Jul 8th, 2008
Buying into the art market… welcome, Imagekind
Our Community is full of wildly creative people. And wildly creative people have wildly differing needs and opinions when it comes to how their art is displayed.
For many years, artists and photographers have used CafePress as both a source of income and a way to offer their work in a more accessible fashion to those who love it. Yet even with canvases varying from 75+ t-shirts to a ceramic beer stein to the ever-popular thong, still these artists wanted more.
And it’s with great pleasure that we’re announcing that they’re getting it.
CafePress has acquired Imagekind, in the non-hostile and entirely excited way that companies combine when there’s a natural synergy that’s to the benefit of everyone involved – most especially the customers.
Imagekind is a lot like CafePress – on-demand printing, individual artists selling their designs online, a vibrant community, the democratization of commerce. But Imagekind specializes in fine art printing and framing, allowing consumers the ability to order and make museum-quality giclee prints (that’s “zhee-clay,” for those at home who want to say this out loud 3 times fast).
While there’s no immediate integration plans, we encourage those of you with artsy tendencies to go check out Imagekind and be wowed by the multitude of high-end print and framing options.
So yes, artists. You can sell your amazing painting on a museum-quality canvas print on the stretcher bars of your choice. And yes, photographers. You can print up high-quality gift prints in your choice of finish, matting and frames. 
And of course, you can still put those same designs on a dog T-shirt. Because it’s a free country. And short-coated breeds can get chilly in the fall.
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For more information, please check out the press release.
Very interesting!
I’m an Imagekind member and I’ve got some thoughts (pros/cons) and some queries about this which I’ve set out on my blog in this post CafePress acquires Imagekind – what next?
I’ll be watching with interest to see how this plays out in the future as you begin to reveal how, in practice, you think the synergy can work to best effect.
Very nice! I’ll give it a try, for sure. It’s easier to be an artist nowadays, ain’t it?!
[...] more details, check out Imagekind’s announcements here and here or read CafePress’s blog post about the [...]
That is all very well and good for Cafepress but of what significance is this to actual Cafepress shopkeepers?
Many would agree with me that CP’s Art products (prints, posters etc) are sorely lacking in quality, variety, size options, etc. Because of this, many had to go elsewhere to purchase or offer the quality prints/posters they were missing at CP.
The fact that CP says that there are no plans to integrate its site with Imagekind is puzzling, not to mention disappointing. What this means is that CP users will still have to search elsewhere for their framed art needs, whether that be at Imagekind or some other competing POD able to offer one-stop shopping. So if users still have to register with another POD, where is the advantage for CP shopkeepers? It changes nothing on the surface. We still have to go to an outsider for quality prints and that still doesn’t necessarily mean it will be Imagekind.
Forgive me if this news doesn’t excite me. It did at first when I read the headline but then I read the details in the story and just shrugged it off.
Hey azac,
Thanks for the note! It’s true that we have no *immediate plans for integration – immediate being the key word here, as we need time to hunker down and decide how to proceed in the best interest of both communities. We’re very excited about Imagekind joining the fold because of their amazing artist community and their product offering, and we anticipate future plans that will be mutually beneficial to both CP Shopkeepers and Imagekind artists. So stay tuned…