check the actual announcement.