With currently over 3,500 photographs and artwork to choose from, I tend not to have runaway bestsellers, rather a diverse audience choosing between landscapes, travel, abstract artwork and funny dog images in the form of framed artwork and products such as cell phone cases, pillows and totes.
“Roll in a Tube” prints are by far the most popular option, I suspect because of the shipping costs. You can easily take prints to a local frame shop for custom framing or have a custom mat cut and use a standard sized frame.
Frame-less options are also available such as canvas prints, acrylic and metal prints. For myself, lately I’ve been ordering metal prints. Metal prints have a lot of advantages. They don’t need any matting or framing. They resist water so they are perfect in areas prone to moisture such as a bathroom. They can be wiped clean. They resist breakage – although you don’t want to drop one on a corner as it could get bent (probably can be bent back if this happened). And color images printed on metal prints take on a very glossy almost 3D quality when displayed under good lighting. Think of a car glossy car finish. If you don’t want this level of gloss then you can choose canvas instead.
The prices available via my shop for metal are very reasonable. They are one of the more cost efficient choice when going large. I recently had two 24 x 36 inch metal prints shipped to me for a show and the shipping was only $35. And believe me it is not cheap to ship very large boxes. Plus the artwork was very carefully wrapped. It took me about 10 minutes to get the metal prints out of the box – and if you’ve ever priced large shipping boxes – you know just the box can cost $5-$8.
I’ve shopped around and the metal prints I sell are a good deal. Other vendors nickle and dime you for “extras” like rounding the corners (a safety issue!). One other place wanted $2 extra for this. With mine, rounded corners are standard.
Another vendor wanted an up-charge of $35 for the mounting hardware! My metal prints come standard with a wooden frame on the back and mounting hardware so the print stands about an inch off the wall for a nice little shadow effect.
All in all any choice you make is going to be great. Rolled in a tube, save on shipping and use your local framer if you are not in a rush – sometimes these guys are backed up especially around the holidays. And you might end up spending more money in the long run – framing isn’t cheap no matter where you have it done.
Canvas, metal print, matted and framed – at least its all finished and we have lots of different choices of paper, matting and frames. Anyway here is what has been popular lately: