RedBubble

Giving Birth to Mounted Prints

I’m going to post a little series giving you guys a look behind the curtain, specifically how we make some of our products for you guys. Today – lets take a look at mounted prints.

We start with a big box of Kodak Endura paper like this:

Then we fire a big ‘laser’ at it:

After that it gets processed, It’s pretty dark inside the machine… You’re just going to have to use your imagination abit here – lots of rollers and developer:

We check and then laminate the prints:

We mount it onto the gator:

We trim and the edge the print:

Finally, we test every product before it goes out:

Ok, so it’s all true, except for the last part, though that really is me standing on that print … gator board … strong stuff !

James

Jessica Tremp, 8 months ago

haha, that’s why all prints seem to have footmarks on them
Craig Goldsmith, 8 months ago

Looks good, one thing you haven’t mentioned is the average “Labour” time for a print and if that changes depending on its size, so from contractions to delivery what’s an average time ?
wanda lechene, 8 months ago

lol thats cool
Kimberly Palmer, 8 months ago

Very clever, you are. =)
Vonnie Murfin, 8 months ago

Redbubble is an amazing site. Thank you for showing us how the products are made. Keep up the wonderful work.
Cathie Tranent, 8 months ago

The processing shot is my favourite … understated to say the least ….

Thanks very much for the heads up – and if the answer to Craig’s question is less than 14 hours, you won’t get any sympathy from me!! :)
Cathie Tranent, 8 months ago

Oops forgot to say thanks!! blush
Leia, 8 months ago

Wow, you guys produce such quality stuff, it’s great to see behind the scenes, thank you!
Christine Wilson, 8 months ago

nice
Stephen Colquitt, 8 months ago

Good series guys

Quick question – Are full bleed pictures on mounted boards (like the one shown in your picture) available on request. ie without the thick white red bubble border showing title and artist name?
James Pierce, 8 months ago

@Stephen – Yes, it’s an option in the drop down list right now for the mounted prints (just not the laminated ones)
hinting, 8 months ago

what is the black image>>>?
hinting, 8 months ago

lack of imagination!!
ferndesign, 8 months ago

haha like that last one hehe funny
Stephen Forbes, 8 months ago

To cool, cant wait to find a print im in love with so that you can stand on it… :-)
Randy Monteith, 8 months ago

Thanks James this is great ! Would love to see more of this kind of thing. Behind the Doors of Redbubble!
Darren Stones, 8 months ago

Those jeans could do with a bit of cropping.
Stephen Colquitt, 8 months ago

Thanks James
James Pierce, 8 months ago

The production time is normally 2 or 3 days, but larger prints can take abit longer, they require more handling, more cutting, more space etc.
Brenda Anderson, 8 months ago

What size is the one being mounted? large?
Matthew Setright, 8 months ago

Thanks for that good to see You are not using cheap junk. Cheers
Clare McClelland, 8 months ago

That was very enlightening and reassuring!
Can you also help us on how to get more orders in through your doors?
I can’t wait to see an actual piece of finished work!
Deborah Bowness, 8 months ago

Yay….mounted prints!! I have 3 on the way, so it is interesting to see how they are made! I’m really looking forward to receiving them!
Melinda Kerr, 8 months ago

Hmmm nice shoes James. You can tell alot about a bloke by his shoes…
PhotogeniquE IPA, 8 months ago

great insider view!! way to go guys!!
Linda Syms, 8 months ago

Excellent work Red Bubble.That is so interesting.
Joe Mortelliti, 8 months ago

Would like to add I have a a fair number of the large mounted prints done and they are great value for money.
Faizan Qureshi, 8 months ago

LOL, that’s cool! :D
SpaceAce07, 8 months ago

Cool. Looking forward to seeing more in this series. Great stuff RB.
Paul Tait, 8 months ago

Fantastic – thank you for sharing
RoughDiamond, 8 months ago

You guys crack me up … Where have you been all my Artistic life???
mlgkats, 8 months ago

it is so cool , i really like the last photo looks like something i so
Heather Rivet..., 8 months ago

fantastic…thanks for letting us in on the process
Ginny Schmidt, 8 months ago

The last shot does answer one question for me, not having yet rec’d the mounted print I ordered some time back, and that has to do with the white edge of the gatorboard itself. What you are standing on has a black edge, which I prefer to white. How is that applied, pray tell? It makes the piece look more finished.

Additional comment has to do with the shot of the mounted picture being trimmed BY HAND! Which gives me hope that, unlike the indiscriminate cropping done to cards, the artist’s entire work, any borders included, comprises the full front of the mounted picture. That is very encouraging.

RB has gone out of its way to encourage us NOT to put borders on our work, and to confine our dimensions to a ratio that fits your stock, limiting, more than somewhat, the creative flow. Case in point, the wonderful Two Fates by Antanas, which in my opinion is just ruined in card form.
James Pierce, 8 months ago

@Ginny – None of the wall art products are constrained, you can have any ratio you like; nearly all my work is panoramic so I saw to that early on !

@Brenda – That’s one of my photos being printed on a yet to be released super sized mounted print size 45 inches (about 1m) wide. We (really Tom) is still working on a way to get these sent to you guys around the world without requiring a down payment in gold bullion first.
Alvin de Quincey, 8 months ago

Great to see the workflow, but 1 major mistake…!!

Since all the CSI type shows are out there now and we as the audience are obviously more sofisticated (mmm)... IF ANY OF MY PRINTS ARRIVE WITH A SHOE MARK, I NOW KNOW WHO TO LOOK FOR (;-(
Ginny Schmidt, 8 months ago

OK, James, I am thrilled to be able to go to town, as it were, on the dimensions of work intended as wall art. Rectangularly speaking, of course … four straight sides of (almost) any dimension. Although I have managed to put up a few pieces in the last couple of days, constrained to 3:2 for the sake of the card stock, that probably did not suffer in consequence to the shape. Thank you for your encouraging response.
velveteagle, 8 months ago

Thank you its nice to know what you are talking about when telling others about this site..
Derivatix, 8 months ago

this is so cool, thanks for sharing!
Trace Lowe, 8 months ago

Thanks for showing this process!
By: Cheri Perry, 7 months ago

Nice to see the process….And I have to add one thing…I’ve purchased products from here and your products are of the utmost quality I’ve seen. I was amazed and thrilled with my purchases. Thank you for all your hard work and allowing us this opportunity.
AndyReeve, 7 months ago

Nice one. Does the machine make the tea as well?
Luuezz, 7 months ago

Thanks for sharing the process with us…I like this
paul romanowski, 7 months ago

nice to see this, good shoes work, low tech aproche to hi tech problems?
it worked in soviet russia for 70 years….so long it works i say…