At the end of last year I set up a profile at Redbubble.com (click here to see). This site allows people to upload their artwork and sell it on a variety of products.
Midway through January I got an email from RedBubble offering me a free voucher which allowed me to buy a couple of items (tote bag, art print and stickers) and I decided I would give them away for a little competition.
My Redbubble profile page.
It has taken me a bit of time to get round to doing it as the delivery was slower than I expected on the tote bag and stickers as they were shipped from the US. (RedBubble have a breakdown on delivery times and where items are shipped from/to here).
I tried to get a bit of a mixture and so here are the items I got and what I thought of them:
Tote Bag
The tote bag was delivered in fairly minimal packaging, sufficient for this type of item. It was the last item I received out of the three I ordered as it was printed in the US and it took about two-three weeks to arrive from placing the order.
Initially I was a bit disappointed with the tote bag due to the print quality. There is a lot of fine detail in the original image and a fair amount of it is lost in the print. I think simpler images made up of less detail would probably suit this type of product best. However I think the overall shape of the image still looks good on the bag.
The tote bags are made from 100% polyester and have an inner lining which gives it some structure and makes me think it would be quite durable. I went for the medium sized bag (41cmx41cm), the other sizes being small (33cmx33cm) and large (46cmx46cm).
An A4 folder placed on top of the bag to give you an idea of size.
I used it once when I did a food shop to test it out a bit and was surprised by how much I could fit in the bag. It was a bit tricky to gauge how the cotton straps (1" wide, 14" in length) felt on my shoulder as I was also using a rucksack but they felt strong.
After using it I was a little bit tempted to keep it as I could see it coming in handy here and there. The print quality is not the best but it's a decent bag that I could see someone getting a lot of use out of it.
Art Print
The second item I decided to get was an art print of the library van photo that I took towards the end of last year. The print arrived rolled up safe and sound in a sturdy and thick cardboard tube covered in tissue paper. It was printed in the UK and unsurprisingly was delivered first. Between placing the order and delivery it took about a week. I was impressed by the quality of the print as the detail is sharp and crisp and colours are vibrant and have been well reproduced.
These prints use archival ink and are printed on thick, textured matte paper (100% cotton rag 240gsm archival paper to be specific!) which gives it a different look and feel to standard prints you get from most photo printers.
I went for the small size of this print (40cmx30cm) with other size options being medium (50cmx40cm), large (60cmx45cm) and extra large (80cmx60cm). For each size a border runs around the image which is useful for mounting the print for framing.
Stickers
To use up what I had left over from the voucher I decided to get some stickers which I would throw in with the bag and print as little extras. These were delivered second (about two weeks, also shipped from the US like the bag) and arrived in a branded cardboard envelope which did the job.
The stickers have a matte finish and measure 9.5cmx6.5cm. The print quality on these are decent; better than the bag but not as good as the art print. I chose a mixture of photos and I think the black & white photos have turned out better than the colour.
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Overall I'm quite pleased with the quality of the few items I got. I would be interested to know what some of the other products are like such as the phone cases, travel mugs and metal prints. If I ever get another voucher I might check them out and run another competition.
If you are interested in checking out my Redbubble profile click here.
I'll be running this little competition over on my Facebook page for a few days from today to Tuesday night (14/3 - 17/3/15). Go here to enter - facebook.com/andrewwilsonphoto.
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