Where do you go?

I’m sure I’m not the only one wondering this, but where do you go to get your designs printed? I’ve used moo,vistaprint and photobox but find the prices quite high and so make minimal profit on items. Just to cover the basic cost of having one of my artworks printed onto a jigsaw I priced it at £19.99 https://folksy.com/items/6787037-Art-jigsaw-puzzle Someone once told me that you should charge double what you paid for your materials/items but no one would pay £40 for a jigsaw puzzle! Any tips on where to get cheaper printing?

You can’t always work on the same margin: one reason I don’t sell knitwear is because the price could never reflect the hours of work I’d have to put in! I have a variety of different margins on items that I sell. My favourite advice from someone who’d been working the markets for years was “you can only sell something at a price people are prepared to pay for it. And some things you can’t even give away!”

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As with anything handmade, I do believe you need to find the market that will pay the price for the goods we make. Many people will baulk at the price of a handmade piece like my duck Drake, but to someone he meant enough and resonated enough that they bought him at £120 from this site!

So would someone pay £40 for a jigsaw puzzle? I believe the right person (for the right puzzle!) would. The tricky bit is designing the right puzzle and finding the right people!

As to cheaper printing, have you contacted printers direct and asked them if they provide this service and cost? Also might be worth contacting the usual providers and asking if they do discounts or what negotiation on price there is (particularly if you agree to them advertising their printing service on the back of the box for example). I used to deal with printers as a graphic designer and many are open to negotiation, so always worth a try! Good luck!

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I have used print24 for bulk paper products (business cards, postcards etc) before but not for puzzles (I’ve checked and they do do them). As with all of these companies the more you order the cheaper it gets per item but you need to be sure that they will sell before you go ordering 25 or so have you had good feedback/ sales about your puzzles already? Is it worth considering a bulk order in preparation for christmas?

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I know people who would pay that and more for a jigsaw puzzle depending on size and complexity.

The most expensive one’s I’ve seen for sale are well over the £100 mark but they are either complicated or in wood.

There is a big market for wood jigsaws people will pay for those and then there’s the 3D jigsaw scene. Now those can have massive ticket prices on them. My brother has one that cost him over £200

I know some of the one’s my brother has were well above the £40 mark for the non wood ones and non 3D ones.

Yes there are the cheap jigsaws but they are for the cheaper market.

It’s all about finding the right market for you item.

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Thanks everyone, all great advice =] I’ll contact printers etc…so far I haven’t had feedback on my puzzle, I’ve had feedback on the painting itself (positive). I’m a bit disheartened because I haven’t actually had any sales yet. It’s all a bit daunting really trying to get your work out there whilst worrying about material costs on things that may not sell! I think that’s why I’m reluctant to bulk-buy too - in case I’m left with however many items on my hands, out of pocket, and with no interest!

Is there any particular reason why you’ve chosen jigsaw puzzles as a medium for your work? To me they seem like an expensive item to produce and with a smaller market than say cotton totes (I have a vision of people buying prints and cards of your work at a fair and then buy the bag to carry them home in (and then when they use it again your design gets additional exposure)). Don’t let me put you off I’m just trying to understand your thinking.

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It’s a fair enough question. I suppose it was more of an experiment. I was wondering how my illustration work could be put to use and how art is used in general and jigsaws came up as an idea as you see many with beautiful pictures on. Yes, I see what you mean about totes, I’ll definitely give that some thought, I like that idea =]

Have a look at what other people are making their illustrations into: obviously I don’t mean copy them, but it would give you some ideas about finished products. Designs can be printed onto almost anything: mugs, T-shirts, mouse mats, bags,key rings, cards… Some will work, some won’t. It’s not my area of expertise, so I’ll shut up now :slight_smile:

I’m all for getting art off walls and into daily life, partly because I’m running out of wall space, partly because it should be shared not hidden away. As Rhiannon has said you can get your work printed onto most things, I had a scan through the options on print24 and was slightly taken a back when I saw deckchair (!) on the list but they have things like phone covers, a4 ring binders, note pads and stickers amongst others - plenty of food for thought. You need to figure out who your work appeals to, what sort of products they might be interested in and whether your designs would work on the product. Some fun ven diagrams there.

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