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.

Announcing a host of new features for artists at Imagekind!

Empowering artists to sell their artwork, their way, online, has been our passion from day one. For the past three years, we’ve focused on building one  community for buying, selling and creating art. That’s why we are more than excited to announce today our newest features for artists selling their artwork through Imagekind.

Alright, here’s the low-down on all the amazing features just released:

1. We’ve removed the upload limitations and implemented unlimited uploads – no matter the account level.
2. Premium Members can now create their very own completely customizable Storefront.
3. That’s right, there’s more. We’re also unveiling our new Portfolio Manager to help batch-edit your galleries.

Need more details on the features? Keep reading!

Portfolio Manager & Image Upload Limits

• Unlimited uploads for all members
• Up to 3 galleries for free members
• Manage all your galleries and images in the new Portfolio Manger
• Select a single image, a gallery or any number of images and edit them all at once
• Use drag-and-drop to change the order of your images and galleries
• Move images easily from one gallery to another
• Add tags, subjects, genres, medium and décor across multiple images at a time
• Set default frame and canvas selections for multiple images at a time

Storefronts (For Premium Members Only)

• Your own customizable storefront, with an easy to remember URL
• Choose from a selection of themes, and personalize it to match your style
• Easy to manage and update – change your storefront as often as you like
• Add, remove and customize pages in your storefront
• Pick the galleries you want available in your storefront, and keep more available in the marketplace
• Edit the CSS of your storefront to make it look exactly the way you want
• Track visits to your storefront using Google Analytics
• Make money by selling ads with your own Google Adsense (or keep it clean and ad-free)
• Collect your shoppers’ email addresses with mailing list sign-ups

Changes to Member Benefits

• Unlimited uploads for everybody
• Up to 250 galleries for Platinum Members, 100 galleries for Pro Members and 3 galleries for Free Members
• Premium Members get fully customizable storefronts
• Framing Commissions: 15% for Platinum, 10 % for Pro and 5% for Free Member accounts

Best of all? We’re still not done… Rest assured this is just the begining of our continued mission of empowering artists to create, discuss, share and sell their artwork their way!

##

Make sure to login to your Imagekind account and check out all the features. Including the new Portfolio Manager and Storefront. Want your own customizable Storefront? Upgrade your Imagekind membership!

We are extremely excited to start offering a very unique service for pets around the world: the ability to sell their artwork on Imagekind!

It’s truly a revolutionary service. In our weekly team meeting a few weeks ago, we were discussing how we can continue to make Imagekind the best community to buy, sell and create art. That’s when the inspiration hit us. And frankly, we couldn’t figure out why we hadn’t thought of it earlier!

The influx of human-like pet behavior over the past few years astonishes us all. Just look at that crazy dog who rides a skateboard turned advertising celebrity. Even Martha Stewart’s dogs have their own blog!

Pets have chosen artwork as their means of expression for years, but have gone largely unrecognized as providing a viable artistic service. This was due, in large part, to their inability to earn representation by any major gallery or museum.

Sunflower Seed by Sr. Bonito Pajaro

Enter Imagekind

At Imagekind, artists of all stripes can to sell their art at their price. We give artists control over their work and realize that pets who create art are no different!

Take for example Sr. Bonito Pajaro who, prior to Imagekind, found it impossible to gain recognition through the visual arts:

Although Sr. Pajaro is most well known for his artistic expressions through the medium of interpretative dance, he has been dabbling in the visual arts lately as a means to broaden his creative range and encounter the world in which he lives in a vibrant new way. His subject matter is often highly political in nature, and deals with themes of social injustice, racial inequality, and seed foraging. He is very active in the ASPC (American Society for the Prevention of Cats), and has donated many hours of his time, as well as original pieces of artwork to that cause. Please enjoy viewing Sr. Pajaro’s work here at Imagekind, and he hopes you will consider purchasing some for your home.

Scream! by El Sabado

Now, whether it’s the cats that paint, birds that display their business in artful ways, the elephant who paints his self portrait, or dogs with cameras on their collars, they can all sell their artwork on Imagekind.

Pets hold a special place in all of our hearts, and knowing that they have not been able to sell their creative expressions is devastating to us at Imagekind. That’s why we’ve established the special Pet Sales Program to offer exclusive Pet Accounts!

FredPortrait by Fred Shrimp

Pets can now setup their own account on Imagekind and start selling their works of art! Have questions about the Pet Sales Program on Imagekind?

Read the full FAQ’s here.

Also, make sure to visit some of the featured pets selling their artwork on Imagekind:

scooter.imagekind.com
fredtheshrimp.imagekind.com
SrBonitoPajaro.imagekind.com
fenway.imagekind.com
crook.imagekind.com
saturday.imagekind.com

Have photos or video of your pets creating art? Let’s see them!

Paw by Mister Crook