Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

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StevenG
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Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by StevenG »

Hello everyone

We're going to be moving premises within the next few weeks and we're looking at ways of bringing in an extra few bucks. I'm sure everyone has seen the cutesy novelty personalised family prints, they seem to be everywhere - eBay, Amazon, Etsy etc and I'm sure it's not the same person :) So I'm guessing it's a template that can be easily changed, or it's a bunch of graphics that we can knock together. I've attached an image of what I'm talking about btw - but this isn't the only one, the variations seem endless (like this 'going nowhere' post).

Anyway, what I'm trying to ask is - does anyone know where I can buy the components needed to put something like this together. Oh, I don't mean printer etc etc. I mean is it a commercial pack that people like me can buy? I don't mind spending and I reckon we might do well from it - based on the number we see in for framing!!

As usual, thanks for watching :)
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by Not your average framer »

I'm not convinced that this is necessarily produced quite in the way you may be thinking and it may be much less sothisticated than you may be thinking. During involvement in much of my previous career in engineering, I often had to produce graphic illustrations and these were often created in a much large format initially and then reduced to a much smaller format, which gives an impression of much greater density of detail and apparently much better accuracy of artistry than is actually the case.

As a result, someone like my self, who is not so much an artist, but more of a graphic illustrator who knows how to make thing look better than they really are can get away with a lot more than makes sense to those who don't understand how this was done. This could quite easily have been created as a number of individual separate drawing with a scanned into and imaging program and then printed out much smaller and later all the reduced sized images are incorporated into the finished image.

I'm not particularly very successful drawing things with a mouse and tend to literally paste the various bits together, scan them back into the computer, teak and slight angular, or positional misalignment on the individual created bits of clip art, then print them out again and colour the resulting print out using water colour. It's really not that difficult, or demanding to do this. I've doing things this way for years and use a ordinary monochrome laser printer to do this. I freely admit that I'm not always as good at some things as it always appears, but the secret is to know how to cheat well.
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Steve N
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by Steve N »

Could be done in any imaging software, you just import the objects (with a transparent background) and placed in a template with guide lines, and you just retype in the text, I've seen a woman do this on Face Book and they are so cheap, less than a tenner (including a frame and P&P), I don't think it's worth the time and energy :sweating:
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by Not your average framer »

I agree Steve, I don't think there's much potential for getting any worthwhile return on your time spent doing this either,when you can buy stuff like this for a tenner on the internet. I have seen photos taken at groom's stage night where a close friend has his arm around the grooms back and hand placed on the groom's shoulder and after processing the image of the friend has been replaced with Elvis Presly. I understand that sort of thing can be done for about £25. It's not anything that I would be wanting to do my self, but I'll just throw it in a possible idea.
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StevenG
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by StevenG »

Selling a framed print for a tenner!? I couldn't be bothered with that! :lol: I'm really talking about the creating the prints. People are buying these (prints only) for £8-10, my daughter works with me now and she'll gladly cut 'n' paste a few images in PS (5 mins top), and print it for a tenner. As I said - we frame these regularly from people who buy them from Etsy, Not On The High Street etc, they all buy them for around the cost I mentioned.

Here's a quick search from Etsy - you'll see what I mean. You'll find similar results from eBay though

https://www.etsy.com/uk/search?q=person ... y%20prints


There's bound to be somewhere I can buy these images to create these. I probably could 'liberate' them from the sellers on Etsy but I don't reckon I'd have the resolution to reproduce them to a acceptable quality.


Oh, good morning btw :)
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Steve N
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by Steve N »

I used to have a yearly subscription to this website, you can down load as much as you like, you might find what you want on there
https://www.storyblocks.com/images/vectors
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by Chris_h »

I print and frame quite a lot of these everyday from my customers and then send them on white label to their customers. They are popular, but all the people I print these for are all graphic designers, some are done from scratch some are customised from templates. The thing I do know from one of my customers about these is that they can take a lot of time, there can be a lot of going back and forth with the client, making small alterations then awaiting for the final thing to be signed off and lots of emails exchanged.

If you are good with Indesign I am sure there are lots you could easily do, but like I say they can be quite time consuming at the same time.
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by Not your average framer »

I get it now. I think this starting to make proper sense now. It sounds potentially quite profitable now and if you are going be supplying these to people via the internet, you could be on a winner, if a bit of decent volume can be got out of this. I hope it goes well for you.
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by StevenG »

Hi guys

Thanks for the replies, Steve - that site is interesting (I've bookmarked it) but it doesn't apply to what I'm looking for at the moment but thanks anyway. Mark - thanks for the encouragement :)

Chris - Yes, I agree, most of them have to be coming from a template or the like but tracking that elusive graphic down is proving to be errrr, interesting :) I'm sure I'll find it somewhere though.

Anyway, onward and upward eh!? :happy:



This weather is fantastic btw :D
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by poliopete »

featurepeice, nothing to do with your post but I applaud your ingenuity and determination to generate new business and move with the times :clap: and very well done for managing to employ your daughter in your business - you must be doing something right :D

I wish you both continuing success.

Peter.
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by StevenG »

Peter, that's very decent of you to say that. Apart from this forum I don't really have any contact with the 'framing world' so I'm never really too sure what the best direction to go with various ideas. Words of encouragement like yours really means a lot , thank you :)
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by poliopete »

Your very welcome :D and IMHO I think your website is excellent too :rock:

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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by StevenG »

Once again, thanks Peter. The website needs some work though, the content is a bit dated & I'm not wholly happy with how we maintain it. It's one of those things I always mean to get sorted but admittedly I never do :roll: We get a little report each month from Google and according to that we do get people directing themselves to the site which is good but I don't think it gives them a proper representation of who & what we are.

I might create a new title for my daughter (Liz btw) - apart of chief unpacker & major string attacher she can now be our online social content director. I wonder if she'll fall for the fancy title? :)
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Re: Personalised Family Novelty Prints etc etc

Post by Not your average framer »

I don't think that something has to be anything that is necessarily novelty related to something special because it is personalised. Personalisation is relevent for so many different situations and occasions. Also if you can do this with something out of the ordinary with a degree of uniqueness, this can become something which is regaded as very special and even something that people will be strongly motivated to buy.

For example, how about a brides keepsake box frame, with the bride and grooms name and the date of the wedding on the mount and some items relating to the bride and the wedding inside. This is just one possibility, but why limit it to just that one possibility.
Mark Lacey

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