Also good for those who need help understanding why they are not getting the promotions or sales they are looking for…
New to Society6? Do not despair! We have all been new once. Society6.com is an amazing website for artists who are serious about selling their work. For the purposes of this post, I use the term artist to mean everyone who posts visual arts online. Photographers, illustrators, and all you visual artists may benefit from reading this post. Check out my earlier blog if you need help with basic sizing and such.
Let’s talk about design!
Please remember that your audience on Society6 is composed mainly of artists. It is in their best interest to promote good quality work from a variety of sources. This will bring the most purchasing power to our site. People come back to Society6 time after time because they know they will find great work there. So I am saying….double check your work. Make sure it is a “clean” version. Make sure it will be good for all the sizes you present. Use a good photoshop program to crop your pictures. Make sure you do not “squish” for the iphone or laptop presentation, but crop appropriately and downsize to scale. For the iphone presentation, remember that the greeting cards use the same view. Therefore, double-check that your design faces the right direction (bottom to the right) so that the greeting card is not upside down.
New to Society6? Do not despair! We have all been new once. Society6.com is an amazing website for artists who are serious about selling their work. For the purposes of this post, I use the term artist to mean everyone who posts visual arts online. Photographers, illustrators, and all you visual artists may benefit from reading this post. Check out my earlier blog if you need help with basic sizing and such.
Let’s talk about design!
Please remember that your audience on Society6 is composed mainly of artists. It is in their best interest to promote good quality work from a variety of sources. This will bring the most purchasing power to our site. People come back to Society6 time after time because they know they will find great work there. So I am saying….double check your work. Make sure it is a “clean” version. Make sure it will be good for all the sizes you present. Use a good photoshop program to crop your pictures. Make sure you do not “squish” for the iphone or laptop presentation, but crop appropriately and downsize to scale. For the iphone presentation, remember that the greeting cards use the same view. Therefore, double-check that your design faces the right direction (bottom to the right) so that the greeting card is not upside down.
I am a little squished...
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T-Shirts
We have all done it…that square design. It does not look good and it won’t sell. T-shirts do not sell that often anyway, so if you only have a square design, leave the shirt out. OK, there are some exceptions to this rule, but for the most part (my designs in particular) square is not cool. Wayne Bryan is the exception to the square thing! Please do not search through my inventory, because it took me a while to figure this out and there may still be a few squares in my shop. Be creative! Isolate a portion of the design, use word silhouettes like Ben Geiger does! The great thing is that shirts are available in the dark colors now! Be careful to get all the unwanted white out of your image when you create the PNG file. Double check so you look professional. One last word about T’s; pay attention to the size and placement of the design. Nobody wants a “tummy circle” unless they want to look preggers!
Iphone Cases
Don’t forget to leave room for the little hole for the camera! Also, take a look at the finished design to make sure that you did not lose too much of it down the sides of the case. Sometimes I have to re-crop a few times to get the illustration where I want it.
Laptop Cases
Thank you Bianca Greene for this little tidbit of knowledge…check your laptop skins to make sure they also look good on the ipad skin. Sometimes you need to fiddle with them a little to get them right. It is worth the trouble if you want folks to take you seriously.
Take a moment to look at the shops of the folks who have been around a while. Check out Terry Fan, Dale Keys and Janet Antepara as well as those previously named. Jacqueline Maldonado does a fantastic job. Robin Dickinson has a good style for photographers to take notice of and I think Illustrators could benefit from looking at Carina Povarchik and Sharon Turner. Thank you so much for reading this post and feel free to share it if you find it helpful. I have learned so much from each of these artists. I love Society6 and the community that is there. I sure hope you enjoy your time on Society6. Please look me up while you are there!
Cathy Holcombe
We have all done it…that square design. It does not look good and it won’t sell. T-shirts do not sell that often anyway, so if you only have a square design, leave the shirt out. OK, there are some exceptions to this rule, but for the most part (my designs in particular) square is not cool. Wayne Bryan is the exception to the square thing! Please do not search through my inventory, because it took me a while to figure this out and there may still be a few squares in my shop. Be creative! Isolate a portion of the design, use word silhouettes like Ben Geiger does! The great thing is that shirts are available in the dark colors now! Be careful to get all the unwanted white out of your image when you create the PNG file. Double check so you look professional. One last word about T’s; pay attention to the size and placement of the design. Nobody wants a “tummy circle” unless they want to look preggers!
Iphone Cases
Don’t forget to leave room for the little hole for the camera! Also, take a look at the finished design to make sure that you did not lose too much of it down the sides of the case. Sometimes I have to re-crop a few times to get the illustration where I want it.
Laptop Cases
Thank you Bianca Greene for this little tidbit of knowledge…check your laptop skins to make sure they also look good on the ipad skin. Sometimes you need to fiddle with them a little to get them right. It is worth the trouble if you want folks to take you seriously.
Take a moment to look at the shops of the folks who have been around a while. Check out Terry Fan, Dale Keys and Janet Antepara as well as those previously named. Jacqueline Maldonado does a fantastic job. Robin Dickinson has a good style for photographers to take notice of and I think Illustrators could benefit from looking at Carina Povarchik and Sharon Turner. Thank you so much for reading this post and feel free to share it if you find it helpful. I have learned so much from each of these artists. I love Society6 and the community that is there. I sure hope you enjoy your time on Society6. Please look me up while you are there!
Cathy Holcombe
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