It's official and all over the news: Cafepress has bought Imagekind for $15-20 million. (They must really rate the talent that Imagekind artists, including our very own Dezine Design members, bring to the table!)

As you know, Cafepress is the POD platform which hosts and services Dezine Design's Gift and Apparel Store, and Imagekind is the platform we use for our Fine Art Prints. So, what are the implications for us here at Dezine Design, and for the wider artist community on both Cafepress and Imagekind?

There's a huge amount of web chatter going on about the sale, the pros and cons, the winners and losers, and a lot of speculation about what the sale will mean to their member artists.

Here at Dezine Design, this is what we think:

• We hope that Imagekind and Cafepress will remain as two distinct brands but will share expertise and experience to further develop both brands.


• We believe that the exceptional marketing talents of the Cafepress team will bring positive results to Imagekind, as will their experience in developing a very fast-growing online brand and POD facility.


• We think the huge amount of traffic visiting Cafepress can only be beneficial to Imagekind, when the two sites are sistered (while keeping the brands distinct, each site can still benefit from traffic bounced from one to the other).


• We are hoping that one of the reasons Cafepress purchased Imagekind (beyond its fabulous collection of artists and photographers!) is that it wanted to add a high end fine art print facility to its current merchandise offerings. Therefore we believe (and hope it agrees) that Cafepress will ensure the exceptional quality of Imagekind products is maintained, even as traffic and sales increase on that site (hopefully).


• All in all, for our Member Artists and the art buying public at large, we give this development a Thumbs Up, and look forward to sharing in the rewards of this coming together of our two main online sales platforms.

In giving this development our vote of support, we do however, have one plea to Cafepress: please keep the Imagekind affiliate program with Share A Sale....even better, please integrate Cafepress into the Share A Sale program too. Share A Sale has proved such an excellent, proactive and user friendly affiliate program, and many of us would feel angered and disappointed if we were to lose this relationship.

These are exciting times, and we look ahead with great anticipation...

Visit Dezine Design's stores on Cafepress and Imagekind:

Find out more about:
Cafepress
Imagekind
Dezine Design's Member Artists on Cafepress and Imagekind
POD [Print on Demand] Technology and what it can do for you