Friday, March 16, 2018

My Coffee Shop Display

For quite awhile, I had looked at photos lining the walls of our local, independent coffee shop, Under Pressure, and thought, mine are just as good. Well, in truth, I thought that for the most part, mine were better.

What I don't have is that super large scale printer that can produce images of spectacular size, but on the other hand, those images don't tend to sell because most people don't have space for them, assuming of course that they like them well enough in the first place. There is also the fact that most people don't walk into a coffee shop prepared to spend a few hundred dollars. They also cost a lot to print and to leave them hanging there for a very long time, while constantly having to reduce the price, is not optimum.

When a space became available, Sue and I decided to hang 6 prints of local scenes and to sell them relatively cheaply. The images are approximately 16x10.5 on 19x13 paper in 19x13 frames.

From top left to right around to bottom left: sunrise on our river near our house; autumn in the town's main park; the townhall as mentioned below; a rusty boathouse across the river from the park; sunset over the park; sunset from under that special tree in summer.


The frames are inexpensive, less than $20, and that's with those rather imposing Canadian taxes included. Having experimented with cheaper options (on cardboard) that didn't quite work out, they are mainly a way to present the photos in a viable but still inexpensive way.

Thus framed, I offer the photos for sale at $75 but don't expect to sell many for the reasons mentioned above. But the shop owner tells me that they draw some admiration and comments, and that pleases me, for my main motivation is to show them and have people appreciate them.

And I have sold one: the winter photo of our townhall from across the river, top right.

I swear that photo on the bottom left didn't look that crooked to me at the time.


I have recently updated my other display at Sue's hairdresser's and may post of that soon as well.

11 comments:

Shammickite said...

Congratulations on the sale! One of the coffee shops here will display artwork and I often go in to have a look, but have never bought anything other than a cuppa coffee.

Tabor said...

Ihave sold a few items through RedBubble but since there are thousands of artists and millions of choice it is very competitive. Maybe I will talk to my local library??

Country Gal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Country Gal said...

Sorry about that blogger went wonky on me lol !
Thats awesome good for you great display and photos to . Hubs and I used to print our own and frame for clients and yes it gets expensive with the photo paper and Ink cartilages having to be replaced so often , Our printer can scan, and print just about any size from business cards to large prints . We also take some prints to make Calender's of our photos to Staples you can do all that on line and get any size and style and it isn't all that expensive either and they do a great job , we also have had them print our photos on plaques of any size for some clients picked the photos here they wanted on our computers for the plaques then just copy the photos in your arrangement if you have more then one onto a stick take it in choose your style of plaque and how you want them arranged and away ya go . I hope you sell lots and are able to display more to . Nice job . Thanks for sharing , Have a good weekend !

Marie Smith said...

Beautiful photos, AC. Good luck with the sales.

Joanne Noragon said...

Good job! On the display and the sale.

Ginnie said...

Wow .. AC, the entrepreneur! I'm impressed and they look very salable to me. Good luck with your venture and keep us informed.

Mage said...

Wonderful. I like that last photo myself.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Selling photos is somewhat of a challenge these days as so many folks have digital cameras, and of course cell phones that take photos. This is so unlike the days of 35mm SLRs when there were not so many avid photographers. Your display looks lovely and the decision to standardize the frames was a good one. I wish you future sales, John, but regardless just the fun of seeing one’s own work on display other than in your own home is awesome!

Jenn Jilks said...

Well done. I just don't have the energy or the purpose or the drive. I keep thinking I should.

Norma said...

Very nice.