CafePress sent over some sweet gifts today as a way to welcome us to the team. They are cool boxes with a tile insert including both our logos.
We are all really excited to join forces with CafePress and look forward to the all the future opportunities to leverage the strengths and resources of both companies as we continue to grow.
Thanks CP!
- Nate
Note: this in no way represents the entire Imagekind team.
Imagekind is happy to announce an exciting collaboration with Debra Gould, the Staging Diva, creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program. With this strategic cooperation, Home Stagers are now able to find art quickly and easily when decorating their clients’ homes for sale. Prior to offering artwork from Imagekind, Home Stagers had few options when trying to outfit a home with specific and appropriate artwork. However, as Debra explains,
Finding appropriate art that will enhance the home without taking over and getting it in the size and framing needed has been challenging until now. I created the Staging Diva Home Staging Art Shop to make this easier and I’ve created specific art galleries for every key room in the house. So you don’t have to wonder if a particular work of art is more appropriate for a master bedroom or dining room for example.
Offering artwork from the Imagekind community for the Staging Diva network creates a valuable resource for professional fulfillment on-demand, and is another addition to our continued pursuit of building the best community for buying, selling and creating art.
About The Staging Diva:
Debra Gould, creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program, has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate, including seven of her own homes. Debra is the President of Six Elements which offers Home Staging, Interior Redesign and Color Consulting services, as well as the StagingDiva.com website.
Gould has gained international recognition and has been featured in major media in the US and Canada including: HGTV, CNN Money, CBC National News, CBS Radio, GlobalTV, CityTV, The Wall Street Journal, Woman’s Day, Reader’s Digest and more.
You can read more about this collaboration from Debra Gould on her blog, The Business of Home Staging.
Joe Barrouk, the founder of A Singular Creation, shares his insights into why he does, what he does. He is passionate about art and providing tools, resources and a community to share those with others. A Singular Creation includes a place for “art contests and competitions, call for entries, juried art exhibitions, art events, art workshops and classes, art shows, fairs and festivals and other opportunities for artists and photographers. We also have several options for artists, galleries and art businesses to submit an art related announcement of any kind.” Continue reading to see what drives Joe and A Singular Creation to keep going.
Image: Dawn of the Trees by Carmen Cordelia
http://ccordelia.imagekind.com
Why do you do this? Because I love art. That is the reason. Many people ask why I do what I do – why I spend so much time building a free site for artists with no plans of ever charging any fees. I tell them I do it because I can. I do it because someone should, because it needs to be done. Some other art sites out there ask me: Well how do you make money? My answer is: I don’t. This site is not about making money. It’s about building a community where artists can collaborate with other artists, get advice, learn, show their art, find opportunities, have fun and get to know other artists. That’s it. No strings. Don’t you wish everything could be that simple?
Natasha Wescoat, one of our top selling artists, has recently contributed a few very interesting articles to the EBSQ blog. I found them particularly insightful and knew they were worth sharing as soon as I finished reading them. I especially like her DIY and whatever-it-takes attitude.
Image: Just Waking III by Natasha Wescoat
http://natashawescoat.imagekind.com
In Creating Your Success: Online Self-Publishing, Natasha says, “Being successful doesn’t mean it must be determined through traditional channels. Media moguls are cutting college to develop their successful technology, artists are fending off traditional education in favor of self education, and writers are finding they don’t have to go through publishers to follow their dreams.” I like her attitude and perception! I am glad to read how she has been able to successfully leverage all the resources available to artists to show and sell their work.
Image: Crystal Breezes by Natasha Wescoat
http://natashawescoat.imagekind.com
Check out both articles on EBSQ’s blog: Creating Your Success: Online Self-Publishing and Using Flickr To Market Your Art
I am excited to see how all of our amazing artistic collaborations are coming together! Not only does Imagekind have a great relationship with EBSQ but also a fantastic partnership with Flickr, one of the top photo sharing sites. It is fascinating to see how the artistic web continues to grow and spread!
Take a look at Natasha Wescoat’s art at Imagekind. Her whimsical trees are simply captivating and you can now purchase her art as greeting cards.
Barbara Trentalange is a multi talented artist. On October 24, she traveled the country performing original songs of which she teamed up with fine artists from around the US including painters, photographers, mixed media artists and illustrators. Barbara recruited these highly talented artists to create art inspired by one of the twelve songs she would perform during her tour.
Each of the artists donated their artwork to be showcased as a backdrop while Barbara performed the song. In addition, each of the original pieces was auctioned off at the end of the tour, on November 24. Half of the proceeds of each auctioned painting went directly to Powerful Voices; a Seattle based non-profit organization dedicated to helping young girls discover their own unique power and potential.
You can see all the prints available and read more about the tour and auction here, at Barbara’s Imagekind Gallery.
Today we announced an agreement with Snapfish by HP to provide framing services for Snapfish’s more than 40 million members. 
With a few simple clicks, Snapfish users can now order high quality framed prints, choosing from our full variety of fine art papers, frames sizes and styles, including tabletops, collage frames, photo frames, and custom frames. We’re thrilled to announce this agreement with Snapfish which expands our online presence to the millions of Snapfish members.
Imagekind has always focused on being the best online service for 3 different users: shoppers looking for a variety of unique fine art and decor framing options; artists selling fine art prints in an open marketplace and using print on demand for their own fulfillment; and individuals looking to create high quality framed prints from their digital images with ease of use and budget in mind.
We have made great strides over the last year in bringing valuable services online in for each of these users. This latest partnership provides individuals with another great option for using their hosted images to create lasting works of art, whatever the subject! We look forward to making equally great progress for all Imagekind services in the near future - so here’s to that, and welcome to all our new members from Snapfish!
EBSQart.com is a wonderful online association for self-representing artists. They’ve been around longer than most online artist communities, and a partner of Imagekind since some of our earliest days. They are passionate about empowering artists, and it shows. EBSQ members that have also joined the Imagekind community we have found to be seriously passionate about their work, and serious about marketing it to the public independently.
So, we thought it was high-time we focused on some of those artists in our Featured Member spots on the Imagekind homepage. We’ve highlighted three EBSQ members whose work stands out to us, but it wasn’t easy amongst so many talented artists. It’s definitely worth your while to browse the whole collection - you can do so by searching for EBSQ, or checking out images specifically tagged as EBSQ.
The three members will stay featured on the homepage for a week, and you’ll also find a smattering of EBSQ artists showing up as our Daily Featured Member on the homepage, starting today with Lisa Whittaker!
EBSQ membership is open - they welcome artists at all stages of their career, of all media and styles. Imagekind has specials and discounts exclusive to EBSQ artists. For more information head on over to EBSQ and join up!
Imagekind is happy to announce we’ve partnered with Flickr to add another great way for Flickr members to do stuff with their photos using the Flickr API.
Flickr photographers can now go to Imagekind and easily produce framed prints of their Flickr photos, and set up their own stores to sell their work to their adoring fans.
You might have seen our handiwork at Flickr’s recent birthday party, which gives you a good idea of the kind of quality and size we’re talking about!
Create Your Own Masterpiece
Flickr members can now easily create any Imagekind product, from framed fine art prints, to beautiful prints on canvas, and even our newest framed products (see below), from any image in their Flickr Photoset – without any re-uploading!
Sell Your Photos
Any Flickr member can easily set up an Imagekind account to start selling their work right away, and directly import their images from their Flickr photoset! These members will get the same great options and on-demand service as every Imagekind member:
* Great quality prints and framing – reliable on-demand service
* You control the pricing and markup, and you keep all of your profit
* Additional 15% commission on sales of mat and framing options with your art
* Joining a thriving marketplace that is redefining how people worldwide buy art online
Any existing Imagekind member can now also effortlessly import images from their Flickr photo sets directly into their Imagekind galleries – right from your Imagekind member admin.
In addition, we’ve been working hard to implement a few new product offerings, continuing to provide more and more options for anyone creating or buying art.
Launching New Products: Ready-Made & Multi-Opening Frames
More ways to show off your art! Don’t want to spend a fortune framing your prints? Ready-Made Frames to the rescue! Ready-made frames come in fixed standard dimensions, but you will still be able to choose your mat and frame style.
Plus, you can now you can even frame multiple images at one time! With our Multi-opening frames you can select the images, determine the number of openings, and choose how you want them arranged. To find out more about these new offerings, take a look at our Ready-made page.
One important note; these options are not currently available for work being purchased from an Imagekind gallery by the shopping public. We have a few kinks to work out regarding how to allow more pricing control for images going into these ready-made products, as we’re sure many of our artists would like to set different markups for their work when used in these frames.
However, any Imagekind member can create these items themselves for their own use or for resale, from any image in their Imagekind galleries or Flickr photosets, at our wholesale or “base†cost.
As always, we’d love your feedback on all of these new developments, so feel free to post away here, or join us on the Imagekind Forum. Our members and their original art are what make this endeavor really special – so thanks for all your support while we’ve been busy, and welcome to all our new Flickr friends!
Imagekind has partnered with the boutique stock agency Picturesque to add a premier collection of travel and tourism imagery to our galleries. The compilation is comprised of individual artists who focus on destinations and points of interest, creating dazzling works that exude the true atmosphere of these unique surroundings.
Picturesque is one of the oldest stock agencies of its kind, and we are very happy to include them as the first bunch of represented artists added as a group to Imagekind. If you are managing a collection that you would like to see selling in our galleries this way, please feel free to get in touch.
You can browse and shop all the Picturesque artists starting here.
Steven McBrideÂ
Charles Register
Cathy Church
Most of our members know that we’re usually pretty good about developing new features very quickly. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been in development to support a new line of products and some new partnerships. Once those requirements are met we’ll get back to meeting some of the new features that have been suggested by our members. Some of the new products coming out of this partnership work is a new line of lower cost framing products which I’m excited to tell you more about a bit later. We DID finally release our new shopping cart this week although most of our upcoming features on the site will focus community features and a better internal email system between members. Following that we’re going to focus on better marketing tools for our members to include the ability to post your works for sale on your own site.
These partnerships are designed to increase traffic and visibility for ALL members. In the meantime, thanks for being patient!
Kelly Smith
Imagekind CEO
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