“Have you ever wondered how artwork is applied to products? Consider the cover of your notebook, the design on your phone case, or the image on your mousepad.”If they do have some color or artwork on them then how did that design land on that product?
Does that tickle your brains too?!
In this post we’ll be covering all that and more!
There are so many ways to get artwork on Products!
What products can artwork go onto?
Firstly, let’s discuss some of the products that have artwork on them.
Almost everything we use in our day-to-day lives does have some or the other designs on them.
The bedsheets we sleep on has some patterns, the wallpapers on our walls do too.
Some of our kitchen tea towels, cups, dish drying mats, and plates used for eating might also feature artwork. I’ll list some additional products that could feature artwork!
- Phone Cases
- Greeting Cards
- Sticker sheets
- Mouse pads
- Fabric
- Calendars
- Coasters
- Gift wraps (and the list goes on)
The products listed above are just a few examples that came to mind while writing this post! I’m sure there are many more items you can think of that could use artwork!
Finding Designs for Your Products!
Now let’s say you want to gift a baby-blanket to a friend of yours who recently has had a baby! An easy option would be to purchase a gift from Target or Amazon, but it might not be as unique.
Instead, you opt to create a personalized gift that resonates more with you and your friend.
Or Imagine you’re starting a side hustle, like selling tea towels or mobile cases. And you’re looking for unique designs that reflect your brand, hoping to boost sales.
So, where can one find designs to use on their products?
If you’re an artist, you can showcase your own artwork.
But if you’re not, and you’re in search of great designs, there’s good news! Numerous online platforms offer a variety of beautiful, high-quality images in digital formats. These images are available for licensing from real-time artists.”
Here’s a list of websites where you can find digital designs to make your products stand out
- Spoonflower: It is an on-demand, digital printing company that prints custom fabric, wallpaper, and home décor.
- Etsy: Many artists sell digital downloads of their artworks on Etsy.
- Adobe Stock: It has tons of high-quality illustrations vector graphics, 3D assets and templates.
- Society6: You could find unique designs, patterns and illustrations created and uploaded by independent artists themselves.
- Instagram: if you look for artist pages on Instagram or search with hashtags #digitalartwork or #surfacepatterndesigns, you will come across many artists who have digital art pieces ready to license, you could contact them directly with no middlemen and use their artwork on to your products, and come to terms to work on a royalty-basis where you pay the artist a percentage of each sale that you make.
While I’ve listed just five platforms here, there are numerous other online sources where you can discover high-quality digital files!
Getting the Sizes Right!
One of the most important things to consider while manufacturing your own products is to get the sizes right.
Figure out the size of your desired product in advance!
Let’s say you want to sell notebooks with unique covers, then you need to know the dimensions, of the notebook before you give it for printing. (a regular notebook is generally 4.33*8.26 inches). But remember to do some research on the available sizes of the raw materials (notebooks in this case) and then make sure the artwork aligns to the same size of your notebook.
Once you have the information on the sizes right, and the digital artwork ready, all you need to do is contact a manufacturer who is willing to custom print your product.
Make sure to try and test the size, color, and designs before you place a bulk Order.
Ensure that the Sample products that comes is what “you” had in mind by ordering a test prototype, for one product first, before placing a huge bulk order.
If the concept of sizes intimidates you then you can go ahead and hire a graphic designer or get in touch with a digital artist whose work resonates with your business requirements. They should be able to help you with getting the sizes right!
The secret to getting the sizes right while printing is that it is important to have an “Effective communication between the Printer company and the Designer who is creating the artwork.”
If you need more information on the sizes check out this page on different dimensions for different products offered by Uprinting.
They do have a list of template sizes
Submit it for Printing.
Once you have done your research and ordered a test trial for your product and gotten the sizes right, you are now ready to get your artwork design on products.
Bonus: Different Platforms to get your artwork on Products.
Below is the list of some of the platforms used for getting artwork printed on products.
- Uprinting
- Printful
- Printify
- Gelato
- RedBubble
- Society6
- Alibaba
So, these are some of the ways I have learned, to get my artwork on to products. The more you work on this concept the better understanding you will have on how to get things better and better.
A Big thank you for taking the time to read this post. I hope you found it helpful and informative. Please consider subscribing to my mailing list for more insightful content on designing, prints and art.
SKUSH DESIGNS 