Cheetah Study on Canvas - Andrew Bignall

Andrew is one of our favourite clients - great photographer and a printmaker in his own right, he uses our service when it comes to making really large canvas prints from photos - this is of course our speciality.

We're pleased and proud that Andrew thought of us to produce his work when he donated a piece as his contribution to the SPCA Spring Ball and Auction. See his profile page and the auction lot details here, and if you're an animal lover, why not attend the ball and / or bid on the auction!?

The web can't do the image justice of course - the print is just breathtaking in real life @ 1 metre tall!

Good luck Andrew, we hope the fundraiser is a success.

We print photos on canvas: www.gicleeprint.co.nz

Cabbage Trees Series

Not so long ago we had a request for art hire, and placed a series of Mike's photographs out at the AUT's School of Hospitality 10th Anniversary dinner. We were very pleased to receive a call the same night enquiring if the pieces could be purchased for the AUT to keep! The series was of 3 different shots of cabbage trees from Auckland's beautiful and rugged West coast Karekare beach. They are in black and white, and placed centrally in a large white background on 36" square frames - very simple, yet very striking and effective.

The images, entitled 'Whispering Trees', 'Storm Trees' and 'Cabbage Trees' are being displayed at this size in the window of The Canvas Company, at 518 Karangahape Road, Auckland City. (Many thanks to Brendan for the window space!) We welcome sales enquiries or commissions for smaller versions of these pieces. If you'd like to see them - be quick! The display is there for a couple of weeks only...

More of Mike's images are available for viewing at his gallery page here: http://www.canvasprint.co.nz/MRT/HTML/index.php

Kirsty Black - Graphic Artist

It was a pleasure to meet Kirsty Black on Saturday when she popped in to visit us for a brief visit at our stall at the Aotea Markets in Auckland (we are there every Saturday - rain or shine).

We've had a long association with Kirsty by 'remote control' - she's based in Christchurch so all dealings have been via 'phone and email over the past year - always nice to put a face to a voice!

Kirsty's wonderful designs are available in a range of delectable decor products such as paintings, ties, rugs and - of course - giclee prints. Here's a link to Kirsty's own website so you can see for yourself: http://www.kgb-folio.co.nz/giclee1.html.

We are very much looking forward to soon being able to bring to market a new range of designs that Kirsty will be custom-making for her clients. More on this later - once the range has been launched. :-)

Brian Moorhead Panoramic Landscape Prints of New Zealand

I've created a separate gallery of these so that they can be exhibited and linked-to on Trademe without breaching the listing terms which state that the auction can not link to a website with contact details or selling capability. Fairy nuff.


If you want to see them in their proper home on our sales site, they're to be found here alongside others at the Canvas Print site: www.canvasprint.co.nz.

Interiors Online Monthly Competition

We're very proud to be sponsoring this month's competition at Interiors Online, a great portal site where we have a company listing. This is a great site for vistors to find all sorts of ideas to help them beautify their home. One such way is of course with a beautiful canvas print of your own photography or art, or maybe one from our gallery. It's a great competition - and very very easy - you just have to be in to win!

Good luck...
www.gicleeprint.co.nz

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.