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 with Friday comes Friday Favorites. This week we want to make a shout out to Drawing Day 2009, which is tomorrow June 6th, and the celebration of the fabulous weather we have been having here in Seattle!

Drawing Day 2009

Illustrators of the world unite! Tomorrow is Drawing day 2009 so get out your pens and papers (or whatever your preferred medium is) and start drawing. The goal of Drawing Day is to have over one million people upload images that they create on June 6th. At Imagekind we have created a group just for this purpose. Art can be uploaded at any point over the weekend but should be created on June 6th, 2009. To find out more about Drawing Day click here.

Join the Drawing Day 2009 Group Now!

Bring in the Sunshine

Seattle is known as a cold and wet destination, but the last few weeks have been absolutely glorious. We even had a hot weather alert go out this week due to the irregularly hot temperatures. Schools are taking this in stride and there seems to be an abundance of school field trips to anywhere that involves the great outdoors. The office, on the other hand, has been a slightly different story – it is hot and sticky. To help refresh us a bit, I have chosen some great images from Imagekind member artists that celebrate the sunshine and the pleasures of these hot long days.

Have a great weekend!

Eileen

With Imagekind Create you can print and frame your favorite photos – a perfect gift for Mother’s Day! And, with our current free shipping* offer, you can find framed gifts for well under $15.

Send mom your favorite picture framed (or on canvas!) and if you order before May 4, we’ll cover the shipping for you! Just enter promo code MDAY09 at checkout.

Also, don’t forget to visit our special Mother’s Day art collection. We’ve compiled some of our most popular art that is sure to inspire any mom this Mother’s day!

*Type promo code MDAY09 in the promotion box at checkout. Promotion expires May 4, 2009 at 11:59pm PT and cannot be combined with any other promotion code. Limit one order per person. Promotion code must be used at time of checkout to apply. Your order must be placed during the promotional period to qualify for this special pricing offer. Free shipping promo applies to US ground shipping only. Not valid on greeting cards.

With over 50,000 member artists and over 1 million art prints for sale on Imagekind, the choices can be enormous when trying to find just the right high end framed art print you are looking for.

Maybe it’s a painting, of a dog. And you want that dog painting to be in a large size. Enter:

Search Filtering

Now it’s easier than ever to find exactly the art print you want! With Imagekind Search Filtering you can narrow your search by medium, size, subject, genre, and more; even orientation!

Start searching to shop for art.

Search Filtering relies on artists’ categorization of their artwork on Imagekind. Based on the account type, artists can classify their artwork through a series of options; including tags and taxonomy.

So, if you’re an artist selling your artwork on Imagekind, make sure you have the correct taxonomy set for each image. You can find the categorization options in your admin under every image. To learn more about how to set your tags and taxonomy, visit the Imagekind Member Forums.

This is just the first of several improvements we hope to be making to the search feature in the coming months. Check back often and stay tuned as we continue to refine how you shop for art.

Search Filtering is one more way we continue to make Imagekind the best community for buying, selling and creating art.

Happy Searching!

Some of you may have received an email recently informing you about membership renewals. Now it’s simple to renew your membership right from your admin.

We’ve just added a new section in every members’ admin area where you can easily view your current membership level; manually change your account type; and your preferred renewal payment method.

Now it’s easier than ever to change or upgrade your Imagekind membership level!

To view your current account type, and make changes to your preferred payment method, follow these simply steps:

1. Login to your Imagekind account
2. Click the “My Account” link at the top of the page
3. Click the “Membership Level” option in the blue header

Scroll down and you can see what your current membership level is, when your membership renews, and the option to change your preferred renewal payment method.

Using PayPal?

If you are currently setup to renew via PayPal, please be aware that there is no automatic option when using your PayPal account. Therefore, you will need to either provide a valid credit card number, or renew with PayPal manually every time your membership level expires; monthly or yearly, depending on your Imagekind account type.

We love hearing your feedback! Have something to share? Email us via care@imagekind.com. Thank you to everyone who helps make this the best community for buying, selling and creating art.

Read on to hear what artists are saying about Imagekind.

“I will never print with anyone else”

“It has taken me a long time and a lot of money to find a printer that met with my standard of quality at an affordable price. My art has never looked as beautiful as it does when it comes printed from your company.

“My Customers are extremely impressed. I will never print with anyone else. You have a dedicated customer and I recommend you to all of my clients who I work with in the visual arts.”

“A dream come true”

“I have to say, LOVE LOVE LOVE this site and the offering – making delivery of framed giclees to my customers this easy is a dream come true for me – truly.”

“Will surely be using them again!”

“I sent in an order on Sunday night, shipped international priority and they arrived on TUESDAY at 11am in Markham, Ontario Canada!

“So I have come to expect great shipping from Imagekind, but how about the prints?

“GREAT! I was a little worried about both because of the vibrant colours and the heavy contrast in my work, but they nailed it right on.

“One of the things I like best about Imagekind is that when you upload your shot, you do not have to resize or crop, but can print at whatever size your picture actually is.

“I will also say that I am very impressed with the paper selection they offer, up to 8 different kinds for ‘Gallery Prints’

“All in all I am very pleased with my experience and will surely be using them again!”

“All I can say is ‘wow’”

“I am selling prints through Imagekind.com. I know a couple of other artists that use the service and it seems to work well for them. Just to be on the safe side, I ordered a print for proofing. I ordered the least expensive paper and it arrived yesterday in a nice secure tube. All I can say is ‘wow.’ The quality is great, the colors vibrant, and the image is sharp.”

Now it’s easier than ever for SmugMug’s Consumer and Professional Photographers to have their photos printed and framed with the highest quality options out there.

You can read the full online press release here.

This exciting partnership will allow SmugMug’s community to easily print and frame their work, choosing from the widest variety of papers, canvases and framing options available online. We are truly excited and absolutely honored to have been selected to offer our print and framing services to the SmugMug community.

So, why’d they choose us?

Well, as Chris MacAskill, SmugMug’s co-founder said, “Our mantra is ‘Your Photos Look Better Here’, so we had to find a partner whose workmanship and service was unrivaled.” After a long period of testing and comparisons, Imagekind’s quality, selection, and service swept us away.”

We know their community demands the best; and we’re happy to provide it!

If you are a photographer on SmugMug, visit smugmug.imagekind.com and login with your account to discover how you can have Imagekind print and frame your photos on SmugMug.

Read the full press release here: SmugMug and Imagekind Announce Partnership

We’re thrilled to announce the Imagekind Community! Featuring a brand new space for our members to better interact and collaborate with each other. We’re all ready to launch and excited for our thriving artist community to join us!

Connect with artists from around the world in the new Imagekind Community

Our new community space has some amazing new features including: Forums – New and improved forums for members to connect with each other and Imagekind team members. Groups – A place for members who share common artistic interests to discuss and share their work. Favorites and Fans – Discover your favorite Imagekind artists and artwork. Activity Feed – Easily stay up to date with the topics, artists and artwork you care about most. And much, much more!

Along with the exciting launch of our new community, we have also made some impressive improvements to our members’ profile and artwork pages.

• Now displaying up to nine galleries on the profile page!
• A place to easily see an artists most recently uploaded images
• View an artists fans and favorite images on Imagekind

Also…

• An easy way to connect with artists right from their screen name
• New ways to share images with the “clip-it” feature
• Invite an artist to post their images to a group through leaving a comment

Learn more about the Imagekind Community and make sure to read the new Community Guidelines before participating.

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