I posted the other day about setting about a new online store for some of my collections. I have only been a member at redbubble.com for a few days, and already the reception I’ve received is warm and welcome, and the interaction features offered for members to share, view, sell, buy and comment on artworks in several mediums are exceptional.
More than just a community of artists like so many other sites, this site offers tools to communicate and share ideas, creative works by Photographers, Painters, Writers and more, but also offers an easy way to promote and sell your works in a variety of formats. RedBubble offers prints, from cards to gallery wraps, to fully framed prints, and at quite reasonable prices, and takes only their fixed costs for each piece, allowing the artist to set a percentage markup that they pay out in full direct to the artist.
Works are also available as Calendars and T-Shirts! The creation tools for all of the products are simple and fast, and everything I’ve tried so far just works. No problems! And quite intuitive. Kudos to the creators for designing what I think could become the working model for many other sites in the future.
And the Community! Wow! Forums, internal messaging and email, and of course image and product comments are just the start. The groups are diverse and well managed, and many groups offer daily or weekly challenges and featured works. The volunteer time that goes into moderation, selection, and maintenance must be huge, and yet there are those that freely offer their time to promote the site and maintain a strong community.
I look forward to learning more and doing more with RedBubble in the future, and I know already that this will be a perfect venue for a great deal of my work. The system was setup and I was posting my first works in minutes, and I know I’m repeating myself – but it was EASY and it all WORKS!
I hope that you’ll head over to RedBubble via the slideshow link on the sidebar and check it out for yourself. Even if you don’t join as an artist, join and browse the works that are available. You have to join – and it’s FREE to join! – in order to see any works that are tagged as Not Safe for Work, and of course to participate in any of the discussion. But you won’t regret joining – except for perhaps finding yourself spending a great deal more time online than you used to.
The works posted are simply stunning for the most part, being a selection of artists’ favourite and best works, and of course being moderated at the group level to ensure that the works meet the quality and terms of use accordingly. So there’s no junk – and there seems to be very little (if any) posts that don’t really fit the category.
And of course while you’re there, remember that you can Purchase any of the works that are displayed, and in doing so you are helping the ‘starving’ artists that make up such a community to ensure that they will be able to continue to create such wonderful works.
See you in the Bubble!
njw
Just curious, what’s your user name at the Bubble? I’d like to take a look. You can find me at http://www.redbubble.com/people/BTWGF
Thank You Bob! I’m njwphoto on redbubble, but you can also just click on the redbubble button on the right of most of my blog pages.
Cheers!
njw
Hi Norman
Glad to have you as part of the Redbubble community
Feel free to come around and have a look and comment on my redbubble page http://www.redbubble.com/people/richardkeech and I’ll check yours out
Cheers Richard
Great review, I have also founnd it helpful to get me painting and drawing again. Getting my work out so people can see it, is what art is all about, what is the point otherwise. I love the community spirit and the feedback is so good to understand what is liked and can be expanded on.
http://www.redbubble.com/people/sarahtrett
Watch out for the Hitler stuff on Redbubble.
Their own lawyers resigned over this.
http://firmspy.com/law-disorder/5613/exclusive-oh-heil-arnold-bloch-leibler-represents-company-spruiking-neo-nazi-propaganda
Given the nature of RedBubble, it’s not really surprising that one of the artists has chosen this sort of expression and is displaying what he/she considers to be an artistic expression or political satire. Granted it may offend some – even many – but such is the nature of art globally and historically. Overall, the nature of the content you might find on RedBubble does not change the opinion that the service they offer is a good one. Cheers!
njw
I don’t think you can call t-shirts “art” and to the extent the offensive tees are “satire” they are mocking Hitler’s victims. This is serving a neo-Nazi fanbase and is dubious as a business practice for an online community trying to cater to many artists.
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I am njwphoto on RedBubble. Cheers!