Lenny36

I write this as a testimonial to the wonderful RedBubble website. With some time on my hands between jobs and an old motorcycle doodle composed in MS Paint, I googled “t-shirts” and ran across the site. Immediately impressed by what I saw and the apparent ease with which members could participate, I signed up. That was around two months ago and since then my stuff has been viewed by almost 1800 people and I have been favourited by and received comments from countless others.

In the process I have witnessed such astounding talent and creativity in art, design, photography and writing that I do not hesitate to say that RedBubble has amassed one of the greatest creative communities on the planet. Community is the key word on RedBubble as the camaraderie and supportive communication between members is one of it’s great strengths. In it’s short life, this networking has led to some fantastic collaborations and produced some magnificent and substantial work.

Another of RedBubble’s great strengths is the inclusive nature of the community. It provides inspiration and a non-judgemental outlet for anyone to express themselves where their work can happily sit alongside others that may grace the galleries and libraries of the world. Profile pages reveal that whether providing encouragement for a troubled soul or simple inspiration for a lapsed or hesitant artist, the site’s value as a means of expression is immense.

From a pure sales and marketing point of view, RedBubble is a powerful tool. As an exercise, I linked a couple of YouTube videos to my profile page, one in a sort of cross-promotional way tied to a t-shirt. In under a week two videos had received over 100 hits and another linked to the page for fun has had over 250 hits in less than a month compared to 1200 in the previous year. All this with minimal networking and membership of a handful of groups. The mind boggles at the potential to reach a large number of people with a more formal strategy and the simple, user-friendly nature of the site enhances this.
This sadly has not translated into sales but the ball has been firmly placed into my court. As an amateur that has not progressed beyond free software, my sales are probably in proportion to my talent and training but the level of interest and the exposure gained is both astounding and inspirational.

This returns us to the essence of RedBubble. Inspirational and fun. In my short time on the site I have met some great people from all over the world and the forums have provided some interesting and sometimes hilarious banter. Some of the challenges have produced work of an amazing standard and further highlights the talent that has emerged from artists young and old within the ranks. They are too numerous to mention individually but I have no doubt some RedBubble members will go on to form our next generation of great artists, designers and authors whose work will live on through the centuries. A t-shirt revolution may be on the cards but a RedBubble revolution is already under way. Thank you to all of those who have made this such an enjoyable experience and be sure to keep on bubbling away.