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We create beautiful giclee prints of your photos or artwork on premium canvas, stretched over a pine frame. Visit our main site or visit our gallery today - we'd love to hear from you!

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Tuesday, November 8, 2005

In the beginning...

The date of this post is November 2005, as that is when the Giclee Print Limited company entity actually came into being. The actual beginning slightly pre-dates that, and the web presence, first real sales, etc. all (obviously) came later.

This post is actually being created in August 2007, so bear with me as I reminisce...

The actual beginning is a kind of murky un-pin-downable event. The reasons behind this company coming into existence lie principally in (a) my desire to produce an income through some creative outlet and (b) my dad Phil's desire to have a "project" of suitable dimensions to occupy his technical abilities and his penchant for buying and building gadgets.

Enter "printing photos on canvas" as a concept. A match made in heaven!

Photography has long been an interest for both of us, and (as we discovered moving forward) there is a huge amount of technical wizardry that goes on behind the scenes when seeking the highest possible quality in printed output.

I first saw a photo printed on canvas at a local gift-shop, only a few years ago - I suppose it was 2004, maybe earlier. I was intrigued and excited at the same time, having no clue as to how it was done. The lady in the shop explained that the artist "had a special machine" and did it herself. I got a phone number, but never followed it up (as you don't).

But that was the germ, the seed - and it planted itself in fertile ground. I was determined that photography or art was going to be the outlet, and hopefully a source of income for me, but it was not until some months (a year or more?) later that I took a photograph I thought worthy of trying to sell (I have since reconsidered strongly, and no you can't see it!). By this time I had discovered a large commercial outlet that would produce my print for me on canvas (or a mug, or a plate, or a bag, or a jigsaw...blah, blah, blah,) and was gearing up to get a print done. But - frankly - I wasn't sure what I'd get back, and... well it was just one of those projects that felt like the return on investment might not live up to expectations.

So I waited, and I researched... how was it done? What did people do to sell their works? The Trademe online auction site was mentioned, so I had a look. Bingo - another eye-opener - there were people out there fetching hundreds for paintings and photographs! I felt I was up to the task, so figured this may be the mechanism.

Here we go!
And then there it was... a Trademe auction... a collection of quite dramatic stretched-canvas landscapes and florals, all for sale, AND - the business creating them was for sale as well! Perfect! (The house was for sale, too - and I would have loved to have added that to the list, but for a long list of reasons incidental to this discussion, that was never entertained seriously.)

To protect the innocent, I shall name neither the company nor the vendor, nor the present owners or their web details. It's not the new owners' fault that the sale fell through - but fell through it did. We tried (twice) to buy the business, but were "mucked about" and the deal was handed to someone else. Oh well - that's business. We had done lots of research, we visited, we saw the equipment and leant a little about what it would mean to replicate and continue what we saw. We figured we could do it, so were bitterly disappointed when it didn't come to fruition.

However - like the Phoenix from the flames - our business venture was allowed to blossom naturally - from the ground up. Having been thwarted at our first attempt, we stuck at it, and resolved to build it ourselves.

Kick 0ff
Many hard days and weeks of research yielded all sorts of information to sift through, and thanks to Phil's business savvy and technical expertise, the right combination of equipment and materials was established in the basement level of my home. We house storage, production workshop, studio, office (oh - and family!) all in the same place - so we truly are a family / boutique business.

You can see in the main site the equipment and materials we've decided upon - and we're still committed to these as being the best combination of quality and value, and fit for our purpose.

So here we are
Our intention has always been to produce the best possible quality stretched canvas / inkjet printed product at a fair profit - and that's what we do.

Paying less may disappoint
You will find - if you look for them - competitive companies prepared to sell their services and products at a slightly lower price. If you're shopping around - be careful that you're comparing apples with apples. We will personally process your file ourselves - discuss all layout requirements, warn you if we don't think it will print sharply at the size you've requested, add a range of effects for no extra charge, can competently do more complex work for a very reasonable fee; and offer an absolutley rock solid 100% satisfaction guarantee.

Paying more may disappoint, too!
Most others charge more than us across all sizes - particularly in the big sizes. It's our contention that we produce the best value high quality giclee canvas prints available in New Zealand. We know of companies who will ask for more than the price of one of our finished pieces just to do your print on to canvas, then charge more for stretching, more again for a protective laminate (which is essential - not really an option), all before adding GST. Usually payment is required up front, too. We believe we're every bit as good as or better than the big expensive firms - we've even had professional photographers tell us as much and switch exclusively to using us to get the better quality and the personal attention to detail.